Elon Musk takes aim at Apple / Twitter stops enforcing Covid misinformation policy / Google and iHeartMedia settle ad claims

Plus: Apple announces the winners of its 2022 App Store Awards.

Inside.com Part of   Network November 29, 2022

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Elon Musk has accused Apple of threatening to remove Twitter from its App Store. In a series of tweets Monday, the Twitter CEO also said Apple has “censored” other developers and withdrawn most of its ad spending on the platform. More: In one tweet, Musk said Apple has mostly halted its ad spending on Twitter, asking "Do they hate free speech in America?" He later asked his followers in a poll if Apple should publish all its "censorship actions" that impact customers. Musk also took aim at the 30% cut Apple takes from app developers who earn more than $1M annually through the ‌App Store‌, referring to it as "a secret 30% tax." According to Musk, Apple has threatened to withdraw Twitter from its App Store as part of its app review process but won't specify why it has issues with the platform. Apple has yet to comment on the accusations. Zoom Out: A New York Times op-ed written by Twitter’s former head of trust and safety claims Apple App Store moderation reps frequently raised concerns about Twitter's content and flagged cases of nudity and racial slurs. Most of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising. In Q1, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending a total of $48M on ads or about 4% of Twitter's quarterly revenue, according to a document viewed by The Washington Post. THE WASHINGTON POST

Twitter has stopped enforcing its Covid misinformation policy as of Nov. 23, according to an update on the company's transparency page. While the platform hasn't specified what measures it's no longer enforcing, reports suggest it will no longer delete posts or suspend users who spread false claims about the coronavirus or vaccines. More: Twitter first rolled out the features in January 2020. They included potential account suspensions and labels on tweets that contained potentially misleading information about the pandemic and vaccines. Since then, Twitter said it has banned over 11,200 accounts and removed 97,600 instances of false content for violating the policy. It also "challenged" more than 11.7 million accounts by attaching warning labels or taking other measures. Facebook and YouTube, which have rolled out similar measures, are still enforcing their Covid misinformation policies. Zoom Out: The update comes after Twitter scaled back its teams that were charged with enforcing rules to moderate and remove harmful content. Last week, new owner Elon Musk said he would offer "general amnesty" for previously suspended Twitter accounts that haven't posted spam or broken the law. A new report says Twitter will reinstate 62,000 suspended accounts, each with more than 10,000 followers and one with more than 5 million. CNN

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Apple chose social network app BeReal as its iPhone app of the year. Overall, the company chose 16 apps and games for its 2022 App Store Awards, which were announced on Monday. More: The BeReal app, which recently surpassed 56 million downloads, sends daily alerts for users to post a photo of what they're doing in that moment.  Apple described it as a way for people to gain ”an authentic look into the lives of their family and friends.” Overall, the company said it chose the winner for "exceptional experiences," innovative technologies, and "profound cultural impact." Other winners: iPad App of the Year: GoodNotes 5, from Time Base Technology Limited. Mac App of the Year: MacFamilyTree 10, from Synium Software GmbH. iPhone Game of the Year: Apex Legends Mobile, from Electronic Arts. iPad Game of the Year: Moncage, from X.D. Network Inc. Mac Game of the Year: Inscryption, from Devolver. The full list is available here. TECHCRUNCH

Google and iHeartMedia agreed to pay $9.4M to settle allegations that they ran "deceptive" radio advertisements promoting the former's Pixel 4 smartphone. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and seven states accused the companies of airing 29,000 endorsements from radio influencers who didn't own or use the phone. More: The ads ran from 2019 to 2020 on a dozen radio networks, including iHeartMedia, across 10 major markets. Google gave the hosts a script touting the Pixel 4's camera and voice-activated Google Assistant. However, most of the "radio personalities" were not given a phone prior to recording the spot, according to the FTC. The companies "paid influencers to promote products they never used, showing a blatant disrespect for truth-in-advertising rules,” said FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine. A Google spokesman said the company takes "compliance with advertising laws seriously." Under the settlement terms, Google and iHeartMedia agreed to no longer misrepresent endorsers' experiences of products. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating real estate tech firm RealPage over its software that helps landlords manage rental properties. Specifically, the DOJ's antitrust unit is looking into the company's software that recommends rental prices. The probe comes after a ProPublica report claimed the software allows landlords to illegally coordinate rent prices.  More: The software relies on private rental rates provided by its clients, who are landlords and property managers. An algorithm is applied to the data to recommend prices for available rental properties on a daily basis. Opponents argue that the software enables property managers to coordinate prices and drive up their rental rates, violating federal antitrust laws. Three U.S. senators recently sent a letter to the DOJ asking the agency to investigate the price-setting software. In October, rents across the U.S. were up 7.8% YoY, according to a Rent.com analysis. THE VERGE

Sony plans to sell a wearable motion-tracking system that can capture human movements for the metaverse. Called Mocopi, the system is comprised of six sensor bands that are placed on the body to track movements and animate an in-app avatar in real time.  More: The system is also geared toward virtual YouTubers and creators who do movie and animation production. Sony says the device relies on a smartphone app and a proprietary algorithm to measure motion at high accuracy using only a small number of sensors. A software development kit will allow users to import the captured motion data into 3D animation apps.  Pre-orders will open in mid-December at a price point of 49,500 yen (about $360). Zoom Out: A report by Precedence Research forecasts that the global metaverse market will grow from $51.7B in 2021 to $1.3 trillion by 2030. The hardware segment, which makes up the biggest revenue share, is expected to grow at a 39% CAGR through the end of the decade. BLOOMBERG

QUICK HITS HubSpot and Brandwatch partnered this year to survey over 1,000 individuals across the U.S. to better understand consumer purchasing habits, thoughts and behaviors.* Samsung is developing a Self Repair Assistant app to assist users with DIY phone repairs, according to a trademark application filed by the company. Bionaut Labs has secured $43.2M for its microscale robots that deliver drugs to specific areas of the human body. Google Health has licensed its mammography AI models to iCAD, which will integrate the technology into its medical imaging tools to better detect breast cancer. Tech innovation is surging in education, finance, health care, and other industries. See what your competitors are building with Crowdbotics.* *This is a sponsored post.

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Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com.   Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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