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Twitter research group stall complicates compliance with new EU law

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Twitter research group stall complicates compliance with new EU lawTwitter research group stall complicates compliance with new EU law

The stalling of a Twitter program that was critical for outside researchers studying disinformation campaigns throws into question the company s strategy to comply with upcoming regulation in Europe, former employees and experts told Reuters.

The European Union s new Digital Services Act (DSA), one of the world s strictest regulations on internet platforms, has sent tech companies scrambling to meet its requirements on having measures in place against illegal content and explaining the steps they take on content moderation, before the law comes into full effect in early 2024.

Twitter signed a voluntary agreement in June with the EU related to the DSA committing to “empowering the research community” through means including sharing datasets about disinformation with researchers. The EU s goal with the law is to create a safer internet for users and have a mechanism to hold companies accountable.

According to Yoel Roth, Twitter s former head of trust and safety, the Twitter Moderation Research Consortium was a key part of Twitter s plan to do that, since it compiled data on state-backed manipulation of the platform and provided that to researchers. “Twitter was uniquely well-positioned,” he said.

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Nearly all of the 10 to 15 employees who worked on the consortium have left the company since Elon Musk s takeover in October, according to Roth, who resigned in November, and three other former employees who were involved with the program.

The EU law would require platforms with over 45 million EU users to respond to EU-vetted researcher proposals.

Failure to comply with the DSA once it comes into effect could lead to fines of up to 6% of global revenue or even a ban from operating in the EU, according to the European Commission website.
Reuters was unable to determine if Twitter has made alternative plans to comply with the DSA.

In an email, Twitter s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said: “We intend to fully comply with the DSA, have many employees working on DSA compliance internally and have communicated our intent to comply to (EU Commissioner Thierry) Breton and his team.”

She did not comment on detailed questions about the status of the consortium, how many employees were working on it, or how Twitter planned to comply with the DSA.

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Breton has met at least twice with Musk to discuss Twitter s intent to comply with the upcoming law. In November, Breton said Twitter had “huge work ahead” because the company will have to “tackle disinformation with resolve” and significantly reinforce content moderation. read more In May, Musk appeared in a video with Breton expressing agreement with the Digital Services Act. Breton s spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
Across the company, at least 5,000 staff (about two thirds of the total before the takeover) have either quit or been fired as Musk overhauls Twitter, hitting the trust and safety and public policy teams particularly hard. read more

“I just don t see how the absolutely skeletal staff … will be able to readily comply (with the DSA),” said Rebekah Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University.

THE WORK OF THE CONSORTIUM

The research consortium was formed in response to backlash against Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. According to the company s website, its aim is “to increase transparency around Twitter’s content moderation policies and enforcement decisions.”

Twitter prohibits people, organizations or governments from manipulating conversation on the service, such as using multiple or fake accounts to make content appear more popular.

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Early last year, Twitter launched a pilot version of the consortium to disclose examples of manipulation of the platform to some outside researchers.

As Twitter investigated and took down accounts that were suspected of foreign interference, it released data on that to the researchers to help them study the misinformation strategies and where they originated.

In September, Twitter opened an application process to expand the consortium and had accepted about 50 researchers by the time of Musk s acquisition on Oct. 27, two of the former employees said.

Twitter had been preparing to disclose at least a dozen new datasets to researchers before then, the former employees said.

Of the three former Twitter employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, one spoke with current employees recently and was told they do not have the personnel or bandwidth to continue working on the consortium.

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Five outside researchers told Reuters that without a program like the research consortium, it will be more difficult to study how governments use Twitter to interfere with elections or political events globally.

Two of those who are members of the consortium said Twitter has not sent a memo to close the program formally and previously-released data remain available to them, but they had not received data from it in at least two months.

The research consortium was an important tool to make the internet safer, according to two U.S. lawmakers who introduced a bill last year that would require social media platforms to provide data access to academic researchers. Their Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act has not been voted on.

Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts and Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois also wrote an open letter to Twitter on Nov. 18 asking whether Twitter would maintain the consortium, following layoffs that halved the staff.

Asked about the consortium by Reuters this month, Trahan said failure to maintain the program would be “a massive step back.”

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The Stanford Internet Observatory, a consortium member that studies internet risks, said it has not received any communication from the program since mid-November and no longer has a point of contact at Twitter.

The Stanford team has published at least three papers using data from the consortium, including one about Twitter accounts that promoted India’s military activities in Kashmir, and one on U.S.-linked attempts to spread pro-Western narratives abroad.

If the research consortium is eliminated, “we will be returning to the 2017 era of limited shared communication about malicious state actor activity,” said Renée DiResta, research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.

Cazadores de Fake News, a Venezuela-based consortium member that fact checks online news, told Reuters the research program “seems to have fallen into a hiatus,” and the organization has not heard from Twitter since Musk s acquisition.

“But we hope that it will resurface at some point, as it is a very valuable initiative,” said spokesperson Adrian Gonzalez. 

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Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car

Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car

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Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car

For many electric vehicles, there is no way to repair or assess even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, forcing insurance companies to write off cars with few miles – leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric.

And now those battery packs are piling up in scrapyards in some countries, a previously unreported and expensive gap in what was supposed to be a “circular economy.”

“We’re buying electric cars for sustainability reasons,” said Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research. “But an EV isn’t very sustainable if you’ve got to throw the battery away after a minor collision.”

Battery packs can cost tens of thousands of dollars and represent up to 50% of an EV’s price tag, often making it uneconomical to replace them.

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While some automakers like Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N) said they have made battery packs easier to repair, Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) has taken the opposite tack with its Texas-built Model Y, whose new structural battery pack has been described by experts as having “zero repairability.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

A Reuters search of EV salvage sales in the U.S. and Europe shows a large portion of low-mileage Teslas, but also models from Nissan Motor Co (7201.T), Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS), Stellantis (STLAM.MI), BMW (BMWG.DE), Renault (RENA.PA) and others.

EVs constitute only a fraction of vehicles on the road, making industry-wide data hard to come by, but the trend of low-mileage zero-emission cars being written off with minor damage is growing. Tesla’s decision to make battery packs “structural” – part of the car’s body – has allowed it to cut production costs but risks pushing those costs back to consumers and insurers.

Tesla has not referred to any problems with insurers writing off its vehicles. But in January CEO Elon Musk said premiums from third-party insurance companies “in some cases were unreasonably high.”

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Unless Tesla and other carmakers produce more easily repairable battery packs and provide third-party access to battery cell data, already-high insurance premiums will keep rising as EV sales grow and more low-mileage cars get scrapped after collisions, insurers and industry experts said.

“The number of cases is going to increase, so the handling of batteries is a crucial point,” said Christoph Lauterwasser, managing director of the Allianz Center for Technology, a research institute owned by Allianz (ALVG.DE).

Lauterwasser noted EV battery production emits far more CO2 than fossil-fuel models, meaning EVs must be driven for thousands of miles before they offset those extra emissions.

“If you throw away the vehicle at an early stage, you’ve lost pretty much all advantage in terms of CO2 emissions,” he said.

Most carmakers said their battery packs are repairable, though few seem willing to share access to battery data. Insurers, leasing companies and car repair shops are already fighting with carmakers in the EU over access to lucrative connected-car data.

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Lauterwasser said access to EV battery data is part of that fight. Allianz has seen scratched battery packs where the cells inside are likely undamaged, but without diagnostic data it has to write off those vehicles.

Ford and GM tout their newer, more repairable packs. But the new, large 4680 cells in the Model Y made at Tesla’s Austin, Texas, plant, are glued into a pack that forms part of the car’s structure and cannot be easily removed or replaced, experts said.

In January, Tesla’s Musk said the carmaker has been making design and software changes to its vehicles to lower repair costs and insurance premiums.

The company also offers its own insurance product in a dozen U.S. states to Tesla owners at lower rates.

Insurers and industry experts also note that EVs, because they are loaded with all the latest safety features, so far have had fewer accidents than traditional cars.

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‘STRAIGHT TO THE GRINDER’
Sandy Munro, head of Michigan-based Munro & Associates, which tears down vehicles and advises automakers on how to improve them, said the Model Y battery pack has “zero repairability.”

“A Tesla structural battery pack is going straight to the grinder,” Munro said.

EV battery problems also expose a hole in the green “circular economy” touted by carmakers.

At Synetiq, the UK’s largest salvage company, head of operations Michael Hill said over the last 12 months the number of EVs in the isolation bay – where they must be checked to avoid fire risk – at the firm’s Doncaster yard has soared, from perhaps a dozen every three days to up to 20 per day.

“We’ve seen a really big shift and it’s across all manufacturers,” Hill said.

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The UK currently has no EV battery recycling facilities, so Synetiq has to remove the batteries from written-off cars and store them in containers. Hill estimated at least 95% of the cells in the hundreds of EV battery packs – and thousands of hybrid battery packs – Synetiq has stored at Doncaster are undamaged and should be reused.

It already costs more to insure most EVs than traditional cars.

According to online brokerage Policygenius, the average U.S. monthly EV insurance payment in 2023 is $206, 27% more than for a combustion-engine model.

According to Bankrate, an online publisher of financial content, U.S. insurers know that “if even a minor accident results in damage to the battery pack … the cost to replace this key component may exceed $15,000.”

A replacement battery for a Tesla Model 3 can cost up to $20,000, for a vehicle that retails at around $43,000 but depreciates quickly over time.

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Andy Keane, UK commercial motor product manager at French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA), said expensive replacement batteries “may sometimes make replacing a battery unfeasible.”

There are a growing number of repair shops specializing in repairing EVs and replacing batteries. In Phoenix, Arizona, Gruber Motor Co has mostly focused on replacing batteries in older Tesla models.

But insurers cannot access Tesla’s battery data, so they have taken a cautious approach, owner Peter Gruber said.

“An insurance company is not going to take that risk because they’re facing a lawsuit later on if something happens with that vehicle and they did not total it,” he said.

‘PAIN POINTS’
The British government is funding research into EV insurance “pain points” led by Thatcham, Synetiq and insurer LV=.

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Recently adopted EU battery regulations do not specifically address battery repairs, but they did ask the European Commission to encourage standards to “facilitate maintenance, repair and repurposing,” a commission source said.

Insurers said they know how to fix the problem – make batteries in smaller sections, or modules, that are simpler to fix, and open diagnostics data to third parties to determine battery cell health.

Individual U.S. insurers declined to comment.

But Tony Cotto, director of auto and underwriting policy at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said “consumer access to vehicle-generated data will further enhance driver safety and policyholders’ satisfaction … by facilitating the entire repair process.”

Lack of access to critical diagnostic data was raised in mid-March in a class action filed against Tesla in U.S. District Court in California.

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Insurers said failure to act will cost consumers.

EV battery damage makes up just a few percent of Allianz’s motor insurance claims, but 8% of claims costs in Germany, Lauterwasser said. Germany’s insurers pool data on vehicle claims data and adjust premium rates annually.

“If the cost for a certain model gets higher it will raise premium levels because the rating goes up,” Lauterwasser said. 

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Meta explores decentralised social network app for text updates

Meta explores decentralised social network app for text updates

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Meta explores decentralised social network app for text updates

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) said on Friday it was exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates.

Indian business news website Moneycontrol.com first reported the news, citing sources. The report said that Meta’s new content app would support ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol that powers Twitter-rival Mastodon.

“We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement.

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Apple and Foxconn efforts win labour reforms to advance Indian production plans – FT

Apple and Foxconn efforts win labour reforms to advance Indian production plans – FT

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Apple and Foxconn efforts win labour reforms to advance Indian production plans - FT

Apple (AAPL.O) and its supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) were among the companies that lobbied for a landmark liberalisation of labour laws in the southern Indian state of Karnataka earlier this month, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The legislation led to introduction of laws that now allows 12-hour shifts, as well as night-time work for women, similar to company practices in China, the report said.

Apple has been shifting production away from China after the country’s strict COVID-related restrictions disrupted the manufacturing of new iPhones and other devices in the country and also to avoid a big hit to its business from tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The report comes a week after the Karnataka government said that Apple Inc’s iPhones would soon be assembled in the state and that a total of 300 acres have been set aside for a factory.

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Apple, Foxconn and the Karnataka government did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

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