The return of an uber-popular mobile multiplayer, ChatGPT, entering the mobile app domain, and Twitter admitting censorship of content — these developments have dominated tech headlines over the past week. While last week saw an announcement-heavy Google I/O 2023 where we were treated to Google’s first-ever foldable phone, the Pixel Fold, and the tech giant’s re-entry into the world of tabs with the Pixel Tablet, this week felt a little empty as a followup. However, with some mega announcements on the table, it appears that tech aficionados will certainly have a lot to look forward to in the coming days.
Twitter’s Troubles
Let’s start with Twitter. Ever since Elon Musk took over with a hostile $44-billion bid back in October 2022, the eccentric entrepreneur has been quite vocal when it comes to sharing instances of content restriction on the platform.
On May 16, the microblogging platform acknowledged that it enforced content limitations in Turkey in anticipation of the country's recent presidential election. The official Twitter Global Government Affairs account issued a statement verifying the measures implemented. It emphasized the platform's commitment to complying with legal requirements while ensuring continued accessibility for Turkish users.
Twitter said, "To ensure compliance with legal procedures and maintain Twitter's availability to the people of Turkey, we have implemented measures to restrict access to specific content within the country."
The platform further confirmed that it took action against four accounts and 409 tweets, as identified by a court order. The account clarified that the content would still be accessible to users outside of Turkey and that the account holders had been duly informed about the restrictions.
You can read our detailed coverage here.
TikTok Takes A Hit
TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is easily one of the most popular short-form video apps in the US, with over 150 million users in the country. On May 17, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation that effectively banned TikTok within the state, making Montana the first US state to do so.
The move was part of an effort to protect the privacy of its residents against suspected intelligence gathering by China. However, it is important to note that individual users themselves will not be subject to any penalties for utilising the app.
The implementation of this ban is scheduled to commence on January 1, 2024. However, legal obstacles are anticipated to arise and potentially challenge its enforcement.
You can read our full report here.
Speaking of legal obstacles, just a day after, five TikTokers have filed a lawsuit, hoping to overturn the state-wide ban, claiming that the restriction violates their constitutional right to free speech.
It should be noted here that TikTok has been banned on some level in several countries, primarily due to concerns over data safety. The UK, for example, banned the app on government phones in March this year, after the US did the same for its government devices in December 2022.
Back in 2020, India announced a blanket ban on TikTok and 58 other ‘Chinese’ apps as they were deemed "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order." To date, there has been no word of the app making a comeback to the country.
You can check out which countries have banned TikTok so far.
ChatGPT Catches App Fever
Nowadays, if you don’t exist in an app version, are you even legit? Microsoft-backed OpenAI announced on May 18 that its surprisingly human-like chatbot, ChatGPT, will finally be available for iOS users via the App Store.
ChatGPT was launched as a prototype back in November 2022 and ever since then, the chatbot has made users and institutions alike fall head-over-heels for its impressive capability of handling a myriad of user queries in seconds — ranging from generating complex programming codes to solving third-grade maths problems.
So far, ChatGPT was available only via Web versions — desktop or mobile. Now, iOS users will be able to download its new app on their phones and enjoy features like synced conversations and voice inputs.
This was clearly OpenAI’s way of hitting back at Google’s newly launched Bard AI, which also has the capability of taking voice commands on phones.
ChatGPT being available as a mobile app also opens the doors for a range of subscription plans. It remains to be seen how the company plans to leverage the platform best.
It should be noted that the ChatGPT app is only available in the US for now and is expected to be rolled out to more countries soon. An Android version of the app is also on its way.
BGMI’s Back (Alright?)
Apologies for the Backstreet Boys pun, but after an absence of 10 months, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) is making its return to the country — and things may not be completely ‘alright’.
Just like TikTok, PUBG Mobile was banned in India back in 2020 due to concerns over Chinese bodies snooping on user data. Then, PUBG Mobile was rebranded as Battlegrounds Mobile India, or BGMI, by South Korea-based Krafton and was relaunched with several changes to adhere to the Indian audience. The changes were marked by watering-down elements like changing in-game blood colour to green, and so on.
However, again in July last year, BGMI was banned by the Centre as it was found that the game’s servers were interacting with Chinese servers.
This time around, the Centre has asked for some more changes to the game, notably asking for the elimination of blood entirely (who needs violence in a game that lets you shoot enemies?) and allowing users to only access the game during specified time slots during the day. After ongoing negotiations, it appears that Krafton has found a way to make its return to India and said that BGMI will be available for download via Google Play and App Store soon.
Now, MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to clarify that this is a "three-month trial approval." "We will keep a close watch on other issues of user harm, addiction, etc, in the next three months before a final decision is taken," the minister added.
So, it appears that gamers will have to wait and see how BGMI’s latest return plays out.
Click here to check out how the Indian gaming industry is reacting to BGMI’s comeback.
Want Pirated Movies? Head To Twitter
Twitter CEO Elon Musk on May 18 announced that Twitter Blue subscribers (you know, the ones who are paying ~Rs 900 to use features that were supposed to be free) will now be able to upload videos up to two hours long, or around 8GB, on the microblogging platform.
While this is certainly a great feature, some Twitter Blue users decided to use their newfound power to upload entire movies on the platform. “Shrek 3” on Twitter, anyone?
While most of these videos are removed almost immediately by Twitter’s eagle-eyed content moderators, the overall plan behind adding long-form videos on the platform falls in line with Musk’s overall vision of folding Twitter into X, his ‘Everything App’, and positioning it against other popular portals such as YouTube.
That’s it from the world of tech headlines this week. Stay tuned to this space for more top stories next week.