Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Facebook cracks down and Netflix is all thumbs. It's the Daily Crunch for 4/5/17

THE DAILY CRUNCH
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5 2017 By Darrell Etherington

Facebook focuses on serious harassment, Tesla is on top and Netflix needs not your stars. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for April 5, 2017.

1. Facebook uses tech to block reposting of revenge porn

Facebook wants to stop the spread of revenge porn to try to limit the damage of this insidious online practice. The company has implemented new photo-matching tech to spot images that have been previously marked as revenge porn and prevent their re-sharing on the network.

This service will work across Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, meaning the re-sharing can't happen even in private messages. The posting of revenue porn will also lead to account banning in "many" cases, according to Facebook. It's worth noting that this is a purely human-driven process; AI isn't quite at the level yet where it can deal with the subtleties of reviewing this kind of nefarious content.

2. Tesla tops U.S. automakers in market cap

The stock market isn't necessarily the best indicator of a company's true value, but it's still impressive that Tesla leapt ahead of both Ford and GM in terms of its market capitalization worth this week. Tesla's replete with potential, now it's just a matter of continuing to turn that potential into something real.

3. Netflix Thumbs its nose at thee

Netflix has replaced its star system with a thumbs up/thumbs down binary, which is designed to help it more easily tweak its recommendation algorithm. This is about generating better matches for individual users, rather than trusting the wisdom of the crowd, so it seems like it could be a very good thing. If it works.

4. Amazon takes over Twitter's Thursday NFL streaming rights

Amazon has won the right to stream 10 Thursday night NFL games for the upcoming season, replacing Twitter, which held the rights to the same broadcast selection last year. The streaming is available only to Prime members, which adds a barrier vs. Twitter streaming, but it could be a way for Amazon to see if it wants to invest more in sports streaming rights.

5. Google security researchers find Wi-Fi chip exploit

Google's Project Zero has found an exploit in Broadcom's Wi-Fi chips used in many, many popular devices. There are already updates out there, so do that and protect yourself.

6. Zunum Aero wants to fly the electric skies

A company looking to disrupt regional air travel using hybrid electric planes hopes to have its first vehicles flying by 2020. This sounds like a very attractive offering for people who frequently have to make short-haul trips. I want one.

7. Amazon Alexa developer options expand

Amazon has made new features available to developers, including the ability to ask for a user's location and monitor the performance of their skill. Both should do a lot to improve the developer experience, especially being able to make changes based on what is and isn't working.

And speaking of making changes for the better: Sign up for our new weekly startups newsletter, curated by Anthony Ha. Just follow the link below and check the "TC Startups" checkbox.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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