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TikTok forms an EU Safety Advisory Council following scrutiny from regulators
TikTok has formed a nine-member Safety Advisory Council in Europe to help shape its content moderation policies and practices
Facebook expands 'community help' hub for people in quarantine
As Facebook sees "unprecedented" demand for its services, the company is now encouraging its users to help out their neighbors. The social network is expanding its "community help" feature to reach people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Snapchat users can finally post Stories from other apps
Snapchat is finally opening up Stories to outside apps. Nearly a year after it was first previewed, the company is introducing App Stories, a feature that allows third-party apps to post Stories created in the Snapchat app to their services. First announced at the company's Partner Summit event, App Stories is now available in four apps: Triller, Squad, Hily, and Octi. The company says more apps will adopt App Stories over time, though it's not clear how quickly Snap will be ramping up. (And no word yet on when Stories might show up in Houseparty or Tinder -- two early partners that were teased during last year's Partner Summit.)
Facebook introduces new livestreaming features as demand skyrockets
Facebook is working on new features that make it easier for people to access live streams — even if they don't have a Facebook account — as it tries to meet the rise in demand for live video. The company will begin allowing non-Facebook users to watch live streams from mobile devices, something previously only available on desktop. The feature is already available to Android users and will be rolling out to iOS "in the coming weeks."
Facebook is struggling to keep up with 'unprecedented' traffic
If it seems like your Facebook feed is more active than usual these days, it's not just you: The company really is seeing a massive surge in use as millions of people around the world are forced to stay home. In Italy alone, Facebook has seen time spent increase by 70 percent and messaging increase more than 50 percent, the company said.
Twitter will verify more health experts to fight coronavirus misinformation
Twitter wants to make it easier for health experts to get verified. The company is taking new steps to open up its notoriously opaque verification program in order help elevate accounts that are "providing credible updates around #COVID19." "We are working with global public health authorities to identify experts and have already Verified hundreds of accounts," the company tweeted.
Snapchat adds mental health tools to ease coronavirus anxiety
Snapchat is updating its app with a set of mental health tools meant to help users combat anxiety and depression. The feature, called "Here For You," was first previewed in February, but the company says it opted to speed up its release in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
TikTok names experts who will help shape its content policies
TikTok has named the group of experts who will help guide the app's content moderation policies as part of the newly formed "Content Advisory Council." The group, chaired by George Washington University Law Professor Dawn Nunziato, is made up of academics who are experts in issues like child safety, free speech, politics, and video forensics. The seven-member council (the company says it will eventually grow to "around a dozen" people) will start meeting with TikTok's US executives later this month to discuss "critical topics around platform integrity, including policies against misinformation and election interference."
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.
San Francisco’s 25-year-old FogCam shuts down this month
On August 30th, FogCam, the internet's oldest running web camera, will air its final transmission from its perch on top of San Francisco State University. Since 1994, the camera has allowed people from across the world to watch the coming and going of San Francisco's famous fog, known to locals as Karl.
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.
