Social media giant Meta and its Kenya-based content moderation partners, Sama and Majorel, are facing a new lawsuit in Kenya. In a petition filed today, 43 content moderators allege “unlawful termination” by Sama, whose contract with Meta comes to an end this month after shutting down its content review arm in January. They are also […]readmore
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March 21, 2023
Twitter appears to be testing a new verification process for Twitter Blue subscribers that would involve submitting a government ID. Code-level insights reveal a process for sending in a photo of the user’s ID, both front and back, along with a selfie photo to verify their Twitter account. The feature is listed alongside others only […]readmore
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March 21, 2023
Twitch announced plans to reduce its workforce on Monday, demonstrating that even the seemingly booming streaming site isn’t immune to the reductions that have swept the tech industry in the last six months. The layoffs will affect 400 employees at the company and were characterized as an effort to improve Twitch’s business outlook in the […]readmore
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March 19, 2023
The Biden administration has recently ramped up pressure on TikTok over national security concerns stemming from its ties to China, and apparently the Justice Department and the FBI are also applying pressure of their own. Forbes first reported that the agencies are actively investigating ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. The investigation was reportedly initiated after some […]readmore
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March 18, 2023
TikTok and Major League Soccer (MLS) have announced a multiyear partnership that will bring exclusive content, in-app programming and more to the app. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Throughout the season, fans will be able to search “MLS” on TikTok and get access to the “MLS Hub,” which will feature new content […]readmore
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March 18, 2023
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the company is rolling out Meta Verified on Instagram and Facebook in the U.S. The subscription service, which first launched in Australia and New Zealand last month, allows users to add the coveted blue check mark to their Instagram and Facebook accounts for a monthly fee. Meta Verified […]readmore
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March 18, 2023
YouTube announced today that former President Donald Trump’s YouTube channel will no longer be suspended. The account had been restricted in the week after the January 2021 riot on the U.S. Capitol building. Following the lead of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, YouTube said at the time that Trump’s social media accounts could be used […]readmore
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March 17, 2023
The Biden administration is escalating its pressure campaign against TikTok, threatening a U.S. ban against the world’s most popular app if the company doesn’t split with its Chinese ownership. The current administration’s public concerns around the hit app have ratcheted up considerably in recent days. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the U.S. […]readmore
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March 17, 2023
Sidechat, the anonymous posting platform that began blowing up last year on college campuses, appears to have acquired a rival anonymous social platform, Yik Yak. While you may recall Yik Yak’s troubles from earlier years, where bullying and harassment ultimately led to an ignominious exit in the form of an acqui-hire by Square, the gossip […]readmore
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March 16, 2023
Scott Kominkiewicz suddenly had a lot of time on his hands. After retiring from a career as a copywriter and high school English teacher, the 60-year-old found a new mission: to perfect the best technique for making cheese toast. Yes, that is simply cheese on toast. In January, Kominkiewicz started a small Facebook group called […]readmore
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March 16, 2023
Anonymous social apps have a history of devolving into bullying and harassment, ultimately leading to their failure. But a new startup called Ghost believes that putting in extra guardrails around the anonymous experience will allow users to have fun, without the usual downsides. To test this theory, the company has now launched its Ghost messaging […]readmore
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March 16, 2023
In the latest blow to Meta’s consentless behavioral ad-targeting business in Europe, a Dutch court has found the social media giant’s Irish subsidiary did not have a lawful basis to process local users’ data for ad targeting. Dutch privacy advocacy group, the Data Privacy Foundation (DPS), along with a local consumer protection not-for-profit, Consumentenbond, filed […]readmore
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March 16, 2023
Earlier this month, when LinkedIn started seeding “AI-powered conversation starters” in people’s news feeds to boost engagement on its platform, the move saw more than little engagement of its own, none of it too positive. But the truth of the matter with LinkedIn is that it’s been using a lot of AI and other kinds […]readmore
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March 8, 2023
YouTube announced today that it’s relaxing the controversial profanity rules that it introduced toward the end of last year. The company says the new rules ended up creating a “stricter approach” than it had intended. The new update to the policy allows creators to use moderate and strong profanity without risking demonetization. The original policy […]readmore
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March 8, 2023
Facebook head Tom Alison announced today that the company is testing the ability for users to access their Messenger inbox within the Facebook app. Back in 2016, Facebook removed messaging capabilities from its mobile web application to push people to the Messenger app, in a move that angered many users. Now, the company is testing […]readmore
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March 8, 2023
Twitter has ruffled more regulatory feathers in the European Union by going ahead with a rollout of a much criticized paid verification feature without informing its lead data protection watchdog ahead of time — despite previously saying it would. The product, known as Twitter Blue, lets users pay to get a blue check mark on […]readmore
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March 7, 2023
Publishing platform Medium is opening up its debut Mastodon instance, me.dm, to its members, the company announced today. Last month, Medium first teased its plans around the Fediverse — the group of interconnected servers powering a range of open source, decentralized applications, including the Twitter alternative Mastodon and others. It said it wanted to make access to […]readmore
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March 7, 2023
Twitter says it has resolved issues with images and links on its platform. Earlier today, many users were unable to view links and images on the social network due to “an internal change.” According to reports on third-party web monitoring service Downdetector, the issues began at around 11:50 a.m. ET. “Some parts of Twitter may […]readmore
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March 5, 2023
TGIF, my TechCrunch homies. It’s that time of week again — the time for Week in Review, where we recap the past five days in tech news. As always, lots happened, so let’s dig in sans delay. Well, perhaps with a slight delay. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that TechCrunch Early Stage, TechCrunch’s […]readmore
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March 5, 2023
Meta announced today that it’s adding support for longer Facebook Reels of up to 90 seconds, along with some new creative tools. Up until now, Facebook Reels were limited to 60 seconds. The changes come several months after Meta launched support for longer Instagram Reels of up to 90 seconds. The expansion followed TikTok’s move […]readmore