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A new <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/09/20/news-consumption-across-social-media-in-2021/" target="_blank">report</a> from Pew Research finds that around a third of U.S. adults continue to get their news regularly from Facebook, though the exact percentage has slipped from 36% in 2020 to 31% in 2021. This drop reflects an overall slight decline in the number of Americans who say they get their news from any social media platform &#8212; a percentage that also fell by 5 percentage points year-over-year, going from 53% in 2020 to a little under 48%, Pew&#8217;s study found.
By definition, &#8220;regularly&#8221; here means the survey respondents said they get their news either &#8220;often&#8221; or &#8220;sometimes,&#8221; as opposed to &#8220;rarely,&#8221; &#8220;never,&#8221; or &#8220;don&#8217;t get digital news.&#8221;
The change comes at a time when tech companies have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/18/more-americans-now-say-government-should-take-steps-to-restrict-false-information-online-than-in-2018/" target="_blank">come under heavy scrutiny</a> for allowing misinformation to spread across their platforms, Pew notes. That criticism has ramped up over the course of the pandemic, leading to vaccine hesitancy and refusal, which in turn has led to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/cdc-study-shows-unvaccinated-people-are-29-times-more-likely-to-be-hospitalized-with-covid.html" target="_blank">worsened</a> health outcomes for many Americans who consumed the misleading information.
Despite these issues, the percentage of Americans who regularly get their news from various social media sites hasn&#8217;t changed too much over the past year, demonstrating how much a part of people&#8217;s daily news habits these sites have become.
<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2205332" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-2205332" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-01.png?w=680" alt="" width="680" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-01.png 840w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-01.png?resize=150,108 150w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-01.png?resize=300,216 300w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-01.png?resize=768,554 768w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-01.png?resize=680,491 680w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-01.png?resize=50,36 50w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Image Credits: Pew Research
In addition to the one-third of U.S. adults who regularly get their news on Facebook, 22% say they regularly get news on YouTube. Twitter and Instagram are regular news sources for 13% and 11% of Americans, respectively.
However, many of the sites have seen small declines as a regular source of news among their own users, says Pew. This is a different measurement compared with the much smaller percentage of U.S. adults who use the sites for news, as it speaks to how the sites&#8217; own user bases may perceive them. In a way, it&#8217;s a measurement of the shifting news consumption behaviors of the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/02/the-changing-composition-of-the-electorate-and-partisan-coalitions/" target="_blank">often younger social media user</a>, more specifically.
Today, 55% of Twitter users regularly get news from its platform, compared with 59% last year. Meanwhile, Reddit users&#8217; use of the site for news dropped from 42% to 39% in 2021. YouTube fell from 32% to 30%, and Snapchat fell from 19% to 16%. Instagram is roughly the same, at 28% in 2020 to 27% in 2021.
Only one social media platform grew as a news source during this time: TikTok.
In 2020, 22% of the short-form video platform&#8217;s users said they regularly got their news there, compared with an increased 29% in 2021.
Overall, though, most of these sites have very little traction with the wider adult population in the U.S. Fewer than 1 in 10 Americans regularly get their news from Reddit (7%), TikTok (6%), LinkedIn (4%), Snapchat (4%), WhatsApp (3%) or Twitch (1%).
<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2205333" loading="lazy" class="vertical size-large wp-image-2205333" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-03.png?w=392" alt="" width="392" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-03.png 620w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-03.png?resize=86,150 86w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-03.png?resize=173,300 173w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-03.png?resize=392,680 392w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PJ_2021.09.20_news-social-media_0-03.png?resize=29,50 29w" sizes="(max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px" />Image Credits: Pew Research
There are demographic differences between who uses which sites, as well.
White adults tend to turn to Facebook and Reddit for news (60% and 54%, respectively). Black and Hispanic adults make up significant proportions of the regular news consumers on Instagram (20% and 33%, respectively.) Younger adults tend to turn to Snapchat and TikTok, while the majority of news consumers on LinkedIn have four-year college degrees.
Of course, Pew&#8217;s latest survey, conducted from July 26 to Aug. 8, 2021, is based on self-reported data. That means people&#8217;s answers are based on how the users perceive their own usage of these various sites for newsgathering. This can produce different results compared with real-world measurements of how often users visited the sites to read news. Some users may underestimate their usage and others may overestimate it.
People may also not fully understand the ramifications of reading news on social media, where headlines and posts are often molded into inflammatory clickbait in order to entice engagement in the form of reactions and comments. This, in turn, may encourage strong reactions &#8212; but not necessarily from those worth listening to. In recent Pew studies, it found that social media news consumers tended to be <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2020/07/30/americans-who-mainly-get-their-news-on-social-media-are-less-engaged-less-knowledgeable/" target="_blank">less knowledgeable</a> about the facts on key news topics, like elections or Covid-19. And social media consumers were <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/30/study-u-s-adults-who-mostly-rely-on-social-media-for-news-are-less-informed-exposed-to-more-conspiracies/" target="_blank">more frequently exposed to fringe conspiracies</a> (which is pretty apparent to anyone reading the comments!)
For the current study, the full sample size was 11,178 respondents, and the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.
&nbsp;

A new report from Pew Research finds that around a third of U.S. adults continue to get their news regularly from Facebook, though the exact percentage has slipped from 36% in 2020 to 31% in 2021. This drop reflects an overall slight decline in the number of Americans who say they get their news from […]

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Study finds half of Americans get news on social media, but percentage has dropped

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TikTok announced this morning that it is implementing new tactics to educate its users about the <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/tech-leaders-discuss-how-social-media-is-broken-and-what-we-can-do-about-it" target="_blank">negative mental health impacts</a> of social media. As part of these changes, TikTok is rolling out a &#8220;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/safety/en-us/well-being-guide/" target="_blank">well-being guide</a>&#8221; in its Safety Center, a <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/tag/eating-disorders" target="_blank">brief primer</a> on eating disorders, expanded search interventions, and opt-in viewing screens on potentially triggering searches.
Developed in collaboration with <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flyingeze.com/category/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631712835680000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHBGsaQLFE0o2iJ6rDeKuMVuz8cog" target="_blank">International Association for Suicide Prevention</a>, <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flyingeze.com/category/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631712835680000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGpKn6LL3neGxykw0sIwHvmvXCorg" target="_blank">Crisis Text Line</a>, <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flyingeze.com/category/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631712835680000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH4XAHmpY1Eev_IpO4m_h_5VqgbrA" target="_blank">Live For Tomorrow</a>, <a href="https://www.sos.org.sg/about/who-we-are?gclid=CjwKCAjwsNiIBhBdEiwAJK4khjJ3heyFTjhFR8Mv2YbjQ6rT-rwBWei_ppOCjWehgLHvLq3aqkyAihoCUUEQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sos.org.sg/about/who-we-are?gclid%3DCjwKCAjwsNiIBhBdEiwAJK4khjJ3heyFTjhFR8Mv2YbjQ6rT-rwBWei_ppOCjWehgLHvLq3aqkyAihoCUUEQAvD_BwE&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631712835680000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF9kEhJZaDmqCGRJ0ChtnuCUj7lSg" target="_blank">Samaritans of Singapore</a>, and <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flyingeze.com/category/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631712835680000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHetjbYm_SXQtwmyJeZxxA_wM69Qg" target="_blank">Samaritans (UK)</a>, the new well-being guide offers more targeted advice toward people using TikTok, encouraging users to consider how it might impact them to share their mental health stories on a platform where any post has the potential to go viral. TikTok wants users to think about why they&#8217;re sharing their experience, if they&#8217;re ready for a wider audience to hear their story if sharing could be harmful to them, and if they&#8217;re prepared to hear others&#8217; stories in response. 
The platform also added a brief, albeit generic memo about the <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/tag/eating-disorders" target="_blank">impact of eating disorders</a> under the &#8220;topics&#8221; section of the Safety Center, which was developed with the <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flyingeze.com/category/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1631712835680000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_6fZatFLr2KphvOIMd5SIVjFDvQ" target="_blank">National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)</a>. NEDA has a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/20/over-a-year-after-new-content-policies-self-harm-social-media-still-thrives/" target="_blank">long track record</a> of collaborating with social media platforms, most recently <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/01/pinterest-updates-policy-to-prohibit-ads-promoting-weight-loss/" target="_blank">working with Pinterest</a> to prohibit ads promoting weight loss.

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="RjUckhah06"><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/01/pinterest-updates-policy-to-prohibit-ads-promoting-weight-loss/" target="_blank">Pinterest updates policy to prohibit ads promoting weight loss</a></blockquote>

Already, TikTok directs users to local resources when they search for words or phrases like #suicide,* but now, the platform will also share content from creators with the intent of helping someone in need. The platform told TechCrunch that it chose this content following consultation with independent experts. Additionally, if someone enters a search phrase that might be alarming (TikTok offered &#8220;scary makeup&#8221; as an example), the content will be blurred out, asking users to opt-in to see the search results.
As TikTok unveils these changes, its competitor Instagram is facing scrutiny after The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739" target="_blank">leaked documents</a> that reveal its parent company Facebook&#8217;s own research on the harm Instagram poses for teen girls. Similar to the Gen Z-dominated TikTok, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739" target="_blank">more than 40%</a> of Instagram users are 22 or younger, and 22 million teens log into Instagram in the U.S. each day. In one anecdote, a 19-year-old interviewed by The Wall Street Journal said that after searching Instagram for workout ideas, her explore page has been flooded with photos about how to lose weight (Instagram has previously fessed up to <a href="http://bbc.com/news/technology-56750088" target="_blank">errors with its search function</a>, which recommended that users search topics like &#8220;fasting&#8221; and &#8220;appetite suppressants&#8221;). Angela Guarda, director for the eating-disorders program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, told The Wall Street Journal that her patients often say they learned about dangerous weight loss tactics via social media.
&#8220;The question on many people’s minds is if social media is good or bad for people. The research on this is mixed; it can be both,&#8221; Instagram wrote in a <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/using-research-to-improve-your-experience/" target="_blank">blog post today</a>.
As TikTok nods to with its advice on sharing mental health stories, social media can often be a positive resource, allowing people who are dealing with certain challenges to learn from others who have gone through similar experiences. So, despite these platforms&#8217; outsized influence, it&#8217;s also on real people to think twice about what they post and how it might influence others. Even when Facebook experimented with hiding the number of &#8220;likes&#8221; on Instagram, employees said that <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 1rem; letter-spacing: -0.1px;" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739" target="_blank">it didn&#8217;t improve</a> overall user well-being. These revelations about the negative impact of social media on mental health and body image aren&#8217;t ground-breaking, but they generate a renewed pressure for these powerful platforms to think about how to support their users (or, at the very least, add some new memos to their security center). 
*If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or has had thoughts of harming themselves or taking their own life, <a class="c-link" href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-sk="tooltip_parent" target="_blank">The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline</a> (<a class="c-link" href="tel:18002738255" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-sk="tooltip_parent" target="_blank">1-800-273-8255</a>) provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress, as well as best practices for professionals and resources to aid in prevention and crisis situations.

TikTok announced this morning that it is implementing new tactics to educate its users about the negative mental health impacts of social media. As part of these changes, TikTok is rolling out a “well-being guide” in its Safety Center, a brief primer on eating disorders, expanded search interventions, and opt-in viewing screens on potentially triggering […]

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TikTok expands mental health resources, as negative reports of Instagram’s effect on teens leak

In the UK, a 12-month grace period for compliance with <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-data-protection-themes/age-appropriate-design-a-code-of-practice-for-online-services/code-standards/" target="_blank">a design code</a> aimed at protecting children online expires today &#8212; meaning app makers offering digital services in the market which are &#8220;likely&#8221; to be accessed by children (defined in this context as users under 18 years old) are expected to comply with a set of standards intended to safeguard kids from being tracked and profiled.
The <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-data-protection-themes/age-appropriate-design-code/" target="_blank">age appropriate design code</a> came into force on September 2 <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/22/uk-watchdog-sets-out-age-appropriate-design-code-for-online-services-to-keep-kids-privacy-safe/" target="_blank">last year</a> however the UK&#8217;s data protection watchdog, the ICO, allowed the maximum grace period for hitting compliance to give organizations time to adapt their services.
But from today it expects the standards of the code to be met.
Services where the code applies can include connected toys and games and edtech but also online retail and for-profit online services such as social media and video sharing platforms which have a strong pull for minors.
Among the code&#8217;s stipulations are that a level of &#8216;high privacy&#8217; should be applied to settings by default if the user is (or is suspected to be) a child &#8212; including specific provisions that geolocation and profiling should be off by default (unless there&#8217;s a compelling justification for such privacy hostile defaults).
The code also instructs app makers to provide parental controls while also providing the child with age-appropriate information about such tools &#8212; warning against parental tracking tools that could be used to silently/invisibly monitor a child without them being made aware of the active tracking.
Another standard takes aim at dark pattern design &#8212; with a warning to app makers against using &#8220;nudge techniques&#8221; to push children to provide &#8220;unnecessary personal data or weaken or turn off their privacy protections&#8221;.
The <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-data-protection-themes/age-appropriate-design-code/" target="_blank">full code</a> contains 15 standards but is not itself baked into legislation &#8212; rather it&#8217;s a set of design recommendations the ICO wants app makers to follow.
The regulatory stick to make them do so is that the watchdog is explicitly linking compliance with its children&#8217;s privacy standards to passing muster with wider data protection requirements that are baked into UK law.
The risk for apps that ignore the standards is thus that they draw the attention of the watchdog &#8212; either through a complaint or proactive investigation &#8212; with the potential of a wider ICO audit delving into their whole approach to privacy and data protection.
&#8220;We will monitor conformance to this code through a series of proactive audits, will consider complaints, and take appropriate action to enforce the underlying data protection standards, subject to applicable law and in line with our Regulatory Action Policy,&#8221; the ICO writes in<a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-data-protection-themes/age-appropriate-design-a-code-of-practice-for-online-services/enforcement-of-this-code/" target="_blank"> guidance on its website</a>. &#8220;To ensure proportionate and effective regulation we will target our most significant powers, focusing on organisations and individuals suspected of repeated or wilful misconduct or serious failure to comply with the law.&#8221;
It goes on to warn it would view a lack of compliance with the kids&#8217; privacy code as a potential black mark against (enforceable) UK data protection laws, adding: &#8220;If you do not follow this code, you may find it difficult to demonstrate that your processing is fair and complies with the GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] or PECR [Privacy and Electronics Communications Regulation].&#8221;
Tn a <a href="https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2021/08/as-the-children-s-code-comes-in-what-s-next/" target="_blank">blog post last week</a>, Stephen Bonner, the ICO’s executive director of regulatory futures and innovation, also warned app makers: &#8220;We will be proactive in requiring social media platforms, video and music streaming sites and the gaming industry to tell us how their services are designed in line with the code. We will identify areas where we may need to provide support or, should the circumstances require, we have powers to investigate or audit organisations.&#8221;
&#8220;We have identified that currently, some of the biggest risks come from social media platforms, video and music streaming sites and video gaming platforms,&#8221; he went on. &#8220;In these sectors, children’s personal data is being used and shared, to bombard them with content and personalised service features. This may include inappropriate adverts; unsolicited messages and friend requests; and privacy-eroding nudges urging children to stay online. We’re concerned with a number of harms that could be created as a consequence of this data use, which are physical, emotional and psychological and financial.&#8221;
&#8220;Children’s rights must be respected and we expect organisations to prove that children’s best interests are a primary concern. The code gives clarity on how organisations can use children’s data in line with the law, and we want to see organisations committed to protecting children through the development of designs and services in accordance with the code,&#8221; Bonner added.
The ICO&#8217;s enforcement powers &#8212; at least on paper &#8212; are fairly extensive, with GDPR, for example, giving it the ability to fine infringers up to £17.5M or 4% of their annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
The watchdog can also issue orders banning data processing or otherwise requiring changes to services it deems non-compliant. So apps that chose to flout the children&#8217;s design code risk setting themselves up for regulatory bumps or worse.

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="d8nJRglhBB"><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/22/uk-watchdog-sets-out-age-appropriate-design-code-for-online-services-to-keep-kids-privacy-safe/" target="_blank">UK watchdog sets out &#8216;age appropriate&#8217; design code for online services to keep kids&#8217; privacy safe</a></blockquote>

In recent months there have been signs some major platforms have been paying mind to the ICO&#8217;s compliance deadline &#8212; with <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/instagram-to-default-young-teens-to-private-accounts-restrict-ads-and-unwanted-adult-contact/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/10/google-to-introduce-increased-protections-for-minors-on-its-platform-including-search-youtube-and-more/" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/tiktok-to-add-more-privacy-protections-for-teenaged-users-limit-push-notifications" target="_blank">TikTok</a> all announcing changes to how they handle minors&#8217; data and account settings ahead of the September 2 date.
In July, <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/giving-young-people-a-safer-more-private-experience/" target="_blank">Instagram said</a> it would default teens to private accounts &#8212; doing so for under 18s in certain countries which the platform confirmed to us includes the UK &#8212; among a number of other child-safety focused tweaks. Then in August, Google announced similar changes for accounts on its video charing platform, YouTube.
A few days later TikTok also said it would add more privacy protections for teens. Though it had also made <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/tiktok-update-will-change-privacy-settings-and-defaults-for-users-under-18" target="_blank">earlier changes</a> limiting privacy defaults for under 18s.
Apple also recently got itself into hot water with the digital rights community following the<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/10/interview-apples-head-of-privacy-details-child-abuse-detection-and-messages-safety-features/" target="_blank"> announcement of child safety-focused features</a> &#8212; including a child sexual abuse material (CSAM) detection tool which scans photo uploads to iCloud; and an opt in parental safety feature that lets iCloud Family account users turn on <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/05/new-apple-technology-will-warn-parents-and-children-about-sexually-explicit-photos-in-messages/" target="_blank">alerts related to the viewing of explicit images by minors</a> using its Messages app.
The unifying theme underpinning all these mainstream platform product tweaks is clearly &#8216;child protection&#8217;.
And while there&#8217;s been growing attention in the US to online child safety and the nefarious ways in which some apps exploit kids&#8217; data &#8212; as well as <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagrams-handling-of-kids-data-is-now-being-probed-in-the-eu" target="_blank">a number of open probes in Europe</a> (such as this <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/eu-to-review-tiktoks-tos-after-child-safety-complaints" target="_blank">Commission investigation of TikTok</a>, acting on <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/tiktok-hit-with-consumer-child-safety-and-privacy-complaints-in-europe" target="_blank">complaints</a>) &#8212; the UK may be having an outsized impact here given its concerted push to pioneer age-focused design standards.
The code also combines with incoming UK legislate which is set to apply a &#8216;duty of care&#8217; on platforms to take a rboad-brush safety-first stance toward users, also with a big focus on kids (and there it&#8217;s also being broadly targeted to cover all children; rather than just applying to kids under 13s as with the US&#8217; <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule" target="_blank">COPPA</a>, for example).
In the blog post ahead of the compliance deadline expiring, the ICO&#8217;s Bonner sought to take credit for what he described as &#8220;significant changes&#8221; made in recent months by platforms like Facebook, Google, Instagram and TikTok, writing: &#8220;As the first-of-its kind, it’s also having an influence globally. Members of the US Senate and Congress have called on major US tech and gaming companies to voluntarily adopt the standards in the ICO’s code for children in America.&#8221;
&#8220;The Data Protection Commission in Ireland is preparing to introduce the Children’s Fundamentals to protect children online, which links closely to the code and follows similar core principles,&#8221; he also noted.
And there are other examples in the EU: France&#8217;s data watchdog, the CNIL, looks to have been inspired by the ICO&#8217;s approach &#8212; issuing its own <a href="https://www.cnil.fr/en/cnil-publishes-8-recommendations-enhance-protection-children-online" target="_blank">set of right child-protection focused recommendations this June</a> (which also, for example, encourage app makers to add parental controls with the clear caveat that such tools must &#8220;respect the child&#8217;s privacy and best interests&#8221;).
The UK&#8217;s focus on online child safety is not just making waves overseas but sparking growth in a domestic compliance services industry.
Last month, for example, the ICO announced the first clutch of <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/certification-schemes-register/" target="_blank">GDPR certification scheme criteria</a> &#8212; including <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/ target="_blank">two schemes which focus on the age appropriate design code</a>. Expect plenty more.
Bonner&#8217;s blog post also notes that the watchdog will formally set out its position on age assurance this autumn &#8212; so it will be providing further steerage to organizations which are in scope of the code on how to tackle that tricky piece, although it&#8217;s still not clear how hard a requirement the ICO will support, with Bonner suggesting it could be actually &#8220;verifying ages or age estimation&#8221;. Watch that space. Whatever the recommendations are, age assurance services are set to spring up with compliance-focused sales pitches.
Children&#8217;s safety online has been a huge focus for UK policymakers in recent years, although the wider (and long in train) Online Safety (<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/08/uk-sets-out-safety-focused-plan-to-regulate-internet-firms/" target="_blank">neé Harms</a>) Bill remains at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/12/uk-publishes-draft-online-safety-bill/" target="_blank">the draft law</a> stage.
An earlier attempt by UK lawmakers to bring in mandatory age checks to prevent kids from accessing adult content websites &#8212; dating back to 2017&#8217;s Digital Economy Act &#8212; was <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/16/uk-quietly-ditches-porn-age-checks-in-favor-of-wider-online-harms-rules/" target="_blank">dropped in 2019</a> after widespread criticism that it would be both unworkable and a massive privacy risk for adult users of porn.
But the government did not drop its determination to find a way to regulate online services in the name of child safety. And online age verification checks look set to be &#8212; if not a blanket, hardened requirement for all digital services &#8212; increasingly brought in by the backdoor, through a sort of &#8216;recommended feature&#8217; creep (as the <a href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/age-verification-in-the-online-safety-bill/" target="_blank">ORG has warned</a>). 
The current recommendation in the age appropriate design code is that app makers &#8220;take a risk-based approach to recognising the age of individual users and ensure you effectively apply the standards in this code to child users&#8221;, suggesting they: &#8220;Either establish age with a level of certainty that is appropriate to the risks to the rights and freedoms of children that arise from your data processing, or apply the standards in this code to all your users instead.&#8221; 
At the same time, the government&#8217;s broader push on online safety risks conflicting with some of the laudable aims of the ICO&#8217;s non-legally binding children&#8217;s privacy design code.
For instance, while the code includes the (welcome) suggestion that digital services gather as little information about children as possible, in an announcement <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/30/uk-tells-messaging-apps-not-to-use-e2e-encryption-for-kids-accounts/" target="_blank">earlier this summer</a> UK lawmakers put out guidance for social media platforms and messaging services &#8212; ahead of the planned Online Safety legislation &#8212; that recommends they prevent children from being able to use end-to-end encryption.
That&#8217;s right; the government&#8217;s advice to data-mining platforms &#8212; which it suggests will help prepare them for requirements in the incoming legislation &#8212; is not to use &#8216;gold standard&#8217; security and privacy (e2e encryption) for kids.
So the official UK government messaging to app makers appears to be that, in short order, the law will require commercial services to access more of kids&#8217; information, not less &#8212; in the name of keeping them &#8216;safe&#8217;. Which is quite a contradiction vs the data minimization push on the design code.
The risk is that a tightening spotlight on kids privacy ends up being fuzzed and complicated by ill-thought through policies that push platforms to monitor kids to demonstrate &#8216;protection&#8217; from a smorgasbord of online harms &#8212; be it adult content or pro-suicide postings, or cyber bullying and CSAM.
The law looks set to encourage platforms to &#8216;show their workings&#8217; to prove compliance &#8212; which risks resulting in ever closer tracking of children&#8217;s activity, retention of data &#8212; and maybe risk profiling and age verification checks (that could even end up being applied to all users; think sledgehammer to crack a nut). In short, a privacy dystopia.
Such mixed messages and disjointed policymaking seem set to pile increasingly confusing &#8212; and even conflicting &#8212; requirements on digital services operating in the UK, making tech businesses legally responsible for divining clarity amid the policy mess &#8212; with the simultaneous risk of <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/uk-online-harms-bill-coming-next-year-will-propose-fines-of-up-to-10-of-annual-turnover-for-breaching-duty-of-care-rules" target="_blank">huge fines if they get the balance wrong</a>.
Complying with the ICO&#8217;s design standards may therefore actually be the easy bit.

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="VhLPEyPHK8"><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/12/uk-publishes-draft-online-safety-bill/" target="_blank">UK publishes draft Online Safety Bill</a></blockquote>


<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="i7lK4a8JA8"><a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/the-uks-plan-to-tackle-big-tech-wont-be-one-sized-fits-all" target="_blank">The UK&#8217;s plan to tackle Big Tech won&#8217;t be one-size fits all</a></blockquote>

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In the UK, a 12-month grace period for compliance with a design code aimed at protecting children online expires today — meaning app makers offering digital services in the market which are “likely” to be accessed by children (defined in this context as users under 18 years old) are expected to comply with a set […]

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UK now expects compliance with children’s privacy design code

Instagram will begin prodding users to share their birthday with the service, if they haven&#8217;t already done so. The company today announced it will now start popping up a notification that asks you to add your birthday to &#8220;personalize your experience.&#8221; But the prompt can only be dismissed a handful of times before becoming a requirement. The move is a part of Instagram&#8217;s larger goal to create new safety features aimed at younger users, the company explains. This includes the teen privacy protections <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/instagram-to-default-young-teens-to-private-accounts-restrict-ads-and-unwanted-adult-contact/" target="_blank">introduced</a> earlier this year, as well as Instagram&#8217;s longer-term plan to launch a version of its service <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/consumer-groups-and-child-development-experts-petition-facebook-to-drop-instagram-for-kids-plan" target="_blank">aimed</a> at users under the age of 13.
This March, Instagram <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagram-adds-new-teen-safety-tools-as-competition-with-tiktok-heats-up" target="_blank">rolled out new features</a> that made it more difficult for adults to contact teens through its app. Then in July, the company <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/instagram-to-default-young-teens-to-private-accounts-restrict-ads-and-unwanted-adult-contact/" target="_blank">announced</a> a larger series of changes to the default settings for new users under the age of 16. It will now default these users&#8217; accounts to &#8220;private&#8221; and limit their accounts from being suggested elsewhere in the app. It also now restricts adults whose accounts are flagged as &#8220;potentially suspicious&#8221; from being able to reach out to other minors or interact with their posts.
Starting this week, Instagram says users who have not yet shared their birthday will begin to see pop-up notifications when they open the Instagram app.
These notifications will appear a handful of times, but at some point, users will no longer be able to dismiss the message by tapping &#8220;Not Now.&#8221; Instead, everyone will ultimately be required to share their birthday to continue to use Instagram.
The company will also now request you to share your birthday information when you come across a post with a warning screen. These screens, which hide content that&#8217;s flagged as sensitive or graphic, are not new. But Instagram has never before asked for a user&#8217;s birthday before displaying the hidden content.
<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2195698" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-2195698" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg?w=680" alt="" width="680" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg 1660w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg?resize=150,91 150w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg?resize=300,183 300w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg?resize=768,468 768w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg?resize=680,415 680w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg?resize=1536,936 1536w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/instagram-hidden-content.jpg?resize=50,30 50w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Image Credits: Instagram
The birthday entry form itself is not complex. You simply scroll to choose the month, day and year of your birthday.
Of course, kids are commonly known to lie on these entry forms in order to bypass restrictions when signing up for apps. On this front, Instagram has <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/tag/age-verification" target="_blank">developed</a> A.I. technology to help it identify accounts were kids may have lied. For instance, it may be able to infer someone&#8217;s birthday based on comments left on &#8220;Happy Birthday&#8221; posts, where the user&#8217;s age may be referenced. The company also hints at further plans in this area, noting how it will later require users to verify their age when Facebook&#8217;s technology determines a mismatch between the age the user submitted and what appears to be their real age, based on other signals.
That technology is still in the &#8220;early stages,&#8221; says Instagram, but will involve a menu of options that will allow someone to verify their age.
The need to have users&#8217; birthdays on hand isn&#8217;t only meant to power the recently launched teen protection features. Instagram is also working to bring its app to younger users &#8212; a decision that&#8217;s been met with a hostile response from <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-for-kids-facebook-wants-to-fix-its-preteen-problem-11617787802" target="_blank">legislators</a> and <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/consumer-groups-and-child-development-experts-petition-facebook-to-drop-instagram-for-kids-plan" target="_blank">consumer advocacy groups</a> alike. In addition, age remains an important data point for ad targeting. Even as Instagram <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/instagram-to-default-young-teens-to-private-accounts-restrict-ads-and-unwanted-adult-contact/" target="_blank">pulled back</a> on the ability for marketers to target teens using interest data or their activity on other apps, it will <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/instagram-to-default-young-teens-to-private-accounts-restrict-ads-and-unwanted-adult-contact/" target="_blank">continue</a> to allow ad targeting based on age, gender and location across age groups.

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="iZ7fg1yZT0"><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/instagram-to-default-young-teens-to-private-accounts-restrict-ads-and-unwanted-adult-contact/" target="_blank">Instagram to default young teens to private accounts, restrict ads and unwanted adult contact</a></blockquote>

The company is now one of several to have rolled out added protections for younger teen users, ahead of regulations that would force them to do so. Over the course of this year, <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/tiktok-update-will-change-privacy-settings-and-defaults-for-users-under-18" target="_blank">TikTok</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/10/google-to-introduce-increased-protections-for-minors-on-its-platform-including-search-youtube-and-more/" target="_blank">YouTube, and Google</a> have also announced changes to how younger teens can use their services and how they can be targeted by ads, in anticipation of a regulatory crackdown. While each has crafted its own set of teen safety features independently, the changes have largely addressed making the default settings for new teenage users more restrictive.
Instagram says the new birthday pop-up notifications will begin to appear this week on the mobile app and will continue to roll out over the weeks ahead to reach more users.

Instagram will begin prodding users to share their birthday with the service, if they haven’t already done so. The company today announced it will now start popping up a notification that asks you to add your birthday to “personalize your experience.” But the prompt can only be dismissed a handful of times before becoming a […]

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Instagram will require users to provide their birthday

A new startup called <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank">Popcorn</a> wants to make work communication more fun and personal by offering a way for users to record short video messages, or &#8220;pops,&#8221; that can be used for any number of purposes in place of longer emails, texts, Slack messages, or Zoom calls. While there are plenty of other places to record short-form video these days, most of these exist in the social media space which isn&#8217;t appropriate for a work environment. Nor does it make sense to send a video you&#8217;ve recorded on your phone as an email attachment, when you really just want to check in with a colleague or say hello.
Popcorn, on the other hand, lets you create the short video and then send a URL to that video anywhere you would want add a personal touch to your message.
For example, you could use Popcorn in business networking scenario, where you&#8217;re trying to connect with someone in your industry for the first time &#8212; aka &#8220;cold outreach.&#8221; Instead of just blasting them a message on LinkedIn, you could also paste in the Popcorn URL to introduce yourself in a more natural, friendly fashion. You could also use Popcorn with your team at work for things like daily check-ins, sharing progress on an ongoing project, or to greet new hires, among other things.
<img loading="lazy" class="vertical aligncenter size-large wp-image-2194586" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Popcorn-iPhone-Chat.png?w=336" alt="" width="336" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Popcorn-iPhone-Chat.png 390w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Popcorn-iPhone-Chat.png?resize=74,150 74w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Popcorn-iPhone-Chat.png?resize=148,300 148w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Popcorn-iPhone-Chat.png?resize=336,680 336w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Popcorn-iPhone-Chat.png?resize=25,50 25w" sizes="(max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px" />
Videos themselves can be up to 60 seconds in length &#8212; a time limit designed to keep Popcorn users from rambling. Users can also opt to record audio only if they don&#8217;t want to appear on video. And you can increase the playback speed if you&#8217;re in a hurry. Users who want to receive &#8220;pops&#8221; could also advertise their &#8220;popcode&#8221; (e.g. try mine at U8696).
The idea to bring short-form video to the workplace comes from Popcorn co-founder and CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinspraggins/" target="_blank">Justin Spraggins</a>, whose background is in building consumer apps. One of his first apps to gain traction back in 2014 was a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/18/looksee-debuts-a-tinder-meets-instagram-for-connecting-around-shared-photos/" target="_blank">Tinder-meets-Instagram experience called Looksee</a> that allowed users to connect around shared photos. A couple years later, he co-founded <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/04/unmute-reinvents-the-phone-hotline-with-an-social-calling-app/" target="_blank">a social calling app called Unmute,</a> a Clubhouse precursor of sorts. He then went on to co-found <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank">9 Count</a>, a consumer app development shop which launched more social apps like BFF (previously Wink) and Juju.
9 Count&#8217;s lead engineer, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-hochberg-44858351/" target="_blank">Ben Hochberg</a>, is now also a co-founder on Popcorn (or rather, Snack Break, Inc. as the legal entity is called). They began their work on Popcorn in 2020, just after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the rapid shift to remote work that&#8217;s come in the days that followed could now help Popcorn gain traction among distributed teams. Today&#8217;s remote workers may never again return to in-person meetings at the office, but they&#8217;re also are growing tired of long days stuck in Zoom meetings.
With Popcorn, the goal is to make work communication fun, personal and bite-sized, Spraggins says. &#8220;[We want to] bring all the stuff we&#8217;re really passionate about in consumer social into work, which I think is really important for us now,&#8221; he explains.
&#8220;You work with these people, but how do you &#8212; without scheduling a Zoom &#8212; how do you bring the &#8216;human&#8217; to it?,&#8221; Spraggins says. &#8220;I&#8217;m really excited about making work products feel more social, more like Snapchat than utility tools.&#8221;
There is a lot Popcorn would still need to figure out to truly make a business-oriented social app work, including adding enhanced security, limiting spam, offering some sort of reporting flow for bad actors, and more. It will also eventually need to land on a successful revenue model.

Currently, Popcorn is a <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/id1539175761#?platform=iphone" target="_blank">free download</a> on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and offers a Slack integration so you can send video messages to co-workers directly in the communication software you already use to catch up and stay in touch. The app today is fairly simple but the company plans to enhance its short videos over time using AR frames that let users showcase their personalities.
The startup raised a $400,000 pre-seed round from General Catalyst (<a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/tag/niko-bonatsos" target="_blank">Nico Bonatsos)</a> and <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank">Dream Machine</a> (<a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/person/alexia-tsotsis" target="_blank">Alexia Bonatsos</a>, previously editor-in-chief at TechCrunch.) Spraggins says the company will be looking to raise a seed round in the fall to help with hires, including in the AR space.

A new startup called Popcorn wants to make work communication more fun and personal by offering a way for users to record short video messages, or “pops,” that can be used for any number of purposes in place of longer emails, texts, Slack messages, or Zoom calls. While there are plenty of other places to […]

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To celebrate its ten year anniversary, Messenger today announced a handful of new features: poll games, word effects, contact sharing, and birthday gifting via Facebook Pay. But beyond the fun features, Facebook has been <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-23/facebook-retools-messaging-again-by-adding-calling-to-main-app?sref=gni836kR" target="_blank">testing</a> a way to add voice and video calls back into the Facebook app, rather than on Messenger.
&#8220;We are testing audio and video calls within the Facebook app messaging experience so people can make and receive calls regardless of which app they’re using,&#8221; a representative from Facebook told TechCrunch. &#8220;This will give people on Facebook easy ways to connect with their communities where they already are.&#8221;
Although earlier in Facebook history, the Messenger app had operated as a standalone experience, Facebook tells us that it&#8217;s now starting to see Messenger less as a separate entity &#8212; more of an underlying technology that can help to power many of the new experiences Facebook is now developing.
&#8220;We’ve been focused more on real-time experiences &#8212; Watch Together, Rooms, Live Audio Rooms &#8212; and we’ve started to think of Messenger as a connective tissue regardless of the surface,&#8221; a Facebook spokesperson told us.  &#8220;This is a test, but the bigger vision is for us to unlock content and communities that may not be accessible in Messenger, and that the Facebook app is going to become more about shared real-time experiences,&#8221; they added.
Given the company&#8217;s move in recent months to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/30/facebook-introduces-cross-app-communication-between-messenger-and-instagram-plus-other-features/" target="_blank">integrate its underlying communication infrastructure</a>, it should come to reason that Facebook would ultimately add more touchpoints for accessing its new Messenger-powered features inside the desktop app, as well. When asked for comment on this point, the spokesperson said the company didn&#8217;t have any details to share at this time. However, they noted that the test is a part of Facebook&#8217;s broader vision to enable more real-time experiences across Facebook&#8217;s services.
Despite the new integrations, the standalone version of Messenger isn&#8217;t going away.
Facebook says that people who want a more &#8220;full-featured&#8221; messaging, audio and video calling experience&#8221; should continue to use Messenger.
<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2193594" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-2193594" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?w=680" alt="" width="680" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png 2236w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?resize=150,83 150w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?resize=300,166 300w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?resize=768,425 768w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?resize=680,376 680w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?resize=1536,849 1536w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?resize=2048,1132 2048w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-24-at-1.12.28-PM.png?resize=50,28 50w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Image Credits: Messenger
As for today&#8217;s crop of new features &#8212; including polls, word effects, contact sharing, and others &#8212; the goal is to  celebrate Messenger&#8217;s ability to keep people in touch with their family a friends.
To play the new poll games, users can tap &#8220;Polls&#8221; in their group chat and select the &#8220;Most Likely To&#8221; tab &#8212; then, they can choose from questions like &#8220;most likely to miss their flight?&#8221; or &#8220;most likely to give gifts on their own birthday?&#8221;, select names of chat participants to be included as potential answers, and send the poll.
Contact sharing will make it easier to share others&#8217; Facebook contacts through Messenger, while birthday gifting lets users send birthday-themed payments on Messenger via Facebook Pay. There will also be other &#8220;birthday expression tools,&#8221; including a birthday song <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/22/facebook-messenger-is-stepping-up-its-emoji-game/" target="_blank">soundmoji</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/stickers/355175666155936" target="_blank">&#8220;Messenger is 10!&#8221; sticker pack</a>, a new balloon background, a message effect, and AR effect to celebrate Messenger&#8217;s double-digit milestone.
<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2193678" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-2193678" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Word-Effects.gif?w=680" alt="" width="680" />Image Credits: Messenger
Meanwhile, word effects lets users manually input a phrase, and any time they send a message with that phrase, an accompanying emoji will float across the screen. In an example, Messenger showed the phrase &#8220;happy birthday&#8221; accompanied with a word effect of confetti emojis flooding the screen. (That one&#8217;s pretty tame, but this could be a remarkable application of the poop emoji.) The company only shared a &#8220;sneak peak&#8221; of this feature, as it&#8217;s not rolling out immediately.
In total, Facebook is announcing a total of ten features, most of which will begin rolling out today.
Messenger has come a long way over the past decade.
Ten years ago, Facebook <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/01/facebook-beluga/" target="_blank">acqui-hired</a> a small group messaging start-up called Beluga, started by three former Google employees (apparently, a functional group thread was a <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/ target="_blank">white whale</a> back then &#8212; simpler times). Several months later, the company <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/09/facebook-launches-standalone-mobile-messenger-app-and-it%E2%80%99s-beluga/" target="_blank">unveiled Messenger</a>, a standalone messaging app.
But three years into Messenger&#8217;s existence, it was no longer an optional add-on to the Facebook experience, but a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/28/facebook-moving-messages/" target="_blank">mandatory download</a> for anyone who wanted to keep up with their friends on the go. Facebook removed the option to send messages within its flagship app, directing users to use Messenger instead. Facebook&#8217;s reasoning behind this, the company told TechCrunch at the time, was that they wanted to eliminate the confusion of having two different mobile messaging systems. Just months earlier, Facebook had spent $19 billion to <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/ target="_blank">acquire WhatsApp</a> and woo international users. Though removing Messenger from the Facebook app was controversial, the app reached <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/messenger" target="_blank">1.2 billion users</a> three years later in 2017.
Today, Facebook has declared that it wants to evolve into a &#8220;<a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/zuckerberg-is-turning-trillion-dollar-facebook-into-a-metaverse-company-he-tells-investors" target="_blank">metaverse</a>&#8221; company, and on the same day as the anti-trust filing last week, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a product that applies virtual reality in an impressively boring way: helping people <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/facebook-finally-made-a-good-virtual-reality-app" target="_blank">attend work meetings</a>. This metaverse would be enabled by technologies built by Facebook&#8217;s platform team, noted Vice President of Messenger Stan Chudnovsky. However, he added that people in the metaverse will still need platforms like Messenger.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think messaging is going anywhere, even in the metaverse, because a asynchronous communication is going to continue to exist,&#8221; Chudnovsky said. People will still need to send messages to those who aren&#8217;t currently available to chat, he explained. Plus, Chudnovsky believes this sort of communication will become even more popular with the launch of the metaverse, as the technology will help to serve as a bridge between your phone, real life, and the metaverse.
&#8220;if anything is gonna happen more, not less. Because messaging is that things that just continues to grow with every new platform leap,&#8221; he said.
Additional reporting: Sarah Perez

To celebrate its ten year anniversary, Messenger today announced a handful of new features: poll games, word effects, contact sharing, and birthday gifting via Facebook Pay. But beyond the fun features, Facebook has been testing a way to add voice and video calls back into the Facebook app, rather than on Messenger. “We are testing […]

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Messenger celebrates its 10th anniversary with new features and a plan to become the ‘connective tissue’ for real-time experiences

Last year, Instagram unveiled <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/19/facebook-shops/" target="_blank">Shops</a> as part of Facebook&#8217;s larger pivot toward e-commerce. Shops is front-and-almost-center on the app&#8217;s bottom navigation bar, even <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/07/instagram-swaps-out-its-activity-tab-for-shop-in-new-global-test/" target="_blank">more readily accessible</a> than the button to upload a new photo. Now, after <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagram-tests-ads-in-its-shop-tab" target="_blank">testing</a> in the U.S. earlier this month, Instagram will introduce ads on the Instagram Shop tab globally, rolling them out in all countries where the Instagram Shop tab is available.
This marks Instagram&#8217;s latest update in evolving its e-commerce platform. It&#8217;s previously implemented <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagram-launches-shopping-in-reels-its-tiktok-rival" target="_blank">shopping in Reels</a> to compete with TikTok, organized exclusive product <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagram-launches-a-new-section-for-shopping-product-drops" target="_blank">Drops</a> into their own Shop category and added <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagram-adds-affiliate-and-shop-features-for-creators" target="_blank">affiliate features</a> for creators to earn a commission on sales of sponsored products.
Currently, items on Shops appear in a two-column grid of square tiles. Ads will appear as a tile within this structure, but they&#8217;ll be marked &#8220;Sponsored&#8221; in the bottom left corner of the image. When the ad is clicked, it will open the Product Details page, which shows more information about the item, additional images, and other products from the brand. Users can save a product from an ad to their wishlist or send it to a friend &#8212; if the ad is inappropriate, they can press and hold its tile to see options to hide or report the ad.
<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2192917" loading="lazy" class="vertical size-large wp-image-2192917" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IG-Shop-Tab-Ad.png?w=314" alt="" width="314" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IG-Shop-Tab-Ad.png 750w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IG-Shop-Tab-Ad.png?resize=69,150 69w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IG-Shop-Tab-Ad.png?resize=139,300 139w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IG-Shop-Tab-Ad.png?resize=314,680 314w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IG-Shop-Tab-Ad.png?resize=709,1536 709w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IG-Shop-Tab-Ad.png?resize=23,50 23w" sizes="(max-width: 314px) 100vw, 314px" />Image Credits: Instagram
Instagram tested Shops ads with U.S. advertisers like Away, Donny Davy, Boo Oh, Clare paint, JNJ Gifts, DEUX and Fenty Beauty. As TechCrunch <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagram-tests-ads-in-its-shop-tab" target="_blank">previously reported</a>, these ads will launch with an auction-based model and only appear on mobile, since Shops isn&#8217;t available on desktop. A user&#8217;s experience with these ads will depend on how they use Instagram and how many people are shopping in the Instagram tab.

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="YGjQ6X36Sc"><a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/instagram-tests-ads-in-its-shop-tab" target="_blank">Instagram tests ads in its Shop tab</a>

Last year, Instagram unveiled Shops as part of Facebook’s larger pivot toward e-commerce. Shops is front-and-almost-center on the app’s bottom navigation bar, even more readily accessible than the button to upload a new photo. Now, after testing in the U.S. earlier this month, Instagram will introduce ads on the Instagram Shop tab globally, rolling them […]

Advertising

E-commerce

Instagram Ads

Shops

After testing, Instagram launches ads in the Instagram Shop tab globally

<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-404285" src="https://dlisted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/chrissy-dumb.png" alt="" width="730" srcset="https://dlisted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/chrissy-dumb.png 730w, https://dlisted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/chrissy-dumb-300x240.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px" />
Despite being a member of the <a href="https://dlisted.com/2021/07/15/today-in-boo-hoo-news-chrissy-teigen-says-the-cancel-club-sucks/" target="_blank">Cancel Club</a>, Chrissy Teigen gets around. She was one of the guests at <a href="https://dlisted.com/2021/08/09/barack-obama-celebrated-his-60th-birthday-at-his-marthas-vineyard-estate-with-a-bunch-of-celebrities/" target="_blank">Obama&#8217;s sixtieth birthday</a>, she recently traveled to Miami, Palm Springs, NYC, and Italy, she continues to shill her food and fashion lines, and in the last month, she&#8217;s posted 25 pictures (and hundreds of Stories) to her Instagram. Kevin Spacey, Ryan Adams, and Lori Loughlin are all like, &#8220;Bitch, what Cancel Club package did you buy, can we switch to that?&#8221; 
Chrissy still has 35 million followers on Instagram and big-time celebs like Sharon Stone, Andy Cohen, Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, the stars of Queer Eye, and all those thirsty Real Housewives continue to leave positive comments. Apparently, this angers Chrissy&#8217;s detractors, and they believe she&#8217;s been deleting all the negative comments. Chrissy thinks their theory is &#8220;funny,&#8221; and she <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/chrissyteigen/2637498276712419076/" target="_blank">posted an Instagram Story</a> (but of course) to chuckle at her &#8220;next-level haters.&#8221; With the puppy filter, of course. Wow. Chrissy meant business. 
Here&#8217;s what Chrissy said, via<a href="https://pagesix.com/2021/08/11/chrissy-teigen-denies-deleting-hateful-comments-from-her-instagram/" target="_blank"> Page Six:</a>
<blockquote>Two things that I think are funny right now. One: People in my comments that are mad that there’s not enough angry comments in my comments. Then they&#8217;re mad, they think that I like delete them. But like, what? That’s like next-level hater&#8230; when you’re mad that there’s not enough hate. It’s pretty- that&#8217;s&#8230; you&#8230; you’re just crazy.
Two: I legitimately forgot&#8230; If I leave a comment underneath somebody’s photo, even if it’s nice&#8230; ’You look great,’ ‘I love this outfit!&#8217; People get all sorts of mad. Because I am&#8230; alive. And that&#8217;s two things I think are funny.</blockquote>
Yep, hilarious. Here&#8217;s part of the video, and please note she&#8217;s doing a pretty good vocal impression of Khloe Kardashian:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Chrissy Teigen Denies Claims She Deletes Negative Instagram Comments: &#39;That&#39;s Next Level Hater&#39; <a href="https://t.co/P8g6Q9onvx" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/P8g6Q9onvx</a>
&mdash; People (@people) <a href="https://twitter.com/people/status/1425521143822311430?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">August 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

A couple of days ago <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSTNRtoAZOv/" target="_blank">Chrissy posted more Instagram content</a> of her and husband John Legend on their way to Obama&#8217;s birthday party. In <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSV7i0Hr4lO/" target="_blank">one of the captions</a>, Chrissy wrote that she sees a therapist twice a week (and perhaps she&#8217;ll bump it up to three).
Chrissy&#8217;s therapist, if you are reading this: it&#8217;s time to confiscate the phone! I know you&#8217;ve probably spent whole sessions begging your client to disable her social media accounts, but it has not worked. Chrissy cannot be trusted with unlimited access to 35 million people (the population of Saudi Arabia)! It&#8217;s time for some serious medical intervention!
Pic: <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/ target="_blank">Instagram</a>

Despite being a member of the Cancel Club, Chrissy Teigen gets around. She was one of the guests at Obama’s sixtieth birthday, she recently traveled to Miami, Palm Springs, NYC, and Italy, she continues to shill her food and fashion lines, and in the last month, she’s posted 25 pictures (and hundreds of Stories) to her […]

Uncategorized

Cancelled

Chrissy Teigen

Haters

Chrissy Teigen Denies Deleting Negative Comments On Instagram

Instagram on Wednesday announced new measures to curb abusive and racist content on the image-centric social network, following an onslaught of hateful comments directed at UK footballers after the Euro 2020 final.
The Facebook-owned platform said it would start using &#8220;stronger warnings&#8221; when people post potentially offensive comments, and a new &#8220;hidden words&#8221; feature that enables users to filter abusive messages.
Instagram will also allow users to  limit comments and message requests during &#8220;spikes of increased attention.&#8221;
The move comes weeks after social platforms scrambled to take down racially abusive comments directed at members of the England football team following a heartbreaking loss in the Euro 2020 final, which was played last month after a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The racist and hateful content, which had prompted condemnation from British political leaders and the public, also led to pressure on the large US social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said the new measures were designed to reduce the spread of racist, sexist and homophobic content.
&#8220;Our research shows that a lot of negativity towards public figures comes from people who don&#8217;t actually follow them, or who have only recently followed them, and who simply pile on in the moment,&#8221; Mosseri said in a blog post.
									
										
											
											
												
											
											
											
												
											
										
									
								
&#8220;We saw this after the recent Euro 2020 final, which resulted in a significant &#8212; and unacceptable &#8212; spike in racist abuse towards players.&#8221;
Mosseri said users &#8220;tell us they don&#8217;t want to switch off comments and messages completely; they still want to hear from their community and build those relationships,&#8221; and that the new policy &#8220;allows you to hear from your long-standing followers while limiting contact from people who might only be coming to your account to target you.&#8221;
Mosseri said the warnings already in place reduce the frequency of abusive comments by as much as 50 per cent.
&#8220;We already show a warning when someone tries to post a potentially offensive comment,&#8221; he wrote.
&#8220;And if they try to post potentially offensive comments multiple times, we show an even stronger warning&#8230; Now, rather than waiting for the second or third comment, we&#8217;ll show this stronger message the first time.&#8221;
AFP

Instagram on Wednesday announced new measures to curb abusive and racist content on the image-centric social network, following an onslaught of hateful comments directed at UK footballers after the Euro 2020 final. The Facebook-owned platform said it would start using “stronger warnings” when people post potentially offensive comments, and a new “hidden words” feature that…

Instagram unveils new tools to reduce abuse, racist comments

Facebook shut down accounts belonging to two academic researchers late Tuesday, cutting off their ability to study political ads and misinformation on the world&#8217;s biggest social network.
The company accused the academics of engaging in &#8220;unauthorized scraping&#8221; and compromising user privacy on the platform, claims that Facebook&#8217;s many critics are slamming as a <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/08/research-cannot-be-the-justification-for-compromising-peoples-privacy/" target="_blank">thin pretense</a> for killing the transparency work.
The company took action against Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy, two well-known researchers affiliated with<a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank"> NYU&#8217;s Cybersecurity for Democracy project</a> who have long sparred with the company. The move cuts off their access to Facebook&#8217;s Ad Library — one of the company&#8217;s only meaningful transparency efforts to date — and data on popular posts from the social media monitoring service Crowdtangle.
Facebook has a history with Edelson and McCoy. The company served the pair cease and desist letters<a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/facebooks-threat-to-the-nyu-ad-observatory-is-an-attack-on-ethical-research/" target="_blank"> just weeks before the 2020 election</a>, calling on the team to disable an opt-in browser tool called Ad Observer and unpublish their findings. Ad Observer is a <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank">browser tool anyone can install</a> that&#8217;s designed to give researchers a rare glimpse into how Facebook targets the ads that have transformed it into a trillion-dollar company.
&#8220;Over the last several years, we’ve used this access to uncover systemic flaws in the Facebook Ad Library, identify misinformation in political ads including many sowing distrust in our election system, and to study Facebook’s apparent amplification of partisan misinformation,&#8221; Edelson said on Twitter.
&#8220;By suspending our accounts, Facebook has effectively ended all this work. Facebook has also effectively cut off access to more than two dozen other researchers and journalists who get access to Facebook data through our project, including our work measuring vaccine misinformation with the<a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/category/" target="_blank"> Virality Project</a> and many other partners who rely on our data.&#8221;
The incident set off a fresh round of criticism about the company&#8217;s preference for opacity over transparency when it comes to some of the more dangerous behavior that the platform incubates.
By Wednesday, Facebook&#8217;s actions had attracted the attention of some members of Congress. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) criticized Facebook&#8217;s decision to punish the researchers under the pretense of protecting users in light of the company&#8217;s long history of invasive privacy practices. Wyden also called Facebook&#8217;s bluff over its claim that revoking researcher access is an effort to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2020/04/ftc-gives-final-approval-modify-ftcs-2012-privacy-order-facebook" target="_blank">comply with a privacy order from the FTC</a> that the company was issued for its previous user privacy violations.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
After years of abusing users&#39; privacy, it&#39;s rich for Facebook to use it as an excuse to crack down on researchers exposing its problems. I&#39;ve asked the FTC to confirm that this excuse is as bogus as it sounds. <a href="https://t.co/eHuPiVYFe9" target="_blank">https://t.co/eHuPiVYFe9</a>
&mdash; Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonWyden/status/1422961646096424963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">August 4, 2021</a></blockquote>

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) also weighed in on Facebook&#8217;s latest controversy, calling the decision &#8220;deeply concerning.&#8221; Warner praised independent researchers for &#8220;consistently [improving] the integrity and safety of social media platforms by exposing harmful and exploitative activity.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s past time for Congress to act to bring greater transparency to the shadowy world of online advertising, which continues to be a major vector for fraud and misconduct,&#8221; Warner said.
A number of <a href="https://knightcolumbia.org/content/researchers-nyu-knight-institute-condemn-facebooks-effort-to-squelch-independent-research-about-misinformation" target="_blank">free press organizations</a>, researchers and misinformation experts also condemned Facebook&#8217;s decision Wednesday. &#8220;Facebook’s cavalier approach to privacy enabled it to become so dominant,&#8221; <a href="https://themarkup.org/press-release-20210804" target="_blank">The Markup&#8217;s Julia Angwin and Nabiha Syed</a> wrote in a joint statement.
&#8220;But now, when independent researchers want to interrogate that platform and the influence it commands, Facebook is propping up user privacy as a shield to hide behind.&#8221;

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="M9nQo6gRoq"><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/facebook-settles-with-ftc-5-billion-and-new-privacy-guarantees/" target="_blank">Facebook settles with FTC: $5 billion and new privacy guarantees</a></blockquote>


<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="sdzCcozlua"><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/9-reasons-the-facebook-ftc-settlement-is-a-joke/" target="_blank">9 reasons the Facebook FTC settlement is a joke</a></blockquote>

Facebook shut down accounts belonging to two academic researchers late Tuesday, cutting off their ability to study political ads and misinformation on the world’s biggest social network. The company accused the academics of engaging in “unauthorized scraping” and compromising user privacy on the platform, claims that Facebook’s many critics are slamming as a thin pretense […]

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