Technologies

Twitter Spaces filled with hate speech, extremism, report says

The live audio chat feature has reportedly been tough for the social media site to police.

Taliban supporters, white nationalists and anti-vaccine activists have reportedly flocked to Twitter’s live audio chat feature, Spaces, with the social media site struggling to police the harmful content.

The Washington Post, citing researchers and users, as well as screenshots seen by the news outlet, reported Friday that hundreds of people have listened to these offensive live audio chats. Twitter users have made derogatory comments about Shiite Muslims, belittled transgender and Black Americans and spread misinformation on Spaces, according to the Post.

Twitter allows users to report live audio chats that violate its rules, and the company saves a copy of a flagged audio chat for at least 30 days to review for rule violations. Twitter also uses software to detect offensive keywords in the titles of Spaces. The social media site, though, doesn’t have human moderators or technology that scans audio in real time. Current and former employees told the Post that Twitter has also felt investor pressure to release products before they’re tested for safety.

Jack Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder, resigned as CEO in November, and Parag Agrawal, who was the company’s chief technology officer, stepped in to fill that role.

Twitter started testing Spaces in November 2020 as the social audio app Clubhouse rose in popularity. Clubhouse has also struggled to moderate misinformation, including about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Twitter’s software also mistakenly promoted some of the harmful live audio chats, which the company attributed to a bug, the Post reported.

A spokeswoman for Twitter told CNET that in the past week the company did discover bugs in its software and that this increased the amount of time it took to remove audio chats that violated its rules. «This left harmful conversations prominently visible and was a mistake. We’ve addressed these bugs and will continue exploring ways to further expand our proactive detection, as well as evaluating and developing new moderation options,» she said.

CNET asked Twitter how many audio chats it’s pulled down for violating its rules, but the company didn’t provide that information.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Oct. 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 26.

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? I thought 4-Down was a bit tricky, but 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: Rubber ducky’s «habitat»
Answer: BATH

5A clue: Coin in Cannes
Answer: EURO

6A clue: Go «Grrrr …»
Answer: GROWL

8A clue: «The other thing I wanted to say …»
Answer: ALSO

9A clue: Street sign in a school zone
Answer: SLOW

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Plead
Answer: BEG

2D clue: Vibes, in Gen Z speak
Answer: AURAS

3D clue: Social media menace
Answer: TROLL

4D clue: «Oh, yeah? Explain that to me»
Answer: HOWSO

7D clue: Like a phone battery under 20%
Answer: LOW

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Oct. 26, #398

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 26, No. 398.

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. That purple category — oof, it’s a typical Connections brain-buster. If you’re struggling but still want to solve the puzzle, 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 show up in the NYT Games app but appears 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: Bunch of players.

Green group hint: College division.

Blue group hint: Knock it out of the park.

Purple group hint: You’ll find a hidden word in these four team names.