Instagram is telling creators when and why their posts are ‘shadowbanned’

Instagram’s latest update aims to help creators better understand one of the most frustrating aspects of the app: the dreaded “shadowban.” The app is updating its account status feature to help creators “understand if their account’s content is eligible to be recommended to non-followers.”

With the change, Instagram will allow anyone using a “professional” account to see if their posts are currently blocked from recommendations. The notice will appear in the app’s “account status feature,” and show users “a selection” of offending posts, offering the chance to edit or delete them, or appeal any decision they think was a mistake.

For now, the feature only covers posts that have been blocked from recommendations in Explore, Feed and Reels. But the company says it’s working on expanding the feature so creators will know if they are blocked from suggestions at the account level as well, such as in search or “suggested accounts.”

Though Instagram avoids using the word “shadowban,” the change is clearly meant to address long-running complaints from creators about why their posts aren’t being distributed in the way they expect. To diffuse these concerns, the company has tried in recent years to better explain how its algorithm works, and pointed to its recommendation guidelines to help creators understand the inner workings of the app.

“We know reach can be volatile,” Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said in a video about the update. “We know it’s important for creators to understand how Instagram works if they’re going to use it over the long run.” 

By now showing users exactly why their content is being removed from recommendations, the company is hoping creators will be able to take steps to “fix” their mistakes. At the very least, it could give creators some satisfaction to see an acknowledgement that their content has indeed been reduced in visibility, and provide the opportunity to ask for a second look. An Instagram spokesperson said review teams will work “as quickly as possible,” but didn’t say how long the step could take.

Correction: An earlier version of this story cited an older video Mosseri posted about account status. This post has been updated to reflect Mosseri’s most recent comments about the feature. 

Blue Origin makes another bid for a NASA lunar lander contract

Blue Origin has made another attempt to secure a contract to build a lunar lander for NASA’s future Artemis missions. It teamed up with several other companies for the proposal, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Draper. Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics are also involved.

In 2021, NASA gave SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to use a version of Starship as a lunar lander. Blue Origin challenged that move, claiming that NASA’s “decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base and not only delays, but also endangers America’s return to the Moon.”

Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos wrote in an open letter to NASA administrator Bill Nelson in July last year that his company was willing to waive up to $2 billion in payments in exchange for a fixed-price lander contract. Bezos also complained that the decision to award a single contract gave SpaceX “a multiyear, multibillion-dollar head start” and claimed it “broke the mold of NASA’s successful commercial space programs by putting an end to meaningful competition for years to come.”

NASA had intended to award two lunar lander contracts, but it opted to only issue one due to funding concerns. In August 2021, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against NASA over its handling of the Human Landing System program. However, a Federal Court of Claims judge ruled against Blue Origin. The lawsuit held up work on SpaceX’s lander and delayed a crewed mission to the Moon until 2025.

Earlier this year, NASA said it would again accept proposals for a second lunar lander project. Now, Blue Origin is taking the agency up on the offer. As The Wall Street Journal notes, Blue Origin will face competition from Northrop Grumman and Leidos Dynetics. Northrop Grumman worked with Blue Origin during the first round of contract bids.

Congress axes media revenue sharing bill after pushback from Google and Meta

A US government attempt to compensate publishers for web links has fallen apart, as Congress has cut the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) from the annual national defense spending bill. The measure would have made temporary exceptions to antitrust law letting media outlets negotiate revenue sharing deals, such as receiving a cut of ad money from links to news articles in search results and social media posts.

The removal comes after extensive resistance from tech firms. Just this week, Facebook owner Meta warned it would “consider removing news” from its platform rather than submit to government-required negotiations for revenue sharing deals. As with the social media giant’s objections to similar legislative efforts in Australia and Canada, the company argued that the JCPA would force companies to pay for content whether or not they wanted to see it. This would supposedly create a “cartel-like entity” that made one company subsidize others.

Two industry groups, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice, also said they would launch extensive ad campaigns to oppose the JCPA. Both groups include major tech companies like Amazon, Google and Meta. Google has been a vocal opponent of link revenue shares in the past, and only reluctantly agreed to them in countries like France.

Advocacy groups have taken more varied stances. Public Knowledge and its allies were concerned tech companies could be forced to carry extreme content, and that the JCPA favored larger media producers over small publishers. Political critics across the spectrum, meanwhile, have worried that the Act could alternately strip away moderation tools or fuel biased reporting.

It’s not certain what will happen to the efforts behind the JCPA. Lead proponent Sen. Amy Klobuchar said politicians “must” find a way to improve compensation for news. However, it’s safe to say the media companies that supported the bill won’t be happy. The Los Angeles Times, Fox News owner News Corp. and others had argued that the would-be law was necessary to counter years of declining ad revenue in the shift toward online news coverage. For now, at least, they won’t have that potential help.

Google’s Nest Hub drops to $39 with a free smart bulb

If you’ve been looking to pick up a smart display, today looks like a decent time to take the plunge, as Walmart has our favorite option on the market, Google’s Nest Hub, down to $39. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen to date for the second-gen model. Notably, the discount includes a basic Philips Wiz smart bulb for no extra cost. For context, the 7-inch smart display technically has an MSRP of $100, though we frequently see it on sale for $50. The deal covers both the “chalk” and “charcoal” versions of the display, but the former looks to be out of stock as of this writing.

We gave the second-gen Nest Hub a review score of 89 when it launched last year, and it’s currently a top pick in our guide to the best smart displays. Like Amazon’s Echo Show devices, it’s mainly there for those who like using a voice assistant to pull up the weather, control smart home gear, stream music and videos, display recipes in the kitchen and so on. Its chief advantage over Amazon’s devices is, unsurprisingly, its tighter integration with Google services: If much of your life is organized in Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Photos, or if you use other Google-owned gear like Nest doorbells and thermostats, using the Google Assistant to access those things here will be far more convenient. We’ve also found the Google Assistant to be a little more capable than Alexa at answering web queries.

As a piece of hardware, the Nest Hub isn’t blazingly fast, nor is its 1,024 x 600 resolution display especially sharp. Still, its built-in speakers and microphones do the job, and its soft fabric design should blend naturally into most rooms. Its 7-inch frame is a natural fit on a bedside table or bathroom counter, and while it lacks a built-in camera, that may be a good thing for those who want an added sense of privacy. The device can also provide a modicum of sleep tracking, though we wouldn’t call that necessary for most, and Google plans to charge extra for the feature in the coming months. Nevertheless, the Nest Hub provides a strong mix of price and functionality for those who aren’t already hitched to Alexa, and this deal only furthers that.

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Epic Games rolls out limited accounts to protect young ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Fall Guys’ players

Epic Games is rolling out a new type of account for younger players that will require parental consent before they can do things like make purchases from Fortnite‘s in-game store with real money or use voice chat. Epic says these so-called “cabined accounts” will provide a “tailored experience that is safe and inclusive for younger players using the store or launcher.”

In a blog post, Epic positioned cabined accounts as a “new way for kids to join the metaverse.” It wrote that some companies try to provide a safe environment for kids in an online ecosystem by “by creating isolated experiences solely for their younger players, but these experiences are usually restrictive and unappealing when compared to the full game or activity and may encourage false reporting of age. Another approach has been to offer a fulsome experience for younger players, but if kids do not obtain permission from their parents, they are locked out entirely with no alternatives. Neither of these are optimal.”

Starting today, players will see a one-time request for their age when they log into the Epic Games Store or the company’s games. If someone indicates they are under 13 or a country’s age of consent to use digital services, they will now have a cabined account. Although they’ll still be able to play Fortnite, Rocket League or Fall Guys with access to previously purchased and earned in-game content, they’ll need to provide a parent or guardian’s email address and get consent from them to use certain features.

Several other features are disabled in cabined accounts, including any purchases with money, free text chat, making trades in Rocket League, buying or downloading Epic Games Store titles not owned by Epic, custom display names and SMS-based two-factor authentication. Without parental consent, younger players will not be able to link their Epic account to services such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitch. Developers with cabined accounts will also be prevented from accessing some Unreal Engine features.

Epic will lift the restrictions when a parent or guardian provides consent or the player turns 13 or their region’s age of digital consent. In the meantime, those with such an account can still use any funds that are already in their Epic wallet to buy things in Fortnite, Rocket League, Fall Guys and other Epic-owned games.

After a parent or guardian has verified a cabined account, they can set up parental controls. Among other things, they’ll be able to approve friend requests on the younger player’s account, grant access to voice and text chat and track their offspring’s Fortnite play time.

WhatsApp now supports Meta’s bitmoji-like avatars

Meta’s bitmoji-style 3D avatars have made their way to WhatsApp. As of today, you can use your digital persona either as your profile photo or as part of a 36-sticker pack that mimics popular emoji and actions. If you want to show that you love someone or aren’t sure about an idea, you can now use your virtual face instead of a generic icon.

WhatsApp sees avatars both as personalization and as a privacy feature. You can represent yourself in a conversation without having to share a photo that could be misused for stalking or other sinister purposes. The avatar system works across platforms, so the character you create for WhatsApp can be used with Facebook, Instagram or VR spaces like Horizon Worlds.

The expansion to WhatsApp was expected when Meta said it would make its new avatars usable across services. If anything, the feature is overdue. Snapchat, arguably the inspiration for the avatars, has had bitmoji reactions and replies since the start of the year. Even TikTok has avatars you can use in videos. Apple’s Messages, meanwhile, has offered “Memoji” for years.

Still, this could be a welcome addition. It should help WhatsApp compete for attention with those other services, of course, but it also promises a more consistent experience whether or not you use Meta’s other social platforms. You won’t have to give up avatars just because your friends and family depend on WhatsApp, even if they aren’t always identical to the ones you use in other apps.

NASA posts high-resolution images of Orion’s final lunar flyby

Orion just made its final pass around the moon on its way to Earth, and NASA has released some of the spacecraft’s best photos so far. Taken by a high-resolution camera (actually a heavily modified GoPro Hero 4) mounted on the tip of Orion’s solar arrays, they show the spacecraft rounding the Moon then getting a closeup shot of the far side. 

The photos Orion snapped on its first near pass to the Moon were rather grainy and blown out, likely because they were captured with Orion’s Optical Navigation Camera rather than the solar array-mounted GoPros. Other GoPro shots were a touch overexposed, but NASA appears to have nailed the settings with its latest series of shots. 

Space photos were obviously not the primary goal of the Artemis I mission, but they’re important for public relations, as NASA learned many moons ago. It was a bit surprising that NASA didn’t show some high-resolution closeups of the Moon’s surface when it passed by the first time, but better late than never.

Orion’s performance so far has been “outstanding,” program manager Howard Hu told reporters last week. It launched on November 15th as part of the Artemis 1 mission atop NASA’s mighty Space Launch System. Days ago, the craft completed a three and a half minute engine burn (the longest on the trip so far) to set it on course for a splashdown on December 11th.

The next mission, Artemis II, is scheduled in 2024 to carry astronauts on a similar path to Artemis I without landing on the moon. Then, humans will finally set foot on the lunar surface again with Artemis III, slated for launch in 2025.