Social
Facebook takes down 16,000 groups trading fake reviews after another poke by UK’s CMA
Facebook has removed 16,000 groups that were trading fake reviews on its platform after another intervention by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the regulator said today. The CM
ShareChat valued at $2.1 billion in $502 million fundraise
ShareChat said on Thursday it has raised a new financing round that values it at over $2 billion, joining four other local startups in attaining the unicorn status this week. The Indian social network
Pinterest announces $500K Creator Fund, ‘Creator Code’ content policy, moderation tools and more
Pinterest today hosted an event focused on its creator community, where the company announced a series of updates including the launch of a $500,000 Creator Fund, a new content policy called the Creat
Facebook tests Hotline, a Q&A product that’s a mashup of Clubhouse and Instagram Live
Facebook’s internal R&D group, NPE Team, has today launched its latest experiment, Hotline, into public beta testing. The web-based application could be described as a mashup of Instagram Li
As competition heats up, TikTok announces six new interactive music effects for creators
TikTok today is doubling down on its roots as a music-backed creation app with the launch of a half dozen new music effects for creators. The effects, which offer interactivity, visualizations, animat
Daily Crunch: Facebook faces questions over data breach
European regulators have questions about a Facebook data breach, Clubhouse adds payments and a robotics company has SPAC plans. This is your Daily Crunch for April 6, 2021. The big story: Facebook fac
Lawmakers press Instagram for details on its plans for kids
A group of Democratic lawmakers wrote to Mark Zuckerberg this week to press the CEO on his plans to curate a version of Instagram for children. In a hearing last month, Zuckerberg confirmed reporting
Facebook confirms ‘test’ of Venmo-like QR codes for person-to-person payments in US
Facebook confirms it’s testing a new QR code feature and payment links for use with Facebook Pay to make it easier for people in the U.S. to send or request money from one another. The QR code f
Answers being sought from Facebook over latest data breach
Facebook’s lead data protection regulator in the European Union is seeking answers from the tech giant over a major data breach reported over the weekend. The breach was reported by Business Ins
TikTok adds auto captions to make videos accessible to hard of hearing and deaf
TikTok this morning announced the launch of a new feature designed to make its app accessible to people who are hard of hearing or deaf. The company is today debuting auto captions — a feature t
Facebook’s Kustomer buy could face EU probe after merger referral
The European Union may investigate Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of customer service platform Kustomer after concerns were referred to it under EU merger rules. A spokeswoman for the Commiss
Sendbird raises $100M at a $1B+ valuation, says 150M+ users now interact using its chat and video APIs
Messaging is the medium these days, and today a startup that has built an API to help others build text and video interactivity into their services is announcing a big round to continue scaling its bu
Clubhouse launches payments so creators can make money
Clubhouse, a one-year-old social audio app reportedly valued at $1 billion, will now allow users to send money to their favorite creators — or speakers — on the platform. In a blog post, t
Supreme Court tosses ruling that said Trump blocking Twitter critics was unconstitutional
The Supreme Court has vacated a previous ruling that found former President Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking his Twitter foes. The ruling was upheld by a Manhattan federal appeals court
UK’s antitrust watchdog takes a closer look at Facebook-Giphy
Potential threats to the free flow of GIFs continue to trouble the U.K.’s competition watchdog. Facebook’s $400 million purchase of Giphy, announced last year, is now facing an in-depth pr
Facebook launches profile frames that help you encourage friends to get the COVID-19 vaccine
As COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more readily available to larger groups of the U.S. population, Facebook has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Dis
Daily Crunch: Facebook makes it easier to view a non-algorithmic News Feed
Facebook has some thoughts and updates about its News Feed, Siri gets some new voices and Tonal becomes a unicorn. This is your Daily Crunch for March 31, 2021. The big story: Facebook makes it easier
Facebook says Trump can’t skirt its ban through daughter-in-law’s account
Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump promoted a new interview with the former president on Facebook and Instagram Tuesday, but a workaround to Trump’s ban on two of the world’s most po
Instagram officially launches Remix on Reels, a TikTok Duets-like feature
Instagram today is officially launching a new feature called Remix, which offers a way to record your Reels video alongside a video from another user. The option is similar to TikTok’s existing
Discord is launching new Clubhouse-like channels for audio events
Everyone is scrambling to build a Clubhouse clone right now, but for Discord it makes perfect sense. With everyone stuck at home searching for safe ways to rekindle their social lives over the last ye