A man holding a smartphone showing the icons for several social media apps (Photo by S3studio/Getty Images)
“Social Media Roundup” is a weekly roundup of news pertaining to all of your favorite websites and applications used for social networking. Published on Sundays, “Social Media Roundup” will help you stay up-to-date on all the important social media news you need to know.
Twinmark Media Enterprises Banned
Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher recently announced that the social network company has banned a digital marketing group and its subsidiaries in the Philippines called Twinmark Media Enterprises.
Gleicher said that the organization repeatedly violated misrepresentation and spam policies through coordinated inauthentic behavior, the use of fake accounts, selling access to Facebook Pages to artificially increase distribution and leading people to ad farms.
“We do not want our services to be used for this type of behavior, nor do we want the group to be able to reestablish a presence on Facebook,” Gleicher wrote in a statement.
On Facebook, Twinmark had 220 Pages and 73 accounts. And on Instagram, Twinmark had 29 accounts. Across all of these channels there were at least 43 million followers on Pages like Filipino Channel Online, Gorgeous Me, Unhappy, Text Message and TNP Media.
The decision to remove the organization and the Pages of the accounts it controls are based on the behavior of the actors who repeatedly violated spam policies rather than the type of content that was posted. And the investigation began after Facebook learned Twinmark was selling admin rights to Facebook Pages it created in order to increase distribution and generate profit.
Study: Elderly And Conservatives Are More Likely To Share Fake News
According to a recent study in Science Advances, people over 65 and conservatives shared substantially more false information on Facebook than younger adults and liberals during the 2016 election season. About 8.5% of people who participated in the study shared false information during the 2016 campaign.
To put together the study, researchers at Princeton University and New York University interviewed 2,711 people who used Facebook. And the researchers were able to successfully link profile data from 1,191 of survey respondents. The researchers used lists of false information sites compiled by BuzzFeed and other sources to cross reference the data.
Based on the data, it appeared that the average person older than age 65 shared seven times more false information than users in the youngest age group (age 18 and 29). This is because older people are more likely unable to be able to tell the truth from lies on social networks as other users. And the reason why conservatives tended to share more during the election is likely because there were much more pro-Trump stories being circulated on the social network during that time.
Ability To Post On Multiple Accounts
Regram feature on InstagramSCREENSHOT: AMIT CHOWDHRY
Instagram has confirmed with TechCrunch that it is adding the ability to post to multiple accounts at the same time. This feature is being added to iOS at first before being added to the Android version.
“We are rolling out this feature to provide a better experience for people who often post to multiple accounts,” said an Instagram spokesperson via TechCrunch.
Known as “self regram,” you will see this feature appear once you get ready to share a new post and you have multiple accounts set up. This feature specifically appears under the section for tagging other people and marking the location. And it appears to be rolling out gradually so you may not see it right away.
Upcoming Biometric Authentication Feature
WhatsApp is currently testing another layer of security that will prevent users from reading your texts. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is adding a biometric authentication feature on the Android version of the app so that users can require a fingerprint scan to read messages.
However, this feature is hidden so you will not be able to try it out yet. This feature is integrated within the privacy setting. WhatsApp will likely add a similar feature on the iOS version later this year as well.
YouTube
Twitter And Google+ Posting Tools Getting Removed
In a Google support page, YouTube said that it is getting rid of an option to automatically post public YouTube activity with social media followers on Twitter and Google+. This feature will be removed starting January 31st.
There will still be an option to share videos on social networks directly from YouTube via the Share button. But the options in YouTube Settings > Connected apps > “Share your public activity to Twitter” will be removed. You will not see an option to automatically share your video on Twitter and Google+ through the upload flow in Creator Studio also.
Going forward, video creators will see an option to share on social networks after they successfully upload a new video:
Share videos on social networksYOUTUBE
Zift
Study Finds Screen Time Causes Conflict Between Parents And Children
Zift, a mobile app company that helps prevent cyberbullying and screen time addiction, has released a study called “Parents on Apps & Screen Time” — which found almost half of parents surveyed feel a constant source of conflict when trying to control how much time their child spends on a mobile device. This study was conducted in order to identify genuine concerns that parents and families experience around app downloads and screen time usage.
Parents explained that taking devices away from their children ensures chaos and leaves them cranky for the rest of the day. Plus parents have to give multiple warnings before a child’s allotted screen time is up.
The survey also revealed that more than three out of four parents use limiting of access to mobile devices as punishment. And parents believe that streaming video and gaming apps are the top two ways children spend their daily screen time while social media ranks third.
The biggest concern from parents are mature content, meeting strangers and gaming addiction. And Fortnite and Snapchat are the apps that ranked the highest about what parents want to know about.
“We know there is a generational struggle between parents and their children when it comes to technology. We want parents to be confident that they can understand and speak the same technology ‘language’ as their child, which is why we created Zift, your screen time parenting ally,” said Zift co-founder David Savage in a statement. “Zift’s ‘Parent Portal’ delivers educational insights from experts and other parents about trending apps and also allows parents to see total screen time use for each child, and how exactly children are spending their time on their devices. Parents can even pause the Internet, meaning no more arguing when it’s time for dinner or when the kids have had too much screen time.”
[“source=forbes”]
