As the COVID-19 pandemic expands across the globe, various misinformation campaigns – promoting everything from ‘cures’ to rumored government actions – have also gained traction, with messaging apps, in particular, becoming a key tool in circulating such reports. In the past, Facebook has been the key focus for misinformation efforts due to its massive audience reach, but now,…
Back in 2016, Facebook made a big push to connect more users in India via its Free Basics program, but that push was eventually blocked by Indian regulators over conflict of interest concerns and issues with foreign interference in the local market. But India remains key to Facebook’s expansion plans, and since then, the company has been…
Reddit has launched a new Polls option which enables Redditors to pose questions to their audiences, helping to boost on-platform engagement, and activate the many ‘lurkers’ – people who scroll through the various posts but don’t post, share or comment themselves – within the app. As explained by Reddit: “We’re excited to introduce Polls, a brand new post type…
After lowering the video quality of its streams across Europe last week, in response to concerns that local networks could become overloaded with video traffic, YouTube has this week confirmed that it will do the same in all regions, with YouTube videos to load in standard definition by default for at least the next month. As explained by Bloomberg:…
Right now, it’s impossible to predict the full impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it will relate to each sector and industry – and what that will mean, specifically, for your own company’s bottom line. But one sector that is likely to be hit hard is journalism, and in particular, local news organizations that…
With more people turning to Pinterest for inspiration and discovery amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, the company is launching a new feature called ‘Today’, which will showcase the latest trending ideas from across its network. People need inspiring ideas today, more than ever. Introducing the Today tab, a source of daily inspiration with curated topics, trending Pins,…
With everybody locked inside, and missing out on regular social interaction, Instagram is adding a new feature that aims to help users connect via video chat, with the option of also scrolling through your Instagram feed while still connected via video link. As you can see here, Instagram’s new ‘Co-Watching’ feature enables users to search through…
While Twitter’s stalled profile verification system remains a confusing mess, the blue profile tick still conveys a sense of authority on Twitter and can help to amplify messaging from those that have it. This week, New York Times writer Jennifer Senior raised an entirely valid question around verification in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey, @jack: Is…
I’m not sure how effective ‘Stay home’ stickers that Instagram launched are, but it certainly seems keen on releasing them, which would likely suggest that they’re at least somewhat effective. This week, Instagram has launched a new ‘Stay Home’ sticker for Instagram Stories in order to encourage people to stay inside amid the evolving COVID-19 outbreak. As…
This will no doubt be controversial. WABetaInfo has reported that WhatsApp is developing a new option that would enable users to set their WhatsApp messages to auto-delete after a set time limit. As you can see in these screenshots, pulled from the beta version of WhatsApp on Android, the new option, if it is rolled out, will let people…