YouTube to hide public dislike counts, aiming to defang harassment mobs

YouTube is removing public dislike counts, getting rid of the visible tallies of how many people have clicked to "thumbs down" a video.

Google's video site, the largest source of online video on the planet with more than 2 billion monthly users, said the move was designed to impede "dislike attack" harassment campaigns. The change "will start gradually rolling out" Wednesday, YouTube said.

The dislike button itself is staying, so viewers can still dislike videos to tune their recommendations and privately express displeasure with a video. And creators can privately track the number of dislikes on their videos, alongside all their private metrics. But the public count of dislikes will be gone soon.
After experimenting earlier this year with changes to the dislike button, YouTube said it found that smaller creators and those just getting started are disproportionately the targets of dislike attacks.

"We heard during the experiment that some of you have used the public dislike count to help decide whether or not to watch a video. We know that you might not agree with this decision, but we believe that this is the right thing to do for the platform," YouTube said in a blog post Wednesday.

It's the latest move by a tech giant tweaking a feature, developed innocently years ago, that has evolved into a destructive force for some people. Like and dislike counts have been cited by researchers not only as tools for harassment but also as factors in how social media damages some users' mental health. Facebook and Instagram introduced the option for all users to hide public like counts earlier this year, after a test starting in 2019. The same year, Twitter explored whether to obscure likes and retweets behind.

Wednesday, YouTube said the removal of dislike counts was because the company wants to improve the inclusivity, respect and safety of its service, calling it "one of many steps we are taking to continue to protect creators from harassment."

"Our work is not done, and we'll continue to invest here," the company said.

YouTube itself has the distinction of posting the most disliked video ever on Youtube. Its 2018 YouTube Rewind, an erstwhile annual trend recap video, has at nearly 221 million views -- and 19 million dislikes. Even YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki's own children called "cringey."

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Afghan FM Amir Khan Muttaqi arrives in Islamabad for 3-day visit

Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday evening on a three-day visit to Pakistan for wide-ranging talks on bilateral matters — the first visit to Pakistan by an Afghan minister since the Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15.

Muttaqi is leading a 20-member high-level delegation comprising Minister for Finance Hidayatullah Badri, Minister for Industries and Trade Nooruddin Aziz and senior officials from the aviation ministry.

Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan Ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Khan, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood and senior officials welcomed the delegation upon their arrival at Nur Khan Airbase.

The Taliban's representative at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, Shakaib Ahmad, was also present on the occasion.

During his visit, the Afghan minister will hold formal talks with Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Muttaqi will also meet special representatives from China, Russia and the US, who are participating in the Troika Plus meeting scheduled for November 11 (tomorrow).

In a statement on Tuesday, the FO said that Muttaqi's visit was taking place as a follow-up to Qureshi's visit to Kabul on Oct 21.

“The exchanges will centre on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations with a particular focus on enhanced trade, facilitation of transit trade, cross-border movement, land and aviation links, people-to-people contacts and regional connectivity,” the FO statement said.

Kabul foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi had said that the visiting delegation will discuss bilateral ties between the two countries as well as the economy, transit, refugees and expanding facilities for the movement of people.

Pakistan has not officially recognised the Taliban government, however, Taliban officials have been allowed to take control of the Afghan embassy in Islamabad as well as consulates in Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta.

 

 

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Former Bangladesh chief justice gets 11 years jail for money laundering

Bangladesh’s former chief justice was sentenced in absentia to 11 years in jail for corruption on Tuesday, in a case that opposition groups and supporters say is politically motivated.

Surendra Kumar Sinha, 70, headed the Supreme Court when it ruled in 2017 that parliament could not sack judges, a move hailed by lawyers as safeguarding judicial independence.

Sinha left Bangladesh in late 2017 alleging he had been forced to step aside following the landmark ruling. He lives in North America where he has reportedly sought asylum.

Campaigners have said his departure was a massive blow to the credibility of the country’s judiciary, and accused the government of going after Sinha.

“It was very obvious that the government was angry with him and... was determined to just kill his reputation,” Asif Nazrul, a law professor at Dhaka University said.

Judge Shaikh Nazmul Alam of Special Judge’s Court in Dhaka delivered Tuesday’s verdict, ordering Sinha to serve seven years in jail for laundering money and four years for breach of trust, prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan said.

“This verdict proved that nobody in the country is above law. Wrongdoings will bring anyone in the trial,” he said.

Sinha was the first Hindu chief justice in the officially secular Muslim-majority nation of 169 million.

 

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WhatsApp rolls out new interface

WhatsApp has rolled out updated group and contact info for specific beta users in the new 2.21.23.12 version, which it has submitted in the Google Play Beta Programme, WABetainfo reported.

In an earlier version, according to WABetainfo, WhatsApp had released a new interface for viewing business Info, but it was not available for contact Info.

To confirm whether you have the updated interface, open contact or group info -- make sure it's not business info.

"Note that the new interface does not allow viewing status updates for non-business accounts: this feature is available only in Business Info and there are no details about the availability for Contact Info right now," the report said.

WhatsApp is rolling out this interface for specific beta testers today, so don’t worry if your WhatsApp account didn’t receive the feature, it added.

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WHO looking forward to oral, nasal coronavirus vaccines

The World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Tuesday she was looking forward to the "second generation" of COVID-19 vaccines, which could include nasal sprays and oral versions.

Soumya Swaminathan said such vaccines could have advantages over the current crop as they would be easier to deliver than injections and could even be self-administered.

Swaminathan said there were 129 different candidate vaccines that have got as far as clinical trials -- being tested on humans -- while a further 194 are not yet that advanced in their development and are still being worked on in laboratories.

"This covers the entire range of technologies," she told a live interaction on WHO social media channels.

"They’re still in development. I’m sure some of them will prove to be very safe and efficacious and others may not.

"There could be advantages to some of the second generation vaccines... clearly if you have an oral vaccine or an intra-nasal vaccine this is easier to deliver than an injectable.

"Ultimately we’ll be able to choose the ones that are most appropriate.

"If not for COVID-19, we’re going to use these platforms for other infections in the future."

Swaminathan explained the advantages of a vaccine being sprayed into the nose, as happens in some countries with influenza vaccines.

"If there’s a local immune response then it will take care of the virus before it even goes and establishes itself in the lungs and starts causing a problem," she said.

The WHO has only given emergency use authorisation to seven COVID-19 vaccines: those created by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm, Sinovac and last week Bharat Biotech.

"None of the vaccines are 100%. Nobody has ever claimed that the vaccines are going to be 100% protective. But 90% is a wonderful amount of protection to have, compared to zero," Swaminathan said.

"Till now, with the vaccines that we have approved, there has not been any signal which has been so worrying that we need to say, well, we need to re-think this vaccine."

More than 7.25 billion vaccine doses have been administered around the world, according to an AFP count.

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Sri Lankan great Atapattu picks Pakistan to win T20 World Cup

Former Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu has declared Pakistan as "favourites" to win ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Speaking to reporters, Sri Lankan great said: "It would not be easy to beat Pakistan in UAE."

"The conditions in the UAE are similar to the home conditions in Pakistan," he elaborated on his prediction.

"The length to bowl and the shots to play, I think they can even do that in their sleep. They are so familiar with the conditions.”

Pakistan is the only team in the T20 World Cup series that has managed to win all five games in the Super 12 stage.

“I saw a YouTube video recently where Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf bowling on a road in a tape ball cricket match. It is quite remarkable to watch. A good team has to have a really good day to beat the Pakistan team in these conditions,” Atapattu maintained.

Shedding light on India's early exit, he said: “I did not think that a team like India would get eliminated this fast."

He said adding that he was pleasantly surprised by what Sri Lanka did. So there can be surprises.

"England team is really good. But they came so close to be beaten by Sri Lanka. They also admitted that Sri Lanka was the only team that gave them a good fight. So, if you tell me to choose a team out of the four semi-finalists, I will choose Pakistan to win the tournament,” Atapattu said.

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Afghan FM Amir Khan Muttaqi arrives in Islamabad for 3-day visit

Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday evening on a three-day visit to Pakistan for wide-ranging talks on bilateral matters — the first visit to Pakistan by an Afghan minister since the Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15.

Muttaqi is leading a 20-member high-level delegation comprising Minister for Finance Hidayatullah Badri, Minister for Industries and Trade Nooruddin Aziz and senior officials from the aviation ministry.

Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan Ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Khan, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood and senior officials welcomed the delegation upon their arrival at Nur Khan Airbase.

The Taliban's representative at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, Shakaib Ahmad, was also present on the occasion.

During his visit, the Afghan minister will hold formal talks with Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Muttaqi will also meet special representatives from China, Russia and the US, who are participating in the Troika Plus meeting scheduled for November 11 (tomorrow).

In a statement on Tuesday, the FO said that Muttaqi's visit was taking place as a follow-up to Qureshi's visit to Kabul on Oct 21.

“The exchanges will centre on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations with a particular focus on enhanced trade, facilitation of transit trade, cross-border movement, land and aviation links, people-to-people contacts and regional connectivity,” the FO statement said.

Kabul foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi had said that the visiting delegation will discuss bilateral ties between the two countries as well as the economy, transit, refugees and expanding facilities for the movement of people.

Pakistan has not officially recognised the Taliban government, however, Taliban officials have been allowed to take control of the Afghan embassy in Islamabad as well as consulates in Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta.

 

 

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