Get ready to hear about two exciting new updates from Twitter and Facebook this week, both of which could directly impact your interaction with your audience. This edition of the Friday Four also brings more news about TikTok and their seemingly inescapable controversy.
Let’s jump in ⬇️.
Twitter Allows Reply Limits
On Tuesday, Twitter debuted a new feature that allows users to limit who can respond and reply to their tweets. The new tool was released as a means to decrease the amount of spam on the platform.
Despite this new feature, Twitter’s default setting will still allow anyone to reply to a tweet. However, if a user clicks on the new globe icon, they can choose who they’d like to extend reply capabilities toward.
The options are currently to allow replies from everyone, just those who follow you, or those mentioned in the specific tweet. Reply-limiting capabilities will now be available to IOS and Android users globally, as well as those on the desktop version of the platform.
TikTok Faces More Controversy
TikTok’s troubles this past month have largely been centered in the United States, but as of this week those problems extended themselves into France. There, where citizens have far more privacy rights under the European Union’s regulation, an investigation by the CNIL was launched after complaints regarding a request for removal of a video.
The initial investigation has since led to further concerns about how TikTok handles users’ data, data access rights, the transfer of data outside the EU, and more. A key point of investigation is also the handling of minors’ data, as TikTok is popular among teenagers.
The investigation is ongoing, and results are nearly impossible to predict. As of now, TikTok has not commented on the investigation.
Facebook Updates Chat Plug-In
In a new update, Facebook changed the design and format of the Messenger chat plug-in for websites. The new release makes it easier for businesses to have conversation with visitors on Messenger, allowing messages to be sent and received in a pop-up window.
The update caters to businesses looking to respond to customers quickly. Users will be able to access Messenger without signing in via a ‘guest’ profile. This will allow them to send messages that expire after 24 hours or whenever they terminate the conversation.
The plug-in also offers users the option to converse directly on Messenger, where their conversation has no expiration date. This product has been in testing since May, but is now open to all businesses and can be enabled and installed in Facebook Page settings.
Facebook Publishes Community Standards Enforcement Report
This week, Facebook released their latest report on community standards enforcement. The report details the action the company has taken on both Instagram and Facebook over the past three months to uphold their community guidelines.
The new statistics show a much greater regulation and removal of hate speech than in previous quarters. With expanding detection technology, Facebook upped their hate speech detection rate by 6%, from 89% to 95%. They’ve also gotten better at removing nudity and adult content, as well as content from dangerous organizations.
While there were widespread improvements shown in this report, Facebook showed no significant progress in their ability to detect fake or spam accounts. It is important to note that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook had dramatically fewer staff members working in offices to moderate content. Thus, a large amount of the crack-down these past few months has been conducted using artificial intelligence.
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