Nothing like breaking your own rules. That seems to be the case with Google…research from Adalytics, picked up by the Wall St. Journal, found that YouTube ads were running in violation of Google’s own policy and promises. Google promises advertisers that YouTube ads will run on “high-quality” sites, ahead of video content, with audio turned on, and also with ads that only charge if the viewer doesn’t skip the ad. Adalytics claims that this criteria isn’t met 80% of the time, with ads being played with audio off in small pop-up windows aside from the main content, and also on websites that don’t meet Google’s bar for quality. Data was gathered to show this over the course of 2022 and 2023 from more than 1,100 brands’ ads and “billions” of ad impressions. As word gets out, lots of advertisers are probably going to be looking to adjustments to their bills as they didn’t get what they were promised. Google denies the claim.

More bugs on the twitter platform, as the system staggers along with the very few staffers Elon Musk kept on the payroll. Arstechnica.com reports that users have found that Twitter is either glitching or intentionally limiting access to complete lists of any given user’s followers. Also, yesterday, some users began reporting that Twitter is randomly restricting their accounts from following, liking, and retweeting for three days, supposedly after they violated Twitter’s spam policy. These users claim that Twitter took this action after they blocked ads or simply tweeted a few times. I have a friend that this actually happened to. A software engineer that got the violation notice, but said in his case, he didn’t seem to actually be limited in using the platform. It seems the notice just went out in error. 

Even though GM has inked a deal with Tesla to use the latter’s Supercharger network, don’t think that the General won’t be a fierce competitor in the EV market and related ones. Now, bgr.com says General Motors is planning to release 3 home systems to compete with Tesla’s Powerwall home battery systems. The first is the Ultium Home V2H Bundle…which will allow people to run their house from the car’s battery pack (presuming it’s charged) in an emergency. A second system is the Ultium Home Energy Storage Bundle. This one is intended to store energy from solar panels on the house. The third system is the Ultium Home Energy System…that’s the whole 9 yards…home storage for solar panels plus the ability to run off the car battery pack. One advantage over Tesla is the vehicle to home charging…something Tesla doesn’t presently have. Elon Musk thinks people don’t want bidirectional charging. Note to Elon: yes, they do! No pricing has been released yet, but expect the GM systems to be price competitive with Powerwalls and similar systems. 

The EU has approved a scary piece of draft legislation allowing governments to spy on journalists in the name of “national security.” It is euphemistically called the European Media Freedom Act, according to thenextweb.com. Apparently France introduced an exception to the legislation putting in an exception to the ban on deploying spyware against journalists, provided it was used in the interests of national security. EU set to approve ‘disturbing’ new media surveillance law. The exemption would allow member states to hack into journalists’ phones if they suspect their sources could be talking to criminals involved in anything the state perceives to be a threat. A broad array of crimes, ranging from murder to theft and music piracy, will now be considered as legal justification for using surveillance software on reporters. If this gets final approval, don’t expect much freedom of the press in the European Union.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.