Get the Galaxy S21 for free at AT&T this Cyber Monday -- if you commit to an unlimited plan
Get the Galaxy S21 for free at AT&T this Cyber Monday -- if you commit to an unlimited plan
This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas.
AT&T is giving away Samsung's Galaxy S21 this Cyber Monday as long as you meet the carrier's conditions. The Galaxy S21 is Samsung's flagship smartphone from 2021 that comes with 6.2-inch screen and a triple-lens camera.
To take advantage of the deal, you'll need to buy the Galaxy S21 through AT&T's monthly installment payment plan instead of buying the device outright. You'll also have to pay taxes on the full retail amount up front and pay the $30 activation or upgrade fee. The deal is only available for those who activate or continue paying for AT&T's unlimited wireless service plan.
If you meet those requirements, you'll get up to $800 in bill credits toward your Samsung Galaxy S21. It's important to note that these credits only start after three bills, but AT&T says you'll receive catch-up credits later. If you cancel your service, the credits will stop and you'll be responsible for the remaining balance.
The deal is only valid on Nov. 29. Although there are several conditions in the fine print, it's still a good deal for those who are planning to stick with AT&T for the longterm or are considering switching to its service. Many deals like this usually require you to trade in your old device to get such a big discount, so this deal is notable for that reason as well.
The Galaxy S21 is almost a year old, which means it's likely almost time for the Galaxy S22. But the Galaxy S21 is still an excellent choice for those who want a compact, well-designed Android phone with a solid camera, smooth screen and decent battery life.
'Stranger Things' Fans Spot Alteration to Old Nancy and Jonathan Scene
'Stranger Things' Fans Spot Alteration to Old Nancy and Jonathan Scene
Stranger Things season 4 has been gripping our attention since it arrived on Netflix in May, attention that has now turned back to earlier seasons. Creators the Duffer brothers discussed re-editing scenes from older episodes, mainly involving touching up VFX. Fans took to TikTok and Twitter to note one of the changes they believed had been made.
One such scene involves Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and her new boyfriend, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), in the second episode of the first season, titled The Weirdo on Maple Street. Steve, a jock-type, convinces Nancy to join him at a house party, where they sleep together for the first time.
Out in the woods, Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) snaps pictures of the party guests, including Nancy when she removes her clothes. Fans on TikTok and Twitter thought they'd picked up on a slight tweak to this scene -- Jonathan no longer shown taking a picture of Nancy when she undresses.
However, the Stranger Things writing team has since addressed the rumors on Twitter. "PSA: no scenes from previous seasons have ever been cut or re-edited. And they never will be," the tweet reads.
Jonathan still possesses a picture of the moment, revealed in the next episode, titled Holly, Jolly. Steve and his bully pals discover the photos from the party, calling Jonathan a "creep" and a pervert. "He was probably gonna save this one for later," says Carol Perkins (who was dating Tommy Hagen), referring to the photo of Nancy undressing.
The Duffer brothers have had other opportunities to make tweaks, including the date of Will's (Noah Schnapp) birthday. In season 2, episode 8, Will's mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) says his birthday is March 22. In season 4, episode 2, a timestamp on a video camera recording reads March 22, but no one celebrates Will's big day.
Matt Duffer suggested changing Will's birthday to May 22, "because 'May' can fit in Winona's mouth." He continued, "So that would be us George Lucas-ing the situation." Star Wars creator George Lucas frequently altered his movies after their release. Mostly, this involved improving special effects.
At time of writing, however, Joyce still says March 22 in the season 2 scene.
PC and Tablet Shipments Expected to Decline Throughout 2022
PC and Tablet Shipments Expected to Decline Throughout 2022
Global shipments of PCs and tablets are expected to decline this year, thanks to a confluence of economic factors impacting their deliveries, according to the International Data Corporation, a market research firm.
Inflation , the ongoing war in Ukraine, and pandemic lockdowns have all negatively affected demand for PCs and tablets around the world, with global shipments of traditional PCs expected to fall 8.2% year over year, and shipments of tablets expected to drop 6.2% year over year in 2022, according to a new forecast from IDC published Wednesday. Only 321.2 million PCs and 158 million tablets are projected to ship this year.
"Supply shortages have plagued the industry for a while, and the recent lockdowns in parts of China continue to exacerbate the issue as factories struggle to receive new components from upstream suppliers while also facing issues downstream when it comes to shipping finished goods," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC, in a release.
Read more:Best Desktop PC for 2022
However, PC shipments are anticipated to remain above pre-pandemic levels and will experience growth in 2023, according to IDC's forecast.
Similar forecasts have been made about global shipments of phones and wearables dropping in 2022, with the attributed reasons also being COVID-19 lockdowns, inflation and the war in Ukraine.
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro review: A better-than-HD hybrid for less
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro review: A better-than-HD hybrid for less
The all-around best-in-class example of a first-generation Windows 8 hybrid was the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga, a clever fold-back laptop-turned-tablet that was almost universally liked in both its 13-inch and 11-inch versions (let's just not mention the 11-inch Windows RT variant). It's a tough act to follow, but the flagship for the Windows 8.1 era may well be the IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro.
If you're not familiar with how the Yoga line works, it masquerades as an ordinary thin clamshell laptop, but the lid and display fold back a full 360 degrees to form either a thick tablet, or a stand/kiosk device when only folded partway back. That basic hook applies to both the original and updated models.
How exactly does the Yoga 2 top the original? The star of the show is an ultrahigh-res 13.3-inch display, with a native resolution of 3,200x1,800 pixels. That puts the Yoga 2 in similar territory to the Toshiba Kirabook, the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, the Chromebook Pixel, the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus, and a handful of others. That's an especially notable improvement, as the original Yoga had a 1,600x900-pixel display, which was not what one would expect from a modern $1,000 laptop.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The price can be a bit difficult to pin down, as Lenovo is infamous of late for offering a confusing array of preconfigured systems, many with poorly explained "coupon codes," discounting some models to what feels like what the original price should have been.
As of this writing, our Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) review unit is available for $999 both from Best Buy and from Lenovo's Web site, although the latter is technically a discount from the $1,099 list price. In any event, the specs listed above are just right for $999, if you consider the higher-than-HD resolution, slim design, and flexible tablet modes.
IdeaPad is Lenovo's line of forward-thinking consumer products, in contrast to its ThinkPad line of business laptops and tablets, so adding the superfluous "Pro" to its name is an odd choice. But despite the naming confusion, this is still a strong consumer hybrid. And like the original Yoga, the Yoga 2 scores by remembering that it's a laptop first, and doing nothing to interfere with the traditional laptop form. Adding that higher-res screen for $999 is also a price breakthrough, and makes the Yoga 2 a hard-to-ignore value.
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro
Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (October 2013)
Price
$999
$1,399.99
$1,499
Display size/resolution
13.3-inch, 3,200x1,800 touch screen
13.3-inch, 3,200x1,800 touch screen
13.3-inch, 2,560x1,600 screen
PC CPU
1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U
1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U
2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4850HQ
PC memory
4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
Graphics
1,792MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 4400
1,749MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 4400
1GB Intel Iris Graphics
Storage
128GB SSD
128GB SSD
256GB SSD
Optical drive
None
None
None
Networking
802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system
Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Windows 8 (64-bit)
OS X Mavericks 10.9
Design and features If I had to go out and find a thin, light, sharp-looking ultrabook-style laptop for around $1,000, the Yoga 2 would be on my short list, along with the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the Samsung Book 9, the Sony Vaio Pro 13, and a few others. The Yoga 2 feels like it can stand toe-to-toe with any of those as a laptop, ignoring its shape-shifting abilities. The overall look is close to the original, but the new version is a bit thinner and lighter, with a slight taper to its previously squared-off lip.
The most apt comparison is with other better-than-HD systems, such as the MacBook Pro and Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus. The Yoga 2 is not quite as slick or solidly built as those, but it also costs less for a similar Core i5, 128GB configuration, making it the least expensive way to get into higher-resolution mobile computing.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Hybrids and convertibles fall into two categories. Some are primarily tablets that can spend part of their time as laptoplike devices, while others are primarily laptops that can double as part-time tablets. For example, the recent Sony Vaio Tap 11 is maybe 75 percent tablet and 25 percent laptop. The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 is perhaps a 60-40 tablet/laptop. On the other hand, the Lenovo Yoga 2 is 75 percent laptop, and you'll use the other modes less frequently. Frankly, if you need something that's a full-time tablet, look elsewhere.
That's primarily because when the Yoga 2 is folded back as a slate, the keyboard is exposed, pointing out from the back of the system. Although the keyboard and touch pad are deactivated in this mode, it's still not ideal, and one of the few things people criticized about the original Yoga.
There's also the problem that spans all Windows 8 tablets, which is that Windows 8/8.1 is still not a 100 percent tablet-friendly OS, and rarely knows how to organize information efficiently in portrait mode, which is how the iPad has trained a generation of consumers to hold a tablet.
In laptop mode, however, the Yoga 2 is a joy to use. Lenovo is known for putting serious resources into keyboard R&D and usage testing, and the current design is found (with a few variations) across most of Lenovo's consumer and business laptops. It takes the standard flat-topped island-style keyboard and adds a slight curve to the bottom, which helps catch nearly missed keystrokes. The finish on the keys feels softer and the keys themselves less clacky than on the original Yoga. My only real complaint is that a shortened right Shift key has carried over from the first Yoga, and I still find it hard to get acclimated to. This new keyboard is also backlit, which is a big upgrade for people who use their laptops in dim coffee shops and commuter train cars.
The large clickpad-style touch pad is similar to the previous version, and works well with two-finger gestures, such as Web site scrolling. It's tuned a little too sensitively for my tastes, but you can tweak the settings a bit to find the right level for you.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Besides the laptop and tablet modes, you can fold the screen back about 180 degrees and put the system into what I call a kiosk mode, with the display pointing out at the audience, without a keyboard or touch pad in the way. That's helpful for presentations or playing photo slideshows and videos. You can also fold it a bit farther back and position the Yoga 2 so that it's standing up in a table-tent shape. It's technically one of the four shapes Lenovo promotes for the Yoga 2, but I can't see how that's preferable to the kiosk mode.
The real forward leap here is the move to a better-than-HD screen, with a native 3,200x1,800-pixel resolution. That's higher even than the MacBook Pro's, and equal to the resolution on the $1,500-and-up Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus. More importantly, offering that screen at $999 (or even $929 currently for a Core i3 configuration) is amazing.
The benefits come from crisper text and more screen real estate for editing images. In the Windows 8 tile interface, you're unlikely to notice the difference unless you look closely. Like OS X, Windows 8 autoscales its icons and layout to fit any resolution. In the traditional desktop view still accessible in Windows 8, however, the very high resolution looks and feels odd on such a small screen. Icons and links will be hard to hit, and loading up Photoshop, you had better be familiar with the menu layout, or else be prepared for some hunting and pecking amid the tiny pull-down menus. As very little online video is available at resolutions higher than 1080p, it's not a huge help for that, either, even if the 4K video era is coming quickly.
Think of the higher-res IPS display as a bit of future-proofing, especially as it's turning up in more and more systems with each passing month.
Connections, performance, and battery A few corners had to be cut somewhere for Lenovo to get this sharp design and great display in at under $1,000. There's only one USB 3.0 port (and a second USB 2.0 one), and the Wi-Fi is not of the newer 802.11ac variety. Your only built-in video output is via Micro-HDMI, and an Ethernet connection will require a sold-separately dongle.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The $999 Yoga 2 (available for this price from Best Buy, and through an artificial-feeling "coupon code" direct from Lenovo), is a decent all-around config with an Intel Core i5-4200U CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Paying $1,399 will double the RAM to 8GB and the SSD to 256GB, and $1,499 takes it to a Core i7 CPU. Go all the way up to $1,599 and you add the final upgrade, a big 512GB SSD. Going the other way, you can trade down to a Core i3 CPU for $929, but that seems like less power than you'd want to drive the high-res display, for only a small savings.
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro
Video
Micro-HDMI
Audio
Stereo speakers, combo headphone/microphone jack
Data
1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Networking
802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive
None
Our basic Core i5 configuration performed as expected, and was closely matched with other laptops sharing this similar set of components. The real test is how it compared with other, more expensive, laptops that have similarly expansive screen resolutions. In that case, the Yoga 2 was about even to slightly slower, especially compared with the current 13-inch MacBook Pro. In our Photoshop test, the higher screen resolution may have affected performance, as the lower-res 1,600x900 original Yoga did better in that single-app test.
But a current fourth-generation Intel Core i5 CPU is more than powerful enough for everyday computing, even multitasking, and we experienced no slowdown or stuttering when using the system anecdotally. For just the base set of components, we'd expect to pay $800 or so, but keep in mind that with the Yoga 2, you also get an excellent design and build, the flexible hybrid features, and the 3,200x1,800-pixel-resolution display.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Battery life surpasses the original Yoga, partially because this system has a current-gen Intel Haswell processor, which makes great strides in battery life over the previous generation. Our other higher-res laptops have similar CPUs, so they also can be counted on to run for a long time. The 13-inch MacBook is still the undisputed champion among this group, and the excellent Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus also ran longer, but the 7 hours and 10 minutes the Yoga 2 ran in our video playback battery drain test is still a very impressive time.
Conclusion Interestingly, the Yoga line is undergoing a split of sorts, with some features being added to the consumer IdeaPad version, and completely different features showing up in the new business-oriented ThinkPad Yoga. In this case, the IdeaPad Yoga 2 gets the ultrahigh-res screen, but the ThinkPad Yoga gets a clever new keyboard mechanism that hides the keyboard when the system is folded flat in tablet mode.
The presence of the keyboard and touch pad under your fingers, even though they are deactivated, when holding the Yoga 2 as a tablet remains a design oddity, and the one thing many people disliked about the original Yoga. Perhaps if we all ask very nicely, we can get a future Yoga that combines the 3,200x1,800-pixel display and sleek design of the Yoga 2 with the brilliant hidden keyboard of the ThinkPad Yoga.
But if you think of the Yoga 2 as primarily a laptop that can be called on to flip and fold into new shapes to serve specific purposes, it's one of the best all-around ultrabook-style systems available, and one that adds new high-end features at a price that makes it almost irresistible.
Find more shopping tips in our laptop buying guide.
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro Windows 8.1 (64.bit); 1.6GHZ Intel Core i5-4200U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1,792MB (shared) Intel HD 4400 Graphics; 128GB Samsung SSD
Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus Windows 8 (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1,749MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 4400: 128GB SSD
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (October 2013) OSX 10.9 Mavericks; 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-4258U; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1GB Intel Iris Graphics; 256GB Apple SSD
Magic Erasers Help Keep My Home Clean, and Prime Day Makes Them Cheap
Magic Erasers Help Keep My Home Clean, and Prime Day Makes Them Cheap
This story is part of Amazon Prime Day, CNET's guide to everything you need to know and how to find the best deals.
Seeing grime around my house makes me uncomfortable. If something is noticeably dirty, I have to clean it or it bothers me. With the help of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers I'm not spending all my time scrubbing away to keep things clean, and these cleaning pads are over 30% off for Amazon Prime Day.
I've used these cleaning pads to scrub away stains in my sink, to get soap scum out of my bathtub and to give my microwave a nice shine after some food inevitably pops inside it when I've warmed something up. I've used them to get rid of the coffee stain that builds up on the inside of the coffee pot, too. You can watch as dirt and stains disappear from whatever it is you're cleaning.
These cleaning pads can also be used on other items around your house you might not think to use them on. I've used them to scrub away scruff marks my Roomba sometimes leaves on my baseboards, and I've used them to help keep some sneakers in my collection nice and clean.
The sole on the left has been scrubbed with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser while the sole on the right has not.
Zach McAuliffe/CNET
The Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are a staple in my house to keep almost everything clean, and I can't recommend them enough. I'm going to stock up on them while they are on sale.
For even more savings, you can buy a bulk pack of 100 magic sponge erasers for 30% off for Amazon Prime Day as well. I haven't used these so I can't speak to their effectiveness, and some people who reviewed them said they are smaller than Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Buying 100 of them at once though might make up for the difference in size though.
The brains behind your next gadget come from this obscure medieval town
The brains behind your next gadget come from this obscure medieval town
If you visit the quiet Belgian city of Leuven, you'll see centuries of history.
You'll notice cobblestone streets and zig-zag rooflines of red-brick houses hundreds of years old. You'll spot a crowd of students from the Catholic University of Leuven, founded in 1425, gathering at the cafes of the Oude Markt town square. You'll observe that a lot of them are drinking Stella Artois beer, made at a Leuven brewery operating since 1366.
But you won't just see the past. Right outside the medieval city center, nearly 2,400 researchers are figuring out how to make the computer chips that will be at the heart of our digital lives for the next decade.
They're working at Imec, an unusually cooperative organization you've probably never heard of. Here, chipmakers like Samsung and Intel -- ordinarily fierce rivals -- convene with university researchers and Imec's own staff to figure out how to sustain the remarkable progress of the computer chip industry.
"For chip technology, it's impossible for one company to do it all on its own," said Imec Chief Executive Luc Van den hove, a genial Belgian speaking in his office atop a tower far above fertile fields of Flanders.
You may take it for granted that you can stream a movie to your laptop or summon a ride with your phone. But it's at Imec where the foundation formed for many of these advances. Every few years, the electronics industry dramatically reshapes our lives, and it's Imec's job to keep our future full of surprises.
Shrinking circuitry
Imec blazes the trail the chip industry will follow, shrinking circuitry so computing power can spread to smartwatches and augmented-reality headsets. Increasingly, Imec also helps bring chip technology to industries that aren't so familiar with it, which is why Imec also works on chips for self-driving cars and earbuds that monitor your health.
In the earlier days of the chip industry, a gathering place like Imec wasn't so necessary. But now, it's getting harder to figure out how to shrink chips and more expensive to construct the factories that build them. Intel used to shrink chip circuits every two years, but it's now moving to a three-year cycle.
Chips today use electronic components so small that more than 700 could fit side by side across a human hair. They'll shrink more under Moore's Law, which is Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's prediction that you can essentially double computing power every two years. By 2024, 5,000 components could fit in the width of a strand of hair. You may have trouble settling your summer vacation, but Imec's plans already reach to 2026.
A key part of the research is figuring out how to refine today's electronics, built on a substrate of the same silicon material that forms sand, and to figure out what comes next.
"As we look for the successor to silicon, cooperation is absolutely vital to prove that future technologies are commercially viable," said Linley Group analyst David Kanter. "Fundamentally, everyone is using the same equipment and dealing with the same problematic physics."
New clean room
To keep its research humming, Imec just this month opened a new $1.1 billion clean room, a vast and gleaming white chamber nearly the size of a football field. It's almost completely empty today, but it will fill up with the equipment Imec researchers need to plot the next phases of chip miniaturization. Imec already has two clean rooms, but the new one is crucial for developing the chips we'll see arriving in 2020 and beyond.
Imec's clean room is vast and empty now, but it will soon fill up with equipment to figure out how to build chips arriving in the early 2020s.
Stephen Shankland/CNET
Imec is working on chips that can scan for cancer cells in a blood sample.
Imec
Its equipment explores high-tech options that only a Ph.D. could love, including nanowires, extreme ultraviolet lithography, spintronics and III-V materials. Those may sound like foreign words, but you'll ultimately appreciate them because they will make your smartphone smarter and bring computing brains to new domains like self-driving cars.
"Our mission is to enable the components that enable Moore's Law," said Aaron Thean, vice president of Imec's chip-manufacturing process work. "Imec is the premiere place where we can do this kind of work."
It's called a clean room because it's designed to filter out any dust particles that could contaminate the sensitive chipmaking process. Even though most of the actual chips stay sealed within the even cleaner confines of truck-size manufacturing machines, employees still must cover up with hairnets and "bunny suits" to keep stray hairs and flakes of skin from gumming up the works.
Expanding duties
At Imec's founding in 1984, the Belgian government provided funding. Almost immediately, though, industry partners started supplying the vast majority of the budget, which has grown steadily each year and reached about $470 million in 2015. In comparison, Intel has an annual research budget of $11.5 billion.
Imec is expanding into new domains where researchers don't have processor expertise. Health is one area, where chip technology can transform blood tests, DNA sequencing, drug discovery and health monitoring. The automotive industry is another, since chips are crucial for radar and other sensors.
This year, Imec announced it's merging with another Belgian research center, iMinds, which has 1,000 researchers of its own and a focus on software.
"In this industry, if you don't grow, you die," Van den hove said. "Imec is always reinventing itself."
Twitter could cut back on hate speech with suspension warnings, study says
Twitter could cut back on hate speech with suspension warnings, study says
Since Twitter launched in 2006, it's become a giant networking event, bar hangout, meme-generator and casual conversation hub stuffed into one. But for every 280-word-long timely news update and witty remark, you'll find a violent, hateful post.
Among the crew of experts strategizing to disarm the dark side of Twitter, a team from New York University ran an experiment to test whether warning accounts that hate speech will result in suspension is a functional technique. Turns out, it could be pretty effective.
After studying over 4,300 Twitter users and 600,000 tweets, the scientists found warning accounts of such consequences "can significantly reduce their hateful language for one week." That dip was even more apparent when warnings were phrased politely.
Hopefully the team's paper, published Monday in the journal Perspectives on Politics, will help address the racist, vicious and abusive content that pollutes social media.
"Debates over the effectiveness of social media account suspensions and bans on abusive users abound, but we know little about the impact of either warning a user of suspending an account or of outright suspensions in order to reduce hate speech," Mustafa Mikdat Yildirim, an NYU doctoral candidate and the lead author of the paper, said in a statement.
"Even though the impact of warnings is temporary, the research nonetheless provides a potential path forward for platforms seeking to reduce the use of hateful language by users."
These warnings, Mikdat Yildirim observed, don't even have to come from Twitter itself. The ratio of tweets containing hateful speech per user lowered by between 10% and 20% even when the warning originated from a standard Twitter account with just 100 followers -- an "account" made by the team for experimental purposes.
"We suspect, as well, that these are conservative estimates, in the sense that increasing the number of followers that our account had could lead to even higher effects...to say nothing of what an official warning from Twitter would do," they write in the paper.
At this point you might be wondering: Why bother "warning" hate speech endorsers when we can just rid Twitter of them? Intuitively, an immediate suspension should achieve the same, if not stronger, effect.
Why not just ban hate speech ASAP?
While online hate speech has existed for decades, it's ramped up in recent years, particularly toward minorities. Physical violence as a result of such negativity has seen a spike as well. That includes tragedies like mass shootings and lynchings.
But there's evidence to show unannounced account removal may not be the way to combat the matter.
As an example, the paper points out former President Donald Trump's notorious and erroneous tweets following the 2020 United States presidential election. They consisted of election misinformation like calling the results fraudulent and praise for rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. His account was promptly suspended.
Twitter said the suspension was "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," but the problem was Trump later attempted to access other ways of posting online, such as tweeting through the official @Potus account. "Even when bans reduce unwanted deviant behavior within one platform, they might fail in reducing the overall deviant behavior within the online sphere," the paper says.
Twitter suspended President Donald Trump's Twitter account on Jan. 8, 2021.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
In contrast to quick bans or suspensions, Mikdat Yildirim and fellow researchers say warnings of account suspension could curb the issue long term because users will try to protect their account instead of moving somewhere else as a last resort.
Experimental evidence for warning signals
There were a few steps to the team's experiment. First, they created six Twitter accounts with names like @basic_person_12, @hate_suspension and @warner_on_hate.
Then, they downloaded 600,000 tweets on July 21, 2020 that were posted the week prior to identify accounts likely to be suspended during the course of the study. This period saw an uptick in hate speech against Asian and Black communities, the researchers say, due to COVID-19 backlash and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sifting through those tweets, the team picked out any that used hate language as per a dictionary outlined by a researcher in 2017 and isolated those created after January 1, 2020. They reasoned that newer accounts are more likely to be suspended -- over 50 of those accounts did, in fact, get suspended.
Anticipating those suspensions, the researchers gathered 27 of those accounts' follower lists beforehand. After a bit more filtering, the researchers ended up with 4,327 Twitterers to study. "We limited our participant population to people who had previously used hateful language on Twitter and followed someone who actually had just been suspended," they clarify in the paper.
Next, the team sent warnings of different politeness levels -- the politest of which they believe created an air of "legitimacy" -- from each account to the candidates divided into six groups. One control group didn't receive a message.
Legitimacy, they believe, was important because "to effectively convey a warning message to its target, the message needs to make the target aware of the consequences of their behavior and also make them believe that these consequences will be administered," they write.
Ultimately, the method led to a reduction in the ratio of hateful posts by 10% for blunt warnings, such as "If you continue to use hate speech, you might lose your posts, friends and followers, and not get your account back" and by 15% to 20% with more respectful warnings, which included sentiments like "I understand that you have every right to express yourself but please keep in mind that using hate speech can get you suspended."
But it's not that simple
Even so, the research team notes that "we stop short, however, of unambiguously recommending that Twitter simply implement the system we tested without further study because of two important caveats."
Foremost, they say a message from a large corporation like Twitter could create backlash in a way the study's smaller accounts did not. Secondly, Twitter wouldn't have the benefit of ambiguity in suspension messages. They can't really say "you might" lose your account. Thus, they'd need a blanket rule.
And with any blanket rule, there could be wrongfully accused users.
"It would be important to weigh the incremental harm that such a warning program could bring to an incorrectly suspended user," the team writes.
Although the main impact of the team's warnings dematerialized about a month later and there are a couple of avenues yet to be explored, they still urge this technique could be a tenable option to mitigate violent, racist and abusive speech that continues to imperil the Twitter community.
