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Topic: Social Media

YouTube's updated policy, which goes into effect immediately, comes as tech platforms grapple with a key issue in America's hyperpolarized political environment: How to combat misinformation without curtailing free speech? (AFP) News 

YouTube Removes Restrictions on US Election Misinformation

Febin Mathew,

On Friday, YouTube announced that it will no longer delete content that makes false claims about the 2020 US presidential election being affected by “fraud, errors or glitches.” This move has been swiftly condemned by those who oppose the spread of misinformation. The announcement by the Google-owned video site is a marked departure from its policy, which began in December 2020, to try to curb false claims — most importantly, pushed by then-President Donald Trump — that his re-election loss to Joe Biden was due to a “stolen” vote. “The…

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As head of Trust and Safety, Irwin helped oversee Twitter’s policies on harassment, hate speech and violent content. (REUTERS) News 

Ella Irwin Departs Twitter After Serving as Head of Content Policy

Jim Hendler,

Ella Irwin, who was responsible for content moderation and policy at Twitter, has resigned, depriving new owner Elon Musk of one of his most devoted aides. As director of trust and safety, Irwin helped oversee Twitter’s policies on harassment, hate speech and violent content — rules that have been relaxed under Musk. He was also heavily involved in account suspensions and often responded to Twitter users whose accounts were suspended. Irwin confirmed the departure, which was previously reported by Fortune, in an email. Current and former employees said Irwin has…

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Twitter has banned accounts in India for violating guidelines. (Bloomberg) News 

Over 25 Lakh Twitter Accounts Banned in India

Jim Hendler,

According to its monthly report, Twitter has blocked over 2.5 million accounts in India between March 25 and April 26 for violating guidelines related to child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity. The microblogging platform has undergone numerous changes related to content, moderation, and verification since Elon Musk took over. In February, Twitter announced modifications to its guidelines that allowed suspended accounts to appeal and be evaluated under new criteria for reinstatement. Accounts are banned In addition to banning a record 25 accounts for violating pedophile and nudity rules, Twitter also…

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WhatsApp has a bug problem on Android and you should read more about it over here. News 

WhatsApp crashes on Android if you click this link

Jim Hendler,

Millions use WhatsApp, which means hackers target the messaging app in a number of ways. WhatsApp claims to be safe and stable, but a random website URL can sometimes be good enough to crash any app. A new report has come out that states that a bug is triggered in WhatsApp as soon as you click on a link, causing the messaging app to crash on Android phones. Someone’s Strange Eyes noticed this week that when someone clicks on a link (wa.me/settings) sent via a WhatsApp contact or group, the…

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It will launch with blocking and reporting features. News 

BeReal starts testing it’s live messaging feature called RealChat

Adarsh V.K, , , ,

BeReal was Apple’s iPhone app of 2022, but the buzz surrounding the social media app (which forces you to post daily selfies) has died down recently. Now, the French company has introduced its private messaging service “RealChat,” which allows it to boast a feature found in most major social media apps, TechCrunch reports. According to the company, the job is one of the most sought after. You can only send a message to another user if you are on their friend’s platform. Deleting a message requires both parties to delete…

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The platform’s new developer policies could price out third-party apps like Apollo. News 

The developer of the Reddit app says the site’s new API rules are costing him $20 million a year

Adarsh V.K, ,

Reddit’s recently announced plan to charge for API access could lower the developer price of one of Reddit’s most popular third-party apps. Reddit client app developer Apollo has raised alarm over the pricing of the new API, saying the changes will require it to spend millions of dollars to maintain its app in its current form. Reddit announced sweeping changes to its API rules last month, citing AI companies using its platform to train large language models. “Reddit’s dataset is really valuable,” Reddit CEO Steve Hoffman told the New York…

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Fake job offers and phishing scams are on the rise on LinkedIn and half of the businesses (56 per cent) globally experienced at least one LinkedIn scam this year. News 

LinkedIn sees job fraud on the rise through fake job offers and phishing

Jim Hendler, , ,

According to the report, fake job offers and phishing scams are on the rise on LinkedIn, with half of companies (56%) worldwide experiencing at least one LinkedIn scam this year. According to NordLayer, an online security solution for businesses, a fake job offer is the most common scam (48 percent) and reputational damage (48 percent) was the main result of LinkedIn scams. The results showed that almost half of companies (45 percent) are aware of a LinkedIn scam using their organization’s brand name. “LinkedIn’s primary mission – to build a…

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The change could help people identify AI-generated media. News 

Twitter started testing community feedback on misleading images

Jim Hendler, ,

As AI-generated images and videos become more visible on Twitter, the company is testing a new feature that could make it easier for people to identify potentially “misleading” media. The company is experimenting with community notes for the media, which checks information collected from the public against specific photos and videos. This feature allows community note writers with high enough ratings to annotate images shared in Tweets. Like annotations in tweets, stickers can add “context” to images, such as indicating whether an image was created with synthetic artificial intelligence or…

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Meanwhile, Snapchat has said it now has over 200 million monthly active 'Snapchatters' in India, one of the company's leading global growth markets. News 

Snapchat’s new AR filter that lets users paint their nails

Febin Mathew, , ,

Snapchat’s parent company, Snapchat, has announced a new AR filter that lets users virtually paint their nails. The company launched its new AR nail segmentation technology in collaboration with US drugstore and nail salon OPI, adding an AR filter with a few OPI colors as part of the collaboration, according to Snapchat. Users will find a new filter in the Snapchat Lens Carousel section that uses augmented reality to apply different colors and other 2D patterns to users’ nails. This lens features the first Snap AR technology called Nails Segmentation,…

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The CAC on Friday said its latest campaign had targeted almost 13,000 counterfeit military accounts (Getty Images/iStockphoto) News 

China deletes 1.4 million social media posts to crack down on ‘self-media’ accounts

Nitin Misra,

China’s cyberspace regulator said 1.4 million social media posts were removed after a two-month investigation into alleged disinformation, illegal profiteering and impersonation of government officials, among other “obvious problems”. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on Friday that it shut down 67,000 social media accounts and deleted hundreds of thousands of posts between March 10 and May 22 as part of a wider “correction” campaign. Since 2021, China has targeted billions of social media accounts in an attempt to “clean up” its cyberspace and make it…

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Musk shared a screenshot where the Twitter app was seen taking 9.52GB space on a phone. News 

Elon Musk says “sorry” Twitter takes up so much space on phones

Jim Hendler, ,

Elon Musk, the outgoing CEO of Twitter, apologized to users on Sunday that his platform takes up extra space on smartphones. Musk shared a screenshot where the Twitter app was seen taking up 9.52GB of space on the phone. “Sorry, this app takes up a lot of space,” he commented in a tweet. According to Musk, Twitter usage has gone “ballistic” since the changes he made to the platform, and the “digital town square” has a lot of engagement. In March, Musk said the platform was growing rapidly. He wrote…

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The video streaming platform is fully focused on Shorts videos which could have prompted the decision to end the feature. News 

YouTube kills stories next month to focus on shorts videos

Nitin Misra, ,

YouTube will soon close the second feature that most of you probably didn’t even know that there was a platform on the platform. The Youtube has confirmed this week that its story version is not available after June 26, which is exactly one month later. Stories in the form have been largely popular on platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat (where it all started), and gradually we have seen it to move to WhatsApp and even Facebook. But Google -owned video streaming platform has decided that it is time to kill…

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Elon Musk-run Twitter has launched a new API (Application Programming Interface) tier called -- "Twitter API Pro" for startups that costs $5,000 per month. News 

Twitter launches a new application subscription level for beginners, pay $ 5,000 per month

Jim Hendler,

Elon Musk-Run Twitter has launched a new (application programming interface) level called “Twitter API Pro” startup companies that cost $ 5,000 per month. With the help of the level, developers can apply for one million tweets per month, by mail 3.00,000 tweets per month and get access to the entire archive search point. “Today we are launching a new level of admission, Twitter API,” Twitter Dev tweeted on Thursday. “Try, build and scale your business for 1 million tweets per month, including effective real -time filtered/stream and full archive search…

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LinkedIn will now start to show 'verifications related to a job post', displaying verified information about a job poster or their company. News 

LinkedIn’s new tool for displaying job posting confirmations

Adarsh V.K,

Professional social networking platform LinkedIn has introduced new tools to help job seekers feel safe and confident in their job search. New tools include — Job Verifications, Profile Verifications and Message Alerts. LinkedIn is now starting to show “job posting confirmations” that show verified information about the job posting or his company. “When you see verifications on job postings, it means there is information that has been verified as authentic by the employer, LinkedIn, or one of our partners,” LinkedIn said in a blog post Monday. According to the company,…

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Snapchat also announced the launch of an experimental AI-powered chatbot customised for the company named MyAI News 

Snapchat reaches over 200 million monthly active users in India

Adarsh V.K, ,

Visual messaging app Snapchat has crossed the 200 million monthly active user mark in India, with 120 million of them viewing content on the platform, parent company Snap Inc said on Tuesday. At the event, the company announced the launch of an experimental AI-powered chatbot customized for Snapchat, My AI, which can recommend birthday gift ideas, plan a long weekend trip or even suggest a recipe for dinner. “Snapchat reaches over 200 million monthly active users in India,” Snap Inc said in a statement. The visual messaging app has more…

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Meta Platform Inc's Instagram was back up for most users, the company said on Sunday, after a technical issue that disrupted services to thousands of people had been resolved. News 

Backing up Instagram after a global outage that affected thousands of users

Jim Hendler, ,

Meta Platform Inc’s Instagram was back up for most users, the company said Sunday, after a technical problem that disrupted services for thousands of people was resolved. “Earlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble accessing Instagram. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone affected, a Meta spokesperson told Reuters. The company did not disclose the number of users affected by the disruption. Outage tracking website Downdetector.com showed more than 100,000 cases in the US, 24,000 in Canada and more than 56,000 in Britain.…

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Picture-in-picture (PiP) mode shrinks a video into a small player so users can keep watching while using other apps on their mobile devices. News 

Twitter adds 15-second forward, back buttons and an image in video playback mode

Jim Hendler, ,

Twitter boss Elon Musk has said the microblogging platform will add 15-second forward and backward search buttons during video playback, as well as a picture-in-picture mode that users can view while scrolling. Responding on Twitter to a user who asked Musk to add 15-second forward and backward search buttons, he said: “Coming next week, in one picture-in-picture so you can watch while scrolling.” Picture in Picture (PiP) mode shrinks the video into a small player so users can continue watching while using other apps on their mobile devices. Additionally, these…

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The Facebook parent is testing the product with influencers and some creators, according to the report News 

Instagram challenges Twitter with a new text-based app

Jim Hendler, ,

Meta Platforms’ Instagram plans to launch a text-based app to compete with Twitter and could debut as early as June, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the report, the Facebook parent is testing the product with influencers and some creators. The company did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Meta has reached out to talent agencies and celebrities to gauge their interest in trying out an early version of the app that will integrate with Instagram, Alex Heath, a Verge reporter, said…

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