Wed, April 24, 2024 at 9:35 AM EDT
Business
Too much time scrolling? Instagram now urging teens to 'take a break' – CBC News
A day before the head of the company is scheduled to tell U.S. lawmakers what it is doing to help keep kids safe online, Instagram is launching a new feature that urges teenagers in Canada and other countries to take breaks from the photo and video sharing platform.
Take A Break is a program that encourages teens who have signed up for it to log off after they have been on the platform for a certain amount of time, according to a Tuesday morning blog post from Instagram head Adam Mosseri. He is scheduled to appear in front of a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The company said starting Tuesday, the feature is available to any users between the ages of 13 and 18 based on how they self-reported when they signed up for Instagram.
“If someone has been scrolling for a certain amount of time, we’ll ask them to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future,” Mosseri said. “We’ll also show them expert-backed tips to help them reflect and reset.”
The company did not specify how long someone would have to be on the app before receiving a notification.
Users must ‘opt in’ to the service
Mosseri said the service will require users to opt into it, but said teens would get “notifications suggesting they turn these reminders on.”
He said early test results show that once teens set the reminders, more than 90 per cent of them keep them on.
In addition to nudging teens to take breaks, Instagram says it will also:
- Stop people from tagging or mentioning teens who don’t follow them.
- Be stricter about what the algorithm recommends to teens in its search, explore, hashtags and suggested accounts sections.
- Suggest different topics to explore if a teen user has been dwelling on one topic for a while.
The moves are part of efforts that Facebook, renamed Meta Platforms, has touted on as it weathers backlash about not doing enough to rein in harmful content and faces new legislation looking to impose restrictions on tech giants.
Meta owns Instagram.
The service rolls out in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand today and will expand globally next year, Mosseri said.
Instagram plans to roll out another new feature in 2022. That one will allow parents to get alerts about how much time their teens are spending on the service and to limit that time, Mossari said.
Scrutiny after whistleblower goes public
The company recently scrapped plans to offer a completely new service for teens, because of growing backlash against the harm that social media can do to young minds.
Mosseri is scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, which decided to look into Facebook’s business practices after a whistleblower at the company came forward earlier this year.
Former Facebook product manager turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen, has testified to U.S. and European lawmakers on the matter. She cited internal company research suggesting peer pressure generated by Instagram has led to mental health and body-image problems in young users, especially girls, and in some cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts.
Speaking last week to Congress, she urged U.S. lawmakers to move forward with proposals introduced after her first appearance in October. They include restrictions on the long-standing legal protections for speech posted on social media platforms.
Haugen also has offered guidance on new online rules that are much further along in the U.K. and European Union, which has pioneered efforts to rein in big technology companies.
The social media platform also said it’s developing features that will stop people from tagging or mentioning teens that don’t follow them, nudge young users to other things if they have been focused on one topic for a while and be stricter about what posts, hashtags and accounts it recommends to try to cut down on potentially harmful or sensitive content.
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Business
Oil Firms Doubtful Trans Mountain Pipeline Will Start Full Service by May 1st
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Oil companies planning to ship crude on the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada are concerned that the project may not begin full service on May 1 but they would be nevertheless obligated to pay tolls from that date.
In a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), Suncor Energy and other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum have expressed doubts that Trans Mountain will start full service on May 1, as previously communicated, Reuters reports.
Trans Mountain Corporation, the government-owned entity that completed the pipeline construction, told Reuters in an email that line fill on the expanded pipeline would be completed in early May.
After a series of delays, cost overruns, and legal challenges, the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline will open for business on May 1, the company said early this month.
“The Commencement Date for commercial operation of the expanded system will be May 1, 2024. Trans Mountain anticipates providing service for all contracted volumes in the month of May,” Trans Mountain Corporation said in early April.
The expanded pipeline will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia on the Pacific Coast.
The Federal Government of Canada bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) from Kinder Morgan back in 2018, together with related pipeline and terminal assets. That cost the federal government $3.3 billion (C$4.5 billion) at the time. Since then, the costs for the expansion of the pipeline have quadrupled to nearly $23 billion (C$30.9 billion).
The expansion project has faced continuous delays over the years. In one of the latest roadblocks in December, the Canadian regulator denied a variance request from the project developer to move a small section of the pipeline due to challenging drilling conditions.
The company asked the regulator to reconsider its decision, and received on January 12 a conditional approval, avoiding what could have been another two-year delay to start-up.
Business
Tesla profits cut in half as demand falls
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Tesla profits slump by more than a half
Tesla has announced its profits fell sharply in the first three months of the year to $1.13bn (£910m), compared with $2.51bn in 2023.
It caps a difficult period for the electric vehicle (EV) maker, which – faced with falling sales – has announced thousands of job cuts.
Boss Elon Musk remains bullish about its prospects, telling investors the launch of new models would be brought forward.
Its share price has risen but analysts say it continues to face significant challenges, including from lower-cost rivals.
The company has suffered from falling demand and competition from cheaper Chinese imports which has led its stock price to collapse by 43% over 2024.
Figures for the first quarter of 2024 revealed revenues of $21.3bn, down on analysts’ predictions of just over $22bn.
But the decision by Tesla to bring forward the launch of new models from the second half of 2025 boosted its shares by nearly 12.5% in after-hours trading.
It did not reveal pricing details for the new vehicles.
However Mr Musk made clear he also grander ambitions, touting Tesla’s AI credentials and plans for self-driving vehicles – even going as far as to say considering it to be just a car company was the “wrong framework.”
“If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy I think they should not be an investor,” he said.
Such sentiments have been questioned by analysts though, with Deutsche Bank saying driverless cars face “technological, regulatory and operational challenges.”
Some investors have called for the company to instead focus on releasing a lower price, mass-market EV.
However, Tesla has already been on a charm offensive, trying to win over new customers by dropping its prices in a series of markets in the face of falling sales.
It also said its situation was not unique.
“Global EV sales continue to be under pressure as many carmakers prioritize hybrids over EVs,” it said.
Despite plans to bring forward new models originally planned for next year the firm is cutting its workforce.
Tesla said it would lose 3,332 jobs in California and 2,688 positions in Texas, starting mid-June.
The cuts in Texas represent 12% of Tesla’s total workforce of almost 23,000 in the area where its gigafactory and headquarters are located.
However, Mr Musk sought to downplay the move.
“Tesla has now created over 30,000 manufacturing jobs in California!” he said in a post on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
Another 285 jobs will be lost in New York.
Tesla’s total workforce stood at more than 140,000 late last year, up from around 100,000 at the end of 2021, according to the company’s filings with US regulators.
Musk’s salary
The car firm is also facing other issues, with a struggle over Mr Musk’s compensation still raging on.
On Wednesday, Tesla asked shareholders to vote for a proposal to accept Mr Musk’s compensation package – once valued at $56bn – which had been rejected by a Delaware judge.
The judge found Tesla’s directors had breached their fiduciary duty to the firm by awarding Mr Musk the pay-out.
Due to the fall in Tesla’s stock value, the compensation package is now estimated to be around $10bn less – but still greater than the GDP of many countries.
In addition, Tesla wants its shareholders to agree to the firm being moved from Delaware to Texas – which Mr Musk called for after the judge rejected his payday.
Business
Stock market today: Nasdaq futures pop, Tesla surges after earnings with more heavyweights on deck
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Tech stocks rose on Wednesday, outstripping the broader market as investors welcomed Tesla’s (TSLA) cheaper car pledge and waited for the next rush of corporate earnings.
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 0.6%, coming off a sharp closing gain. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 0.2%, continuing a rebound from its longest losing streak of 2024, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.1%.
Tesla shares jumped nearly 12% after the EV maker’s vow to speed up the launch of more affordable models eclipsed its quarterly earnings and revenue miss. That cheered up investors worried about growth amid a strategy shift to robotaxis and the planned cancellation of a cheaper model.
The results from the first “Magnificent Seven” to report have intensified the already high hopes for Big Tech earnings, that the megacaps can revive the rally in stocks they powered. The spotlight is now on Meta’s (META) report due after the market close, as the Facebook owner’s shares rose after the Senate voted for a potential ban on rival TikTok. Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) next up on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Boeing (BA) reported better than expected first quarter results before the opening bell with a loss per share of $1.13, narrower than the $1.72 estimated by Wall Street. Shares rose about 2% in morning trade.
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