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Snapchat faces class-action suit for sexually explicit content
Snapchat has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit accusing the service of showing sexually explicit content to minors without providing the proper warning. A 14-year-old John Doe and his mother filed the lawsuit in California after he came across several X-rated posts on the app's Discover section. The court documents specifically named a handful of articles, including "10 Things He Thinks When He Can't Make You Orgasm" and "I Got High, Blown, and Robbed When I Was A Pizza Delivery Guy," among others. But the lawsuit focused on one BuzzFeed post in particular entitled "23 Pictures That Are Too Real If You've Ever Had Sex With A Penis." That post used Disney movie stills with explicit captions.
Snapchat Memories saves your favorite moments
Just because Snapchat mostly revolves around disappearing messages doesn't mean you always want those snaps to go away. In fact the company wants to help you do just the opposite -- it's launching Memories, a feature that saves both snaps and Stories for posterity. Once you've saved shots to Memories, you can create a Story from them or even link multiple Stories together. If you've been using Snapchat to document an epic vacation, you can share the whole thing as a giant collection of photos and videos. You should see the feature arrive sometime in the next month, and you'll get a chat when it's ready for you to use.
Recommended Reading: Why is 'Orange Is the New Black' so good?
'Orange Is the New Black' is Netflix's only great drama Alison Herman, The Ringer The fourth season of the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black starts streaming this weekend, and if you haven't watched your first episode yet, now's the time to catch up. The show is widely regarded as the best on the streaming service, or at least the best drama in the library. Alison Herman from The Ringer discusses that latter point and why Netflix's other dramas just don't stack up.
Snapchat Discover update adds subscriptions and previews
Snapchat's Discover page has always felt a bit like an afterthought, despite how much revenue the company expects to make with that particular feature. So, to make that tab a little more user- and advertiser-friendly, TechCrunch reports the company is adding image and headline previews to drive users through to each publisher's content.
Senator behind biometric privacy act tries to remove its teeth
The Illinois Biometric Privacy Act became law in 2008, making it illegal in the state to capture a person's biometric identifiers -- things like fingerprints, iris scans or faceprints -- without explicit consent. This has led to three lawsuits against Facebook, Google and Snapchat, each over the companies' use of face-scanning or -tagging technology. Now, Illinois State Senator Terry Link is attempting to add language to the bill that would make these practices legal in the state, effectively ending the lawsuits, The Verge reports. Note that Link is the senator who originally introduced the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act.
Snapchat aims to make over $1 billion in revenue in 2017
Snapchat has raised another $1.8 billion in funding, TechCrunch reports today, making the platform's current valuation somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 billion to $20 billion. While the company isn't profitable just yet, it has some very high hopes to break $1 billion in annual revenue by 2017.
Snapchat does something useful, lets you buy 'X-Men' tickets
Although they're sitting out Comic-Con, 20th Century Fox is going big with their Snapchat-based promotions for Friday's release of X-Men: Apocalypse. While users will notice Snapchat's filter lenses are all mutant-themed today, the movie studio has also pulled out another super power: letting users buy tickets directly from Snapchat ads that show up in the Discovery section.
Snapchat's content feed could go algorithmic
Snapchat's main content feed could soon get an algorithmic shakeup, Digiday reports. According to sources, Snapchat has been working on updates to its platform that would affect professional or brand accounts and re-arrange the chronological flow of content you see from the accounts you follow.
NASA shows a typical day on the ISS via Snapchat
NASA hasn't exactly been secretive when it comes to activities aboard the space station, but seeing astronauts living the dream is something else. To celebrate the ISS' 100,000th orbit around our planet since it launched in 1998, the agency has teamed up with Snapchat to show the crew's daily life through Live Stories. Expedition 47 commander Tim Kopra hosted the space-themed series, with short videos showing him eating a tortilla (a favorite among the astronauts, apparently), rolling around in mid-air and talking about their experiments, among other things.
MTV's first original Snapchat Discover show is all about sex
You'd think that MTV would have been quick to produce original shows for Snapchat's Discover portal (to be where the young people are), but nope -- it's only just getting to that now. The network has unveiled Pants Off, an eight-episode series that dishes out serious advice on sex and relationships in an accessible way. Sex educator and video blogger Laci Green hosts each of the short-form clips, which tackle everything from sex advice myths to dating apps. It's clear that MTV and Green aren't pulling many (if any) punches in the first episode. Although there isn't anything graphic on screen so far, you probably want to watch with headphones on while you're in public.
John McAfee claims he can read encrypted messages on Android (updated)
John McAfee is already many things -- entrepreneur, presidential hopeful, alleged criminal. However, you might have to add one more item to that list: the co-discoverer of a potentially major Android security flaw. He and a team in Colorado claim to have found a hole in Google's mobile platform that lets them read encrypted WhatsApp messages (and those from other services, for that matter), rendering its privacy safeguards pointless. McAfee is saying precious little about how the intrusion works, but he supposedly gave Cybersecurity Ventures enough details to suggest that the story might hold up.
Ellen Degeneres launches a network with YouTube, Snapchat stars
Ellen Degeneres is leveling up with the launch of her own network, the Ellen Digital Network, which will create content for online platforms and television. YouTube powerhouse Tyler Oakley has signed on to help build original programming for the web and TV alike, while the two stars behind the viral "Damn, Daniel" videos are building an original series for Snapchat. This new venture is a partnership with Warner Bros. Television.
This thirtysomething finally figured out Snapchat
Until a few weeks ago, I didn't understand Snapchat. That's odd, because I generally like to think of myself as pretty internet savvy. I've been one of the first to join every new network since the days of Orkut, and I adopted Twitter early enough to get my first name for a handle. But despite Snapchat's popularity, I couldn't work out how to use it. I resigned myself to the idea that as someone in her late thirties, I was just out of touch with Snapchat's target younger demographic. But after spending several weeks playing around with it, I'm hooked.
MTV is bringing 'Cribs' back... on Snapchat
MTV is reviving Cribs, that show that gave us a peek into the homes of A- to Z-list celebrities and Mariah Carey's bathing habits, according to Variety. It's not going to make you feel like it's the early 2000's again, though -- not when the new program is designed specifically for Snapchat, in an effort to entice younger audiences to tune in. Variety says the revival will be a weekly "short-form" show for MTV's Snapchat Discover channel. The publication also says it'll provide "an intimate experience," likely by having the celebs themselves guide viewers around their houses from their POV. Whatever its format is, we just hope MTV can recreate the old show's magic. The new Cribs will reportedly start appearing on your Snapchat Discover section sometime in June.
Snapchat's 'face-swap' now taps into your existing photos
Snapchat has scrapped its pay-to-replay feature, meaning repeat views of temporary videos and photos is now a free, one-time-only deal. Far, far more importantly, you can now swap your face with any visage that Snapchat auto-detects on your photo roll: no more attempting to awkwardly position your buddy in a photo, or point your phone at a laptop or magazine. Sure you can still do that, but why would you? The results are equal parts stupid and magical. Game changer.
Snapchat's 420 Bob Marley filter is just digital blackface
Today is April 20th, and you now what that means -- time for everyone to celebrate marijuana! Snapchat is paying tribute to 420 with a few new filters. Sure, the "traveling bong" one is innocent enough, but the Bob Marley filter, well... see above. Not only does it replicate all the creepiness of face-swapping, but it adds a dash of racial insensitivity to the mix. Basically, Snapchat is giving everyone the ability (and an excuse) to put on digital blackface.
It's complicated: A film examines our relationship with social media
In a world of status updates, indie filmmaker Kerith Lemon categorizes her relationship with modern technology under the "It's complicated" banner. And with good reason. Lemon, whose short film "A Social Life" casts a harsh light on our addictive entanglement with social media, has dipped a toe in almost every online networking platform. That involvement was mainly a requirement of her job at the time. Back in the early aughts, Lemon worked as an integrated-marketing specialist at Viacom, where she handled brand messaging for the likes of MTV, Nickelodeon and CBS Radio. "I jumped on all of them because I needed to know everything," she says. "I'm not exaggerating when I say that I signed up for eHarmony for a pitch to see how it would work."
Snapchat stickers can now move around in your videos
One of Snapchat's defining features is the ability to add text, emoji and colorful scribbles to your photos and videos. Before, these would sit statically on the screen, but now stickers can move in tandem with any object or person in the frame. Once you've shot your video, you'll be able to add some colorful emoji and pair them with specific parts of the recording. Snapchat will handle the rest, making the stickers move, rotate and change size. As way of example, this could mean having a bicycle shoot down the street alongside a car, or putting a guitar in your best friend's hands.
Snapchat completely revamps its feature set for 'Chat 2.0'
Snapchat unveiled a massive update to its popular messaging app on Tuesday, replete with a slew of new functions. Chat 2.0, as the company is calling the new iteration, will enable users to effortlessly switch between communication mediums -- whether it's text, voice or video -- as the conversation dictates.
Evaporating Bitmoji cost Snapchat around $100 million
SnapChat is buying Bitstrips, the company behind those weird (and depending on your Facebook News Feed) sometimes offensive personalized avatar comic strips. Fortune reports that the deal between Bitstrips and the ephemeral messaging company is somewhere around a $100 million purchase in cash and stock. How the avatar-minded outfit will fit in with Snapchat's temporary nature is anyone's guess at this point, but given the latter's big push into face-morphing tech and emoji for its evaporating stories that's probably a good bet.
