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Twitter fixed a bug that suspended users for posting the word 'Memphis'
Twitter has fixed a bug that resulted in users who tweeted the word Memphis being suspended for up to 12 hours for breaking the site's rules.
Snapchat users can share Reddit posts directly with their friends
Snapchat is rolling out an easy way for you to share the best things you find on Reddit with your friends. You'll see Snapchat among the options when you tap the share button on Reddit, as long as you have both apps installed on an iOS device.
Facebook limits ad targeting following discrimination settlement
Facebook has settled the lawsuit accusing the company of violating housing discrimination law through its ad system, and it's making changes to reduce the chances of future issues with housing ads and beyond. Marketers who want to run ads for credit, employment or housing will no longer have options to target using age, gender or ZIP code. They'll also have a "much smaller" range of categories to use in the first place, and won't have access to "detailed" targeting that relates to protected social classes. As a user, you'll eventually have access to a tool to search for housing ads targeted at locations across the US, even if you wouldn't normally see them.
Internet Archive races to preserve public Google+ posts
Just because Google+ is shutting down on April 2nd doesn't mean your years of social posts will be lost in the void. The ArchiveTeam recently started caching public Google+ content to make it available on the Internet Archive after the fateful day. This won't include content that was deleted or made private before the archival process began, and might not include all comments or full-resolution media. Still, this will ensure that you have some way of reliving moments years down the road.
US conducts criminal investigation into Facebook's data deals
Investigations into Facebook's data handling keep piling up. The New York Times has learned that federal prosecutors are in the midst of a criminal investigation into the data deals Facebook arranged with tech companies. It's not known when the investigation began or just what the focus is, but a New York grand jury reportedly used subpoenas to obtain records from two or more "prominent makers of smartphones." The deals included heavyweights like Apple, Microsoft and Sony.
Facebook helps you host viewing parties for live TV
Facebook's Watch Party won't just help you help watch online videos with friends -- it'll soon help with old-school TV. The social network is launching a new Watch Party experience that will let you host live TV shows, starting with sports. Start a party and you can cheer in chat, create polls and offer trivia questions based on player stats. It's not going to compare to gathering around the couch, but it should deliver more of a thrill than everyday group discussions.
Twitter's experimental beta testing app is available today
Twitter is making good on its promise of testing new conversation features in public. The social network has launched Twttr, an experimental app that lets early adopters try prototypes of new Twitter features. It'll start with the conversation test, which turns threads into chat-like presentations with color-coded users and indentation. However, Twitter told TechCrunch it could use the app to explore other changes, such as new ideas for status updates and pinned introductory tweets.
Facebook sues two Ukranians over data-stealing browser add-ons
Facebook is all too aware of how developers can make off with private data, and it's willing to go to court to fight that behavior. The Verge has learned that the social network sued two Ukranian men, Andrey Gorbachov and Gleb Sluchevsky, for allegedly swiping private user data through deceptive browser extensions. They enticed users with horoscope and "who are you like" quizzes that would use a legitimate Facebook sign-in at first, but asked users to install add-ons that would grab both publicly visible info as well as private friend lists. They'd also serve their own ads instead of Facebook's own.
Facebook removes fake accounts stoking political tension in UK
Facebook just cracked down on more fake accounts in the UK, and this time it was a relatively sophisticated scheme. The social network has pulled 137 bogus accounts (including for Instagram), groups and pages for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" that tried to play two sides of the political debate in the UK. The perpetrators posed as both far-right and anti-far-right activists and spread divisive rhetoric about immigration, racism, religion, free speech rights and LGBT issues, among other contentious topics. If that sounds familiar, it should -- just like the US saw in 2016, the culprits were trying to stoke political tensions under the guise of rallying support.
Mark Zuckerberg outlines a 'privacy-focused' revamp of Facebook
Facebook doesn't have a sterling reputation for privacy given its numerous data scandals, and Mark Zuckerberg wants to address it. In a reflection of what he said during a recent fiscal results call, the CEO outlined plans to rework more of Facebook's services around a "privacy-focused" approach over the next few years. This includes "simple, intimate" places where no one else can see your data, the use of end-to-end encryption, a reduced amount of permanent content, greater safety and secure data storage. Zuckerberg also vowed more interoperability between apps and networks.
Facebook reportedly took three years to tackle fake news in one country
Facebook is quick to tout its efforts to thwart misinformation campaigns in major European countries and the US, but its approach in other countries might not be quite so enthusiastic. Developers in Moldova told BuzzFeed News that they'd been asking Facebook to address fake news and misinformation in the country for three years before it finally removed the offenders. The Moldovans said they used a browser add-on (Trolless) to generate a database of fake accounts and had been using the official reporting tool to draw attention to them since 2016, but didn't have any luck until they made direct contact with a Facebook employee in January 2019.
Twitter bans right-wing activist Jacob Wohl over fake accounts
Twitter has cracked down on one of its more overt offenders. The social network told Daily Beast it has banned conservative activist Jacob Wohl for "multiple violations" of its rules by creating and running numerous fake accounts. He'd admitted to USA Today in an interview that he intended to open fake Twitter and Facebook accounts to manipulate the 2020 election in favor of Trump, and it appears that he didn't waste time. A Daily Beast source said he'd already crafted "several" Twitter accounts before Twitter dropped the hammer.
Facebook says it has 'work to do' improving moderator job conditions
Facebook hasn't been shy about hiring thousands of moderators to screen content that violates its policies, but there hasn't been much insight into conditions for those moderators. And unfortunately, it doesn't look great -- The Verge posted an exposé revealing that at least some contractors struggle with anxiety, trauma, inadequate counseling, micro-managing team leaders and low pay. To that end, Facebook Global Operations VP Justin Osofsky has issued a response where it explained its practices and how it might address the problems in the report.
Instagram code hints at Pinterest-style public collections
Instagram hasn't been shy about borrowing a page from Pinterest's book through its Collections feature, and it might be ready to take things a step further. Software sleuth Jane Manchun Wong has discovered that Instagram for Android includes hidden code for public Collections. You could not only share favorite travel destinations or fashion items with the world, but add contributors to help fill out your list.
Facebook allowed advertisers to target users interested in Nazism
Facebook still has some work to do if it wants to eliminate racist criteria from its ad targeting. The company has pulled numerous audience groupings from its ad plaform after the LA Times discovered that advertisers could target ads for people interested in racist leaders and groups, including Nazi leader slike Joseph Goebbels and a neo-Nazi punk band. These potentially reached hundreds of thousands of users. Company spokesman Joe Osborne said these ad categories were rarely used and typically focused on historical material, but he also acknowledged that the company should have spotted them sooner and could do better.
Pinterest blocks some searches to curb anti-vaccination myths
Social networks have made a number of efforts to halt the spread of anti-vaccination myths, but Pinterest recently took things a step further: it's curbing all talk about vaccination. The site has revealed to the Wall Street Journal that it blocked vaccination-related search terms late in 2018 to limit misinformation until it had a more effective way of filtering content. The company tried to pull the misleading material, but found that it couldn't remove all of it.
Social app Peach is looking for a benefactor on Twitter
Remember Peach? The social network from Vine founder Dom Hoffmann was briefly all the rage, but petered out as the realities of competing with Twitter (and every other social network) set in. It's been largely coasting since then, but now its team is looking for a helping hand. The Peach team has put out a call (ironically, on Twitter) for a "patron" that could keep its service running. After returning from a roughly two-week outage, the developers realized that passive upkeep "isn't cutting it" -- they need someone who can spare the resources to properly maintain Peach. That isn't possible for a small company that has "another big project" in the pipeline, according to the creators.
House committee hopes to question Facebook over group privacy
Facebook is facing even more government scrutiny this week. Members of the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee have asked to meet Facebook over concerns about group privacy. They're responding to an FTC complaint alleging that the social network exposed the sensitive information of group members. Women in a discussion group for the BRCA gene mutation found out that it was possible to download personal data (such as email addresses and names) in bulk, making it too easy to share info outside the group.
Mueller subpoenas Cambridge Analytica director in Russia probe
Cambridge Analytica may be no more, but those connected to it are facing an increasing amount of scrutiny. Former business development director Brittany Kaiser has confirmed to The Guardian through a spokesman that US special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed her as part of a broader investigation into potential links between President Trump's election campaign and the Russian government. While the exact nature of the questioning hasn't been made public, Kaiser said it came soon after she'd acknowledged meeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in February 2017.
UK parliament report will call for 'sweeping' regulation of Facebook
The UK Parliament's Facebook document dump is close to creating serious legal trouble for the social network. According to The Guardian, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee plans to release a report on February 18th calling on the UK government to enact "sweeping" legislation regulating Facebook's activities. The findings will assert that Facebook can't be trusted to police its own data handling, and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been "duplicitous."
