Tech Digest daily roundup: Twitter rival Threads won’t launch in EU this week
Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter rival will not launch this week in the EU as the billionaire grapples with strict regulations in the single bloc. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), the chief regulator in the EU which governs Meta, said the company had confirmed that it did not plan to launch its Threads app within the union at first. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, transferred UK users to US agreements earlier this year and its British operations are chiefly regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office after Brexit. Telegraph
According to multiple data analysis firms, Twitter is experiencing a significant decline in visibility on Google. Data from Sistrix shows that Twitter’s search visibility decreased by 32% in the United States within a day. Newzdash reported that Twitter lost between 12-14% of its visibility within Google’s search results across all News queries in the US and UK. The drop followed recent actions taken by Twitter’s new owner and CEO, Elon Musk, to limit the number of tweets users could view in an attempt to address issues with data scraping. Search Engine Journal
Google has updated its privacy policy to state that it can use publicly available data to help train its AI models. The tech giant has changed the wording of its policy over the weekend and switched “AI models” for “language models.” It also stated that it could use publicly available information to build not just features, but full products like “Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities.” By updating its policy, it’s letting people know and making it clear that anything they publicly post online could be used to train Bard, its future versions and any other generative AI product Google develops. Endgadget
A US federal judge has limited the Biden administration’s communications with social media companies which are aimed at moderating their content. In a 155-page ruling on Tuesday, judge Terry Doughty barred White House officials and some government agencies from contacting firms over “content containing protected free speech”. It is a victory for Republicans who have accused officials of censorship. Democrats said the platforms have failed to address misinformation. The case was one of the most closely-watched First Amendment battles in the US courts, sparking a debate over the government’s role in moderating content which it deemed to be false or harmful. BBC
UK sales of new battery-electric cars (BEVs) were up 39.4 per cent in June, but the growth in electric car purchases was driven by fleet users who receive substantial Benefit-in-Kind tax breaks when driving electric company cars. New car registrations rose 25.8 per cent overall in the month as car makers continued to claw their way back from pandemic production chaos, but the industry’s focus is on the relatively low number of private buyers transitioning to electric vehicles. AutoExpress
Google Photos, which could be considered the Swiss Army knife of gallery apps, is always getting better with each update. For example, recently Photos received a convenient import function. Now, the developers have added video effects and fine-tuned media controls, transforming the app into an even more comprehensive tool for Android users. Google Photos is picking up a new feature in its video editing suite that allows users to add a range of special effects to their videos, as demonstrated in a video by In Depth Tech Reviews (via Google News on Telegram). Android Police
