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Instagram is working on new rules for banning accounts
Less than a week after banning Alex Jones and other far-right extremists, Instagram has revealed that it is working on a new policy for account removals. These upcoming guidelines, which the company told Engadget will start rolling out "soon," are going to change how Instagram determines when an account should be removed from its app. Right now, it relies on a policy that allows "a certain percentage" of violations within a window of time before it decides to ban someone, but Instagram says this can create leniency for users who post often. Basically, the more an account posts, the higher the number of violations they're allowed. You can see why that would be problematic.
Instagram will soon let you appeal post takedowns
While Instagram has made it easy for users to report posts that may violate its policies, there hasn't been a way for people to contest those decisions. But that will be changing soon. In a media briefing in New York City, the company said it is going to start rolling out a new appeals feature over the next few months. This will give users the chance to request a review of content that was taken down, all from inside the app. Instagram says that, if it realizes it made a mistake, it'll restore posts. Any appeal will be sent to a completely different reviewer than the one who made the original decision, in order to ensure that the posts are thoroughly inspected.
Facebook’s ‘privacy-focused’ plan is another diversion
When Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at F8 2019, he once again outlined the company's new "privacy-focused" vision. It's a message he's been spreading over the past few months, and it will focus on six key principles: encryption, interoperability, ephemerality, safety, secure data storage and private interactions. While Zuckerberg went all in on how Facebook-owned apps will soon work seamlessly together, and how private conversations will play a key role, he seemed unaware the new plan could create problems of its own.
Facebook has a three-part plan for making AI more 'inclusive'
Facebook kicked off the second day of F8 2019, its annual developers conference, with a keynote about the technologies it uses to combat abuse on its platform. As the company detailed last year, artificial intelligence is key to keeping its apps and services safe. Facebook says AI is now proactively taking down more than 99 percent of spam, fake accounts and terrorist propaganda, though it's still struggling with hate speech (51.6 percent) and harassment (14.9 percent). Another area where Facebook is looking to improve the technology is inclusivity. What that means, essentially, is that it wants to teach its machines to work the same for everyone, regardless of skin color or other physical attributes.
A closer look at the redesigned Facebook app
Out of all the announcements Facebook made at its F8 2019 developers conference, one of the most important was the redesign of its core smartphone app. The new application, which has been updated with what Facebook is calling the "FB5" version, is now cleaner, faster and puts Groups front and center. And, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "The app isn't even blue anymore." That's the first thing you'll notice when you check out the new app, which is rolling out to users starting today. If you use Messenger, the white-covered design of the FB5 Facebook app will feel quite familiar.
Instagram lets you buy what Kim Kardashian wears right from the app
With over 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram sees a major opportunity to disrupt online shopping. And, over the past year or so, the company has been working hard to make shopping a cornerstone feature of its app. Just last month, it started allowing users buy products from a select group of brands without leaving the application, and now it's taking that one step further by opening up these features to celebrities, athletes and influencers. Starting next week, Instagram will make it easy for you to shop looks from your favorite creators: They'll now be able to tag products in their posts, giving you the ability to buy whatever they may be wearing (from apparel to cosmetics) directly from the app.
Instagram will start hiding 'Like' counts for users in Canada
As rumored, Instagram is indeed getting ready to roll out a test that hides "Like" counts from people looking at your pictures and videos. The company made the announcement at Facebook's F8 developers conference, where it revealed that it will start doing this with users in Canada next week. With the test, Instagram plans to remove the total number of likes from photos and videos on that show up on the main feed, profiles and permalinked pages.
Facebook’s Dating app wants to connect you with your secret crush
If you've ever wanted to let Facebook know who your romantic crush is -- and no, "poking" doesn't count -- soon you'll have the chance to do just that. Today, at its F8 2019 developers conference, the company announced Secret Crush, a new feature that will let you use Facebook Dating to express interest in someone from your friends on the site. Facebook says that users have told it they believe there's an opportunity to explore romances within their own extended circle of friends on Facebook, and that's how the idea for Secret Crush came to be.
Facebook helps you grow your social circle with ‘Meet New Friends’
Facebook is introducing a feature called "Meet New Friends" at F8 2019, its annual developers conference. The company says that Meet New Friends is designed to help users start friendships with others from their shared communities on Facebook, such as the city you live in, the school you go/went to or the place you work at. Since this may raise privacy concerns, which is the last thing the company needs right now, Facebook is quick to point out that Meet New Friends is an opt-in tool. That means you'll only come across other people who have turned the feature on, and the same goes for you populating on someone else's feed.
Facebook’s FTC fine could cost it between $3 and $5 billion
Although Facebook's growth has slowed down over the past year, all the controversies it has faced in recent months haven't had an effect on its bottom line. But that may be changing. Today, during its Q1 2019 earnings report, Facebook reported a total revenue of $15.1 billion, a 26 percent year-over-year increase. The most interesting part, however, is that Facebook says it estimates spending between $3 and $5 billion as part of an ongoing investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into its data-sharing practices.
Bots have invaded Instagram comments
The last thing I expected to find on Instagram was someone telling me not to look at their Story if I didn't want to masturbate. But that comment, which I can only assume was intended reverse psychology, wasn't just directed at me. It was left on a post from Sky Sports and, thanks to the thousands of likes garnered by the comment, it was the first thing the account's 2.7 million followers would see when they looked at the comments on that picture. There are similar comments all over Instagram, particularly on high-profile pages with millions of followers. And they have one thing in common: They're spam profiles with pictures and videos of naked and half-naked women, which were created to get you to look at their accounts and then have you sign up for shady pornographic sites.
Russia worked hard to recruit social media users to campaign for Trump
We already knew that the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is essentially a farm of bots and trolls, exposed 126 million Americans on Facebook to Russian-backed propaganda during the 2016 US presidential election. But today's release of the redacted Mueller report has shed light on new details, including the great lengths the IRA went to in using social media to provoke social discord in the US. The report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, titled "The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election," highlights how the IRA created thousands of accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr to create posts in "support for the Trump Campaign and opposition to candidate [Hillary] Clinton."
Snapchat can survive, but it can't do it alone
Snap Inc. co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel kicked off the first-ever Partner Summit last week in Los Angeles with a sort of syrupy soliloquy about how the Snapchat camera "lets natural light from our world penetrate the darkness of the internet." He went on to say the internet was "started as a military research project" and, therefore, "it's just not our natural habitat." The point Spiegel was trying to make (I think) is that building a platform like the internet is a collaborative process. And he sees Snapchat as a world where good things can happen, but he doesn't want to build it alone.
Facebook gives you more control over what you see in your News Feed
Facebook has announced a new feature called "Why am I seeing this post?" which will help you better understand the content that shows up on your News Feed from friends, Pages and Groups you follow. Not only that, but this will also give you more control over what you see in the News Feed, letting you easily manage the posts you interact with on the site. The company says this is the first time it has built information on how News Feed ranking works directly into the Facebook app, noting that it is part of its efforts to be more transparent with users about how its algorithms target you.
A week with Twitter's attempt at a more civil internet
Over the past few months, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been adamant that one of his goals is to "increase the health of public conversation" on the site. Because it's no secret that, as great as Twitter is at connecting you with people across the world, it's also great at connecting you with bots, trolls and spam. Unsurprisingly, Twitter wants to change that. And it's hoping to find a solution by publicly testing new conversation features, through an experimental program that users can apply to participate in. This launched last week as an app called Twttr, which I've been using as my main tool for reading and writing tweets for the past week.
Facebook is using AR to bring a massive mural to life
With all the controversy surrounding Facebook right now, it's easy to forget that the company actually does plenty of good for people across the world. At SXSW 2019, Facebook's Art House hopes to show that with a 2,200 square foot mural, which will be gifted to the community in Austin, Texas. To make this happen, Facebook teamed up with non-profit organizations HOPE (Helping Other People Everywhere), Out Youth, Yes Mentoring and Todos Juntos to commission 15 local artists and groups to create a large-scale piece that will live in downtown Austin for the next six months. They will be joined by members of Facebook Artists in Residence (AIR), a program Facebook founded to provide resources to artists and help them show off their work at the company's campuses.
Facebook only cares about privacy because it has to
When your reputation is as shattered as Facebook's, all you can do is try to change course. And amid an ongoing crisis caused by its continuous disregard for protecting users' data, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a 3,000-word manifesto on his "privacy-focused vision" for the company. In it, the embattled Facebook chief detailed how he plans to take the social network into a new era by focusing on "simple, intimate places" where people can have private interactions and enjoy features such as end-to-end encryption. Additionally, Zuckerberg said Facebook will start reducing permanent content and offering better safety and secure data storage, though it's unclear when these changes are going to take place.
Snapchat is in the middle of an identity crisis
There was a time a year or so ago when, if a friend wanted to send me a meme or a funny selfie, it would be on Snapchat. But I don't remember the last time that happened; at some point Instagram became our go-to messaging app. And apparently I'm not alone: Snapchat lost as many as 3 million daily users in 2018. Meanwhile, Instagram has grown so fast over the past two years that its Stories feature alone is much bigger than Snapchat, with more than 500 million daily users. This has arguably come at Snapchat's expense. But it's not as if Snap isn't looking to turn things around. The company wants to reinvent itself by trying a bunch of different things, like augmented reality shopping, being more open and teaming up with brands such as Nike on AR workshops.
Facebook at 15: The long road to social media dominance
Facebook's come a long way since it launched 15 years ago today, on February 4th, 2004. Known as TheFacebook.com when it was created by Mark Zuckerberg and friends from Harvard, the service has gone from a "directory of information for college students" to a social media giant with more than 2.32 billion users every month. And that's not even counting people using services it acquired over the past few years, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, each with more than 1.3 billion users of their own. But while Facebook has had plenty of impressive milestones in its history, it has also dealt with a good deal of controversies. From the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal to the spread of fake news on its site, Facebook has had to put out a lot of fires, especially in recent years. So, as the company turns 15, let's go back in time and take a look at 15 of the biggest Facebook headlines since it was born.
To Facebook, your privacy is worth a $20 gift card
Another day, another Facebook controversy. The latest backlash follows a TechCrunch report that the company was secretly paying teenagers to access their data and basically monitor their every move on the web. Facebook was asking people to install a VPN app called Facebook Research that gave it full access to a user's phone and internet activity. That, according to security expert Will Strafach (who helped TechCrunch with the investigation), gave the company the ability to continuously collect "private messages in social media apps, chats from in instant messaging apps (including photos/videos sent to others), emails, web searches, web browsing activity and even ongoing location information."
