Technologies

Twitter: Racist tweets after Euros final didn’t rely on anonymity

The torrent of abuse aimed at England’s footballers last month came almost exclusively from people who weren’t attempting to hide their identities.

If you’ve never been a victim of online abuse, it would be easy to assume that perpetrators of such abuse hide behind anonymous avatars and usernames that obscure their real identities. But that’s not the case.

Twitter revealed in a blog post Tuesday that when England’s footballers were targeted by racist abuse last month after they lost the Euro Cup final, 99% of the accounts it suspended were not anonymous.

The torrent of racist abuse aimed at three Black members of the England squad appeared on Twitter and Instagram in the hours following the match. It led commentators including Piers Morgan to demand that social media platforms prevent people from creating anonymous accounts in order to discourage them from posting racist comments.

The idea that anonymity is a primary factor in enabling perpetrators of abuse isn’t new, and in the UK there’s even been debate about whether to include banning anonymous online accounts in the upcoming Online Safety Bill. But the argument for social media sites to perform mandatory ID checks rests on the fallacy that if people can be held accountable for their actions, they won’t be racist.

The evidence Twitter provided on Tuesday validates what people of color have already been saying: that people will be racist regardless of whether or not an anonymous account shields them from the consequences. «Our data suggests that ID verification would have been unlikely to prevent the abuse from happening — as the accounts we suspended themselves were not anonymous,» said the company in a blog post.

Instagram didn’t immediately respond to a request for data on the accounts or comments it deleted for directing abuse at England’s footballers.

Also included in Twitter’s data was evidence that while abuse came from all over the world, the UK was by far the biggest country of origin for the abusive tweets. It also added that the majority of discussion of British football on the platform didn’t involve racist behavior, and that the word «proud» was tweeted more frequently on the day following the final than any other day this year.

For Twitter and other social media giants, putting tools in place to prevent racist abuse is an ongoing challenge. On Tuesday, Twitter said it would soon be trialing a new product feature that temporarily autoblocks accounts using harmful language. It’s also going to continue rolling out reply prompts, which encourage people to rethink what they’re tweeting if it looks like their language might be harmful. In more than a third of cases, this caused people to rewrite their tweet or not send it at all, according to the company.

«As long as racism exists offline, we will continue to see people try and bring these views online — it is a scourge technology cannot solve alone,» said Twitter in the blog post. «Everyone has a role to play — including the government and the football authorities — and we will continue to call for a collective approach to combat this deep societal issue.»

Technologies

How Verum Ecosystem Is Rethinking Communication

David Rotman — Founder of the Verum Ecosystem

For David Rotman, communication is not a feature — it is a dependency that should never rely on a single point of failure.

As the founder of the Verum Ecosystem, Rotman developed a communication platform designed to function when internet access becomes unreliable or unavailable.

Verum Messenger addresses real-world challenges such as network outages, censorship, and infrastructure failures. Its 2025 update introduced a unified offline-capable messaging system, moving beyond Bluetooth-based or temporary peer-to-peer solutions.

Verum’s mission is simple: to ensure communication continuity under any conditions.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Feb. 1

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 1

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Some of the clues are kind of tricky, but I was able to fill in enough of the others to get them all answered. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Spot to shop
Answer: MART

5A clue: Pounded sticky rice sometimes filled with ice cream
Answer: MOCHI

6A clue: ___ Chekhov, «Three Sisters» playwright
Answer: ANTON

7A clue: Like many dive bars and bird feeds
Answer: SEEDY

8A clue: Jekyll’s evil counterpart
Answer: HYDE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: What makes the world go ’round, per «Cabaret»
Answer: MONEY

2D clue: Performed in a play
Answer: ACTED

3D clue: __ Island (U.S. state)
Answer: RHODE

4D clue: Itty-bitty
Answer: TINY

5D clue: Squish to a pulp, as potatoes
Answer: MASH

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 1, #496

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 1, No. 496.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. The blue group made me think of dusty gum sticks, and the purple one requires you to look for hidden names in the clues. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Splish-splash.

Green group hint: Vroom!

Blue group hint: Cards and gum.

Purple group hint: Racket stars.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Aquatic sports verbs.

Green group: Speed.

Blue group: Sports card brands.

Purple group: Tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is aquatic sports verbs. The four answers are kayak, row, sail and swim.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is speed. The four answers are mustard, pop, velocity and zip.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports card brands. The four answers are Leaf, Panini, Topps and Upper Deck.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter. The four answers are ash (Arthur Ashe), kin (Billie Jean King), nada (Rafael Nadal) and William (Serena and Venus Williams)

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.