social media

WhatsApp now lets users plan and schedule events in Communities

WhatsApp is introducing a new way for people to organize events in Communities, the company announced on Wednesday. The feature makes it easier to plan get-togethers and events directly in WhatsApp, w

LinkedIn is the Twitter/X rival no one is talking about

Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in the fall of 2022, the market for Twitter alternatives has been saturated with would-be competitors ranging from smaller startups to open source apps to well-funded

Bill to strengthen national tipline for missing and exploited children heads to Biden’s desk

A bipartisan bill designed to protect children from online sexual exploitation is headed to President Biden’s desk. Proposed by Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-SC), the bill a

Instagram is updating its algorithm to surface more content from smaller, original creators

Instagram is introducing a few new changes to its ranking systems to better highlight content from smaller, original creators.

Social media companies have too much political power, 78% of Americans say in Pew survey

Finally, something that both sides of the aisle can agree on: social media companies are too powerful. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 78% of American adults say social media compani

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joins board of Mastodon’s new US nonprofit

Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder, is among those who have joined the board of directors of Mastodon’s new U.S. nonprofit, Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko announced over the weekend. Mastodon’s se

Why Meta is looking to the fediverse as the future for social media

Meta’s move into the open social web, also known as the fediverse, is puzzling. Does the Facebook owner see open protocols as the future? Will it embrace the fediverse only to shut it down, shif

Gen Z is losing its political voice on social media

President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban co

Bluesky backs a project that would let Mastodon apps, like Ivory, work with its network

SkyBridge was among the recipients of a small distribution of $4,800 in grant funding from Bluesky, distributed across projects.

AirChat, the buzzy new social app, could be great — or, it could succumb to the same fate as Clubhouse

Over the weekend, another social media platform exploded into the fray: AirChat. The app is like a combination of Twitter and Clubhouse. Instead of typing a post, you speak it. The app quickly transcr

Snap plans to add watermarks to images created with its AI-powered tools

Social media service Snap said on Tuesday that it plans to add watermarks to AI-generated images on its platform. The watermark is a translucent version of the Snap logo with a sparkle emoji, and it w

Meta’s Oversight Board probes explicit AI-generated images posted on Instagram and Facebook

The Oversight Board, Meta’s semi-independent policy council, is turning its attention to how the company’s social platforms are handling explicit, AI-generated images. Tuesday, it announce

Naval Ravikant’s Airchat is a social app built around talk, not text

Airchat is a new social media app that encourages users to “just talk.” A previous version of Airchat was released last year, but the team — led by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and former Ti

Startups Weekly: So are we all working from home now?

From remote work to magnetic keyboard switches, we have your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups.

Megan Thee Stallion’s favorite app is Pinterest, obviously

It actually makes sense that in an era of oversaturation, people would escape to a more quiet and rather peaceful corner of the internet to dream once more.  

Lyrak to take on X by combining the best of Twitter with fediverse integration

Lyrak is a new X rival that aims to differentiate itself by focusing on real-time news and monetization options for creators.

Flipboard deepens its ties to the open source social web (aka the fediverse)

Flipboard users can now see their new followers and other activity around the content they share in the fediverse directly in the Flipboard app.

Meta’s X competitor Threads invites developers to sign up for API access, publishes docs

After opening its developer API to select companies for testing in March, Meta’s Twitter/X competitor Threads is now introducing developer documentation and a sign-up sheet for interested partie

Snapchat turns off controversial ‘Solar System’ feature by default after bad press

Less than a week after The Wall St. Journal reported on how a Snapchat feature dubbed “solar system” was adding to teens’ anxiety, the company has responded by adjusting how the feat

Is it just me, or was that an earthquake?

For just a brief moment, this was the internet at its best. I stared at a vase of dried out Trader Joe’s flowers, rumbling on my table for maybe 30 seconds, but I was too shocked to even process
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