social media
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Remember when WhatsApp didn’t want to make money?
WhatsApp is preparing to make money by facilitating conversations between business and consumers. It’s a great move. Messaging is huge, and there is vast scope for bringing brands and businesses on board. It’s a process that’s been happening for years, predominantly with Asia-based chat apps that let users follow official accounts, but enterprising business people in… Read More
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Twitter has a big bot problem
Twitter bots – robots that interact with humans – have a long history. The Twitter API is fairly easy to use (I made a bot that plays Zork with a friend two years ago) and there is little protection against creating new accounts automatically. This ease of use used to be great for programmers but now Twitter has a huge bot problem. Bots have expanded beyond the traditional tactics. Read More
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Facebook faces another moderation scandal over migrant torture videos
Facebook is faced with yet another content-related scandal, after The Times newspaper reported that people traffickers and slave traders are using its platform to broadcast videos of migrants being tortured to try to extort money from their families. Read More
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Amazon’s social media ‘Influencers’ program opens up to YouTube stars
Amazon’s Influencer Program, a service that allows social media personalities to earn commissions on the Amazon products they promote, is now accepting sign-ups from YouTube influencers who want to participate. Last Thursday, Amazon quietly enabled a self-service tool for YouTube stars that lets them request to join the highly-vetted program, which had first launched into beta in… Read More
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Teens favoring Snapchat and Instagram over Facebook, says eMarketer
Facebook is losing appeal among teens and young adults which is contributing to generally slowing growth for the platform, according to the latest projections from research firm eMarketer. Read More
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Run to the rock
The past week has been a tough one for lovers of freedom. Slippery slopes have been slid down and a side of the human mind that once remained in shadow has reared its head. Charlottesville is just the first step down a dark road. In real life, on the public square, our support of freedom of speech and public assembly – a freedom that has long helped hater and lover alike – is… Read More
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More political headbanging on encryption threatens privacy
The UK’s Home Secretary has yet again cranked up the pressure on messaging giants over use of end-to-end encryption to secure communications sent via popular services like WhatsApp — implying she would prefer tech companies voluntarily re-engineer their security systems so that decrypted data can be handed over to terror-fighting intelligence agencies on demand. Read More
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Facebook said to be working on dedicated video chat device
Facebook is reportedly working on dedicated video chat hardware, per a new report by Bloomberg. The device is said to be the inaugural major product from Facebook’s hardware-focused Building 8 product development lab, and will include a notebook-sized display. It’s intended to make video chat participants separated geographically feel like they’re together in the same space… Read More
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Authory wants to help journalists raise their voices
Journalists wanting a neat way to back up and showcase their writing should take a look at Authory: a new service that promises to save your work from tumbling into a digital abyss — i.e. being buried 10,000 leagues down, folded under the ceaseless deluge of new data, where few eyeballs stray. Read More
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ZeroFox secures $40m Series C to help manage social media risk
ZeroFox, a startup that helps companies manage social media risk including scams, malicious links and account hijacking, announced a $40 million Series C investment today. The round was led by Redline Capital Management and Silver Lake Waterman (which is Silver Lake’s late stage growth capital fund). Existing investors NEA, Highland Capital Partners and Core Capital also participated. Read More
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LinkedIn’s head of China is leaving the company
LinkedIn’s head of China, a key figure in the launch of its business in the country in 2014, is leaving the company, LinkedIn has confirmed. Derek Shen, LinkedIn President of China who led the company’s controversial entry into China, will leave at the end of this month, according to a spokesperson. There’s no immediate replacement, but head of international engineering… Read More
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Time Warner will spend $100M on Snapchat original shows and ads
Time Warner and Snap Inc. have announced a new deal that will bring increased ad spending and the development of new made-for-Snapchat shows. People familiar with the deal tell TechCrunch that it is valued at about $100 million spent over the next two years. The newly created shows will span a variety of genres, including scripted drama, daily news shows, documentaries and comedy. The shows… Read More
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Google to ramp up AI efforts to ID extremism on YouTube
Last week Facebook solicited help with what it dubbed “hard questions” — including how it should tackle the spread of terrorism propaganda on its platform. Yesterday Google followed suit with its own public pronouncement, via an op-ed in the FT newspaper, explaining how it’s ramping up measures to tackle extremist content. Read More
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Crunch Network
Advertising giants leave little room for adtech startups, and VCs are noticing
Since the earliest days of the commercial web, there was a Faustian bargain struck between users and content publishers: Users got free access to online content in exchange for tolerating ads sold by the very same publishers delivering the latest words, images, and videos. And, by and large, it’s a bargain that’s worked out well for digital advertisers. According to data published… Read More
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Instagram’s archive feature goes live, letting you hide photos indefinitely
Last month we noted that Instagram was testing a new feature called “archive”, which lets users hide any of their posts from anyone else – either permanently or indefinitely. Today this will roll out to everyone on Instagram, meaning you can start hiding photos today. You can archive any photo or video on your profile by tapping the “…” three-dots button in… Read More
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UK and France to jointly pressure tech firms over extremist content
The leader of the UK’s new minority government, Theresa May, is in France today for talks with her French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and the pair are slated to launch a joint crack down on online extremism. Read More
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Social media giants making progress on illegal hate speech takedowns: EC
The European Commission is trumpeting what it dubs “significant progress” on hate speech takedowns by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft vs their performance six months prior. Though it also cautions some challenges remain. Read More
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Miso Happy is a 3D selfie app that rocks the uncanny valley
Move over duckface. Shove off rainbow spew. There’s a new selfie game in town and it wants to turn your 2D visage into uncannily accurate 3D — then splice that axiomatic piece of you into animated cartoon suits that rock out, strut their disco stuff, skateboard, look coy, relaxed or laugh manically. Read More
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