Israeli government's graphic Gaza conflict ads appear in family-friendly mobile games

 An Israeli spyware company that was sued by WhatsApp Inc. four years ago over an alleged malware-hacking scheme failed to persuade a US judge to move the dispute to its home country.

X (formerly Twitter) has once again found itself in troubled waters courtesy its billionaire owner, Elon Musk. Ever since the Israel-Hamas conflict began, the social media platform has been filled with hate posts, propaganda, and misinformation. But recently, brands have pulled the plug on advertising on the platform citing antisemitism as a big reason. Recently, IBM, Disney, Warner Bros., Discovery, and EU pulled ads, and now Apple has joined the list as well, as per a report. Incidentally, the big chunk of the advertisers exiting came after company owner Elon Musk replied in support of a post accusing Jewish people of hating white people.

Advertisers are fleeing social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with billionaire owner Elon Musk inflaming tensions with his own tweets endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Google is opening the doors for teenagers to engage with Bard, the AI chatbot, starting this Thursday. In a recent blog post, Google outlines the implementation of guardrails to ensure a secure and educational experience for young users. Bard will be accessible to teens in "most countries around the world," provided they meet Google's minimum age requirement to manage their own accounts, which is typically 13, with exceptions listed in a support document.

The House of Lords communications and digital committee met today with Rob Sherman, VP of policy and deputy chief privacy officer for Meta, and Owen Larter, the director of global responsible AI public policy at Microsoft, to discuss large language models and some of the wider implications of AI. In a far-ranging discussion in which many words were said and not a lot of actual information conveyed, one particular tidbit caught our attention.

Germany's Phoenix Games has acquired Canadian developer Sad Panda Studios.

Netflix is all set to reward binge watchers on its cheaper tier – by reducing the amount of adverts on the streaming service.

Kratos Studios, the owner of the IndiGG intellectual property, announced the Kratos Games Network as a program that will allocate grants to new gaming studios in India and other emerging markets.

Disney Plus with ads has arrived in the UK. The streamer launched a cheaper, ad-supported plan in the US late last year, following in the footsteps of Netflix, and now the new tier has launched across the pond in the UK. 

Indie developers have launched a wide-ranging charity bundle to raise money for relief efforts in Palestine following escalating attacks from Israel. The Games For Gaza bundle has quickly surpassed the initial $10,000 fundraising goal and has now raised over $240,000 in just five days.

A group of indie developers have raised more than $200,000 for United Kingdom-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. With nine days left for fundraising, the Games for Gaza bundle is looking to meet its next goal of $300,000. The bundle costs $10 for 256 different tabletop and video games, soundtracks, and books.

An Israeli advertising campaign aimed at garnering support for its military offense in Gaza has crept into the world of video games—and it's apparently placing violent imagery in front of children playing them.