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CD Projekt's 'Phantom Liberty' Rated Very Positive on Steam 

Karolina Kaluzynska, 28, plays CD Projekt's game Cyberpunk 2077 in Warsaw, Poland, December 14, 2020. (Reuters)
Karolina Kaluzynska, 28, plays CD Projekt's game Cyberpunk 2077 in Warsaw, Poland, December 14, 2020. (Reuters)
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CD Projekt's 'Phantom Liberty' Rated Very Positive on Steam 

Karolina Kaluzynska, 28, plays CD Projekt's game Cyberpunk 2077 in Warsaw, Poland, December 14, 2020. (Reuters)
Karolina Kaluzynska, 28, plays CD Projekt's game Cyberpunk 2077 in Warsaw, Poland, December 14, 2020. (Reuters)

"Phantom Liberty", the long-awaited expansion to Polish video game developer CD Projekt's flagship game "Cyberpunk 2077", had received a "very positive" rating on Steam platform based on 1,067 user reviews just few hours after game's launch on Tuesday.

Cyberpunk 2077, which is offered at a 40% discount, has led the top sellers chart on Steam platform since Monday, with Phantom Liberty in second place.

The release of Phantom Liberty is CD Projekt's first major game premiere since bug-ridden launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020.

The expansion was released on PC and current-generation consoles. It offers a spy-thriller adventure, featuring two film stars - Keanu Reeves, known from the base game, who is back in the role of Johnny Silverhand and Idris Elba, who is playing the completely new character of Agent Solomon Reed.

The price of the expansion had been set at 99 zlotys ($22.74) for all platforms.

Phantom Liberty's PC version scored 89 points on the Metacritic 100-point scale after 47 critic reviews, with PlayStation 5 version scoring 88 points based on 43 critic reviews and Xbox Series X|S version hitting 89 points based on 12 critic reviews.

"Phantom Liberty is Cyberpunk 2077 at its best. CD Projekt Red has taken the lessons from the original release and focused on the parts that mattered most to deliver a thrilling and impactful experience (...)", GameSpot, an American video gaming website, said in a review.

The expansion is the last project to be developed on CD Projekt's own technology RED Engine, with the company switching to external Unreal Engine for its upcoming developments, that include Cyberpunk sequel.

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TikTok Must Face Lawsuit over 10-year-old Girl's Death, US Court Rules

A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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TikTok Must Face Lawsuit over 10-year-old Girl's Death, US Court Rules

A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake

A US appeals court has revived a lawsuit against TikTok by the mother of a 10-year-old girl who died after taking part in a viral "blackout challenge" in which users of the social media platform were dared to choke themselves until they passed out, Reuters reported.

While a federal law typically shields internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by users, the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled the law does not bar Nylah Anderson's mother from pursuing claims that TikTok's algorithm recommended the challenge to her daughter.

US Circuit Judge Patty Shwartz, writing for the three-judge panel, said that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 only immunizes information provided by third parties and not recommendations TikTok itself made via an algorithm underlying its platform.

She acknowledged the holding was a departure from past court rulings by her court and others holding that Section 230 immunizes an online platform from liability for failing to prevent users from transmitting harmful messages to others.

But she said that reasoning no longer held after a US Supreme Court ruling in July on whether state laws designed to restrict the power of social media platforms to curb content they deem objectionable violate their free speech rights.

In those cases, the Supreme Court held a platform's algorithm reflects "editorial judgments" about "compiling the third-party speech it wants in the way it wants." Shwartz said under that logic, content curation using algorithms is speech by the company itself, which is not protected by Section 230.

"TikTok makes choices about the content recommended and promoted to specific users, and by doing so, is engaged in its own first-party speech," she wrote.

TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

Tuesday's ruling reversed a lower-court judge's decision dismissing on Section 230 grounds the case filed by Tawainna Anderson against TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

She sued after her daughter Nylah died in 2021 after attempting the blackout challenge using a purse strap hung in her mother's closet.

"Big Tech just lost its 'get-out-of-jail-free card,'" Jeffrey Goodman, the mother's lawyer, said in a statement.

U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Matey, in a opinion partially concurring with Tuesday's ruling, said TikTok in its "pursuit of profits above all other values" may choose to serve children content emphasizing "the basest tastes" and "lowest virtues."

"But it cannot claim immunity that Congress did not provide," he wrote.