UAE allegedly uses fake accounts to defend its hosting of COP28
Across Twitter and Medium, at least 100 fake accounts are posting positive sentiments about the United Arab Emirates and its controversial position as host nation of COP28. Experts claim its part of a shoddily executed popularity drive from within. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of state oil giant ADNOC, is an...
Current in Social
How is Facebook hoping to bring back alienated Gen Zers?
Facebook has fallen out of favour with young consumers. Once seen as the defining social media platform, it is now associated with misinformation, privacy breaches, and older people. Is there any way back? If you’re an older Gen Zers or younger Millennial, you may remember a time when Facebook was...
Meta fined a record $1.3bn for EU data transfers to the US
Meta has been hit with a record $1.3bn fine for transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to the US despite security risks. Is Mark Zuckerberg’s burgeoning social media enterprise already reaching last-chance saloon territory? To summarise the current Meta situation in Gen Z terms, there’s only one phrase that...
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey launches new app ‘Bluesky’
Who doesn’t love a little healthy competition? Jack Dorsey, who is partly responsible for Twitter’s rise to success, has now launched a new platform called Bluesky. It’s aimed at competing with Twitter, under Elon Musk. Twitter has been nothing short of a mess since Elon Musk took over as CEO...
Dove campaign examines ‘cost of beauty’ for youth mental health
The brand’s research has revealed that nine in ten children are being exposed to toxic beauty content on social media, which is having a ‘heart-breaking’ impact on their mental and physical wellbeing. Renowned for championing self-esteem, Dove has just debuted a report titled ‘The Real Cost of Beauty Ideals’...
How personalised ads are contributing to climate change
A new report from Global Action Plan analysing the scale of unnecessary emissions being generated by Big Tech’s business model has uncovered just how energy intensive it really is. Recently, it’s become all but impossible to use social media without being constantly bombarded with ads. And while online marketing is nothing...
Spotify is pivoting toward short-form video content
Music streaming platform Spotify has announced a newly designed user interface that prioritises short-form video and quick preview snippets. It is the latest app to follow TikTok’s design model. Spotify is rolling out a new user interface that focuses on short-form video content. Previous iterations of the app displayed albums, songs, podcasts, and playlists as stacked tiles fixed to your home screen. The updated interface will instead offer an endless,...
WhatsApp could end UK services over upcoming Online Safety Bill
The UK’s Online Safety Bill is due to come into effect by the end of this year, but its rules conflict with WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption feature. The messaging app’s leaders are refusing to weaken their privacy standards when 98 percent of its users are located elsewhere. For most users of the platform, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption feature is a benefit. It acts as a guaranteed layer of security, ensuring that only those...
Opinion – Twitter and Meta push to make social media worse
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported another round of Twitter layoffs, including Twitter Blue creator Esther Crawford. The news comes a week after Meta announced a similar paid verification service. Why is Meta copying this seemingly terrible idea? Along with another 200 employees, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has fired Esther Crawford, the person who headed the launch of his flagship policy, Twitter Blue. This decision reflects widespread discontent...
TikTok imposes sixty minutes screen time limit for teens
Teenagers under the age of 18 in the US must now type a password into TikTok after sixty minutes of daily use if they want to continue. It comes as the platform faces a possible ban and mounting privacy concerns. Young people in the US will have to input a password if they want to continue using TikTok after an hour of daily use, the platform has announced. A further prompt...
