BLM protesters weaponising memes against police
The weaponisation of memes is nothing new, but taking on anti-racism has to be its biggest and most significant engagement to date. Digital natives Gen Z are constantly shifting the parameters of political demonstration and discourse to include online spaces. Now a part of our everyday vernacular, memes are used...
Current in Social
Online dating during lockdown- can love thrive while we’re apart?
Lockdown has accelerated the transition of online dating apps to purely online hangout spaces. Should this trend continue beyond quarantine? If modern communication falls broadly into two categories – the online and the offline – then where do we place online dating? Pre-COVID, it occupied some strange liminal place between...
The apps empowering BLM protesters right now
Police brutality is the enemy, racial equality is the goal, and technology is becoming the vehicle for change. Many of you won’t be old enough to recall this with much clarity, but I remember the 2011 London Riots like they happened yesterday. A 29-year-old black man named Mark Duggan was...
Quibi fails to break into the mainstream during lockdown
Huge investment in both star power and content production has done little to establish Quibi among the streaming elite. But does the app have a future? Two months ago, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, veteran execs Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman boldly decided to launch a new mobile-centric...
Facebook’s ‘Deep Fake Detection Challenge’ returns worrying data
As the 2020 US presidential election looms, social media sites are having to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of political discourse, and detecting defamatory content is high on the agenda. If you keep up to date with Thred, then this definitely won’t be the first time you’ve heard of...
Social media is getting Gen Z to the voting booth
New data suggests that apps such as Snapchat are making a sizeable difference to voting turnouts, which in turn could dramatically shift election results moving forward. One of the biggest challenges in modern politics is getting young people to vote. Millennials and Gen Zers now make up more than...
Amazon-related beauty content is booming on TikTok
TikTok has become an unlikely source of beauty sales for Amazon during the Coronavirus pandemic. TikTok has emerged as a new source for brands struggling during COVID-19 to push sales on Amazon. Looking beyond the potential stigma of selling on a platform that has deterred retailers in the past with the amount of control it exerts over the process of getting products to customers, Amazon is rife with opportunities for...
TikTok adds new donation sticker for creators
The new tool will allow viewers to donate to charities easily and quickly, and TikTok has promised it will match the first $10 million donated over the next month. Stickers have become a cornerstone of social media apps, allowing for easy customisation that brings a unique flavour to your streams, stories, or video posts. Each ‘sticker’ is a direct URL link to another site or page of the poster’s choice,...
Facebook ‘Messenger Rooms’ join slew of video streaming apps
With video call platforms reaching record engagement in lockdown, Facebook has thrown its hat in the ring with Messenger Rooms. On Friday, Facebook announced a slew of new video-call features headlined by ‘Messenger Rooms’ which will allow up to 50 callers in a single session with no time limit. Anyone who’s anyone in social tech at the moment is looking to take advantage of this new hyper engaged audience as video-calling apps continue reporting...
Virtual pub quizzes are all the rage in COVID-19 lockdown
Pub Quiz Tuesdays are looking at record attendance worldwide just as soon as lockdown is lifted. The parameters are constantly shifting in the Covid-19 lockdown. Those of us still stuck indoors are now becoming adjusted to the idea of big weekend plans involving nought but binging the ‘Latest’ section on Netflix and consuming entire loafs of banana bread. However, there is one hobby that is proving increasingly popular as the weeks...
