Self-driving delivery van startup Gatik AI comes out of stealth with Walmart partnership

Gatik AI, an autonomous vehicle startup that came out of stealth Thursday with $4.5 million in funding and Walmart as a customer, is aiming for the sweet middle spot in the world of logistics.

The company, which operates out of Palo Alto and Toronto, isn’t deploying autonomous delivery bots built for sidewalks, nor is it aiming for self-driving trucks, or even robotaxis to shuttle around people. Instead, the founders of Gatik AI are developing a business that will do short hauls of goods between businesses using autonomous light-commercial trucks and vans.

The Ford transit vehicles outfitted with Gatik’s self-driving system will drive up to 200 miles a day and stay within a city environment, co-founder and CEO Gautam Narang told TechCrunch. He believes the company can close the gap in the market through a variety of use cases, including partnering with third-party logistics giants like Amazon, FedEx or even the U.S. Postal Service, auto part distributors, consumer goods, food and beverage distributors as well as medical and pharmaceutical companies.

The strategy has attracted a number of investors and at least one major partner: Walmart. Gatik AI has raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by former CEO and executive chairman of Google Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. Other investors include AngelPad, Dynamo Fund, Fontinalis Partners, Trucks Venture Capital and angel Lior Ron, who heads Uber Freight.

Dror Berman, a founding partner at Innovation Endeavors, is now a Gatik board member.

“There is a huge gap between autonomous Class 8 big rig trucks, which can only operate on highways, and smaller automated vehicles such as sidewalk robots and Nuro vehicles, which are restricted by operation speed, capacity, distance, and the curb. Gatik fills the critical ‘middle mile’ part of logistics, which is only becoming more valuable as a layer in the $800 billion logistics ecosystem,” said Reilly Brennan, founding general partner at Trucks Venture Capital.

The capital will allow Gatik — the name means progressive or speed in Sanskrit —  to expand its team and launch additional commercial services this year.

Narang co-founded the company with his brother Arjun Narang, who is CTO, and chief engineer Apeksha Kumavat. The company has been testing its autonomous vehicle technology on public roads in California for about 18 months.

The trio, which previously founded rehabilitation robotics tech startup Maverick Robotics, contends that their autonomous vehicle technology and approach, if scaled, can reduce the cost of last-mile delivery for businesses by 50% and improve safety.

Walmart could be one such customer. Gatik didn’t provide many details about the deal with Walmart, only to say that it’s launching a service with Walmart in the coming weeks.

The U.S. retail giant has already shown it has a keen interest in autonomous vehicle technology. Last year, Walmart and self-driving vehicle company Waymo announced a partnership in Arizona. Under the test program, members of Waymo’s early rider program were offered grocery savings when they shop from Walmart.com. The riders will be able to take a Waymo car to their nearby Walmart store for grocery pickup when the order is ready.

Walmart also signed a deal in January with startup Udelv to test the use of autonomous vans to deliver online grocery orders to customers. Under the agreement, Udelv will provide its second-generation autonomous delivery van, called the Newton, to Walmart to deliver groceries in Surprise, Ariz.

Gautam Narang says third-party logistics companies are also a particularly good opportunity.

“There’s a huge push, where these companies are trying to build micro-fulfillment centers close to the customer,” Narang said. “So moving goods from a warehouse to these micro centers is one of the use cases that we’re targeting. This is perfect for scaling and commercialization of autonomous technology.”

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Instagram one-ups TikTok with karaoke lyrics

Lip-syncing jumpstarted TikTok’s to the center of teen culture, arguably displacing Instagram. Now the Facebook-owned app is striking back with a new feature that lets you displays lyrics on your video Story synced to a soundtrack you’ve added with the Music sticker. Lyrics could help creators and their fans sing along, and the visual flare could make the amateur MTV content more watchable.

Instagram scored a big endorsement from teen scare-pop phenomenon Billie Eilish who’s featured in the demo video for Story lyrics.

To play with the feature, first select the Music lens type (amidst Boomerang and other options) before you shoot or the Music sticker after. Once you pick a song, you’ll see lyrics pop up which can help you cue the segment of the music you want to play. Then you can cycle through a bunch of animation styles like traditional karaoke teleprompter, a typewriter version that preserves mystery by only revealing lyrics as they’re sung, and big flashy billboard font.

“Music can be a big part of expression on Instagram – between adding music to Stories, connecting with artists, sending song recs back-and-forth, there are lots of ways to connect with music on IG” an Instagram spokesperson tells me. “Now, we’re building on our music features and introducing the ability to add lyrics when you add a song to your story.” As with pretty much everything Instagram launches, it was first dug out of Android code and revealed to the world by frequent TechCrunch tipster and reverse engineering master Jane Manchun Wong. She first spotted Lyrics in March and we wrote about the prototype in April.

But TikTok isn’t waiting up. Today it launched its own text feature for adding overlaid captions to videos. Typically, creators had to use Snapcat, Instagram Stories, or desktop editing software to add text. Creators are sure to find plenty of hilarious use cases for text on TikTok, and it could help replace the common trope of writing captions on paper and holding them up during clips.

All of these features are about keeping social video from going stale. The manicured, painstakingly posed Instagram aesthetic is over, as The Atlantic’s Taylor Lorenz deftly identified. Fans are sick of perfection, which breeds envy and feels plastic or inauthentic. Comedy, absurdity, and the rough edges of reality are becoming the new ‘look’ of social media. Tools to overlay lyrics and text give creators more freedom to express complex jokes or just act silly. The popularity of Billie Eilish’s own dirtbag chic fashion and willingness to reveal her own insecurities exemplifies this shift, so it’s smart Instagra

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Facebook plans June 18th cryptocurrency debut. Here’s what we know

Facebook is finally ready to reveal details about its cryptocurrency codenamed Libra. It’s currently scheduled for a June 18th release of a white paper explaining its cryptocurrency’s basics, according to a source who says multiple investors briefed on the project by Facebook were told that date.

Meanwhile, the company’s Head of Financial Services & Payment Partnerships for Northern Europe Laura McCracken told German magazine WirtschaftsWoche‘s Sebastian Kirsch that the white paper would debut June 18th, and that the cryptocurrency would indeed be pegged to a basket of currencies rather than a single one like the US dollar to prevent price fluctuations. Kirsch tells me “I met Laura at Money2020 Europe in Amsterdam on Tuesday” after she watched fellow Facebook payments exec Paulette Rowe’s talk. “She told me that she wasn’t involved in what David Marcus’ [Facebook Blockchain] team was doing. But that I’d have to wait until June 18^th when a whitepaper was supposed to be published to get more details.” She told him she thought the date was already a publicly known fact, which it wasn’t.

Then, yesterday TechCrunch received a request for a June 18th news embargo from one of the communications managers for Facebook’s blockchain team. The Information’s Alex Heath and Jon Victor also reported yesterday that Facebook’s cryptocurrency project would launch later this month.

Facebook declined to comment on any news regarding its cryptocurrency project. There is always a chance that the announcement date could fluctuate if snafus with partners or governments arise. One source says Facebook is targeting a 2020 formal launch of the cryptocurrency

The debut of Libra or whatever Facebook decides to call it could unlock a new era of commerce and payments for the social network. It could be used to offer low or no-fee payments between friends or remittance of earnings to familys from migrant workers abroad who are often gouged by money transfer services.

Sidestepping credit card transaction fees could also allow Facebook’s cryptocurrency to offer a cheaper way to pay merchants for traditional ecommerce, or facilitate microtransactions for a la carte news articles or tipping of content creators. And a better understanding of who buys what or which brands or popular could aid Facebook in ad measurement, ranking, and targeting to amplify its core business.

How Facebook’s cryptocurrency works

Here’s what we know about Facebook’s blockchain project:

Name: Facebook will likely use the Libra codename as the public facing name for its cryptocurrency, which The Information reports won’t be called GlobalCoin as the BBC had claimed. Facebook has registed a company called Libra Networks in Switzerland for financial services, Reuters reported. Libra could be a play on the word LIBOR, an abbreviation for the London Inter-bank Offered Rate that’s used as a benchmark interest rate for borrowing between banks. LIBOR is for banks, while Libra is meant to be for the people.

Token: The cryptocurrency will be a stablecoin — a token designed to have a stable price to prevent discrepancies and complications due to price fluctuations during a payment or negotiation process. Facebook has spoken with financial institutions regarding contributing capital to form a $1 billion basket of multiple international fiat currencies and low-risk securities that will serve as collateral to stabilize the price of the coin, The Information reports. Facebook is working with various countries to pre-approve the rollout of the stablecoin.

The head of Facebook’s Blockchain team David Marcus (left) speaks at TechCrunch Disrupt 2016

Usage: Facebook’s cryptocurrency will be transferrable with zero fees via Facebook products including Messenger and WhatsApp. Facebook is working with merchants to accept the token as payment, and may offer sign-up bonuses. The Information also reports Facebook also wants to roll out physical devices for ATMs so users can exchange traditional assets for the cryptocurrency.

Team: Facebook’s blockchain project is overseen by former PayPal President and VP of Facebook Messenger David Marcus. His team includes former Instagram VP of product Kevin Weil, Facebook’s former corporate head of treasury operations Sunita Parasuraman who The Information reports will oversee the token’s treasury, and many elite engineers cherrypicked from Facebook’s ranks. They’ve been working in a dedicated part of Facebook’s headquarters off-limits to other employees to boost secrecy, though the nature of the partnerships needed for launch have led to many leaks.

Governance: Facebook is in talks to create an independent foundation to oversee its cryptocurrency, The Information reports. It’s asking companies to pay $10 million to operate a node that can validate transactions made with its cryptocurrency in exchange for a say in governance of the token. It’s possible that node operators could benefit financially too. By introducing a level of decentralization to the governance of the project, Facebook may be able to avoid regulation related to it holding too much power over a global currency.

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Twitter’s updated T&Cs look clearer — yet it still can’t say no to nazis

Twitter has taken a pair of shears to its user rules, shaving almost 2,000 words off of its T&Cs — with the stated aim of making it clearer for users what is not acceptable behaviour on its platform.

It says the rules have shrunk from 2,500 words to just 600 — with each of the reworded rules now encapsulated within a pithy tweet length (280 characters or less).

Though each tweet-length rule is still followed by plenty of supplementary detail — where Twitter explains the rationale behind it and provides examples of what not to do, and details of potential consequences. So the full rule-book is still way over 2,500 words.

“Everyone who uses Twitter should be able to easily understand what is and is not allowed on the service,” writes Twitter’s Del Harvey, VP of trust and safety, in a blog post announcing the changes. “As part of our continued push towards more transparency across every aspect of Twitter, we’re working to make sure every rule has its own help page with more detailed information and relevant resources, with abuse and harassment, hateful conduct, suicide or self-harm, and copyright being next on our list to update. Our focus remains on keeping everyone safe and supporting a healthier public conversation on Twitter.”

The newly reworded rules can be found at: twitter.com/rules

We’ve listed the tweet-sized rules below, without any of their qualifying clutter:

• You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence.
• You may not threaten or promote terrorism or violent extremism.
• We have zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation on Twitter.
• You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. This includes wishing or hoping that someone experiences physical harm.
• You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.
• You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm.
• You may not post media that is excessively gory or share violent or adult content within live video or in profile or header images. Media depicting sexual violence and/or assault is also not permitted.
• You may not use our service for any unlawful purpose or in furtherance of illegal activities. This includes selling, buying, or facilitating transactions in illegal goods or services, as well as certain types of regulated goods or services.
• You may not publish or post other people’s private information (such as home phone number and address) without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.
• You may not post or share intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent.
• You may not use Twitter’s services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter.
• You may not use Twitter’s services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections. This includes posting or sharing content that may suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when, where, or how to vote.
• You may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations in a manner that is intended to or does mislead, confuse, or deceive others.
• You may not violate others’ intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark.

Notably the rules make no mention of fascist ideologies being unwelcome on Twitter’s platform. Although a logical person might be forgiven for thinking such hateful stuff would naturally be prohibited — based on the core usage principles Twitter is stating here (such as a ban on threatening and/or promoting violence against groups of people including on the basis of their race, ethnicity and so on).

But for Twitter nazi-ism remains, uh, ‘complicated’.

The company recently told Vice it’s working with researchers to consider whether or not it should ban nazis. Which suggests its new ‘pithier’ rules are missing a few qualifying asterisks.

Here, we fixed one:

• You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people*. We also prohibit the glorification of violence**. *unless you’re a nazi **white supremacists totally get a pass while we mull the commercial implications of actually banning racist hate

Another abuse vector that continues to look like a blindspot in Twitter’s rule-book is sex.

While the company does include both ‘gender’ and ‘gender identity’ among the many categories it stipulates that users must not direct harassment, at or promote violence against, it does not offer the same shield based on a user’s sex. Which appears to have resulted in instances where Twitter has deemed tweets containing violent misogyny to not be in violation of its rules.

Last month a Twitter UK public policy rep told the parliamentary human rights committee, which had raised the issue of the violent sexist tweets, that it believed the inclusion of gender should be enough to protect against instances of violent misogyny, despite having demonstrably failed to do so in the selection of tweets the committee put to it.

We’ve asked Twitter about its continued decision not to prohibit harassment and threats of violence against users based on their sex, as well as its ongoing failure to ban nazis and will update this report with any response.

In addition to editing down the wording of its rules, Twitter says it has thematically organized them under three new categories — safety, privacy, and authenticity — to make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for.

Though it’s not quite as at-a-glance clear as that on the rules page — which also includes a general preamble; a note on wider content boundaries; a section dealing with spam and security; and an addendum on content visibility restrictions that Twitter may apply in cases where it suspects an account of abuses and is investigating.

But, as ever, algorithmically driven platforms are anything but simple.

Hideously wordy T&Cs have of course been a tech staple for years so it’s good to see Twitter paying greater attention to the acceptable conduct signals it gives users — and at least trying to boil down a clearer essence of what isn’t acceptable behavior, albeit tardily.

But, equally, refreshed wording of what’s unacceptable makes it plainer that Twitter retains stubborn blind-spots that allow its platform to be a conduct for targeted racial hatred.

Perhaps these blindspots are commercially motivated, in the case of far right ideologies. Or perhaps Twitter’s leadership is still so drunk on its own philosophical koolaid it really has fuzzed the lines between fascism and, er, humanity.

If that’s the case, no pithily written rules will save Twitter from itself.

Don’t forget, this is a company that has been promising to get a handle on its abuse problem for years. Including — just last year — making a grand stance about wanting to champion ‘conversational health‘.

Yet it still can’t screw its courage to the sticking place and say no nazis.

Twitter’s multi-year struggles to respond to baked in hate might be farcical at this point — if the human impacts of amplifying racial and ethnic hatred weren’t a tragedy for all concerned.

And had it found a moral compass when it was first being warned about the rising tide of amplified abuse, it’s entirely possible one of its most high profile users might not be a geopolitical mega-bully known to retweet fascist propaganda.

Chew on that, Jack.

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Facebook plans June 18th cryptocurrency debut. Here’s what we know

Facebook is finally ready to reveal details about its cryptocurrency codenamed Libra. It’s currently scheduled for a June 18th release of a white paper explaining its cryptocurrency’s basics, according to a source who says multiple investors briefed on the project by Facebook were told that date.

Meanwhile, the company’s Head of Financial Services & Payment Partnerships for Northern Europe Laura McCracken told German magazine WirtschaftsWoche‘s Sebastian Kirsch that the white paper would debut June 18th, and that the cryptocurrency would indeed be pegged to a basket of currencies rather than a single one like the US dollar to prevent price fluctuations. Kirsch tells me “I met Laura at Money2020 Europe in Amsterdam on Tuesday” after she watched fellow Facebook payments exec Paulette Rowe’s talk. “She told me that she wasn’t involved in what David Marcus’ [Facebook Blockchain] team was doing. But that I’d have to wait until June 18^th when a whitepaper was supposed to be published to get more details.” She told him she thought the date was already a publicly known fact, which it wasn’t.

Then, yesterday TechCrunch received a request for a June 18th news embargo from one of the communications managers for Facebook’s blockchain team. The Information’s Alex Heath and Jon Victor also reported yesterday that Facebook’s cryptocurrency project would launch later this month.

Facebook declined to comment on any news regarding its cryptocurrency project. There is always a chance that the announcement date could fluctuate if snafus with partners or governments arise. One source says Facebook is targeting a 2020 formal launch of the cryptocurrency

The debut of Libra or whatever Facebook decides to call it could unlock a new era of commerce and payments for the social network. It could be used to offer low or no-fee payments between friends or remittance of earnings to familys from migrant workers abroad who are often gouged by money transfer services.

Sidestepping credit card transaction fees could also allow Facebook’s cryptocurrency to offer a cheaper way to pay merchants for traditional ecommerce, or facilitate microtransactions for a la carte news articles or tipping of content creators. And a better understanding of who buys what or which brands or popular could aid Facebook in ad measurement, ranking, and targeting to amplify its core business.

How Facebook’s cryptocurrency works

Here’s what we know about Facebook’s blockchain project:

Name: Facebook will likely use the Libra codename as the public facing name for its cryptocurrency, which The Information reports won’t be called GlobalCoin as the BBC had claimed. Facebook has registed a company called Libra Networks in Switzerland for financial services, Reuters reported. Libra could be a play on the word LIBOR, an abbreviation for the London Inter-bank Offered Rate that’s used as a benchmark interest rate for borrowing between banks. LIBOR is for banks, while Libra is meant to be for the people.

Token: The cryptocurrency will be a stablecoin — a token designed to have a stable price to prevent discrepancies and complications due to price fluctuations during a payment or negotiation process. Facebook has spoken with financial institutions regarding contributing capital to form a $1 billion basket of multiple international fiat currencies and low-risk securities that will serve as collateral to stabilize the price of the coin, The Information reports. Facebook is working with various countries to pre-approve the rollout of the stablecoin.

The head of Facebook’s Blockchain team David Marcus (left) speaks at TechCrunch Disrupt 2016

Usage: Facebook’s cryptocurrency will be transferrable with zero fees via Facebook products including Messenger and WhatsApp. Facebook is working with merchants to accept the token as payment, and may offer sign-up bonuses. The Information also reports Facebook also wants to roll out physical devices for ATMs so users can exchange traditional assets for the cryptocurrency.

Team: Facebook’s blockchain project is overseen by former PayPal President and VP of Facebook Messenger David Marcus. His team includes former Instagram VP of product Kevin Weil, Facebook’s former corporate head of treasury operations Sunita Parasuraman who The Information reports will oversee the token’s treasury, and many elite engineers cherrypicked from Facebook’s ranks. They’ve been working in a dedicated part of Facebook’s headquarters off-limits to other employees to boost secrecy, though the nature of the partnerships needed for launch have led to many leaks.

Governance: Facebook is in talks to create an independent foundation to oversee its cryptocurrency, The Information reports. It’s asking companies to pay $10 million to operate a node that can validate transactions made with its cryptocurrency in exchange for a say in governance of the token. It’s possible that node operators could benefit financially too. By introducing a level of decentralization to the governance of the project, Facebook may be able to avoid regulation related to it holding too much power over a global currency.

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Here are all of the trailers from today’s Google Stadia announcement

You know the deal: a console is nothing without games. Same goes for streaming plans. Google jumped the gun on E3 this week with its Stadia Connect, a livestream that takes more than a page or two from Nintendo’s Direct offering. The event offered a little more insight into pricing, availability and specs — and, mostly importantly showed off some of the titles coming to the streaming platform.

The list includes some familiar franchises and a couple of exclusives, which will be available for a $10 a month subscription fee or for individual purchase.

The first, Moonshine Studios/Coat Sink’s Get Packed will be a Stadia Exclusive at launch. The title brings Overcooked style game play to furniture packing — arguably the most frustrating thing in the world. The co-op title allows up to four players to participate, because you know how easy it is recruiting friends to help you move.

Bungie’s received Destiny sequel will be arriving on Stadia. The first-person shooter includes the new chapter, Shadowkeep, which features a return to the lunar surface.

Another Stadia exclusive, the single player puzzle adventure title Gylt features some dark, supernatural gameplay. The Tequila Works title centers on a young girl’s search for her missing cousin.

Google closed things out with a sizzle reel focused on the breadth of titles coming to the platform, including games from top tier publishers like Ubisoft, Take 2, SquareEnix, Warner Bros, Bandai Namco and Bethesda.

The service launches this November.

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Daily Crunch: Google is acquiring Looker

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Google to acquire analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion

Google Cloud has been mired in third place in the cloud infrastructure market, and grabbing Looker gives it an analytics company with a solid track record. The startup has raised more than $280 million in funding.

Like other big acquisitions, this deal is subject to regulatory approval, but it is expected to close later this year if all goes well.

2. Uber Copter offers on-demand JFK helicopter service for top-tier users

Uber is adding regular helicopter air service with Uber Copter — a new service line launched today that will provide on-demand transportation from Lower Manhattan to JFK airport for, on average, between $200 and $225 per person. That price includes car service to and from the helipad at each end.

3. In trying to clear ‘confusion’ over anti-harassment policy, YouTube creates more confusion

After a series of tweets that made it seem as if YouTube was ignoring its own anti-harassment policies, the video platform published a blog post in an attempt to clarify its stance. Instead, the post raises more questions about YouTube’s commitment to fighting harassment and hate speech on its platform.

4. Sources: Bird is in talks to acquire scooter startup Scoot

The stage of the negotiations is not clear, but it sounds like the deal is not closed. Both Scoot and Bird declined to comment.

5. Apple’s global accessibility head on the company’s new features for iOS 13 and macOS Catalina

“One of the things that’s been really cool this year is the [accessibility] team has been firing on [all] cylinders across the board,“ Apple’s Sarah Herrlinger told us. “There’s something in each operating system and things for a lot of different types of use cases.”

6. A first look at Amazon’s new delivery drone

The drone has an ingenious hexagonal hybrid design with very few moving parts, and Amazon says it’s chock-full of sensors and a suite of compute modules to keep the drone safe.

7. This year’s Computex was a wild ride with dueling chip releases, new laptops and 467 startups

Computex picked up the pace this year, with dueling chip launches by rivals AMD and Intel and a slew of laptop releases. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Google Stadia launches 4K game-streaming in November for $9.99/mo

We got the full rundown on Google’s Stadia game-streaming platform this morning in the company’s livestream launch ahead of E3 next week. The Stadia platform will let you play console-quality games across a variety of systems on the Chrome browser.

Top-level details are the company’s Stadia Pro service will launch in November for $9.99 per month. The price gets you 4K 60fps streaming but you’ll need at least a 35 mbps internet connection to get that speed. Alongside the streaming capabilities, you’ll get access to some Stadia games with the Pro subscription.

The company will be offering a Founders edition bundle that packages a Stadia copy of Destiny 2, the Stadia controller, a Chromecast Ultra and three months of the Pro service for $130. The Stadia controller alone will be $69.

Google will be offering a base subscription later that lets gamers who purchase titles from the Stadia store stream them for free at a lower resolution. This is a major announcement and something that Google really slid into the stream at the very end.

Updating

 

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Here’s how Google Stadia performs depending on your internet connection

Google is introducing more about the launch of its Stadia streaming gaming service today, and VP Phil Harrison gave us performance specifics today so you can see exactly how the company thinks the service will perform based on what kind of internet connection you have. It tops out at an impress 4K resolution, with HDR color, 60fps frame rate and 5.1 surround sound, but you’ll have to have at least a 35 Mbps connection to get that level of quality.

Meanwhile, at 20 Mbps you’ll get full HD 1080p output, while retaining HDR video, 60fps and 5.1 surround. And Google has optimized for smoothness of stream by retaining 60 fps all the way down to its recommended minimum bandwidth connection quality of 10 Mbps (and even potentially below that based on this chart). You’ll only get 720p streams at that level, however, and stereo instead of surround sound.

“With Stadia, our goal is to make gaming more accessible for everyone,” is how Harrison framed it, and that applies to its range of connection support as well as its device availability. At launch you’ll be able to play stadia games on your TV (via Chromecast Ultra), desktop, laptop, and tablet (via browsers) and on smartphones, though only Pixel phones to begin with starting with Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a (via dedicated Stadia app).

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Here’s how Google Stadia performs depending on your internet connection

Google is introducing more about the launch of its Stadia streaming gaming service today, and VP Phil Harrison gave us performance specifics today so you can see exactly how the company thinks the service will perform based on what kind of internet connection you have. It tops out at an impress 4K resolution, with HDR color, 60fps frame rate and 5.1 surround sound, but you’ll have to have at least a 35 Mbps connection to get that level of quality.

Meanwhile, at 20 Mbps you’ll get full HD 1080p output, while retaining HDR video, 60fps and 5.1 surround. And Google has optimized for smoothness of stream by retaining 60 fps all the way down to its recommended minimum bandwidth connection quality of 10 Mbps (and even potentially below that based on this chart). You’ll only get 720p streams at that level, however, and stereo instead of surround sound.

“With Stadia, our goal is to make gaming more accessible for everyone,” is how Harrison framed it, and that applies to its range of connection support as well as its device availability. At launch you’ll be able to play stadia games on your TV (via Chromecast Ultra), desktop, laptop, and tablet (via browsers) and on smartphones, though only Pixel phones to begin with starting with Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a (via dedicated Stadia app).

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Here’s how Google Stadia performs depending on your internet connection

Google is introducing more about the launch of its Stadia streaming gaming service today, and VP Phil Harrison gave us performance specifics today so you can see exactly how the company thinks the service will perform based on what kind of internet connection you have. It tops out at an impress 4K resolution, with HDR color, 60fps frame rate and 5.1 surround sound, but you’ll have to have at least a 35 Mbps connection to get that level of quality.

Meanwhile, at 20 Mbps you’ll get full HD 1080p output, while retaining HDR video, 60fps and 5.1 surround. And Google has optimized for smoothness of stream by retaining 60 fps all the way down to its recommended minimum bandwidth connection quality of 10 Mbps (and even potentially below that based on this chart). You’ll only get 720p streams at that level, however, and stereo instead of surround sound.

“With Stadia, our goal is to make gaming more accessible for everyone,” is how Harrison framed it, and that applies to its range of connection support as well as its device availability. At launch you’ll be able to play stadia games on your TV (via Chromecast Ultra), desktop, laptop, and tablet (via browsers) and on smartphones, though only Pixel phones to begin with starting with Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a (via dedicated Stadia app).

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David Krane, the CEO of GV, is coming to Disrupt

David Krane has a very big job. He’s the CEO and managing partner of GV, and he oversees the fund’s global activities, investing in tech companies including Uber, Nest, and Blue Bottle Coffee among hundreds of others.

Yet the journalism major and former director of global communications and public affairs for Google maintains a surprisingly low profile. Indeed, you’d be hard pressed to find news about Krane beyond the revelation several years ago that he was succeeding his far more public-facing predecessor, Bill Maris.

Then again, Krane seems to have a penchant for counterprogramming. He joined Google more than 19 years ago, when even its founders couldn’t imagine it would become one of most dominant companies in the world. He also moved over to GV as a general partner in 2010, making what now looks like a smart bet that the company’s venture arm would not get lost in its other machinery.

Another bold bet Krane made was on Uber, convincing his colleagues to pump nearly $260 million into the company six years ago — its largest deal ever at the time — when Uber was breaking away from the ride-hailing pack from very far from becoming the Goliath that it is today.

In fact, when we sat down with Maris at a StrictlyVC event in 2016, he credited Krane almost entirely with the deal, telling us, “David Krane brought in Uber and we pushed all in [financially] when people thought [Uber’s then valuation of $4 billion] was crazy . . . There was no computer that told us that was as good decision.”

Of course, Krane and the 28 investors who work alongside him at GV have funded a wide variety of consumer, enterprise, life sciences and frontier tech startups since — which is partly why we’re thrilled to announce that Krane is joining us at our upcoming Disrupt show, happening October 2nd through October 4th in sunny San Francisco.

We’ll talk for the first time with Krane about the inner workings of GV circa 2019. How does its decision-making process work, under his leadership? How does the team think about new areas of investment? What are Krane’s views on SoftBank and other giant pools of capital to come into the venture world? And how do GV and Alphabet’s growth-equity investment fund, Capital G, work together?

And that’s merely just the beginning. If you’re interested in understanding GV, its thinking, its processes, and where it’s shopping on Krane’s watch, you won’t want to miss this rare stage appearance. We just hope he’ll put up with our many (many) questions.

Tickets are available here.

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Is Uber or Lyft Cheaper? Let’s Find Out!

The Best Ways to Convert Video to GIF

7 Chrome Extensions to Vastly Improve Your Browsing Experience

You are probably reading this in Chrome. Why not? It’s powerful, fast, and it supports the widest variety of websites. Not to mention that Google’s own products work best in Chrome.

While Chrome exceeds in feature-set, it sometimes leaves a few gaps when it comes to the user experience. Chrome is bulky, it takes up too much RAM, and it’s just not as pleasant to use as Safari or Firefox. But thanks to some extensions, you can fix the biggest issues with Chrome, and vastly improve the browsing experience.

1. ImprovedTube: A Modern Take on the Classic YouTube Enhancer

ImprovedTube is a Chrome extension that, as the name suggests, vastly improves YouTube. There are many Chrome extensions that make YouTube better, and some, like Magic Actions, have been around for ages. ImprovedTube learns from what came before and improves upon it. Also, it’s a free and open-source app.

The extension’s interface is broken down in logical sections.

You can go to the Appearance section and customize everything about the player view, and you can individually turn off any element you don’t want. You can change the default YouTube page from the General settings. Plus, there are a couple of vibrant themes, including a dark mode.

ImprovedTube is filled with small features. You can add subtitles to a video, open videos in full screen, expand them to the full window, hide annoying YouTube distractions, and a lot more.

Download: ImprovedTube (Free)

2. Checker Plus for Gmail: Easily Manage Multiple Accounts

It’s common to have at least two Gmail accounts (realistically, it can be anywhere between one to seven). But opening Gmail in multiple tabs quickly turns into a recipe for disaster. Running different Chrome profiles is technically a great idea but in reality, it’s quite frustrating.

Which is why you need Checker Plus for Gmail. The extension is an enhancement suite for Gmail on the web. It creates a mini Gmail interface as a floating menu. You can add multiple accounts, switch between them from the sidebar, read all your email, archive or move email, and quickly reply to email right from the extension.

The extension’s reply feature is a hidden gem.

It’s one of the fastest ways to respond to a new email. As it uses the same interface as a messaging app, you can trick your mind into thinking that you’re only replying to message thread.

This prevents any delay replying to an email because that huge compose box stares at us and we don’t know what to say.

Download: Checker Plus for Gmail (Free)

3. Reader View: Get Firefox’s Distraction Free Reading Mode

Chrome still doesn’t have a default reading mode, something that has existed for years in Safari and Firefox. Using Reader View, you can get Firefox’s excellent distraction-free reading mode on Chrome. Of course, Reader View is not the only good option here. There are a couple of modern extensions like Just Read and Clearly that work just as well.

But Reader View is better in a couple of ways.

First, it’s insanely fast at loading the stripped down view while its competition is not. Secondly, it is versatile. You can change the text formatting, disable images, enable full-screen view, and even turn on speech-to-text with just a click.

Download: Reader View

4. TunnelBear VPN: Instantly Unblock Any Site

Can’t seem to open a particular webpage while everything else is working fine? Try using an online proxy or VPN to see if it helps. If a website is blocked in your country, or even your network, the only way to get around it is by spoofing your location or device identifier.

TunnelBear is the simplest and safest way to do that for free.

Install the TunnelBear extension and you’ll get 500MB free data every month (you can upgrade to their premium plan to remove the limit). Then select the location for another country, and bam, the website is unblocked.

If you don’t like TunnelBear’s limitations, take a look at some alternative free VPN extensions for Chrome.

Download: TunnelBear VPN (Free)

5. The Great Suspender: Stop Chrome From Slowing Down Your PC

One of the biggest problems with Chrome is just how much RAM it uses. You can just switch to Firefox or Safari, but that’s easier said than done, especially if you’re set in your ways. A simple way to deal with this is by using a tab suspender.

It will automatically freeze tabs that you haven’t used in a while, freeing up valuable RAM.

When you’ve got 20 tabs open in the background (or, more likely, 70), Chrome is still allotting resources for its background process. This is why you end up with Chrome taking up more than 100MB RAM per page. This problem is only getting worse thanks to dynamic web tools that constantly run in the background.

Use The Great Suspender. By default, it will automatically suspend a website after 1 hour of idle time. You can change this in the extension’s settings. You can individually suspend a particular page or add a website to the whitelist. To reload a page, just click anywhere in the browser area.

Download: The Great Suspender

6. Dark Reader: Get Dark Mode on All Websites

If you’ve already embraced the dark mode in macOS Mojave, Windows 10 or Chrome, Dark Reader takes care of the last step—the websites. Once enabled, it will automatically flip the default colors for all compatible websites. The background will be black and the text will be white.

Dark Reader is smart about how it flips the colors so most of the time, you end up with something that’s pleasant to look at. If it doesn’t work on a site, you can disable the extension for that site, or edit the colors for the particular website.

Download: Dark Reader (Free)

7. Momentum: Get a Beautiful New Tab Page

Chrome’s new tab page is a bit too bland. It’s got a Google search bar and shortcuts to a couple of your favorite websites. But it doesn’t really inspire you. Switch to the popular Momentum new tab page to spice things up.

The extension puts an inspiring high-resolution photo as a background, with the time in big bold letters.

If you want, you can use the new tab page to note down the most important things you want to accomplish today and to organize your to-dos. But you don’t really need to. Momentum works best as an inspiration tool and the developer knows it too. When you open the new tab page, the cursor is automatically set to the Google bar.

Download: Momentum

Chrome Extensions Can Keep You Healthy

The extensions above will make your Chrome experience more pleasant and will reduce frustration. But you can go a step further and actively involve Chrome in the process of improving your health.

If you spend your entire work day in Chrome, you should install a couple of extensions that will remind you to drink water, stay calm, and will even help you stretch your body every couple of hours.

Take a look at our list of Chrome extensions that will help you stay healthy.

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Is It Legal to Download YouTube Videos?

Lots of people use third-party tools to download YouTube videos—but is it legal to do so?

Sometimes, the case is clear cut (for example, downloading TV shows or music videos is illegal), but what about other types of content? Is it always illegal to download YouTube videos, or are there occasions when you’re allowed to do so?

Let’s take a closer look at the legality of downloading YouTube videos.

What Does YouTube Say?

It’s essential to differentiate the two sides of the question. On the one hand, there’s the question of how YouTube views the situation. On the other, there are the national laws of the country in which the downloading is taking place.

So, we’ll start with YouTube. When you watch a video on YouTube, you agree to abide by the company’s terms.

Here’s the important part of YouTube’s Terms of Service:

“You shall not download any content unless you see a ‘download’ or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that content. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the content.”

There’s no room for interpretation; YouTube explicitly forbids you from downloading videos.

Can YouTube Ban You for Downloading Videos?

If you contravene the Terms of Service, YouTube has a range of legal options available to it. Theoretically, everything from a ban to a civil lawsuit could be on the table.

That said, YouTube has never sued anyone for downloading content. Several years ago, the company did consider suing one of the largest YouTube video downloaders (YouTube-MP3.org) for breach of the Terms of Service but backed down after the site refused to budge.

Interestingly, YouTube-MP3.org eventually shut down in 2017 after Sony Music and Warner Bros launched a copyright infringement lawsuit against it.

Is Downloading YouTube Videos Against the Law?

We’ve learned that YouTube doesn’t like video downloaders, even if it may be happy to turn a blind eye to them for now. But what about the law? Are you committing a crime if you download a video from YouTube?

As is often the way—it depends. Let’s look at how US law views the downloading of YouTube videos.

When Is Downloading YouTube Videos Illegal?

In the United States, copyright law dictates that it is illegal to make a copy of content if you do not have the permission of the copyright owner.

That applies to both copies for personal use and to copies which you either distribute or financially benefit from.

As such, downloading TV series, movies, sports clips, or any other copyrighted content on YouTube is breaking the law. It puts you at risk of facing a criminal trial. The situation is the same across the UK and the European Union.

In practice, the chance of facing a criminal lawsuit—especially as an individual—is extraordinarily slim, but you are breaking the law regardless.

When Is Downloading YouTube Videos Legal?

? Lesson learned: If you try to do a good thing and upload your conference's videos as Creative Commons to YouTube, a bunch of "education companies" will download the video, re-upload it in worse quality, and monetize it.

Looking at you, @CodingTech. Legal, but not cool.

— Felix Rieseberg (@felixrieseberg) February 5, 2019

We’ve established that downloading video means you’re always breaching YouTube’s terms. We also know that if you download copyrighted content, you’re breaking the law. But are there any times when it’s legal to download YouTube videos?

Yes! You can use third-party YouTube downloaders to download videos for which the copyright laws do not apply or videos for which the copyright grants you a right to reproduce the video.

There are a few different types of videos you can legally download on YouTube:

• Public domain: Public domain works occur when the copyright has expired, been forfeited, been waived, or been inapplicable from the start. No one “owns” the video, meaning members of the public can reproduce and distribute the content freely.
• Creative Commons: Creative Commons applies to works for which the artist has retained copyright but has given the public permission to reproduce and distribute the work.
• Copyleft: Copyleft grants anyone the right to reproduce, distribute, and modify the work, as long as the same rights apply to derivative content. Read our article explaining copyright vs. copyleft if you would like to learn more.

With a bit of digging on YouTube, you can find lots of videos that fall under one of the above categories. Remember, downloading the videos will still break YouTube’s Terms of Service, but will not constitute a criminal act.

The Moral Argument

Of course, there’s also a moral question surrounding the process of downloading YouTube videos.

In much the same way that sites like MakeUseOf rely on ads to keep providing readers with free content, many YouTube personalities live off their channel revenues.

By downloading the video and sharing it with friends offline, you deny the creator clicks, and by extension, reduce their income. In an extreme situation, the creator could sue for loss of earnings.

Are the Authorities Fighting a Losing Battle?

A quick look at any search engine will reveal a bevy of sites, tools, and apps which let you download YouTube videos.

It’s probably why we’ve not heard from YouTube about any new lawsuits against the tools’ operators. It appears that the company has decided that the difficulty of creating legally watertight cases against the sites is more trouble than it’s worth.

Anecdotal evidence even suggests many of the YouTube downloader sites are being allowed to run Google Ads. Perhaps Alphabet is more concerned with monetizing those sites’ vast traffic than penalizing them.

As was the case with piracy in the 2000s, the whole thing is developing into a game of whack-a-mole between the apps/sites/tools and TV networks and record labels. As soon as one site is forced offline, a dozen new offerings pop up in its place.

Is It Legal to Download YouTube Videos?

Let’s recap what we’ve learned:

• Downloading videos from YouTube is in breach of YouTube’s Terms of Service, and the company could sue you.
• YouTube has shown no desire to penalize users for downloading videos.
• Downloading copyrighted videos without permission is a criminal act.
• Some videos with the correct licenses are legal to download from a criminal standpoint.

If you’re particularly concerned about the issue of copyrights, check out our articles explaining how to copyright your photos and how to handle copyright infringement notices from your ISP.

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What Is Librem One? The Pros, Cons, and Whether It’s Worth It

Google Stadia launch pricing and availability leak

Google Stadia is arriving with competitive pricing later this year but 2020 will be the platform’s ultimate test. Details of the service’s pricing and availability were being shared by Google at 9am PT today, but were leaked Thursday morning by Canadian newspaper La Presse, a post which has since been taken down but was translated by Kotaku.

Here are the leaked details, prices are given in Canadian dollars fyi:

Google’s game-streaming platform Stadia is reportedly arriving in November and will cost $11.99 Canadian per month. This base subscription get you 4K/60fps streaming, but the big news is that the company will launch a free model in 2020 that will let you play games you purchase through the service at 1080p resolution.

($11.99 Canadian is about $9 in USD currency, though there’s no guarantee Google will maintain pricing this way across markets)

To get onboard, the minimum internet connection speed is 10mbps download, so if you’re running any slower than that, tough luck, perhaps you’ll have better fortune with the lower-resolution streaming when it launches.

The subscription will come with some games for free, but you won’t get everything for $11.99 Canadian, you’ll have to buy most new games a la carte it sounds like. Popular titles like Doom, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey,The Division 2, Destiny 2 and the Tomb Raider trilogy will be coming to the service.

There’s an individual package called the Stadia Founder’s edition that will retails for $169 Canadian and will include a Chromecast Ultra, Stadia Controller, copy of Destiny 2 and three months of the service.

This is some fairly aggressive pricing for Google, high-resolution game-streaming is a bandwidth-intensive technology that’s extremely expensive. Basically unless you own the cloud and aren’t stuck with AWS fees, there’s no way you’re going to be able to compete with these prices, so fresh out the gate Google may already have a huge advantage if all of these details hold true when the company shares more details on Stadia this afternoon.

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Google to acquire analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion

Google made a big splash this morning when it announced it’s going to acquire Looker, a hot analytics startup that’s raised over $280 million. It’s paying $2.6 billion for the privilege and adding the company to Google Cloud.

Thomas Kurian, the man who was handed the reigns to Google Cloud at the end of last year see the crucial role data plays today for organizations, especially as they move to the cloud. “The combination of Google Cloud and Looker will enable customers to harness data in new ways to drive their digital transformation,” Kurian said in a statement.

Google Cloud has been mired in third place in the cloud infrastructure market, and grabbing Looker gives it an analytics company with a solid track record. The last time I spoke to Looker it was grabbing a hefty $103 million in funding on a $1.6 billion valuation. Today’s price is nice even billion over that.

As I wrote at the time, Looker’s CEO Frank Bien wasn’t all that interested in bragging about valuations though. “He reported that the company has 1,600 customers now and just crossed the $100 million revenue run rate, a significant milestone for any enterprise SaaS company. What’s more, Bien reports revenue is still growing 70 percent year over year, so there’s plenty of room to keep this going.”

Perhaps, it’s not a coincidence that Google went after Looker as the two companies had a strong existing partnership and 350 common customers, according to Google.

Per usual this deal is going to be subject to regulatory approval, but the deal is expected to close later this year if all goes well.

Looker snags $103 million investment on $1.6 billion valuation

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Watch Google unveil Stadia launch details live right here

Google doesn’t want to wait for E3 to unveil more details about Stadia, its cloud gaming platform. The company is holding a live stream conference to talk about its service, including pricing, games and launch details.

The conference starts at 9 AM Pacific Time, 12 PM Eastern Time, 5 PM in London and 6 PM in Paris.

Google already unveiled its gaming service at the Game Developers Conference. We already know that you’ll be able to click a “Play Now” button and stream video game from a data center near you.

But there are still many unanswered questions. Is it going to be a subscription service or are you going to pay for games? Will you be able to play games you already own? Are all big publishers on board? It sounds like Google wants to clarify many of those questions today.

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iMazing 2 Makes It Easy to Transfer iOS Data Between Your Devices, Now 77% Off

Syncing your iPhone or iPad with any desktop computer has always been a painful process. Instead of making a separate app, Apple insists on making us all struggle with iTunes. Thankfully, there is now a better option — iMazing 2 on Mac and Windows lets you sync any iOS device in seconds. This third-party app is great for migrating data to new devices and transferring files. You can get it now for just $19.99 via MakeUseOf Deals.

Syncing Made Easy

Billed as the Swiss Army knife of iOS management, iMazing 2 is packed full of great features. However, the app does not feel cluttered. Through simple menus, you can access all your iOS devices and easily transfer data.

What data? Pretty much anything you can think of. With iMazing, you can export your photos, videos, music, ringtones, ebooks, and documents. The app supports all file types, and you can sync via USB or Wi-Fi.

In addition, iPhone owners can grab contacts, voicemail, call history, voice memos, and notes. This means you can make a local backup, and transfer important data when you upgrade.

You can also use iMazing 2 to transfer desktop files to your iOS devices. Adding new music and ebooks has never been so easy.

Now Just $19.99

Order now for just $19.99 to get your Universal License covering Mac and PC, worth $89.98.

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Skype Now Lets You Share Your Screen on Mobile

You can now share your screen on mobile using Skype. Microsoft has added the popular desktop feature to its mobile app for Android and iOS. It has also streamlined mobile calling, and launched a new menu where you can access Skype’s best features.

Skype has let you share your screen on desktop for a long time. This has enabled Skype users on Windows, Mac, and Linux to share their screen with others while in a video call. However, screen sharing hasn’t been possible on Skype for mobile. Until now.

How to Share Your Screen on Skype on Mobile

In a post on the Skype Blog, the Skype team details how screen sharing on mobile works. When you’re in a Skype call, just tap the “…” menu and select “Share Screen”. You will then be sharing your screen with the other person (or people) on the call.

As to why you would want to share your smartphone’s screen, there are various reasons, both personal and professional. Perhaps you want to shop online with friends, or collaborate with work colleagues on the go. Either way, screen sharing can help.

No need to reach for your laptop! Now you can share your screen from your mobile device while on a Skype call. Learn how: https://t.co/qWTX5jnc3H pic.twitter.com/HeR1sv6dQS

— Skype (@Skype) June 4, 2019

In addition to screen sharing, Skype has tweaked the way mobile calls work. Tapping once on the screen will dismiss the call controls, while a double tap will remove everything. The “…” menu has also been redesigned to house Skype’s best features.

To gain access to screen sharing on the mobile version of Skype (as well as the other new features), you’ll need to update the Skype app to the latest version. This is compatible with devices running Android 6.0 and higher or iOS 12 and higher.

Download: Skype on Android | iOS

The Best Free Skype Alternatives

Adding screen sharing to Skype is just the latest in a long line of improvements Microsoft has made in recent years. And we’re sure there’s more to come. However, Skype isn’t for everyone, so if you’re looking to switch here are the best free Skype alternatives.

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In trying to clear “confusion” over anti-harassment policy, YouTube creates more confusion

After a series of tweets that made it seem as if YouTube was contradicting its own anti-harassment policies, the video platform published a blog post in an attempt to clarify its stance. But even though the post is supposed to “provide more details and context than is possible in any one string of tweets,” it is similarly confusing and raises yet more questions about how serious YouTube is about combatting harassment and hate speech on its platform—especially if the abuse comes from a high-profile channel with million of subscribers.

YouTube is currently under fire for not taking earlier, more decisive actions against conservative commentator Steven Crowder after he made homophobic and racist comments about Vox reporter Carlos Maza in multiple videos. The platform eventually demonetized Crowder’s channel, which currently has more than 3.8 million subscribers, but then stated it would allow Crowder to start making ad revenue again if he fixed “all of the issues” with his channel and stopped linking to an online shop that sold shirts saying “Socialism is for f*gs.”

Before demonetizing Crowder’s channels, YouTube responded to Maza in a series of tweets that created confusion about how it enforces it policies. The platform said after an “in-depth review” of flagged videos by Crowder, it decided that even though the language they contained was “clearly hurtful,” the videos did not violate its policies because “as an open platform, it’s crucial for us to allow everyone-from creators to journalists to late-night TV hosts-to express their opinions w/in the scope of our policies.” This was in spite of the fact that Crowder’s derogatory references to Maza’s ethnicity and sexual orientation violate several of YouTube’s policy against harassment and cyberbullying, including “content that makes hurtful and negative personal comments/videos about another person.”

I’ve been called an anchor baby, a lispy queer, a Mexican, etc. These videos get millions of views on YouTube. Every time one gets posted, I wake up to a wall of homophobic/racist abuse on Instagram and Twitter.

— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) May 31, 2019

In the new blog post, posted by YouTube head of communications Chris Dale, the platform gives a lengthy explanation of how it attempts to draw the line between things like “edgy stand-up comedy routines” and harassment.

As an open platform, we sometimes host opinions and views that many, ourselves included, may find offensive. These could include edgy stand-up comedy routines, a chart-topping song, or a charged political rant — and more. Short moments from these videos spliced together paint a troubling picture. But, individually, they don’t always cross the line.

There are two key policies at play here: harassment and hate speech. For harassment, we look at whether the purpose of the video is to incite harassment, threaten or humiliate an individual; or whether personal information is revealed. We consider the entire video: For example, is it a two-minute video dedicated to going after an individual? A 30-minute video of political speech where different individuals are called out a handful of times? Is it focused on a public or private figure? For hate speech, we look at whether the primary purpose of the video is to incite hatred toward or promote supremacism over a protected group; or whether it seeks to incite violence. To be clear, using racial, homophobic, or sexist epithets on their own would not necessarily violate either of these policies. For example, as noted above, lewd or offensive language is often used in songs and comedic routines. It’s when the primary purpose of the video is hate or harassment. And when videos violate these policies, we remove them.

In the case of Crowder’s persistent attacks on Maza, YouTube repeated its stance that the videos flagged by users “did not violate our Community Guidelines.”

The decision to demonetize Crowder’s channel was made, however, because “we saw the widespread harm to the YouTube community resulting from the ongoing pattern of egregious behavior, took a deeper look, and made the decision to suspend monetization,” Dale wrote.

In order to start earning ad revenue again, “all relevant issues with the channel need to be addressed, including any videos that violate our policies, as well as things like offensive merchandise,” he added.

The latest YouTube controversy is both upsetting and exhausting, because it is yet another reminder of the company’s lack of action against hate speech and harassment, despite constantly insisting that it will do better (just yesterday, for example, YouTube announced that it will ban videos that support views like white supremacy, Nazi ideology or promote conspiracy theories that deny events like the Holocaust or Sandy Hook).

The passivity of social media companies when it comes to stemming the spread of hate through its platforms has real-life consequences (for example, when (Maza was doxxed and harassed by fans of Crowder last year), and no amount of prevarication or distancing can stop the damage once its been done.

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