Facebook

What Facebook is Doing to Address Hate Speech as #StopHateforProfit Campaign Goes Into Effect

With over 400 advertisers set to pause their Facebook ad spend from today as part of the expanding #StopHateforProfit campaign,  The Social Network has made efforts on various fronts to address concerns around its policies regarding hate speech – and in particular, its decision to leave aggressive, threatening comments from US President Donald Trump upon…

YouTube

YouTube is Testing its TikTok-Like ‘Shorts’ Option

Back in April, The Information reported that YouTube was working on a new, TikTok-like, short-form video option that would live within YouTube, providing a new way for YouTubers to tap into the rising, 15-second clip trend. Now, YouTube has released more information on the coming function. As reported by TechCrunch, YouTube has shared some new details on the…

Google

Google Expands Access to its Business Messaging Tools from Maps and Search Listings

Google will enable more businesses to facilitate direct messaging from customers via maps and search listings, with a new expansion of its business message tools. As explained by Google: “Today we’re expanding Business Messages in Maps and Search to support all kinds of businesses, and giving them the ability to integrate Business Messages directly with their customer service platforms….

Facebook

Facebook Adds New Warning Screen to Stop Unintended Sharing of Older News Articles

With more people relying on Facebook for news content, The Social Network has also become a key source of debate and discussion around such, and that, unfortunately, also includes the spread of misinformation and/or skewed framing of events in order to further political agendas. Part of this comes via blatant misinformation being circulated – both on Facebook and…

YouTube

YouTube is Testing a New Analytics Overview Summary to Help Creators Maximize Performance

YouTube is working on a new video analytics display that is designed to help creators better understands where their views are coming from, and how they can maximize each video’s performance. As explained by YouTube Creator Insider Conor Kavanagh: “This is a new analytics video overview that has smarter explanations about how your video is…

TikTok

TikTok Removes a Feature that Grabs Data from User Clipboards after New iOS Update Exposed the Process

TikTok has said that it will remove a feature that reads data from the clipboard on user devices as they use TikTok after a recent iOS update exposed the practice. Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia posted this example of the process on Twitter: “Okay, so TikTok is grabbing the contents of my clipboard every 1-3 keystrokes. iOS 14 is…

Facebook dark mode

You can Now Switch to Facebook Dark Mode on Your Mobile App

Facebook has confirmed that some users are now able to switch to Facebook dark mode in the mobile app. Yes, it’s coming. As you can see in these screenshots, posted by user @NotFridayCraig on Twitter (and shared by Matt Navarra), for those who can access it, Facebook dark mode now appears as an option in your Facebook app settings. We…

Facebook

Facebook Set to Start Adding Labels to Rule-Breaking Content from Politicians

With more companies joining a planned boycott of Facebook ad spend in July; CEO Mark Zuckerberg has today announced that The Social Network will roll out new labels to better explain why some content from politicians, which technically violates platform rules, has been left active and unchecked. Zuckerberg made the announcement via Facebook Live, following…

Instagram

Instagram Will Now Allow New Advertisers in some Regions to Create Ads without Linking to a Facebook Page

As reported by AdWeek, Instagram will now allow new advertisers in some regions to create Instagram ad campaigns without having to link to a Facebook Page. This seems like an interesting shift at Facebook. As per Instagram: “You can now create Instagram ads without having a presence on Facebook. If you are promoting a post from your…

Mixer

Microsoft Announces Shutdown of Mixer Gaming Platform, Merges Existing Mixer Users Over to Facebook Gaming

Some big news in the gaming sphere as Microsoft has announced that it’s shutting down its Mixer game-streaming platform, and merging existing Mixer users over to Facebook Gaming. As per Mixer: “It became clear that the time needed to grow our own live-streaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences that Microsoft and…