Telegram has been banned in Brazil over disinformation issues

The Brazilian Supreme Court has banned Telegram in the country and has ordered Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel to implement the suspension within 24 hours. According to Reuters and The New York Times, Justice Alexandre de Moraes cited the messaging app’s failure to respond to previous judicial orders to freeze accounts spreading disinformation for his decision. 

In Brazil, Telegram has become the platform of choice for supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro after social networks like Facebook and Twitter started implementing stricter measures against fake news. Moraes, who’s also currently overseeing a number of investigations into Bolsonaro and his allies for spreading disinformation, has ordered internet providers and phone carriers to block people’s access to Telegram in the country ahead of the presidential election in October. 

The Supreme Court justice has ordered Google and Apple to remove the messaging service from their app stores, as well. All the companies must comply within five days or face a fine of $20,000 per day. In addition, people caught using VPNs or other means to access Telegram after it’s already been blocked will also face a $20,000 fine. 

Bolsonaro called the decision “inadmissible” during an event. Anderson Torres, the Minister of Justice and Public Security appointed by Bolsonaro, criticized Moraes’ ruling and said the “monocratic decision” harms millions of Brazilians. 

Telegram Chief Executive Pavel Durov apologized and admitted that the company “definitely could have done a better job.” He also explained in a statement that missing emails were partly to blame:

“We complied with an earlier court decision in late February and responded with a suggestion to send future takedown requests to a dedicated email address. Unfortunately, our response must have been lost, because the Court used the old general-purpose email address in further attempts to reach us. As a result, we missed its decision in early March that contained a follow-up takedown request. Luckily, we have now found and processed it, delivering another report to the Court today.”

Durov is asking the court to delay its ruling and give Telegram the chance to “remedy the situation” by appointing a representative in Brazil and setting up a framework that will allow the company to reply to pressing issues in the country more quickly. It remains to be seen whether the court will grant Telegram’s request. 

Update 03/19/22 1:30PM ET: We added and referenced Durov’s statement in the piece.

Undersea Google internet cable will connect Togo to Europe

The first branch of Google’s Equiano underwater internet cable — which will eventually run from Cape Town, South Africa to Lisbon, Portugal — has landed in Lomé, Togo, the company announced Friday. The massive fiber optic cable will be Google’s first t…

LG halts all shipments to Russia

LG is joining other tech heavyweights in halting Russian sales following that country’s invasion of Ukraine. The company said in a statement it was “suspending” all product shipments to Russia. The firm didn’t say how long this would last, but noted it would keep a “close watch” on the situation. LG is “deeply concerned” about everyone’s welfare and “committed” to humanitarian relief, according to the notice.

It’s not clear just what prompted the timing of the decision, which comes weeks after the late February invasion. There’s a lot of pressure to act, however. Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and others have already frozen shipments and sales in Russia — LG wasn’t going to look good if it continued to serve the Russian market despite that country’s war against Ukraine.

This move could be particularly damaging. While LG has left the phone industry, it’s still a major force in electronics that makes everything from TVs through to air conditioners and refrigerators. Between LG’s move and Samsung’s, Russia will have lost two of the largest device brands on the planet. Russians are likely to still have options thanks to brands from China and elsewhere, but their choices will be considerably narrower.

Xbox Cloud Gaming now works on Steam Deck through the web

Your Steam Deck can now double as an Xbox Cloud Gaming handheld, provided you’re willing to put in some work. The Vergereports Microsoft has brought Xbox Cloud Gaming support to the Steam Deck through a beta release of the Edge browser. You’ll need to run some command line tasks on top of installing Edge (Microsoft recommends a mouse and keyboard during the install), but after that you can play Halo Infinite and other titles anywhere you have a reasonably fast internet connection.

Community Manager Missy Quarry made clear this was “just the beginning” of gaming on Edge, suggesting the experience might get better. Microsoft’s team is open to feedback on Edge and the Xbox Cloud Gaming experience.

Microsoft has devoted significant energy to Steam Deck Support in recent days. On top of game streaming support, it outlined first-party game support for Valve’s handheld with word that titles like Deathloop and Psychonauts 2 are verified to play properly. Separately, Valve enabled basic Windows support by offering drivers.

It’s not shocking that Microsoft would support the Steam Deck despite its use of a Linux-based platform. Microsoft not only makes money from the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription you’ll need to play, but gets you to try Edge and games you might have otherwise ignored. What the company might lose in immediate Windows sales it could gain in long-term customers.

Delivery apps are stepping in to help drivers hit by high gas prices

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting economic sanctions against the aggressor nation are already causing economic havok the world over. Inflation is on the rise, causing the price of essentials like food, medicine and fuel to spike. Domestically, these additional financial strains are being deeply felt by gig economy workers and delivery drivers who are now struggling to stay on the road as gas averages $4.41 a gallon nationwide. In response, some delivery apps have extended financial lifelines to the “independent contractors” that their businesses rely upon — but not all of them and not entirely without a catch.

Instacart is the latest service to adjust its pricing in response, announcing on Friday morning that it will institute a 40-cent per order surcharge “over the next month” to help offset the increased costs to its drivers, which have seen a 71-cent increase since February 28th. 

Uber has already imposed a fuel surcharge of its own, though the amount depends on which state the driver is in and how far the trip is going. Roughly, the surcharge for a passenger Uber ride will be between $0.45 to $0.55 per trip while having the food brought to you instead of the other way around will see a $0.35 to $0.45 per trip charge added on. The charge went into effect on Wednesday and will be reevaluated in 60 days, according to the company. Uber, beacon of fair labor practices that it is, has made assurances that the added charges will go directly to drivers. And yes, cheapskates, the surcharge applies even if you and/or your food is riding in an EV. 

Nearly identically, Lyft announced on Monday that it will charge a flat $0.55 per trip fee — ICE vehicle or not — starting next week and leave it in place for 60 days. Additionally drivers can get 4 – 6 percent cashback on gas through June if they use the company-branded debit card. 

“We’ve been closely monitoring rising gas prices and their impact on our driver community,” Lyft senior communications manager CJ Macklin told Engadget in a statement. “Driver earnings overall remain elevated compared to last year, but given the rapid rise in gas prices we’ll be asking riders to pay a temporary fuel surcharge, all of which will go to drivers.” 

DoorDash has enacted a similar cashback scheme for its drivers as well, though you’ll want to grab a pencil and calculator before trying to navigate it. 

“Beginning on March 17th, drivers for Doordash will be able to receive 10% cashback on gas purchases, though only if they’re enrolled in the company’s own DasherDirect Visa cards,” Engadget reporter Amrita Khalid explains. “On top of that, drivers who drive a certain amount of miles per week will qualify for weekly gas rewards, ranging from $5 to $15 per week. Unlocking the $5 discount requires drivers to complete at least 100 miles worth of trips in a week. Drivers who total more than 225 miles worth of trips will earn a $15 weekly bonus.”

That translates into around $2 of rewards per gallon, depending on the distance a Dasher drives. 

Amazon Flex workers — drivers who use their own vehicles to make deliveries for the online retailer’s Prime, Whole Foods and Fresh branded orders — have, not unsurprisingly, largely been left to their own devices in navigating these higher fuel prices. “We’ve already made several adjustments through pricing surges in impacted areas to help ease some of the financial challenges,” an Amazon spokesperson told MSNBC on Thursday. “As the situation evolves, we’ll continue to make changes where we can to help support our partners.” The company is “closely monitoring the situation,” said the spokesperson.

Engadget has reached out to Caviar (owned by DoorDash), GrubHub, Postmates (owned by Uber) and Shipt for comment and will update this post upon their replies.

Humble Bundle unveils Stand with Ukraine charity game bundle

Humble Bundle has put together a charity game bundle with all proceeds going to humanitarian crisis relief efforts in Ukraine. For a minimum donation of $40, you can pick up more than 120 games, books, apps, game asset packs and other goodies worth a total of over $2,500 through the Stand with Ukraine bundle.

The bundle includes Back 4 Blood, Metro Exodus, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Max Payne 3, Sunset Overdrive, PGA Tour 2K21, Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons and Superhot. You’ll also get rulebooks for Pathfinder and Warhammer, one year of access to GameMaker Studio 2 Creator and a volume of the first six issues of graphic novel series The Boys (which Amazon turned into a Prime Video show).

Creators on Itch.io also rallied to put together a bundle of almost 1,000 games, books, magazines, comics and game dev tools. The Bundle for Ukraine raised $6.3 million from almost 450,000 contributors.

Humble Bundle last week stopped sales in Belarus and Russia, which invaded Ukraine last month. Other notable companies in the gaming space have stopped selling games or shut down services in Russia (and in many cases Belarus). Those include Niantic with Pokémon Go, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Bungie, Ubisoft, Take-Two, CD Projekt Red, EA, Activision Blizzard and Epic.

Instacart is the latest service to add a temporary fuel surcharge

Instacart is joining Uber, Lyft and other car-centric internet services in adding a temporary fuel surcharge to cover rising costs at the pump. The company will charge customers an additional 40 cents per order “over the next month,” with all the extra money going directly to delivery workers. The higher pricing will arrive sometime in the days ahead.

The company also pointed to existing tools drivers could use to soften the blow, including cashback perks for gas and advance information that makes it clear which order batches will make the most income. Fuel surcharges will appear as tags on those batches.

As with other surcharges, this hike was prompted by a spike in fuel prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Whether or not it’s enough is another matter. While Instacart’s workers “spend more time” shopping than driving, as operations VP Tom Maguire said, 40 cents per order isn’t huge. Prices have climbed 19 percent since late February, according to the Energy Information Administration — the extra expenses could easily outweigh the benefits of the surcharge.

Compensation at rivals might also be better in some cases. Uber Eats deliveries, for instance, now include surcharges between 35 cents to 45 cents. That’s clearly worse in some cases, but Uber’s offering will also last for at least 60 days. If prices remain high, Instacart’s couriers may either have to hope for an extension or swallow the full transportation costs.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can claim 30 days of free access to Paramount+

Nine years after it first emerged a live-action Halo TV series was in the works, the show is only a few days away from premiering on Paramount+. To celebrate its debut, Microsoft is giving Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers a free 30-day trial to the streaming service via Perks.

The offer will be available on March 23rd, the day before Halo arrives. There’s a catch, though. Given that only one installment of the nine-episode season is scheduled to drop each week, you might need to subscribe to Paramount+ to watch the entire season (unless you activate the offer a bit later). Paramount+ costs $5 per month with ads or $10 per month to go commercial free and gain access to a feed from your local live CBS station.

Earlier this week, Paramount+ released the final trailer for the show, which has a separate plot from the games and is already renewed for a second season. Along with some story beats, the two-minute clip shows an Elite with an Energy Sword and several shots of Master Chief in action.

Twitter is testing a way to create audio clips in Spaces

Some Twitter Spaces hosts are now able to create clips from recorded discussions as part of a test. A small number of hosts on iOS have access to the feature for now, though some Android and web users will be able to try it in the near future.

Hosts will be able to clip up to 30 seconds of audio. They can, of course, tweet out that snippet. All iOS users can check out the clips.

All hosts have been able to record their Spaces since January. Being able to tweet small snippets of their discussions could let them give other Twitter users some insight into what their Spaces are all about, and perhaps expand their audiences.

Clubhouse has offered its own clipping feature since September. Users of that platform have been able to clip shareable 30-second chunks of audio from public rooms.

Twitter might be missing a trick by only allowing hosts to clip audio from Spaces. All Twitch and YouTube users can clip highlights, meaning that viewers can help draw attention to a creator with snippets of their videos. However, given that Twitter’s only testing its clipping tool for now, it could open up the feature to listeners in the future.