Twitter is reportedly poised to launch a tool that enables publication of long-form content on the platform. Currently said to be in test mode, the new Twitter Notes will let users create content through a combination of rich formatting and uploaded media. Once published, the Twitter Notes can be shared. Twitter rolled out threads in 2017 as a way to accommodate longer commentary, and users today frequently create numbered threads to connect a string of related tweets (also known as “tweetstorms”). The move may be the result of increased focus on monetization following Elon Musk’s purchase offer. Read more

Researchers from Meta Platforms’ Reality Labs and the University of Texas at Austin have developed audio tools that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says will deliver a more realistic metaverse experience. Among the new tools is a visual acoustic matching model called AViTAR that adapts any audio clip to a chosen environment using a photograph, not advanced geometry, to create a simulation. Also in the pipeline is the Visually-Informed Dereverberation mode (VIDA), which will “remove reverberation,” isolating source sounds for a fully immersive effect. Read more

Netflix is actively exploring partnership options for an ad-supported variation of its video platform. Company CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed last week that the company is speaking to multiple partners. Alphabet’s Google and Comcast’s NBCUniversal have emerged as leading contenders. “We’re talking to all of them right now,” Sarandos said during the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity advertising conference. “We want a pretty easy entry to the market — which, again, we will build on and iterate in. What we do at first will not be representative of what the product will be ultimately. I want our product to be better than TV.” Read more

Canada is taking steps to ensure that digital platforms such as YouTube, Netflix and Spotify adequately represent Canadian artists for users who log in from a Canadian IP address. In an effort to protect Canada’s cultural identity, the nation’s television and radio broadcasters are required to fill a local content quota as a licensing condition, and the new bill — which passed the lower house of Parliament last week — would create a similar mandate for digital platforms, said Canada’s minister of heritage Pablo Rodriguez. The bill, C-11, awaits approval by the Senate to become law. Read more

As the U.S. approaches the 2022 midterm elections, social media platforms are being criticized for dropping the ball on misinformation safeguards. Meta Platforms’ Facebook has triggered alarm over plans to scrap CrowdTangle, a relevance filter Facebook has promoted as a discovery tool. Advocacy groups have described CrowdTangle as “indispensable” to finding false information online. Meta is accused of reducing CrowdTangle support and losing interest in election security overall as it shifts focus from the real world to the metaverse. CrowdTangle is cross-platform, and used to analyze content on Twitter and Reddit, among others. Read more