Author: Sam Machkovech

(credit: Shawn Campbell)

Twitter and some of its most enterprising users have found simple ways to get around the service’s major limit of 140 characters per post, whether by enabling full-Tweet embeds, offering username tags within photos, or making it easier to read images loaded with text. But according to a Tuesday report by Re/code, the 140-character wall itself may soon crumble.

Citing “multiple people familiar with the company’s plans,” Re/code hinted at “a new product” that would allow Twitter users to exceed the default post length. However, the report didn’t clarify whether that would be in the form of a brand new app or some other option, and it was anchored with a warning that “the long-form feature may never make it to consumers.”

That may be because the company is also internally mulling ways to retain the 140-character limit while removing other text bottlenecks. According to Re/code, elements such as links and usernames might no longer count toward post lengths.

(credit: FBI)

Does online hate speech ripple into the real world in the form of offline hate crimes? A study scheduled to publish in the next issue of MIS Quarterly sought to answer this question. Its authors say that their results show a strong correlation between increased rates of racially motivated hate crimes and areas that saw significant increases in broadband access.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota and NYU’s Stern School of Business, determined that depending on the year in question, every 65 percent increase in broadband in a given American county correlated with an uptick in racially charged hate crimes that ranged from 70 to 270 percent.

“[Our research team] thought that the issue of racial hate crimes is of great importance—the fact that such crimes are reported so often in news says a lot about this,” study co-author Jason Chan told Ars. “Over the years, I saw many instances in which the Internet was used and misused for such purposes, and I thought that a link between the two might be present, which sparked the motivation to begin this work.”

In the wake of leaked February statements by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, the social media platform has rolled out a number of tools to help users deal with abuse, threats, and other rule-breaking content. However, those  mostly consisted of improved reporting capabilities—meaning users may still see the nasty stuff; they could just tattle on it more efficiently.

That changed on Monday when Twitter quietly unveiled its first major filter for the service. After seeing the filter pop up in a post by tech entrepreneur Anil Dash, Ars confirmed with a Twitter spokesperson that “quality filtering” has gone live for a select number of “verified” Twitter users, so long as those users enable the option in the notifications settings of Twitter’s iOS app.

The filter includes a brief explanation, saying that it “aims” to block any replies in the notifications tab “that contain threats, offensive or abusive language, duplicate content,” or posts written by “suspicious accounts.” The option does not further clarify what Twitter will characterize as “suspicious” or “offensive” content.

House of Representatives member Katherine Clark (D-Mass.)

On Monday, House of Representatives member Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) became the first member of the US Congress to call out GamerGate while lambasting online harassment. In an op-ed at TheHill.com titled “Sexism in cyberspace,” Clark called on the US Department of Justice to “intensify their efforts to investigate and prosecute the federal laws that criminalize the worst” cases of abusive speech perpetuated online.

According to Clark, only ten cases of “cyber-stalking” have been pursued by the US DoJ between 2010 and 2013—years after Congress amended the Violence Against Women Act to add online harassment to its federal purview (see Sec. 113 here, PDF)—in spite of an “estimated 2.5 million cases of cyber-stalking.” Clark’s op-ed did not cite where that statistic came from—and Ars has reached out to Clark’s office asking for more info—but for now, some sleuthing brought up a statement about the “ten cases” figure made by University of Maryland professor and author Danielle Citron.

“After speaking with the FBI, other law enforcement agencies, and women who have experienced these threats firsthand, it’s clear that nothing is going to change until we stop thinking about these crimes as harmless hoaxes and recognize the chilling effect these crimes have on women and the economy,” Clark wrote. (As we reported last year, the FBI has publicly acknowledged efforts to curtail rising trends of online abuse and threats.)

On Friday, recent rumors about an Apple-branded automobile exploded with allegations that a staff of “several hundred” employees was working on an electric car inside of Apple headquarters.

The Wall Street Journal‘s report cited “people familiar with the matter” in describing a project named “Titan,” and while the report acknowledged the possibility that such a car might never see release, or at least take years to launch, its sources claimed that the specific people put onto the Titan project—including former Ford engineer and current Apple product design vice president Steve Zadesky—were a sign that “the company was serious.”

The report also noted that Apple recently hired former Ford designer Marc Newson; if Apple is indeed building a car, then Newson’s hire starts making even more sense. In addition to his watch design efforts, Newson designed the stunning 021C concept car for Ford. To further cement its assertion, the WSJ report claimed that Apple executives have held meetings with “contract manufacturers for high-end cars.”