After a judge on Thursday ordered an evidentiary hearing into The Onion's winning bid to purchase Infowars, Alex Jones site resumed operations and claimed the sale has been blocked. But Onion CEO Ben Collins countered this in an update posted on Bluesky and X on Saturday, writing, We left the hearing with clear next steps to complete the sale. According to Collins, a court date has been set for a week from Monday, when the process is expected to be completed, and Infowars asked for permission to continue publishing in the meantime. The long and short of it: We won the auction and you're not going to believe this the previous InfoWars folks aren't taking it well, Collins wrote.
On Thursday, the person overseeing the auction told us that The Onions bid for InfoWars, along with the Connecticut Sandy Hook families, won, Collins wrote in the thread.We havent heard anything that changed that except, of course, from the guys currently running InfoWars, doing InfoWars stuff. Jones has unsurprisingly called the auction rigged, and in a livestream on X said that lawyers for Elon Musks social media site have gotten involved and attended the hearing, Mother Jones reported.
The Onion only went up against one other bidder in the auction for Infowars: First United American Companies, which is associated with a website that sells Jones supplements. The company reportedly bid $3.5 million. The dollar amount of Global Tetrahedrons (The Onions parent company) bid has not been disclosed, but its been backed by families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. Per Bloomberg, trustee Christopher Murray, who is liquidating Jones estate, said these families have agreed to waive their potential recovery and give it to all other unsecured creditors that Jones owes.
There was a status conference with the judge overseeing the auction on Thursday, shortly after we were deemed winners, Collins, who formerly covered disinformation and online extremism as a reporter for NBC News, wrote in the thread on Saturday. The judge had some questions about process and some assets. Were glad hes doing that, since our bid with the families is clearly the best and transparency is even better. He added further down: We expected all of this, obviously. Buying this site was always going to be fun later on, but annoying right away. The fun part is still to come.
Collins plan for Infowars is for it to relaunch as the dumbest website on the internet. The nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety will reportedly be the sole advertiser at launch.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-onion-won-the-auction-for-infowars-and-was-given-clear-next-steps-to-complete-the-sale-ceo-says-222134454.html?src=rss
Its Half-Life 2s 20th anniversary, and in celebration, Valve has released a special update that adds the Episode One and Episode Two expansions to the base game so you can play it all straight through, along with a two-hour documentary, developer commentary, and much more. The game is also free on Steam until November 18. Valves announcement itself is an interactive experience grab the gravity gun at the bottom of the page and you can pick up just about anything on the screen and toss it around (including that can, which you can then put in the trash).
Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog, the team says. The release notes are extensive, including updates to the graphics settings, gamepad controls and the Steam Deck menu. Valve's also published some old demo videos from Half-Life 2's development.
Valve
The anniversary celebration also brings good news for anyone who didnt manage to snag a copy of Raising the Bar, the 2004 behind-the-scenes book thats since become a coveted collectors item: an expanded second edition is coming in 2025. This new version adds concept art from Episode One and Episode Two, plus ideas and experiments for the third episode that never came to be.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/valve-celebrates-half-life-2s-20th-anniversary-with-a-big-update-174316547.html?src=rss
You'll have to wait for more than a couple of years for the next Star Wars movie. According to Variety and The Wrap, Disney has pulled an untitled Star Wars film from its 2026 release lineup and replacing it with Ice Age 6, which is set to premiere on December 18 that year. It's not quite clear which film that is, but Daisy Ridley announced at the Star Wars Celebration in London last year that she was going to reprise her role as Rey in a new film. The movie will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who also directed some episodes of Ms. Marvel, and will be a direct sequel to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Set 15 years after the events of the previous film, the upcoming movie will reportedly revolve around Rey as she establishes a new Jedi academy and build a new Jedi Order. Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, Angelina Jolie's Maria) joined the production when he replaced the original screenwriters last year, but he also left the project in October. Lucasfilm's search for a new screenwriter might have contributed to the film's delay.
While the next installment in the main Star Wars series won't be coming out in 2026, a film that's part of the franchise will still be coming out that year. The Mandalorian & Grogu, a continuation of the Disney+ TV series directed by Jon Favreau, has already started filming and will be released on May 22, 2026. The Wrap also says it was "assured" that the next Star Wars film was "still very much in development," which hopefully means that it won't end up being cancelled like the movie planned by Game of Thrones' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/disney-removes-a-star-wars-movie-from-its-2026-release-lineup-170020691.html?src=rss
A MasterClass subscription is perhaps one of the best gifts you can get for yourself if you love learning new things or honing your skills, and it will now cost you up to 50 percent off. The website is holding a pre-Black Friday sale, so this is your chance to sign up at a discount if you find its regular rates a bit steep. MasterClass' Standard subscription, which allows you to access its content on one device, will cost you $7 a month instead of $10. If you want to watch classes offline, though, your cheapest option is the Plus tier that will now set you back $9 per month instead of $15. It will also allow you to access the service's videos on two devices. But the best option available right now is the Premium tier, which you can get for $10 a month instead of $20. You'll be able to access classes on six devices if you get it, and it also comes with offline viewing.
A subscription will let you view more than 200 classes across 11 categories no matter what option you choose. MasterClass offers lessons from some of the best and most well-known people in their field, such as Gordon Ramsay (cooking), Martin Scorsese (filmmaking), Margaret Atwood (creative writing), Mariah Carey (using voice as an instrument), Stephen Curry (basketball), Steve Martin (comedy), Shonda Rhimes (writing for TV), John Legend (songwriting), Garry Kasparov (chess), Jane Goodall (conservation), Simone Biles (gymnastics) and Samuel L. Jackson (acting). Take note that you'll have to pay for the whole year to be able to enjoy the discounted rates, which are only available for a limited time.
Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/masterclass-subscriptions-are-up-to-50-percent-off-for-black-friday-150047035.html?src=rss
Back in October, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) admitted that they were looking into "the unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the Peoples Republic of China." These bad actors, collectively called "Salt Typhoon," allegedly targeted US officials and staffers for the recently concluded presidential elections. A few days later, though, The Wall Street Journal reported that the group had access to a lot more people than originally thought. Basically, the hackers could have accessed the data of any American who's a customer of AT&T and Verizon. That list of carriers has grown just a bit longer, because according to a new report by The Journal and Reuters, Salt Typhoon had also infiltrated T-Mobile's network.
The hackers are believed to have exploited various vulnerabilities, such as those plaguing Cisco Systems routers, to get inside the carriers' network. They also used AI and machine learning, The Journal said, and stayed inside some of the systems they infiltrated for over eight months. That's enough time to get away with a bunch of sensitive data they were allegedly able to access the phone lines of US senior national security officials, as well as the call logs and unencrypted texts of their targets. The hackers were also reportedly able to access the information collected by carriers to comply with surveillance requests from the American authorities.
A company spokesperson told The Journal that T-Mobile is "closely monitoring" the attacks and said that its systems and data "have not been impacted in any significant way." They also said that the carrier didn't find evidence that its customers' information has been compromised in the security breach. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/t-mobile-was-also-infiltrated-by-china-linked-telecom-hackers-120004712.html?src=rss
Bluesky, which has surged in the days following the US election, said on Friday that it wont train on its users posts for generative AI. The declaration stands in stark contrast to the AI training policies of X (Twitter) and Metas Threads. Probably not coincidentally, Blueskys announcement came the same day Xs new terms of service, allowing third-party partners to train on user posts, went into effect.
A number of artists and creators have made their home on Bluesky, and we hear their concerns with other platforms training on their data, Bluesky posted (via The Verge) on Friday. We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so.
In a follow-up post, the decentralized social platform clarified that it does use AI to help with content moderation. Bluesky uses AI internally to assist in content moderation, which helps us triage posts and shield human moderators from harmful content, the company posted. Bluesky also added that it uses AI in the algorithms powering its Discover feed.
None of these are Gen AI systems trained on user content, Bluesky stressed.
The Verge points out that Blueskys robots.txt (the policy that dictates what outside parties can scrape from a website) doesnt prevent OpenAI, Google or other leading GenAI companies from crawling its data. The company justified that potential hole by pointing to the platforms open and public nature. Just as robots.txt files dont always prevent outside companies from crawling those sites, the same applies here, spokesperson Emily Liu told The Verge. That said, wed like to do our part to ensure that outside orgs respect user consent and are actively discussing within the team on how to achieve this.
Although Bluesky is still the underdog in a race with X and Threads, the platform has picked up steam after the US election. It passed the 15 million user threshold on Wednesday after adding more than a million in the past week.
A report from web analytics company SimilarWeb noted that the signup surge coincided with a spike in X deactivations. It found that more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their [X] accounts on November 7, more than on any previous day of Elon Musks tenure. In parallel, web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky increased dramatically in the week before the election, and then again after election day.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-suddenly-hot-bluesky-says-it-wont-train-ai-on-your-posts-220034195.html?src=rss
A damning report from the Anti-Defamation League published Thursday on the unprecedented amount of racist and violent content on Steam Community has prompted a US Senator to take action. In a letter spotted by The Verge, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) asked Valve CEO Gabe Newell how he and his company are addressing the issue.
My concern is elevated by the fact that Steam is the largest single online gaming digital distribution and social networking platform in the world with over 100 million unique user accounts and a user base similar in scale to that of the traditional social media and social network platforms, Warner wrote.
The senator also cited Steams online conduct policy that states users may not upload or post illegal or inappropriate content [including] [real] or disturbing depictions of violence or harass other users or Steam personnel.
Valve must bring its content moderation practices in line with industry standards or face more intense scrutiny from the federal government for its complicity in allowing hate groups to congregate and engage in activities that undoubtedly puts Americans at risk, Warner writes.
Congress doesnt have the ability to take action on Valve or any platform except to shine light on the problem through letters and committee hearings. The Supreme Court overturned two state laws in June that prevented government officials from communicating with social media companies about objectionable content.
This also isnt the first time that Congress has raised concerns with Valve about extremist and racist content created by users or players in one of its products. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary sent a letter to Newell in 2023 to express concerns about players posting and spouting racist language in Valves multiplayer online arena game Dota 2.
We reached out to Valve for comment. We will update this story if we receive a statement or reactions from Valve.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/adls-report-on-racist-steam-community-posts-prompts-a-letter-from-virginia-senator-214243775.html?src=rss
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this week its pressing criminal charges against X (Twitter) in France related to a Kremlin disinformation campaign that used the nonprofit as a prop to spread fake news. The organization said legal means are its last resort in its fight against the bogus stories, designed to foster pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine sentiment, that festered on the platform. Xs refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful as it was duly informed by RSF makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform, RSF director of advocacy Antoine Bernard said in a statement.
These legal proceedings seek to remind X, a powerful social media company, and its executives that they can be held criminally responsible if they knowingly provide a platform and tools for disseminating false information, identity theft, misrepresentation, and defamation offences punishable under the French Penal Code, RSF attorney Emmanuel Daoud wrote.
RSF published an investigation in September detailing how a fabricated video was planted and spread by Russia on the Elon Musk-owned social platform. The fake clip was made to look like a BBC-produced one, including the news organizations logo. It made the erroneous case that RSF conducted a study that revealed a large number of Ukrainian soldiers sympathizing with Nazism.
False claims that Ukraine is a pro-Nazi nation have been a common propaganda tactic used by Russia since its 2022 invasion. The narrative is designed to engender support for the Kremlin-initiated war, which is estimated to have killed a million or more Ukrainian people.
RSFs investigation revealed that an account called Patricia, claiming to be a translator in France, planted the seed for the disinformation. However, the report discovered that the accounts profile picture was found on a Russian website featuring photos of blond women designed to make avatars.
RSF says that even the accounts name seemed to have been automatically generated by X. In addition, the organization says Grok, Xs AI chatbot with access to live data about the platform, claimed the account has very strong opinions, often in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin, while severely criticizing Ukraine and its supporters in Europe.
The investigation found the video then took off, spreading through a chain that included a pro-Kremlin Irish entrepreneur living in Russia, a Kremlin propagandist with a large following on Telegram and even Russian officials. It was also shared by highly influential bloggers known for unflinching support of Vladimir Putin.
In this story, the Russian authorities have acted a bit like they were laundering dirty information, an RSF representative said in a video about the investigation (translated from French) in September. They took false information, they laundered it through official channels. And then, this piece of information that wasnt actual information was reintroduced into public discourse to make it look credible.
Russias bogus video was widely shared on X and Telegram. Reporters Without Borders says the clips viewership reached half a million combined views by September 13. To capture its frustration with the blow to its credibility, the nonprofit cited the quote (of unknown origin but often attributed to Mark Twain): A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.
RSF says it filed 10 reports with X of illegal content through the social channels reporting system required by the EUs Digital Services Act (DSA). After a series of rejections from X and requests for additional information which RSF provided none of the reports resulted in the removal of the defamatory content targeting our organisation and its advocacy director, RSF wrote.
In July, the US Justice Department said it uncovered and dismantled a Russian propaganda network using nearly 1,000 accounts to push pro-Kremlin posts on X. The DOJ claimed the accounts posed as Americans and were made using AI. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk held multiple private calls with Vladimir Putin from 2022 into this year, describing the contacts as a closely held secret in government.
Xs refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful as it was duly informed by RSF makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform, RSF director Bernard wrote in a statement. X provides those who spread falsehoods and manipulate public opinion with a powerful arsenal of tools and unparalleled visibility, while granting the perpetrators total impunity. Its time for X to be held accountable. Pressing criminal charges is the last resort against the disinformation and war propaganda that RSF has fallen victim to, which is proliferating on this Muskian network.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reporters-without-borders-says-its-pressing-charges-against-x-200005117.html?src=rss
WhatsApp, the most popular messaging platform on the planet, finally has a drafts feature. Why did it take until the tail-end of 2024 to institute a seemingly simple tool that has been available for rival platforms for years? Who knows, but its here now.
The appropriately-named Message Drafts offers a new and easy way to find your unfinished messages on WhatsApp. Just look for the Draft indicator at the beginning of a message. The platform says that these unfinished messages will move to the top of the chats list so people can quickly locate them.
Its a drafts feature, so there really isnt anything else to say. The tools available now across the globe via the app. Finally, we will have no pressure to actually finish messages. We can tinker with them occasionally until the heat death of the universe. Its a procrastination mitzvah!
This is just the latest update to WhatsApp, as the platform has been busy. It recently unveiled custom lists, to help people keep track of conversations, and introduced a program that allows users to add contacts from any device.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/whatsapp-finally-has-a-drafts-feature-194516831.html?src=rss
The Internet Archive is one of the very best things on the web, so it's great that the repository is up and running again after recent DDoS attacks. It hosts more than old versions of web pages, though. It hosts a trove of video (I'm forever thankful to whoever uploaded the wonderful Lucha Underground in its entirety), software, text, audio recordings and games as well. There have been two notable additions on the latter front in the form of Unreal and Unreal Tournament, seemingly with the blessing of Epic Games.
You can now freely download disc images of the arena shooters from the Internet Archive via direct links for Unreal and Unreal Tournament. Alternatively, as Game Developer points out, the site OldUnreal offers installers for Unreal and UT, both of which pull the disc images from the Internet Archive and include the latest community-created patches.
The installers are Windows-only for now, but the OldUnreal team is working on Linux and macOS versions. You'll also need to put in a little extra effort to get online with the games and savor their true multiplayer flavors. Heck, you might still even be able to join an Unreal clan.
Epic delisted the Unreal games from Steam and shut down their servers quite some time ago, so this is a nice boost for game preservation. It comes on the heels of GOG introducing a new label for older titles that the platform is maintaining for current hardware. Unreal was one of the first PC games I played as a kid, so it's neat to learn that it will be available in perpetuity through the Internet Archive.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/two-early-unreal-games-are-now-permanently-free-via-the-internet-archive-190501047.html?src=rss
