Reddit Updates Ad Policy To Allow Users To Opt Out Of Political Ads - 1

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Reddit Updates Ad Policy To Allow Users To Opt Out Of Political Ads

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

On August 1st, Reddit announced an update to its advertising policy. This change allows users to opt out of seeing political ads as the US presidential race heats up. The update is part of Reddit’s broader effort to maintain the integrity of its platform and support its moderators and communities.

Reddit has introduced a new category in its “ Sensitive Advertising Categories .” This category now includes political and activism-related ads. Users have the option to choose not to view these types of ads.

In the announcement, Reddit stated that their primary concerns include inauthentic content, such as disinformation and bots, as well as moderating hateful content. To achieve this, Reddit claims to use AI and ML tools to flag potentially harmful, spammy, or inauthentic content, often allowing for its removal before it reaches users.

Additionally, Reddit states that it is developing new tools to detect AI-generated media, including political content like images of politicians and candidates. By improving their ability to identify such content, Reddit hopes to better assess and address potential threats on the platform.

However, Reddit recognizes that the unpredictable US election cycle may drive harmful content. To address this, the platform is training its safety teams on various scenarios, including content manipulation and hateful content, with a focus on political violence, race, and gender-based hate.

Furthermore, Reddit provides moderators with support and tools to maintain safe and on-topic communities. This includes sharing essential resources and proactively reaching out to communities that are likely to experience increased traffic. Moderators can also utilize Reddit’s suite of tools to filter out abusive and spammy content, such as the Harassment Filter , released this year.

Reddit is also testing new ways for moderators to escalate election-related concerns, such as a dedicated tip line (currently in beta testing) and a new report flow for spammy, bot-related links.

Lastly, Reddit also received feedback from moderators requesting a post-election report detailing platform performance and key takeaways. Reddit plans to release such a report following the US election, similar to the one issued after the 2020 election . This report is expected in Q1 2025.

Microsoft Adds OpenAI To List Of Competitors For The First Time - 2

Photo by Valent Lau on Unsplash

Microsoft Adds OpenAI To List Of Competitors For The First Time

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

Microsoft published its annual SEC report on Tuesday, including OpenAI as one of the company’s competitors for the first time.

OpenAI and Microsoft have built a partnership for a long time, but Microsoft now considers the generative AI startup a potential threat in AI offerings, and news advertising and searches—as OpenAI recently launched a new AI-powered search engine.

According to CNBC , Microsoft is one of OpenAI’s major investors and has reportedly provided a capital of $13 billion to the company. Microsoft is also OpenAI’s only cloud provider.

“We have a long-term partnership with OpenAI, a leading AI research and deployment company,” states the document. “We deploy OpenAI’s models across our consumer and enterprise products. As OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider, Azure powers all of OpenAI’s workloads.”

Microsoft also highlights its investment efforts to accelerate the company’s research by helping deploy and develop supercomputer systems.

Regarding search services and news advertising, the tech giant considers Google, OpenAI, and social media platforms like Meta to be business competition.

According to TechCrunch, this might be a strategy from Microsoft to protect the company as the Federal Trade Commission of the United States has been investigating AI companies due to antitrust concerns. The business relationship has raised concerns for the government agency, which required transparency.

Microsoft moves forward in the AI race as its competitors are doing. The tech giant also recently launched its AI-powered Designer app for Android and iOS.