Twitter is testing a feature that would correct false information tweeted by public figures. A box under a false tweet would warn: “Twitter Community reports have identified this tween as violating Community Policy on Harmful Misleading Information. This tweet’s visibility will be reduced,” according to a leaked demo obtained by NBC News. “We’re exploring a number of ways to address misinformation and provide more context for tweets on Twitter,” said a Twitter spokesperson. “This is a design mock-up for one option.”

HAPS Alliance, an association of telecommunications, technology, aviation, and aerospace companies, has been created to advocate for High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) business development with authorities in various countries, build a cooperative HAPS ecosystem, develop common product specifications and promote the standardization of HAPS network interoperability. “We are very encouraged that many leaders from across the communications and aerospace industries are joining us in our mission to bridge the digital divide with high altitude vehicles,” said Juniche Miyakawa, Representative Director & CTO of Softbank Corp. “Together with our Alliance partners, we will lay the groundwork for an ecosystem that fosters HAPS connectivity solutions around the world.” Among other members of the alliance are Alphabet’s Loon, AeroVironment, China Telecom Corporation Limited, Nokia and Telefonica.

Employees at Kickstarter voted to form a union, the first in the tech industry made up of white-collar, full-time employees. Kickstarter United will be formally recognized by management, and sit at the bargaining table to address concerns about equitable pay, diversity and decisions about how the platform is moderated. The union is organizing with the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 153. “We support and respect this decision, and we are proud of the fair and democratic process that got us here,” said Aziz Hasan, the CEO of Kickstarter.

Haystack TV is expanding its worldwide distribution through a new technology integration agreement with Hisense, the global television and appliance manufacturer. Hisense, the third-largest TV manufacturer, will pre-install and place the Haystack TV app prominently on the new VIDAA smart TV platform.

Twitter has acquired Chroma Labs, co-founded by Instagram Boomerang inventor John Barnett. Chroma Labs’ Chroma Stories app allows users to fill in layout templates and frames for posting collages to Instagram Stories, Snapchat and more. Twitter plans to split the Chroma Labs squad up to work on its product, design and engineering teams. While the Chroma Stories iPhone app won’t be shut down it, it won’t receive more updates.

OTT ad fraud is projected to cost marketers $4 billion globally this year, says cybersecurity company CHEQ. OTT spend will reach $23.8 billion in 2020, according to the report, with ad fraud levels reaching 17%. The most common OTT ad frauds involve networks of bots generating massive amounts of fraudulent traffic. “Marketing budgets are steadily flowing to OTT, offering a mouthwatering proposition of brands being able to reach consumers on their screens with relevant messages at the right time,” said Guy Tytunovich, founder and CEO of CHEQ. “However, as with other nascent markets online, ad fraud and fakery follow, and every day we are seeing new and sophisticated attacks attacking the OTT ecosystem. The challenges of ad fraud must be tackled if we are to create trust, transparency and efficiency in this fast-growing market.”

Ninety percent of influencers reach less than half of their audience and 30% of influencers showed fraud levels for engagement purchasing in 4Q19 campaigns, according to research from Sylo that analyzed over 5000 influencers’ social media accounts. Among the highlights of the report, “Growing Levels of Influencer Fraud Swindling Ad Dollars”: Metrics produced through scraping, such as “Fake Followers” or “Bot Percentages,” were not indicative of influencer fraud activity, and were inaccurate by as much as 129%; “Fake Follower” rate of 23% was within the normal range, implying that a typical influencer purchases nearly a quarter of their audience; and influencer network (scraped) engagement and impressions were off by an average of 55% and 48 %, respectively, from verified data. For more, go here.

AT&T, Singtel and Telefonica are collaborating to enhance their ability to detect and eliminate cybersecurity threats. Members of the Telco Security Alliance, the companies are working together, sharing the latest threat intelligence and indicators of compromise. Information comes from a variety of sources, including anonymous data from alliance members’ security operations centers and security team investigations. “Joint threat intelligence sharing will allow our security analysts to take more proactive means to combat malicious activities,” said the Telco Security Alliance said in a press release. “We will accomplish this by writing and pushing signatures for newly discovered malware and phishing campaigns across customer products and environments down to individual endpoints.”

ADVERTISING

Canoe ended the year up about 4% year-over-year in VOD ad impressions, with most networks starting to hit their ceiling with available inventory, according to the company’s 2019 Year End Insights Report. Its dynamic ad insertion capabilities cover 38 million homes, up from 36 million one year ago. Canoe, owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox, ran 10,071 campaigns in 2019, up from 7476, 86% of which were of external advertisers.

Jellyfish is expanding its digital offerings with the introduction of Optics: Creative Intelligence, an automated creative content analysis tool. The solution utilizes the Google Cloud Vision API to make recommendations for existing video and dynamic ads correlated to performance by automating the process of analyzing a brand’s entire creative set.

Although 5G technology for consumers isn’t likely to reach mass adoption until 2022, it holds “limitless” potential for brands to connect with customers in new and innovative ways, says John Petrocelli, CEO of Bulldog Digital Media. “We’ll be able to drive major improvements in mobile content consumption, creation, and engagement. Livestreaming provides an ideal opportunity to focus on all three of these concepts,” he explains in Cynsiders. For more, go here.

STREAMING

DVD rental company Redbox is diving into the streaming TV market. Redbox Free Live TV features nearly 30 channels of movies and episodic content, including three exclusive Redbox-branded channels: Redbox Comedy, action/adventure-oriented Redbox Rush and Redbox Spotlight, with curated titles. Lionsgate is a “key strategic launch partner for programming content,” said Redbox.

CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive have launched CBSN Denver, the seventh of ViacomCBS’ 13 local direct-to-consumer streaming news services in major markets. CBSN Denver features anchored programming, breaking news in the region, as well as a library of local news content for on-demand viewing. “The response to our first six launches is exceeding our expectations, and we look forward to seeing this trend continue in Denver and the six other markets where we will be rolling out these OTT services in the near future,” said Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations.