Technologies

Scrutiny of Facebook ramps up with flurry of new reports based on leaked documents

A number of major news outlets publish reports focused on the social network’s struggle to contain dangerous content.

The critical spotlight on Facebook intensified this weekend, as several major media outlets published new reports based on the cache of internal company documents leaked by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen.

On Saturday, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal published stories about misinformation and hate speech on Facebook services in India, the company’s largest market. And The Washington Post reported on concern among Facebook employees about the role the site played in the spread of misinformation that helped fuel the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol.

The Post’s report followed stories on Friday by Bloomberg and NBC News that also focused on the spread of misinformation on Facebook in the US, and those reports came on top of similar Friday stories in the Journal and the Times.

In its story about the social network and India, the Times reports that in February 2019, a Facebook researcher opened a new user account in Kerala, India, to get an idea of what site users there would see. The researcher followed the recommendations generated by the social network’s algorithms to watch videos, check out new pages and join groups on Facebook. «The test user’s News Feed has become a near constant barrage of polarizing nationalist content, misinformation, violence and gore,» an internal Facebook report said later that month, according to the Times.

That echoes the findings of a similar 2019 project conducted by a Facebook researcher in the US, who set up a test account for «Carol Smith,» a fictitious «conservative mom» in North Carolina. In two days, NBC News reported, the social network was recommending that she join groups dedicated to the bogus QAnon conspiracy theory. According to NBC, the experiment was outlined in an internal Facebook report called «Carol’s Journey to QAnon,» a document also referenced by the Times, the Journal and the Post.

«The body of research consistently found Facebook pushed some users into ‘rabbit holes,’ increasingly narrow echo chambers where violent conspiracy theories thrived,» the NBC News report reads. «People radicalized through these rabbit holes make up a small slice of total users, but at Facebook’s scale, that can mean millions of individuals.»

The flurry of new reports based on documents leaked by Haugen follows an earlier investigation in the Journal that relied on that same cache of information. The new stories also come after Haugen’s testimony this month before the US Congress as lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere wrestle with whether to regulate Facebook and other Big Tech companies, and if so, how. Haugen is scheduled to testify before the UK Parliament on Monday.

In a broad sense, the issue has to do with whether Facebook can be relied on to responsibly balance business motives with social concerns and do away with the flood of dangerous content that has spread on its various social-networking platforms. The company’s algorithms drive user engagement, but they can also create problems when it comes to misinformation, hate speech and the like. The issue is complicated by the need to respect free speech while cracking down on problematic posts.

Critics say Facebook has already dropped the ball too many times when it comes to policing its platforms and that the company puts profits ahead of people. In her testimony before the US Congress, Haugen alleged that Facebook’s products «harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.»

Facebook, on the other hand, has said that internal documents are being misrepresented and that a «false picture» is being painted of the social-networking giant. «I’m sure many of you have found the recent coverage hard to read because it just doesn’t reflect the company we know,» CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an email to employees earlier this month. «We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health.»

Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday on the new batch of reports based on documents leaked by Haugen. In a Friday blog post, the head of Facebook’s integrity efforts defended the company’s actions to protect the 2020 US presidential elections and outlined the steps taken by the social network.

In regard to the Times’ report about India, a Facebook spokesman told the news outlet that the social network had put significant resources into technology designed to root out hate speech in various languages, including Hindi and Bengali, and that this year, Facebook had halved the amount of hate speech that users see worldwide.

In regard to its «Carol’s Journey to QAnon» report, a Facebook spokesperson told NBC News that the document points to the company’s efforts to solve problems around dangerous content. «While this was a study of one hypothetical user, it is a perfect example of research the company does to improve our systems and helped inform our decision to remove QAnon from the platform,» the spokesperson told the news outlet.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, July 22

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 22.

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.

I’m always pumped for a Star Wars reference in the Mini Crossword! You should figure out 4-Down pretty quickly if you’ve been following the more recent movie entries. Read on for help with today’s Mini Crossword. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. 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: Get ready for a vacation
Answer: PACK

5A clue: How you might feel after riding a roller coaster
Answer: DIZZY

6A clue: «All things being ___ …»
Answer: EQUAL

7A clue: Small donkey of the Southwest
Answer: BURRO

8A clue: Items shot from cannons at basketball games
Answer: TEES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Spark, as curiosity
Answer: PIQUE

2D clue: Sky-blue hue
Answer: AZURE

3D clue: Government policy leaders
Answer: CZARS

4D clue: ___ Ren, villain in the «Star Wars» universe
Answer: KYLO

5D clue: What an i.o.u. represents
Answer: DEBT

Technologies

Yes, You Can Still Get Games for Less Than $50. These Are the Best I’ve Played

Video game prices are going up, but these titles cost less without sacrificing quality.

It’s no secret that video games are likely going to cost more in 2026. It’s already been confirmed that some AAA games, like The Outer Worlds 2, will be priced at $80 when they come out. It’s ironic that a game that satirizes corporate greed should be the first official title with a higher price, but here we are.

However, another trend has quietly emerged over the past few months: Many great AA games are being released for $50 or less. A lot of these titles are currently on sale, too, so you can pick them up even cheaper right now.

As an avid gamer, I’ve found a lot more affordable titles that are well worth your consideration. One is even the top contender for Game of the Year. And who knows, maybe one of them will end up being your new favorite game.

The best games for $50 or less right now

Claire Obscur: Expedition 33
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
FBC Firebreak
Elden Ring Nightreign
Helldivers 2
Alan Wake II

The best games for $50 or less

Technologies

Google Teases Pixel 10 Ahead of August Reveal

The Pixel 10 looks identical to the Pixel 9, from what we can see so far.

Google has lifted the curtains on the Pixel 10, its flagship phone for 2025, via a short clip posted on the Google Store homepage on Monday. The Pixel 10 will likely be fully revealed at a Made by Google event in New York on Aug. 20.

The teaser video simply shows the back of the device with the Pixel’s prominent oval-shaped camera bar, along with a flash and sensor of some sort. It follows a similar design to past Pixels, but whereas the Pixels 6, 7 and 8 all had camera bars that ran edge-to-edge, the Pixel 9 and 10’s camera bar is an island. The more affordable Pixel 9A from earlier this year doesn’t sport any sort of camera bump, and instead sits flush with the device.

It comes after a series of leaks about the device have hit the internet over the last few months, including the phone being spotted during a commercial shoot on the streets of Vancouver back in May.

Current Pixel 10 rumors point to a very similar design to last year’s handset, with some strong internal upgrades. Notably, the Tensor 5 chip will be made by TSMC on a 3nm process, according to an Android Authority report from March. Previous Tensor chips were made by Samsung.

The screen on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold will see a boost from 2,700 nits to 3,000 nits, according to another Android Authority report. It’ll also get a battery bump to 5,015 mAh, a 7% increase from last year’s foldable.

As for cameras, the Pixel 10 will reportedly get the 50-megapixel Samsung GN8 wide-angle lens, an 11MP 3J1 telephoto lens (the 3J1 will also be used for the selfie camera) and Sony’s 13-megapixel IMX712 ultrawide lens. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold likely won’t have the same high-end camera array, as foldable phones have less room to work with.

The Pixel 10 will almost certainly be powered by Android 16 and will have a slew of AI features.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.

While Google’s hardware business is a small part of the company’s overall revenue, the Pixel line does serve an important role in signaling to other hardware partners where the company sees the future of its Android mobile operating system. Pixel phones, which seldom focus on raw power, deliver clean user interfaces with strong computational photography.

The well-reviewed Pixel portfolio does put Google in a somewhat awkward position with hardware partners that decided to make Android devices rather than go off and make their own operating systems. With Google’s own phones, the tech giant is directly competing with Samsung, OnePlus, Motorola and others.

While Samsung is the second largest handset maker worldwide (behind Apple), according to Statcounter, Google has been eating away at market share in certain markets. With the release of the Pixel 9 last year, Google made strong inroads in North American markets.