Category: SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook, Google and others New join to Trust Project to fight Fake News

Trojan

Fake news” and other misinformation, online propaganda, and satirical content people believe is true have filled the web via search engines and social media, and have caused a rift in how people perceive today’s news organizations and the quality of their coverage. A nonpartisan effort called The Trust Project is working to address this situation by helping online users distinguish between reliable journalism and promotional content or misinformation. Today, a key part of that effort – called “Trust Indicators” – are going live on Facebook, offering easy-to-access, transparent information about a news…

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YouTube crafts new policy to flag weird videos targeting kids

A New York Times piece and a subsequent Medium post this week highlighted an ongoing problem with YouTube Kids — bizarre and disturbing videos aimed at young children using key words and popular children’s characters. Now the firm says it is putting in place a new process to age-restrict these types of videos in the main YouTube app. “Age-restricted content is automatically not allowed in YouTube Kids,” the company emphasized. But the new policy allows users to flag this type of inappropriate content in the main app, which has implications for…

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Facebook’s fake news experiment backfires

Staff Writer

A Facebook test that promoted comments containing the word fake to the top of news feeds has been criticized by users. The trial, which Facebook says has now concluded, aimed to prioritize “comments that indicate disbelief”. It meant feeds from the BBC, the Economist, the New York Times and the Guardian all began with a comment mentioning the word fake. The test, which was visible only to some users, left many frustrated. The comments appeared on a wide range of stories, from ones that could be fake to ones that…

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Facebook testing a new method to prevent revenge porn that requires uploading your nudes

Staff Writer

Facebook is testing a new method to combat revenge porn in Australia, the Australia Broadcasting Corporation reports. The strategy entails uploading your nude photos or videos to Messenger in order to help Facebook tag it as non-consensual explicit media. The company is doing this in partnership with Australian government agency e-Safety in order to try to prevent people from sharing intimate images without consent. If someone fears they are at risk of revenge porn, they can contact e-Safety. The organization might then tell them to send a nude photo of…

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Twitter officially expands its character limit to 280

Staff Writer

Twitter has expanded its character limit to 280 to all users in supported languages including English starting today. The company had first announced the plan to move beyond its traditional 140 characters back in September, noting at the time how a longer character count allowed users to express more of their thoughts without running out of room to tweet. The expansion was initially available to a select group of Twitter users as a trial. At the time of its original announcement, the company cited data backing up its decision that referenced how…

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Paytm adds messaging features to India’s top digital wallet app

Staff Writer

Paytm, India’s top digital wallet and payment service, has introduced a chat feature to amp up its appeal among an increasingly competitive market. The new ‘Inbox’ feature, which was first outed in August, is initially available on Android, which accounts for the bulk of Paytm’s claimed 200 million users, and not iOS. It allows users to share messages and photos like other chat apps, but it also includes a peer-to-peer money transfer feature and access games, another vertical that Paytm has expanded into. Paytm, which is backed by Alibaba and…

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Thousands of WhatsApp customers reporting issues with the App

Staff Writer
WhatsApp sync device

Independent website DownDetector, which tracks social comments around a certain topic to monitor outages across the globe, shows over a thousand of WhatsApp customers reporting issues using the app. According to the site, problems with the chat app occurred around 8am this morning, with hundreds of people reporting issues with the app. DownDetector says that 51 per cent of customers are having issue connecting to it. A further 29 per cent report issues receiving messages and 19 per cent are struggling to login. People can’t send or receive messages using…

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Kudos positions itself as a safe introduction to social media by young users

Staff Writer

Kudos, an app for kids aged eight to 13 with around-the-clock moderation, positions itself as a safe introduction to social media that also teaches its young users how to navigate social media responsibly. It recently moved its headquarters to Palo Alto, California from Oslo, Norway and is now rolling out the app in the United States. It originated as a photo sharing app called Kuddle in 2014. Since then, the app has changed its name, added many new features and hired a team that includes alumni from Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar…

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Google to get rid of Home Mini feature

Staff Writer

Google has decided to do away with a feature that caused a small number of Home Mini units accidentally recording many times a day, instead of when a user triggers it. In a statement released yesterday, the company said that it made the decision because it wants people to be absolutely comfortable when using Google Home Mini. The Home Mini shipped with a feature that let owners activate the Google Assistant and control music by tapping the top of the speaker. However, it turned out that some units had an…

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LinkedIn opens video uploads to all

Staff Writer

Video is the name of the game in social networking. If you’ve been on LinkedIn recently, you may have noticed that some users are making and sharing videos, basically turning the social network into a more professional version of YouTube or Facebook Live. Following this initial testing period, video will soon be available to all users. On iOS and Android, the LinkedIn app is getting a “video” button that will let you record a new video or upload one you’ve already taken. The new feature will be available to many…

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