Taking on Facebook Groups and Reddit threads, Twitter has announced Communities. Now in testing, Twitter is adding communities based around content themes. “Imagine an alternative timeline where everyone just gets you…” Twitter posted in making the announcement. Twitter showed examples including: Plant lovers Black women photographers Sneakerheads Crypto Skincare Traveling solo It will take some
The folks at Clario have put together a fascinating chart that breaks down which online platforms and brands collect the most data and what they know about us. I thought it was worth sharing. Facebook and Instagram top the list (no surprise). We all do it – click ‘accept’ on a cookie pop-up without reading
“Our investigation leaves no doubt that there is a clear and compelling need for Congress and the antitrust enforcement agencies to take action that restores competition, improves innovation, and safeguards our democracy.” Rep. David Cicilline After reviewing more than 1.3 million internal documents and interviewing more than 240 people and three dozen antitrust experts, and
Facebook is publicly ramping up the battle with the Australian government over pending legislation that would force it to pay royalties for use of copyrighted news content. It’s a battle being watched closely in both media and tech circles because the implications go farther than just what’s happening in Australia. The tech giants likely fear
Nearly half of Americans now believe major tech companies should face more regulation. That was one key finding in a new survey by the Pew Research Center. The survey was released as a House Judiciary Committee is looking into tech companies. Specifically, they are examining anti-trust concerns. Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple were expected to
More than a thousand advertisers have now stopped spending on Facebook. Those behind the efforts say Facebook hasn’t made a commitment to changing anything. Jonathon Greenblatt with the Anti-Defamation League, along with leaders of other civil rights groups (NAACP, Color of Change, Free Press), organized the Stop Hate for Profit campaign to hold Facebook accountable.
Facebook’s facing a revolt among advertisers. Where will it end up and will it have a real impact? The campaign is asking businesses to stop advertising on Facebook in July to send a message. “We are asking all businesses to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice
Let’s say you were able to positively identify more than 15,000 fake social media accounts. You reported a significant number of them to social media platforms as fake. Nearly a month later, who many do you think would still be on the platform? If you said 95% of the fake accounts were remaining online, you’d
47 Attorneys General are now investigating Facebook for possible antitrust violations. When the probe was first announced in September, 8 states were behind the effort. 45 states have now signed on along with AGs in the District of Columbia and Guam. The AGs say it is a bi-partisan effort. “After continued bipartisan conversations with attorneys
This could change a lot of things. If your website has Facebook’s like button on it for content or comments, you could be liable under the European Union’s privacy rules regardless of where you do business. The EU Court of Justice handed down the ruling this week in a case involving an online retailer. A
“Facebook’s infringements of the 2011 consent decree and its pattern of violating user trusts have been both vast and brazen.” – Letter to FTC from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) The Senators are reacting to word that’s leaked out that Facebook will by hit with a record $5
A new study by the folks at the Pew Research Center turned up an interesting finding: Men appears twice as often as women when it comes to being featured in news photos on Facebook. The research group analyzed posting from 17 national new outlets with at least 20 million unique visitors during Q3 of 2018.
Facebook is changing the way it ranks video on its social media platform. Three factors that will impact video rankings and affect distribution. Loyalty and intent Video and viewing duration Originality Loyalty and intent Intent and repeat viewership are important factors we consider when surfacing videos to people in News Feed. Going forward, FB will
Consumers overwhelming say privacy concerns are starting to have them rethinking rethink how they interact online. At the same time, however, their actions are telling a slightly less convincing story. People say one thing to researchers, but their actions demonstrate something else. A third of those surveyed think digital is having a “negative effect on
Ever wonder why certain posts show up in your Facebook feed and others never do? Facebook is hoping to be able to give you some insight into that with its new “Why am I seeing this post?” tool. When you’re looking at a post, click the three dots in the upper right hand corner of
“I understand that many people don’t think Facebook can or would even want to build this kind of privacy-focused platform — because frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services and we’ve historically focused on tools for more open sharing,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “But we’ve repeatedly shown that
For businesses that rely on Facebook’s micro-targeting options, there’s a significant change coming. To settle pending lawsuits for violations of federal law, Facebook will take away some targeting options for advertisers. These targeting options violated federal Fair Housing, Employment, and Credit laws by discriminating against protected classes. Advertisers targeting jobs, housing, or credit will not
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and a host of advocacy groups have written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it’s time to seriously consider breaking up Facebook. “The companies should be reestablished as independent entities and Facebook should be required to disgorge the personal data unlawfully acquired from those firms. This will also help
Amazon is apparently beta-testing a new advertising strategy that leverages its logistics and delivery expertise with its massive treasure trove of consumer data. A report in Axios says Amazon has teamed up with advertisers Maybelline and Folgers to send free samples to users with a predilection for purchasing their products. Analyzing data using AI, Amazon
The law is playing catch-up with many facets of digital technology and social media. The latest battle has been over whether government officials can block people on Facebook. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling that said it was unconstitutional for publicly elected officials to block citizens from their
Two different ruling in privacy cases over use of biometric data called “faceprints.” A federal judge threw out the lawsuit against Google. The judge ruled that the Illinois consumers that sued were unable to prove any damages. Lindabeth Rivera and Jospeh Weiss were the named plaintiffs in a class action suit that claimed Google violated
The Federal Trade Commission is looking at what could be record-setting fines against Facebook, according to the Washington Post. It has to do with the binding agreement the social media company signed in 2011 to protect personal data. The fine would be for violating that agreement. The biggest fine to date for violating an FTC
TikTok has been downloaded more than 100 million times in the U.S. and claims 500 million monthly active users. The social video app has surpassed Facebook when it comes to downloads. Facebook responded by launching Lasso, a similar product to try to compete. https://youtu.be/mlGS-WKCizU If you haven’t seen these videos, they are a departure from what
If you thought public opinion on the trustworthiness of social media had bottomed up, you might want to rethink that a bit. A new study by Tapatalk polled 1,000 U.S. adults and found that trust in social media networks continues to decline. Get the full report here. 74% said the “integrity of social media sites”
Seriously. If you haven’t read Max Reed’s article “How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually” yet, stop what you’re doing and do it right now. Here are just a few of the gems Reed lays out: How much of the internet is fake? Studies generally suggest that, year