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

Google Is Bringing Gemini AI to Its Smart Home Lineup, Starting Oct. 1

Goodbye, Google Assistant. Hello, Gemini.

It increasingly feels like Google’s AI assistant is omnipresent across our devices and, starting next month, it could also be in your home.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the company teased, «Gemini is coming to Google Home,» and told us to, «Come back October 1.»

At its Made by Google event in August, the company announced Gemini for Home among a slew of other product announcements, so this has been in the works for a while.

Tuesday’s X post teaser appears to show an image of a Nest camera, which Google last upgraded four years ago, suggesting the security camera could be set for a refresh. An upgraded Nest speaker and doorbell, both with 2K camera support, could also be part of the Oct. 1 unveiling.

Google did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.

Android Faithful podcast co-host (and former CNET staffer) Jason Howell is «optimistic» about Gemini replacing Assistant in Google’s smart home products.

«In recent years, I have witnessed my Google Home devices degrading in quality and becoming far less useful for even simple tasks and questions,» Howell tells CNET. «They’ve become buggy and unreliable to the point where I’ve stopped interacting with them for most things.»

Gemini catches dog red-handed

At the Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona earlier this year, Howell was impressed by Gemini’s performance with a smart home camera.

«A smart home camera detected a dog that came into the kitchen to steal a cookie off the counter,» Howell recalls. «Through voice interaction, the homeowner could ask the system what happened to the cookie, and, given the video context from the camera and an understanding of what it saw, the system could tell the homeowner that the dog was the culprit.

«This sort of example empowers users to spend less time looking for answers in lieu of simple voice queries that serve them the answer they are looking for with less effort and less time spent.»

Google announced last month that Gemini for Home will eventually replace Google Assistant in its smart home devices. You’ll still activate Gemini with, «Hey Google,» but the advanced AI tech will be able to better interpret more complex and nuanced instructions and questions.

Maybe you’re stumped as to what to make for dinner, so it could be: «Hey Google, what quick pasta dish can I cook in less than an hour?» or, «Give me a recipe for Caesar salad.» Gemini is also designed to work with thermostats and smart lights, so you might tell it to «turn the temp to 68 degrees» and «turn off all the lights except in the kitchen.»

The market for smart home technology is expected to grow by 23% over the next five years, according to Grand View Research.

Technologies

Polar Introduces Loop, a $200 Screenless Wearable

Polar’s first fitness tracker with no screen tracks activity, sleep and overall health, the company says.

Fitness tracking company Polar has launched Loop, a $200 screenless wearable that it says will have no subscription fees. Preorders opened on Sept. 3, and the Polar Loop will start shipping on Sept. 10.

Like other fitness trackers, the Polar Loop will log steps, sleep patterns and daily activity patterns but Polar is touting the lack of a screen as «unobtrusive» and «discreet.» The Loop, which is a wearable band for your wrist, has eight days of battery life with continuous use and stores four weeks’ worth of data. It syncs with the Polar Flow app to view stats and analyze sleep and training data, among other information.

Because it has no buttons, activities can be started in the app or passively with what the company calls «automatic training detection.»

It’s available in the colors Greige Sand, Night Black and Brown Copper. Additional band colors are offered for $20 each.

There’s already a market of no-screen wearables, including the Whoop 5.0 wristband and smart rings such as the Oura Ring 3.

Will the Loop measure up?

Whether the Polar Loop’s attempt at simplifying a fitness wearable works out will largely depend on how well it runs and what it offers compared to other devices.

«The company is clearly tapping into the growing demand for screen-free wearables,» says CNET’s lead writer for wearables, Vanessa Hand Orellana. «It feels like a direct answer to the athlete-favorite Whoop band and even the Oura Ring, both of which collect similar health metrics to display and analyze in their respective apps.»

Hand Orellana says Polar has a good reputation, with its signature heart-rate chest straps, and may win over fans by eschewing the subscription fee that the Oura and Whoop require.

«That said, as with most devices in this space, the real differentiator often comes down to execution… specifically, how well the data translates into clear, actionable insights. Personally, I’m curious to see how the Loop integrates with Polar’s app, which, at least in my experience with their HR straps, hasn’t always been the most intuitive to navigate,» she said.

Technologies

Waymo Is Expanding to Denver and Seattle. Everything to Know About the Robotaxi

The company has also been granted a permit to test its self-driving vehicles in New York City. Here’s everywhere Waymo operates now, and where it’s set to arrive soon.