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Tag: social media

  • Telegram introduces profile photo maker

    Telegram introduces profile photo maker

    Telegram typically pushes out major updates once a month, and February is no exception. After adding the ability to hide spoilers in media content and other features in late 2022, Telegram recently released yet another update that brings even more new features to Android and iOS users.

    The highlights of February’s update include a profile photo maker, real-time message translation, and emoji categories. Depending on how you’re using Telegram, some of these new features might be more important than others.

    As the first Telegram update of the year, the new piece of content introduces no less than 10 major features. With the new profile pictures maker, Telegram users can turn stickers or animated emoji into a profile pictures that can be used for accounts, groups, and even channels. The new feature is not locked behind the Premium subscription, so everyone can use it once they updated to the latest version of Telegram.

    Another premiere for Telegram is the ability to translate entire chats, groups and channels in real time. The Translate bar at the top of the app will make this complex task a breeze. You can even hide the bar and control which languages are translated. The bad news is you have to pay for Premium to be able to use real-time chat translation.

    For those who are obsessed by data, the update makes it possible to see how much data has been used by the app with detailed pie charts for both mobile data and Wi-Fi. You can even adjust the auto-download settings the way you want.

    There’s also a new menu from where Telegram users can control when media is saved automatically to the gallery based on size, type and which chat it was received from. Additionally, the menu makes it possible to filter your media by using exceptions.

    Telegram has so many emoji that more often than not it’s hard to find what you want. The latest update introduces emoji categories in the panel. You can also hold any emoji to zoom in to get a better look at it before sending.

  • Popular social media app accused of hooking kids up with drug dealers

    Popular social media app accused of hooking kids up with drug dealers

    Some parents are accusing social media app Snapchat of helping their kids find easy access to drugs. These parents have filed a lawsuit against Snapchat and its parent company SNAP. Amy Neville’s 14-year-old son allegedly used the app to connect with a drug dealer who sold him pills that were laced with fentanyl. The latter is a powerful narcotic that is 100x stronger than morphine and it doesn’t take much to kill an unsuspecting user.

    Neville, talking about kids who have died after buying pills containing fentanyl from dealers via Snapchat said, “And they’re gone because apps like Snapchat…make these dangers accessible to our kids.” More than 50 parents have filed what NBC News calls “a string of lawsuits” that say Snapchat “ignored the harms its product was causing users” and said that the company turned the reins of the app over to drug dealers.

    Matthew Bergman, an attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center, is representing several of the grieving parents and noted that calls continue to come into his office. “I had no idea how pervasive this problem was, Bergman said.” The attorney added that he had just received calls from seven more families that had lost children to drugs purchased through dealers that were supposedly discovered on Snapchat.
    Bergman points out that while other social media platforms have unintentionally hosted drug dealers, certain features of Snapchat make it more favorable for drug transactions. One is the disappearing messages feature that allows messages to vanish. And the Snap Map can be used to find the exact location of dealers.
    NBC’s Seattle affiliate KING-TV filmed one overdose survivor as he used his phone and the Snapchat app to find a dealer showing how easy the whole process is. The dealer he found was willing to deliver the narcotics to the survivor’s home. “It’s pretty much Amazon for drugs,” he said.
    In a statement given Snapchat said that it works closely with law enforcement and “uses cutting-edge technology to…find and shut down drug dealers’ accounts…block search results for drug-related terms.” It also redirects such searches to resources that explain to Snapchat users about the dangers of fentanyl. Snapchat also helped produce a public service announcement about the dangers of fentanyl.
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  • TikTok starts labeling accounts that have anything to do with the government

    TikTok starts labeling accounts that have anything to do with the government

    As of today, TikTok content will have flags to signify if a video is coming from a state-controlled media. This feature was initially introduced last year, and was limited only to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In the spirit of transparency, however, this feature will become available in more countries.

    The company’s goal, as described in its own statement, is to help users recognize accounts whose content might be influenced by a government entity. They hope to provide users context when consuming such content — especially news — as it may not always be clearly stated within the video itself. As many of us know, subjectivity and presentation play a huge role in the way in how people understand information.

    This decision is the product of long-term research that the company has conducted across numerous countries. The definition of “state-controlled media” that the TikTok specialists have agreed upon is “an entity where there is evidence of clear editorial control and decision-making bystate memberse”.

    However, this change also means that TikTok should be capable of defining “editorial independence” as well. When trying to prove that, the company’s Trust and Safety and Policy and Partnership teams are looking at things such as a publication’s mission statement, leadership behavior and what type of editorial decisions they typically make. As an example, when reviewing news outlets, they ask questions such as “Are they funded by a state entity?”. If the answer is “yes”, then objectivity may not be on the agenda.

    TikTok’s statement emphasizes that they’ve done their best to create an objective evaluation methodn. They hope that it can continuously help users make informed decisions when consuming news-related content on the platform. That being said, the team is aware that errors aren’t out of the question, so a new appeal process is also being introduced.

    While all of this is well and good, TikTok leadership understands that this doesn’t mean that the battle has been won. It’s great to see the team behind one of the most controversial social media platforms remain vigilant and attempt to provide something that can so easily become lost in fast-form media: context.

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  • TikTok banned on government devices in Kansas

    TikTok banned on government devices in Kansas

    The saga of TikTok and its security issues has taken yet another turn. After news broke that TikTok admittedly spied on journalists a few days ago, US government officials have started to take serious measures against the popular app. First, TikTok was banned on US House of Representatives-issued devices, and now the app will disappear from government devices in the state of Kansas.

    Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has announced a ban on TikTok on state government devices due to national security and data mining concerns. Kelly stated that TikTok could make users’ data available to the Chinese Communist Party.

    15 other states have already banned the app, but Kansas is among the first Democratic states to implement such a ban. TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown called the ban “politically motivated” and said it was based on “unfounded falsehoods.”

    TikTok is the second most popular domain on the internet right now, after Google. It has grown quickly and now has more users than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat combined. Things might become even bleaker for TikTok users in the US if the proposed bipartisan bill helmed by Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, passes.

    The legislation from both parties is called “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act)” and Rubio officially stated that “The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This isn’t about creative videos; this is about an app collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day.”

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  • TikTok will soon let you see why it has recommended a specific video to you

    TikTok will soon let you see why it has recommended a specific video to you

    Have you ever wondered why TikTok recommends certain videos to your “For You” feed? Well, if you have, you will soon know the answer. As TikTok announced in a new blog post, it will introduce a new tool in the coming weeks that will allow you to see why a particular video appears in your “For You” feed.

    Once TikTok releases the feature, you will be able to find it in the share panel on your For You feed. When you tap the share button, you will see a new question mark icon named “Why this video.” Choosing it will reveal why TikTok recommended the video you are currently watching.

    For example, the app may let you know that it is showing this clip because of your previous interactions with the application, such as content you watched, liked, or shared comments you posted, or searches you performed. It may also tell you that you’re seeing this video because it was uploaded from an account you follow or from an account that has been suggested to you.

    Another reason the app could give is that the displayed video is popular in your region, which is why it is being shown to you, or that the clip was just recently posted in your area.

    In its blog post, the social media platform also shared that it is currently working on many other ways to bring “meaningful transparency” to its users.

    We should not be surprised by TikTok’s sudden desire to offer more transparency because it’s most likely due to the attacks that it is currently facing. The social media platform is once again under fire by the US government.

    Recently, a new bill was introduced that would prevent TikTok from operating in the country. The bill follows on the heels of a proposal prohibiting the app’s installation on government-owned devices. As you probably know, a similar ban already exists for devices used by the United States military, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

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  • Instagram’s new Notes feature lets users post text messages

    Instagram’s new Notes feature lets users post text messages

    Instagram is pretty quick when it comes to iterating new features even considering the time needed for testing. Soon after Elon Musk revealed plans to add the option to write 4,000-character messages on Twitter, Instagram went live with its own take on the same feature

    The new feature called Notes allows users to send text messages via Instagram, something many have been asking for for a very long time. These so-called Notes are short posts of up to 60 characters using just text and emoji, a lot less than Twitter’s maximum 240-character limit.

    Anyway, if you’re an Instagram user, here is how you can take advantage of the new feature. First off, you must head to the top of your inbox, select the followers you follow back or people on your Close Friends list, and your note should pop up at the top of their inbox for 24 hours.

    It’s more of a status message, but at least you can get replies to notes as DMs in your inbox. Apparently, the new feature has been implemented that way after Instagram learned that people would rather have an easy and convenient way to share their thoughts.

    Besides Notes, Instagram announced that it’s testing new features in Stories like Group Profiles and Candid Stories. The former allows Instagram users to create and join so-called Group Profiles to share posts and stories in a dedicated, shared profile with friends.

    Candid Stories is a new way to capture and share live moments in a story that’s only visible to those who also share their own. These can be captured from the stories camera, the multi-author story at the top of feed, or from the daily notification reminder starting after the first candid.

    Last but not least, Collaborative Collections is a new feature being tested by Instagram that lets users connect with friends over their shared interests. This is done by saving posts to a collaborative collection in a group or 1:1 DMs.

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  • Twitter will soon tell you if your posts have been secretly restricted

    Twitter will soon tell you if your posts have been secretly restricted

    Elon Musk’s revamping of Twitter continues with full force. As the man himself announced via a tweet, the platform is currently working on an update that will show “your true account status,” so you will know if your account has been shadowbanned. In addition to that, you will receive information explaining why your account has been restricted and how you can appeal the ban.

    Now, Musk didn’t explain what it means to be “shadowbanned” on the platform. However, journalist Bari Weiss, who has been given access to corporate files, explains that Twitter employees prevent tweets made by disfavored accounts from becoming trending and restrict the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics. All this happens secretly, without informing the affected users.

    Disfavored accounts get added to various blacklists, such as the “Trends Blacklist,” which prevents tweets from becoming trending, and the “Search Blacklist,” which Weiss doesn’t explain what it does but most likely restricts tweets from appearing in searches. Weiss also notes that Twitter doesn’t call these techniques “shadow banning.” Instead, employees call these methods “Visibility Filtering,” or “VF.”

    To better understand what VF does, a senior Twitter employee told Weiss that this is a way for Twitter employees to “suppress what people see to different levels.”

    Interestingly, Instagram recently launched a similar feature to what Twitter is working on. The platform now informs users with professional accounts if their posts have been restricted from appearing as recommendations to others. If there are indeed posts that violate Instagram’s recommendation rules, creators and businesses can edit or delete them to become eligible again, or they can appeal the decision.

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  • Twitter is less safe now, former head of safety warns

    Twitter is less safe now, former head of safety warns

    Elon Musk now officially owns Twitter, and the move caused a big splash in the industry. The tech billionaire started his reign as head of the popular network by laying off staff “en masse” and then trying to rehire some of the valuable assets lost in the process. One such asset seems to be Yoel Roth, the company’s former head of trust and safety, who gave his first interview since his departure shortly after Musk took over.

    When asked whether he still felt Twitter was safer after Musk’s takeover at a Knight Foundation event, Roth said, “I don’t.”The interview comes at a very specific moment. Musk relaunched the Twitter Blue subscription service on November 29th. Roth believes that Musk is breaking procedures and his own promises and, in the end, wants to run Twitter by himself.

    “He would say things that were consistent with establishing a moderation council, that were consistent with not making capricious, unilateral decisions, and I was optimistic based on that,” Roth said. “My optimism ultimately faded.”

    But it’s not all horrible. Despite the statements above, Roth does not think Twitter will have a “spectacular moment of failure,” as several former workers have expressed concern after the company’s enormous layoffs and resignations.

  • Meta is working on Instagram Malfunction

    Meta is working on Instagram Malfunction

    Instagram seems to be down for a lot of people around the globe at the time of this writing, according to users flocking to Twitter to make their plight known to the entire world (oh, the irony) and the always reliable Downdetector platform.

    The situation is already so widespread that the social network’s PR team has also taken to Twitter to apologize to everyone for the “inconvenience” of not being able to access your Instagram accounts for the last few hours (at the time of this writing).
    What Instagram parent company Meta is not ready to confirm just yet is the nature of this “inconvenience”, which appears to include random account suspensions for a worrying number of users.
    Many people claim they are not aware of having violated any rules so egregiously that a 30-day ban would be warranted, and because the Instagram app and website themselves refuse to work for a lot of these users, appealing the decision is currently impossible.

    Account confirmation is also being required of some users, which is either not possible at the moment as well or completely broken.

    In short, Meta has a PR disaster in the making, and although the company is undoubtedly “looking into” the outage and its causes, the masses are demanding (and arguably deserving) more detailed and satisfying explanations, not to mention a swift resolution. We’ll keep you posted if we find out more or if the glitches are indeed resolved soon.
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  • Instagram now helps you find popular places more easily

    Instagram now helps you find popular places more easily

    Instagram now offers a new map experience for Android and iPhone users, which should allow you to rediscover local businesses and find popular locations around you more easily. As the social media announced, you can now tap on location tags inside a post in your feed or in a Story of a friend to find places around you.

    However, the most interesting part is that you can now manually find locations via the Explore tab as well. You can search for a place in the search bar and tap on the search result, which will open the establishment in question, or you can just type the name of your city or neighborhood, and the app will show you what popular locations are around you.

    Instagram also added filter options that allow you to find places by category. At the moment, there are six filter categories: Restaurants, Cafes, Sights, Hotels, Parks & Gardens, and Bars. You just need to tap on the type of location you want to visit, and Instagram will list all the places around you that fall into that category.

    Although the new map feature on Instagram will undoubtedly let you find more places easily, we should point out that Instagram isn’t the only social media platform that has such a function. For quite some time now, Snapchat has been offering pretty much the same feature. You can go to Snapchat’s map and basically find various establishments around you. Also, just like Instagram, Snapchat offers six filter options that will help you find the place you are looking for more easily.

  • Facebook starts rolling out chronologically ordered Feeds

    Facebook starts rolling out chronologically ordered Feeds

    Facebook is gaining a new way for users to consume content from friends, Favorites, Pages and groups – a chronologically ordered Feed tab. Mark Zuckerberg posted a short demo of the feature on Thursday, saying it is one of the most requested features on Facebook.

    “One of the most requested features for Facebook is to make sure people don’t miss friends’ posts. So today we’re launching a Feed tab where you can see posts from your friends, groups, Pages and more separately in chronological order. The app will still open to a personalized feed on the Home tab, where our discovery engine will recommend the content we think you’ll care most about. But the Feeds tab will give you a way to customize and control your experience further,” posted Zuckerberg on Facebook.

    Furthermore, people will be able to create a Favorites list inside the Feeds tab, consisting of friends, pages and groups, in order to get to their favorite content faster and easier. This change is similar to what Meta has done with Instagram – the company announced a chronological Feed back in January, and rolled out the feature a couple of weeks later.

    The new Feed tab in Facebook is already rolling out to some users on Android and iOS. There’s a slight difference between the two operating systems – on Android the tab can be found at the top of the UI, while on iOS it is at the bottom. The fill rollout should take place over the course of next week.

     

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  • TikTok seeks to protect the security of its U.S. platform

    TikTok seeks to protect the security of its U.S. platform

    In a move designed to handle questions about the storage of data belonging to U.S. TikTok users, the short-form video app is believed to have completed the migration of data related to its U.S. customers to servers at Oracle. This move could satisfy the demands of U.S. regulatory agencies who had concerns about the integrity of the data collected on the app.
    This move comes a couple of years after a national security panel ordered TikTok parent ByteDance to divest Itself of TikTok in order to prevent the communist Chinese government from collecting U.S. user data. But that order was never completed after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump to win the U.S. presidency. The national security panel, known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), continues to mention its fears over data security at TikTok.
    The U.S. has been focusing on app developers and the personal information that they keep an eye on, especially data that belongs to U.S. military or intelligence personnel. In the blog post it published on Friday, TikTok wrote that it has “long stored U.S. user data in its own data centers in the US and Singapore. In the blog post, TikTok notes that “our Virginia data center includes physical and logical safety controls such as gated entry points, firewalls, and intrusion detection technologies.”
    TikTok added that “It’s also important to maintain backup data storage locations to guard against catastrophic scenarios where user data could be lost. The company added that “our data center in Singapore serves as the backup data storage location for our U.S. users.”
    You might recall that Oracle was once one of three American companies involved in talks to purchase the popular app. The other two firms included Microsoft and Walmart. TikTok’s proprietary servers eventually will be deleted and as the company said, “Today, 100% of U.S. user traffic is being routed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. We still use our U.S. and Singapore data centers for backup, but as we continue our work, we expect to delete U.S. users’ private data from our own data centers and fully pivot to Oracle cloud servers located in the states.
    TikTok has also set up a dedicated U.S. data security team known as “USDS” to act as a gatekeeper for U.S. user information. The USDS team seeks to protect the data collected from U.S. users. “We know we are among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of U.S. user data,” the social media firm said. “We’re dedicated to earning and maintaining the trust of our community and will continue to work every day to protect our platform and provide a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable experience for our community.
    Commerce Department secretary Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said last year that the administration is “very serious about protecting Americans’ data,” but criticized Trump’s approach. “Doing some executive order that’s meaningless on TikTok is not the way to force change on the platform,”Raimondo said.”
    TikTok has over one billion active users globally and the U.S. is its largest market. During the first quarter of 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app world wide becoming just the fifth app in history to have lifetime downloads over 3.5 billion. The other four apps to reach this figure are all owned by Meta. Since the start of 2018, no app has been installed on devices more than TikTok.
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  • Telegram founder publicly attacks Apple’s Safari browser for iOS for its restrictions

    Telegram founder publicly attacks Apple’s Safari browser for iOS for its restrictions

    Currently, there’s an investigation by a UK agency on Apple and Safari. And, it seems the UK is not the only one raising its brows when it comes to Apple’s web browser. Telegram founder Pavel Durov has now publicly criticized the iOS version of Safari, accusing it of restricting developer options for the web.

    Durov has shared his criticism on his public channel on Telegram. He claims that Apple is intentionally restricting web app features and that this limits developers from what they can do in iOS. The restrictions that Apple currently has for web apps impact the web version of Telegram too.

    Additionally, he suspects Apple’s reasoning behind this is to force users to download native apps from the App Store, and he brings up the 30% commission fee that Apple takes on purchases made via the App Store. Many developers have had issues with the infamous ‘Apple Tax’, as this 30% cut has unofficially been called.

    Telegram is available in the App Store; however, not everything was sailing smoothly for the company. In the past, Telegram has reportedly faced some issues with Apple’s review process because of its public channels (where there are no content restrictions). Telegram has a web version with all the same features – but it is also limited on iPads and iPhones.

    “Safari is killing the web” points out Durov, citing developers complaining about Apple’s native browser and a blog post on HTTP Toolkit, which lists multiple ways in which Safari is not helping the web. The blog post lists reasons such as Safari omitting features, many bugs present and the slow speed at which those are fixed, and ignoring proposed APIs by the Chrome team.

    Apart from citing the mentioned above article, Durov also highlights that Telegram developers have signaled a list of 10 issues they have with Safari on iOS. Among those, there is the lack of push notifications, random reloading, slow application of blur effects, and sometimes appearing visual artifacts. The post also includes a few more development-related things missing from Safari’s toolkit.

    The UK investigation, which we mentioned in the beginning of this article, is also highlighted in Durov’s post. He hopes that the investigation will lead to regulatory action against Apple Safari’s restrictions and shortcomings.

    The investigation he is talking about is actually going to be led by UK’s CMA, a watchdog who’s recently found Apple and Google to have an “effective duopoly” in the mobile tech market because of Safari and Chrome. The agency is now going to look at Safari’s WebKit restrictions under a microscope, to determine whether or not those are harming competition and innovation.

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  • TikTok wants you to stay away from the app some time

    TikTok wants you to stay away from the app some time

    TikTok wants its users to find other things to do instead of spending all day creating short-form videos and browsing through the app. In a message to the TikTok community that the company disseminated on Thursday, TikTok announced some steps it is taking to help users develop positive digital habits. Users can already set daily screen time limits and in a few weeks, they will be able to control the amount of time that they spend on TikTok in a single setting by enabling regular screen time breaks.
    These prompts will remind TikTok users to take a break from the app after a certain amount of uninterrupted screen time has passed. The amount of screen time can be set as long or as short as the user desires. TikTok members aged between 13 and 17 who have used the app for more than 100 minutes in a single day will be reminded the next time they open TikTok that they can use the screen time limit tool.
    Carolyn Bunting MBE, CEO of Internet Matters, said, “The research showed that younger users would welcome the introduction of built-in features and settings that prompt them to both think critically about the time that they are spending online, but also encourage them to use settings to actively manage the time they spent on the app. It is important that they feel in control of their online experiences and are helped to make considered choices. We look forward to TikTok developing further features that will put children’s wellbeing at the heart of their design choices.”

    The Digital Wellbeing screen time summary shows the amount of time users spent on TikTok during the daytime and during the night. As TikTok recently stated, “We love working with talented creators to educate the TikTok community about online safety, wellbeing, and the tools and options available to them. The energy and enthusiasm these creators have for their community helps them connect with other users and leads to a better understanding of the platform.”

    TikTok was the most downloaded app globally during the first quarter of 2022. It also was just the fifth app in history to record lifetime installations of more than 3.5 billion; the other four apps were all developed by Meta (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger).
    Earlier this year, TikTok made some major changes to its short-form video platform. Looking to take on YouTube, TikTok increased the length of its maximum videos from 60 seconds to 180 seconds (or from one minute to three minutes). It then increased the video length once again from 180 seconds to six hundred seconds (3 minutes to ten minutes). Now, the more than one billion monthly active users on the app have a reason to spend some more time on TikTok.
    On August 1st, 2020, then President Donald Trump, in the middle of his trade war with China, announced that “We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things. There’s a couple of options. But a lot of things are happening, so we’ll see what happens. But we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”
    Eventually, Trump decided that he wanted TikTok to be owned by a U.S. company and said that for the app to be allowed to be used in the states, it would have to have U.S. ownership. Three U.S. firms appeared to be interested including (quite surprisingly) Oracle and Walmart. Microsoft also had a strong interest in buying the U.S. version of TikTok.
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  • Facebook monthly users rise, as Meta’s growth stagnates

    Facebook monthly users rise, as Meta’s growth stagnates

    On April 27th, Meta released its first quarterly financial report for 2022. With it, the company manages to defy the gloomy expectations of consumers and investors alike. The key takeaway – more users, more revenue, less growth.

    One figure particularly stands out – 2.94 billion – the number of users that log into Facebook on a monthly basis. This is just one of the many indicators that Meta, despite ever stronger competition and the global challenges it is facing, is very much still holding on. The report also announced growth in other key areas like total revenue and ad prices.

    After a certain period of stagnation and loss of users, Facebook seems to be once again gaining some, albeit limited, traction. The number of daily users also showcases a 4% net increase on a yearly basis. This also comes in the aftermath of the suspension of the social media platform in Russia.

    Naturally, these revelations triggered a rise in Meta’s share prices, which rose by more than 15% following the announcement. This is no doubt a breath of fresh air for the company, especially after the rather disappointing financial report by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, for the same fiscal quarter. It should also be noted that Meta’s share prices had been steadily depreciating for some months now.

    Now would be a good time for a small disclaimer. The financial growth of Meta is indeed above analysts’ projections, but it is in fact slowing down. The roots of this stagnation run deeper than the war in Ukraine. Apple’s push for protecting the data of its users and increasingly more stringent data regulations (especially in the EU) are truly pushing the company’s business model to its limits.

    Reality Labs, the project that represents Meta’s grandest ambition – establishing the metaverse – still operates on a loss and contributed just 2.5% of the company’s revenue. All this calls into question whether Meta will have the means to sustain its own future, let alone pave the way for the one it aims to build for everyone else.