How AI is Changing Social Media
Social media is no longer fair around posting pictures or chatting with companions. It has ended up a effective space where brands, makers, and clients interface in genuine time. The…
Privacy on Social Media: How to Stay Safe Online in 2025
It is more important than ever to be safe on social media in the hyperconnected world of today. With millions sharing upgrades, photographs, areas, and individual encounters day by day,…
Emerging Indian Social Networking Sites
Are you tired of the same old social media platforms? I know I was! Last month, I decided to explore some new options and discovered a whole world of exciting…
Indian Social Structure And Family System
Growing up in India greatly shaped my view of family and society. From learning about our intricate social norms to attending vibrant festivals with my grandparents, I have seen first…
Festivals And Family Bonding In India
Growing up in India showed me that holidays are the threads that bind families together more than only festivities. The laughs, the cuisine, the customs, and the tales spoken during…
Role Of Youth In Indian Social Reform
Young people are taking front stage in creating major shifts in society as India advances in the 21st century. The young have great ability to mould India's future as more…
Impact Of Indian Social Media On Youth Behavior
Seeing how social media influence India's youth culture, I can personally attest to how sites like Instagram, YouTube, and WhatsApp have altered the way young people think, act, and speak.…
Impact Of Reservation Policies On Indian Social Balance
Reservation regulations have really affected our culture, hence when we discuss India's growth narrative, we cannot overlook this. These regulations were designed to assist those who have faced unjust treatment…
Indian Social Change And Modernization Theories
Have you ever thought about how much India has evolved throughout the years? From little towns to large the city from typical jobs to modern jobs, India has seen many…
Exploring the New Adobe Photoshop App for iPhone
Adobe introduced on Tuesday it’s bringing its famous design and enhancing software Photoshop to cellular, starting with iOS. The business enterprise plans to release a Photoshop for Android app later…
How To Check If A Youtube Channel Is Monetized 2024
How To Check If A Youtube Channel Is Monetized 2024? If so, you've arrived at the ideal location. The ability to determine if a video is profitable is crucial. You…
Mustafa Suleyman Expresses Admiration for Sam Altman and Trusts His Commitment to AI Safety
In a meeting at the Aspen Ideas Celebration on Tuesday, Mustafa Suleyman, Chief of Microsoft computer based intelligence, made plainly he appreciates OpenAI President Sam Altman. CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin asked…
OpenAI debuts GPT-4o ‘omni’ model now powering ChatGPT
OpenAI reported another leader generative artificial intelligence model on Monday that they call GPT-4o — the "o" means "omni," alluding to the model's capacity to deal with text, discourse, and…
The Net Gala hosts its first event for the stylish and chronically online
The stockroom was faint and marginally cloudy. However, the bar was open, and a photographic artist was snapping endlessly in any case. On Friday, the group followed the white hare to…
Reddit prices IPO at $34 per share, the top of the range
Reddit priced its stock on Wednesday at $34 an offer, the highest point of the expected reach, a sign that financial backers are amped up for the organization's Initial public…
How to Build a Social Media Growth Strategy That Works [2024]
Social media growth reached a new upper in 2023, with 4.88 billion total zippy social media user identities, representing 60.6% of the world’s population. How do brands grow their own social…
Experiment: Do Longer LinkedIn Comments Drive More Connection Requests?
Wanna build your LinkedIn network fast? Don’t wanna spend hours crafting connection request messages only to be left “pending” forever? Not to fear: all you unquestionably need to do is…
How to Set Up and Optimize Google My Business in 5 Minutes [2024]
What if I told you there’s only 5 minutes standing between you and powerful Google marketing tools? I’m talking well-nigh Google My Business. It’s free, easy to set up, and…
YouTube Shorts Monetization Guide [How Much Can You Make?]
Just like all the other social platforms, YouTube has been leaning nonflexible into short-form video content, with a Shorts tab on the main menu and a prominent Shorts full-length on…
Instagram Analytics Explained (Definitions, Tips, and Tools)
Instagram analytics are the foundation of any strong Instagram strategy. All good marketing decisions stem from good data — and there’s plenty of data misogynist to tell you what’s working on…
What is AI? Everything to know about artificial intelligence
Machines and software are referred to as Artificial intelligence (AI), not humans or animals. Sophisticated web search tools (e. g. Google Search), recommendation engines (used by Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube), voice…
What is Akira 2023 Ransomware Attack? You are ready to protect?
In the vast digital landscape, cyber threats play a huge role and are constantly evolving to exploit vulnerabilities and devastate individuals and organizations. One such dangerous computer threat is Akira…
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about OpenAI's GPT-4 tool
What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool that allows you to have more human conversations with your chatbot. The language model can answer questions and help you with tasks…
What Can You Do to Make Money by Doing What You Love
After two years of uncertainty - and more isolation than anyone expected - many of us have had time to reflect on difficult issues. Big: What do you like to…
How to Make Money Online March 2023
With the economic turmoil and layoffs, many people are asking themselves this question when looking for new sources of income. But the smart ones know that making money online is…
WEB3 DEVELOPMENTS TO WATCH OUT FOR IN 2023
The global Web3 market was $3.2 billion in 2021. It is predicted that it will grow. It is likely that there will be a policy change for Web3 innovators. There…
DATA BREACHES CAN BE PREVENTED BY USING THE BLOCKCHAIN
In recent years, data breaches have become an all-too-common occurrence. Based on Varonis' 2021 Data Risk Report, most corporations have poor cybersecurity practices and unprotected data, putting them at risk…
INSTAGRAM CO-FOUNDERS CAME UP WITH A NEWS APP CALLED ARTIFACT
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger brought a big change when they launched Instagram. Instagram changed the way social media functions. It has been a huge hit. It will also change…
THE FUTURE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN THE WORLD
By Bhawna AI is continually bringing change to the world. AI has a big influence on our lives. AI is the ability of machines to perform functions like perception, reasoning, learning,…
How to Create Effective Social Media Guidelines for Your Business
No matter what industry you’re in, every modern merchantry needs to have social media guidelines.Social media guidelines lay out the weightier social practices for your employees. In some cases, these…
TikTok SEO in 5 Steps: How To Make Sure Your Videos Show Up in Search
What if I told you that TikTok SEO can help your content reach increasingly people and plane make your videos go viral?If you’ve been sleeping on your social media SEO…
How To Create a Strong Social Media Advocacy Program
There’s nothing increasingly inveigling than a friend’s endorsement — expressly on social media. That’s why a social media sponsorship program is the weightier way to show the benefits of your…
Customer Experience Management Explained [11 Top Tips]
Have you overly been so excited to receive an online order, only to unshut up the wordage to find a wrenched product? If the consumer superintendency team goes whilom and…
What is Reddit, and Should Your Brand Be Using It?
Reddit isn’t often mentioned slantingly the “big” social networks, though it’s one of the most influential. It boasts 420 million users — 20% higher than the population of the United…
The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2022 [Complete Guide]
When’s the weightier time to post on Instagram to make sure a post gets seen? And what well-nigh the weightier day of the week to get the most likes? The most…
Live Tweet Like a Pro: Tips + Examples for Your Next Event
Twitter can be a powerful tool for promoting events. But most promotions only imbricate the build-up to an event. When you live tweet an event, you can vamp sustentation at…
FAQ Chatbot: The Best Way to Save Time on Customer Service
You once know how irritating it is to wordplay repeat questions. You can save yourself the headache by automating your consumer service with FAQ chatbots. And you’ll be in good…
How To Get More Share of Voice on Social Media
Looking to establish yourself as a leader in your industry? Or turn up in increasingly conversations related to products you sell? One of the weightier ways to do this is…
24 Instagram Apps to Take Your Posts to the Next Level
If you’re using Instagram for business, you’re probably enlightened of the myriad benefits of…
Marketing Tips For Social Media Managers
Of late, there is no requirement for more publicizing as virtual entertainment does likewise for you in a more modest monetary spending plan! In any case, you really want a…
How to Calculate Engagement Rate (Calculator)
Engagement rates are the currency of the social media marketing industry. Sure, vanity metrics like…
Experiment: Should You Share Facebook Reels?
We all know that sharing is a good thing. (Kindergarten: maybe you’ve heard of…
28 Daily Hashtags for Better Engagement [CHEATSHEET]
Daily hashtags are popular hashtags on social media for specific days of the week. They are a unconfined source of content inspiration. When used well, they can moreover uplift your reach…
Coronavirus could push consumers away from influencers and toward streaming TV
Jay Prasad Contributor Jay Prasad is chief strategy officer for LiveRamp TV, a data-connectivity platform leveraged by brands and their partners to deliver exceptional experiences. As the nation struggles with a pandemic and…
Telegram hits 400M monthly active users
Instant messaging service Telegram has amassed 400 million monthly active users, it said today, up from 300 million active users the seven-year-old service disclosed to the SEC last October. The…
TikTok launches Donation Stickers, allowing creators to fundraise for coronavirus relief efforts
TikTok is making it easier for creators and their fans to donate to favorite charities amid the coronavirus pandemic. The company today announced the launch of a new, interactive feature,…
Daily Crunch: Facebook organizes a virtual graduation ceremony
Graduation goes virtual, more details emerge about the U.K.’s contact tracing app and Shopify launches a mobile commerce app. Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 28, 2020. 1. Facebook will stream a…
Facebook stock spikes despite ‘significant reduction’ in demand for ads
The coronavirus pandemic is significantly slowing the growth of Facebook’s ads business, but investors seem pleased with the company’s performance in Q1 after Facebook released its earnings report Wednesday. The…
Facebook now allows users in the US & Canada to export photos and videos to Google Photos
Facebook is today rolling out a tool that will allow users in the U.S. and Canada to export their Facebook photos and videos to Google Photos. This data portability tool…
Twitter Q1: sales up 3% to $808M as it swings to a loss on COVID-19, mDAUS hit record 166M
Despite traffic for many online properties being at an all-time high, advertising has fallen off a cliff because of the downturn in consumer activity outside the home and the wider…
Instagram ‘pods’ game the algorithm by coordinating likes and comments on millions of posts
Researchers at NYU have identified hundreds of groups of Instagram users, some with thousands of members, that systematically exchange likes and comments in order to game the service’s algorithms and…
Trump’s hype for state lockdown protests puts Twitter and Facebook’s new COVID-19 policies to the test
A new flurry of tweets from President Trump is pushing the limits of social platform policies designed explicitly to keep users safe from the spread of the novel coronavirus, both…
New Twitter client Brizzly+ lets you ‘edit’ and auto-delete your tweets
Brizzly, the name associated with a long-gone Twitter client, and later, a goofy project highlighting our addiction to social media, is coming back. And this time, it’s focused on serving…
The lockdown is driving people to Facebook
The quarantine lockdown is driving a record number of users to Facebook’s products. On a conference call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg disclosed a number of new metrics highlighting a significant…
Tumblr now removes reblogs in violation of its hate-speech policy, not just the original posts
Tumblr is making a change to how it deals with hate speech on its blogging platform. The company announced today it will also remove the reblogs (repostings) from any blogs…
A security expert says India’s contact tracing app has flaws. New Delhi says they are ‘by design’
The Indian government has said that its contact tracing app Aarogya Setu “by design” fetches the location data of its 90 million users and allows them to view the concentration…
Senate bill seeks to ban Chinese app TikTok from government work phones
On Thursday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced legislation to further restrict the use of the popular viral video app TikTok on government devices. The bill…
Facebook users are buying and selling pangolin parts, even though it’s illegal
In spite of their protected status under international laws, pangolins remain one of the most trafficked animals in the world — and at least some of that trade is taking…
Snow’s avatar app Zepeto registers 150M users, eyes China market
Some of you may recall the South Korean app Zepeto that went viral among Gen Z users a year and a half ago. The app, which renders selfies into animated…
CRV’s Saar Gur wants to invest in a new wave of games built for VR, Twitch and Zoom
Saar Gur is adept at identifying the next big consumer trends earlier than most: The San Francisco-based general partner at CRV has led investments into leading consumer internet companies like…
This Week in Apps: WWDC goes online, Android 11 delays, Facebook SDK turns into app kill switch
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app…
Facebook’s redesign goes live with simplified navigation and dark mode
After months of testing, Facebook’s redesign is finally official. Announced last year at F8, the more minimalist approach to its desktop design has been rolled out in waves. In March,…
Reconnecting, reluctantly, with Facebook
Haje Jan Kamps is a founder, photographer and journalist who logged time as a TechCrunch writer years ago and who has since launched a platform for virtual conferences called…
Facebook to pay $52 million to content moderators suffering from PTSD
Facebook has agreed in principle to pay $52 million to compensate current and former content moderators who developed mental health issues on the job. The Verge reported Tuesday that the…
Daily Crunch: Facebook will pay $52M to content moderators
Facebook strikes a deal to compensate content moderators with PTSD, Tesla might reopen its factory next week and Twitter says some employees can work from home indefinitely. Here’s your Daily…
Facebook’s social Zoom competitor Messenger Rooms goes live globally
Zoom was never meant to be a social network, but the enterprise video chat app has become essential software for those looking to stay in touch with friends and family…
Daily Crunch: Facebook is acquiring Giphy
Facebook acquires a popular GIF search engine, video game sales see major growth and Sorrentino reports promising results for a COVID-19 treatment. Here’s your Daily Crunch for May 15, 2020. 1.…
The real threat of fake voices in a time of crisis
Jinyan Zang Contributor Jinyan Zang is a researcher at Data Privacy Lab and a Ph.D. candidate in Government at Harvard University . Latanya Sweeney Contributor Latanya Sweeney is a professor of government and technology in…
The Great Reset
Ann Miura-Ko Contributor Ann Miura-Ko is a co-founding partner at Floodgate, a seed-stage VC firm. A repeat member of the Forbes Midas List and the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists…
Facebook to acquire Giphy in a deal reportedly worth $400 million
Facebook will acquire Giphy, the web-based animated gif search engine and platform provider, Facebook confirmed today, in a deal worth around $400 million, according to a report by Axios. Facebook…
Facebook and Instagram roll out Shops, turning business profiles into storefronts
Starting today, you’ll be able to browse and buy products directly from a business’ Facebook Page or Instagram profile. Both Facebook and Instagram already supported a degree of ecommerce…
With BuzzFeed’s new feature, you can take a Quiz Party with friends
It’s been a rough couple months for BuzzFeed (and media in general), but the company is still releasing fun new features. Today’s addition offers a new, more social take on the…
Facebook makes big remote work moves with plan for new hubs in Dallas, Denver and Atlanta
In a live-streamed town hall, Mark Zuckerberg gave an overview for what he expects in the near future as Facebook pursues accommodations to keep workers productive and safe during…
Facebook will show users a pop-up warning before they share an outdated story
Facebook announced Thursday that it would introduce a notification screen warning users if they try to share content that’s more than 90 days old. They’ll be given the choice…
Facebook’s Workplace, now with 5M paying users, adds drop-in video Rooms and more
One of the biggest technology takeaways of the last couple of months has been that organizations need confident, wide-ranging digital strategies to stay afloat, and Facebook — in its…
Daily Crunch: Twitter tests limiting replies
Twitter is giving users tools to avoid abusive or annoying replies, MakeSpace raises $55 million and Sphero gets a new CEO and a new spinoff. Here’s your Daily Crunch for…
Facebook introduces new Messenger safeguard aimed at combating scams and fake friends
Facebook this morning announced a new feature for Messenger designed to cut down on malicious parties looking to scam users. The company scans accounts for suspicious activity, leveraging machine learning…
Chief, the leadership network for women, raises $15 million in funding
Chief, the social network dedicated exclusively to women in professional leadership positions, announced today that it has $15 million in funding from its existing investors, including General Catalyst, Inspired Capital,…
Twitter adds a warning label fact-checking Trump’s false voting claims
On the heels of a furor over his tweets accusing MSNBC host Joe Scarborough of murder, Twitter has quietly begun to fact-check the president. A new warning label encouraging Twitter …
Investors say emerging multiverses are the future of entertainment
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the adoption of new technologies and cultural shifts that were already well underway. According to a clutch of heavy-hitting investors, this dynamic is particularly strong…
Trump signs an executive order taking direct aim at social media companies
On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order targeting the legal shield that internet companies rely on to protect them from liability for user-created content. That law, known as Section…
4 views on the future of retail and the shopping experience
The global spread of COVID-19 and resulting orders to shelter in place have hit retailers hard. As the pandemic drags on, temporary halts are becoming permanent closures, whether it’s the coffee…
Daily Crunch: Trump takes aim at social media companies
President Trump follows through on his threat to challenge the legal protections enjoyed by social media and internet companies, Magic Leap’s CEO is stepping down and China sees its biggest…
Facebook takes on Twitter with Venue, a ‘second screen’ companion for live events
Facebook’s R&D group, NPE Team, is launching a new app for engaging fellow fans around live events, Venue. This is the third new app to launch just this week from…
Twitter restricts Republican lawmaker’s Antifa tweet for ‘glorifying violence’
Twitter placed a tweet from a close political ally of the president behind a warning label Monday, citing its policy prohibiting content that promotes violence. The tweet, from Republican Florida…
Trump’s executive order attacking social media companies faces its first legal challenge
An executive order from the White House targeting Twitter for moderating one of the president’s posts is being challenged in a new lawsuit from a digital rights group. The president…
Snapchat is no longer promoting Trump’s posts
Snap announced this morning that it will not be promoting content from President Trump’s Snapchat account in its Discover tab following statements from Trump last week on Twitter, which…
Adriel brings automation to small business advertising
Adriel is a South Korean startup bringing automated ad tools to small businesses — and in recent months, it’s been expanding into the United States and the United Kingdom. This might…
Facebook adds labels identifying state-controlled media
Facebook will soon add labels to news outlets owned or otherwise controlled by a government, marking that information as, if not necessarily false or unreliable, at least worth considering the…
Alexis Ohanian steps down from Reddit board, asks for his seat to go to a black board member
Alexis Ohanian, the founder and former CEO of Reddit, stepped down from his position on the company’s board Friday as the U.S. roils with nationwide protests against police brutality…
Join Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz for a live Q&A: June 17 at 2pm EST/11am PDT/6 pm GMT
One of the earliest disruptions created by the novel coronavirus manifested in the form of event cancellations. Some of the world’s biggest tech conferences, like F8 and Google NEXT, got…
Daily Crunch: Twitter has a record week
Twitter sees record downloads, Signal adds a new face-blurring feature and Facebook rethinks its approach to government-backed media. Here’s your Daily Crunch for June 5, 2020. 1. Twitter has a record-breaking…
Twitter to launch a revamped verification system with publicly documented guidelines
Twitter is developing a new in-app system for requesting verification, according to a recent finding from reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, which Twitter has since confirmed. The discovery involves an…
Twitter starts putting fact-checking labels on tweets about 5G and COVID-19
Conspiracy theories claiming a connection between 5G technology and the coronavirus have been around since the pandemic’s early days, and apparently they’re still going strong. So strong, in fact, that Twitter…
Twitter tests a feature that calls you out for RTing without reading the article
A new Twitter test feature aiming to “promote informed discussion” will nudge users to read before they retweet. The company describes the test as a step to help people…
Daily Crunch: Snapchat is getting mini apps
Snap announces a bunch of new features, Moderna prepares for the final-stage trial of its coronavirus vaccine and Sony shows off the PlayStation 5. Here’s your Daily Crunch for June…
Snapchat looks to maintain its own friendships — with devs
Over the past few years, Snapchat has been building up an increasingly complex weave of partnerships. They have their advertising partners that power the vast majority of their monetization efforts. They…
ByteDance to shut down Vigo apps in India
Chinese internet giant ByteDance has announced plans to discontinue two of its apps in India, its biggest overseas market, and urged its users to move to TikTok. Vigo Video and…
WhatsApp finally launches payments, starting in Brazil
After months of talks and trials, WhatsApp has finally pulled the trigger on payments in its app. Today the Facebook-owned messaging service announced that users in Brazil would be…
Social networking app for women, Peanut, is rolling out video chat
Mobile social networking app for women, Peanut, is expanding into video chat to help better support its users amid the coronavirus outbreak. The company, which began its life with a…
FCC Commissioner disparages Trump’s social media order: ‘The decision is ours alone’
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks has examined the President’s Executive Order that attempts to spur the FCC into action against social media companies and found it wanting. “There are good…
Trump shared a deceptive video blaming ‘fake news.’ Twitter just labeled it as fake
The same day that Facebook removed a set of Trump campaign ads for violating the company’s rules against hate symbols, the president continued to push the envelope with his social…
Germany tightens online hate speech rules to make platforms send reports straight to the feds
While a French online hate speech law has just been derailed by the country’s top constitutional authority on freedom of expression grounds, Germany is beefing up hate speech rules —…
Somehow, Twitter does not have a team dedicated to accessibility
Twitter does not have a team dedicated to accessibility, the company confirmed after a developer alluded to the fact. It’s a baffling omission for a company that employs some…
Daily Crunch: Twitter rolls out audio tweets
Twitter tries to make audio tweets a thing, the U.K. backtracks on its contact-tracing app and Apple’s App Store revenue share is at the center of a new controversy. Here’s…
Twitter begins rolling out audio tweets on iOS
Twitter is rolling out to its platform a new type of tweet — audio tweets — allowing users to share thoughts in audio form inside their feeds. The feature…
Twitter hides Trump tweet threatening protesters with ‘serious force’
Twitter took its latest action on content from President Trump Tuesday, again hiding a threat of state violence behind a warning label and appending it with a notice. Trump’s latest…
Instagram expands its TikTok clone ‘Reels’ to new markets
Instagram is expanding its TikTok competitor known as “Reels” to new markets, following its launch last year in Brazil. Starting today, Instagram is rolling out further access to Reels in…
As advertisers revolt, Facebook commits to flagging ‘newsworthy’ political speech that violates policy
As advertisers pull away from Facebook to protest the social networking giant’s hands-off approach to misinformation and hate speech, the company is instituting a number of stronger policies to…
Facebook launches COVID-19 data maps for the US, will take its symptom tracking efforts global
Many, many symptom trackers have launched during the coronavirus pandemic, but few have the potential to reach even a bucketful of Facebook’s vast ocean of users. Facebook launched a symptom…
Unilever and Verizon are the latest companies to pull their advertising from Facebook
Advertiser momentum against Facebook’s content and monetization policies continues to grow. Last night, Verizon (which owns TechCrunch) said it will be pausing advertising on Facebook and Instagram “until Facebook can…
Running a queer dating startup amid a pandemic and racial justice uprising
The events of the past few months have shaken the lives of everyone, but especially Black people in the U.S. COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted members of the Black community while…
YouTube bans David Duke, Richard Spencer and other white nationalist accounts
YouTube just took action against a collection of controversial figures synonymous with race-based hate, kicking the cluster of major channels off its platform on Monday. The company deleted six channels:…
Facebook launches an experimental app for messaging close friends via Apple Watch
Facebook’s internal R&D group has today launched a new app that lets you keep up with your close friends via your Apple Watch. The app is called Kit, or Keep…
Facebook expands Instagram Reels to India
As scores of startups look to cash in on the content void that ban on TikTok and other Chinese apps has created in India, a big challenger is ready…
Blavity has a big opportunity with Black millennials, despite struggling to fit the VC formula
Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history, according to four different polls cited recently by the New York Times that suggest anywhere from 15 million to…
Facebook boycott leaders ‘disappointed’ after meeting with Zuckerberg, Sandberg
What began as a relatively small effort by activist organizations to hold Facebook accountable for perceived policy failings has snowballed into a mass corporate backlash — and a rare moment…
Decrypted: Police hack criminal phone network; Randori raises $20M Series A
Last week was, for most Americans, a four-day work week. But a lot still happened in the security world. The U.S. government’s cybersecurity agencies warned of two critical vulnerabilities — one…
TikTok faces ban in the US; pulls out of Hong Kong
The world’s most popular short video app continues to be in the crosshairs of politicians globally. On Monday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News that the United States…
Facebook makes education push in India
Facebook, which reaches more users than any other international firm in India, has identified a new area of opportunity to further spread its tentacles in the world’s second largest…
Are virtual concerts here to stay?
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the music industry to experiment seriously with virtual concerts. Historically, musicians and their managers have been careful about challenging the traditional concert model that became their main…
Daily Crunch: Facebook faces blistering civil rights audit
Auditors were not impressed by Facebook’s civil rights work, Tinder tests video chat and a new nasal spray could reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Here’s your Daily Crunch…
Facebook ships an experimental app for couples
Today, Facebook quietly released a new app for couples. Called Tuned, the new release is a multimedia messaging app designed to help significant others communicate. The app is available for…
Ban or no ban, Facebook wins in U.S. threats against TikTok
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. is “looking at” banning Chinese social media apps, including the Chinese-owned company TikTok, comparing it to other…
How Thor Fridriksson’s ‘Trivia Royale’ earned 2.5M downloads in 3 weeks
In its first few weeks of release, the latest game from QuizUp founder Thor Fridriksson took the top spot in the Games Section of Apple’s App Store and was the…
Messenger hits the Mac App Store in several markets
At Facebook’s 2019 F8 developer conference, the company announced plans to introduce desktop apps for its popular communications app Messenger. Now, less than a year later, the Messenger Mac…
This Week in Apps: US ponders TikTok ban, apps see a record Q2, iOS 14 public beta arrives
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app…
COVID-19 pivot: Travel unicorn Klook sees jump in staycations
Spring 2020 was gloomy for Klook. As countries closed their borders and went into complete or partial lockdown, the SoftBank-backed travel platform saw its revenue plummet by as much as…
Instagram founder launches gift card site for quarantined restaurants
Coronavirus quarantines are hurting local businesses, but Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger wants to help them keep revenue rolling in. Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn this week launched SaveOurFaves,…
TikTok likes and views are broken as community worries over potential US ban
TikTok likes and views are broken for some unknown portion of the video app’s user base this afternoon. The impacted users are seeing a “zero” like count on TikTok…
WhatsApp Business, now with 50M MAUs, adds QR codes and catalog sharing
The global COVID-19 health pandemic has raised the stakes for businesses when it comes to using digital channels to connect with customers, and today WhatsApp unveiled its latest tools to help…
Twitter rewrites Developer Policy to better support academic research and use of ‘good’ bots
Twitter today updated its Developer Policy to clarify rules around data usage, including in academic research, as well as its position on bots, among other things. The policy has also…
Beware of ‘ZoomBombing’: screensharing filth to video calls
The world is vulnerable to a new type of trolling as people turn to Zoom video calls to feel connected amidst quarantines. Jerks are using Zoom’s screensharing feature to…
Oh, Facebook changed its privacy settings again
Ever considerate of its users, Facebook has determined that its privacy settings needed a bit of a shuffle to keep things clear and easy to find. To that end they’ve…
Facebook appoints Treasury’s Kimmitt as lead independent board director
Facebook has filled the lead independent board director role with former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Robert M. Kimmitt. His job will be to serve…
TikTok confirms pilot test of TikTok Stories is now underway
Twitter may have shut down its Stories features known as Fleets, but the Stories format will continue to invade other social platforms. TikTok today confirmed it’s piloting a new feature,…
Russian trolls are outsourcing to Africa to stoke US racial tensions
With tech companies wise to many of the tactics that Russia’s now-infamous troll farms used to seed disinformation during the 2016 election, those campaigns are getting creative. According to a pair…
Twitter is donating $1M across two foundations to support journalism during the coronavirus pandemic
Social media companies have been hard at work to make sure they play a helpful rather than harmful role in disseminating news and information about the coronavirus pandemic. Today, Twitter…
The companies that will shape the upcoming multiverse era of social media
Throughout this series on the rise of multiverse virtual worlds, I have outlined the collision of gaming and social media into a new multiverse era of social media within virtual…
Facebook’s board is its most gender-balanced yet with two new additions
On Monday, Facebook announced the addition of two new names to its board of directors, Nancy Killefer and Tracey T. Travis. Killefer brings potentially valuable government insight to Facebook, as…
Facebook bans face mask ads to fight coronavirus price gouging
On Friday, Facebook announced that it would further attempt to limit coronavirus-related chaos on its platform by banning commerce listings and advertisements for medical face masks. “We’re monitoring COVID19 closely…
Pex buys Dubset to build YouTube ContentID for TikTok & more
Social networks are in for a rude copyright awakening. A new European Union law called Article 17 essentially eradicates safe harbor and requires that they’ve made their “best effort” to…
Facebook fact-check feud erupts over Trump virus ‘hoax’
Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? Did Trump call coronavirus the Democrat’s “new hoax”? Those the big questions emerging from a controversial “false” label applied to Politico and NBC News stories…
Facebook Messenger provides governments, agencies with free developer tools to combat Covid-19
Big tech has been making a huge effort to mobilize its power to help people work better together to battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic — whether it’s creating search and…
Twitter adds a button so you can thread your shower thoughts
Hold that tweet — and add another one. Twitter is adding a new feature for mobile users to make it easier to link dispersed ‘shower thoughts’ together — and another…
IRL pivots into virtual event calendar In Remote Life
What do you do if you’re an event discovery startup and suddenly it’s illegal to attend events? You lean into the cultural shift and pivot. Today, $11 million-funded calendar app…
Facebook’s photo-transfer tool opens to more users in Europe, LatAm and Africa
Facebook is continuing to open access to a data-porting tool it launched in Ireland in December. The tool lets users of its network transfer photos and videos they have…
YouTube sellers found touting bogus coronavirus vaccines and masks
YouTube has been criticized for continuing to host coronavirus disinformation on its video sharing platform during a global health emergency. Two US advocacy groups which campaign for online safety undertook…
Three-quarters of Americans lack confidence in tech companies’ ability to fight election interference
A significant majority of Americans have lost faith in tech companies’ ability to prevent the misuse of their platforms to influence the 2020 presidential election, according to a new study…
Coronavirus-related Facebook support groups reach 4.5M in US as misinformation and conspiracies spread
Facebook has already come under fire for hosting groups organizing anti-quarantine protests in response to government lockdowns amid the coronavirus outbreak, and those promoting fake coronavirus cures and misinformation.…
Twitter opens its ‘Hide Replies’ feature to developers
Last November, Twitter rolled out its Hide Replies feature to all users worldwide. The feature, largely designed to lessen the power of online trolls to disrupt conversations, lets users decide…
This Week in Apps: Apple launches a COVID-19 app, the outbreak’s impact on social and video apps and more
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app…
Facebook launches Community Hub for Messenger users to fight coronavirus rumors
Facebook today unveiled Coronavirus Community Hub on Messenger that offers tips, authoritative information and other resources to help people stay connected and informed about the coronavirus outbreak, weeks after launching…
Twitter expands hateful conduct rules to ban dehumanizing speech around age, disability and now, disease
Last year, Twitter expanded its rules around hate speech to include dehumanizing speech against religious groups. Today, Twitter says it’s expanding its rule to also include language that dehumanizes…
TikTok to launch parental controls globally, disable direct messaging for users under 16
TikTok is introducing a new set of parental controls to its platform to users worldwide, including in the U.S. The features, collectively referred to as “Family Pairing,” will allow…
LinkedIn has no plans to make COVID-19 related layoffs from now until end of fiscal year
LinkedIn has no plans to make COVID-related layoffs until at least June 2020, the professional network has confirmed to TechCrunch. This announcements comes after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s pledge…
Facebook has paused election reminders in Europe after data watchdog raises transparency concerns
Big tech’s lead privacy regulator in Europe has intervened to flag transparency concerns about a Facebook election reminder feature — asking the tech giant to provide it with information…
Lacking eyeballs, Facebook’s ad review system fails to spot coronavirus harm
Facebook’s ad review system is failing to prevent coronavirus misinformation from being targeted at its users, according to an investigation by Consumer Reports. The not-for-profit consumer advocacy organization set out…
Making money from games: The future of virtual economies
In Part 6 of our multiverse series, we discuss the business opportunities and compliance challenges of virtual economies Eric Peckham @epeckham / 9 hours Fictional portrayals of virtual worlds such as “Ready Player…
The best video chat apps to turn social distancing into distant socializing
The vicissitudes of social distancing have taken many people by surprise, making video calls a new necessity for distant socializing. But which of the two dozen apps out there should…
As Morgan Stanley buys E-Trade, Robinhood preps social trading
Before it was worth $7.6 billion, the original idea for Robinhood was a stock trading social network. At my kitchen table in San Francisco in 2013, the founders envisioned an…
Before suing NSO Group, Facebook allegedly sought their software to better spy on users
Facebook’s WhatsApp is in the midst of a lawsuit against Israeli mobile surveillance outfit NSO Group. But before complaining about the company’s methods, Facebook seems to have wanted to…
Twitter prioritizes blue-check verifications to confirm experts on Covid-19 and the novel coronavirus
At long last, here’s an actually useful purpose for Twitter’s blue-check verification mark: Twitter last night announced that it is mobilising the badge system to help surface and signal…
Facebook now lets most users opt-in to dark mode & desktop redesign
Facebook today officially rolled out its sweeping desktop redesign that offers dark mode, tabbed home screen and a cleaner profile. Facebook tells TechCrunch that “starting today, the majority of…
TikTok introduces parental controls with new ‘Family Safety Mode’ feature, launching first in UK
TikTok announced today the introduction of a new set of parental controls, called “Family Safety Mode,” designed to let parents set limits on their teenage children’s use of the TikTok…
CNN preps NewsCo launch by acquiring personalization engine Canopy
Last year, The Information reported that CNN was working on a new digital news service to compete with the likes of Apple and Facebook. Today, some of those plans are…
Rallyhood exposed a decade of users’ private data
Rallyhood says it’s “private and secure.” But for some time, it wasn’t. The social network designed to help groups communicate and coordinate left one of its cloud storage buckets containing user…
Multiverse virtual worlds will be healthier for society than our current social networks
In part 5 of our virtual worlds series: why this new future will heal fractures caused by today\'s social media Eric Peckham @epeckham / 8 hours The basis of the classic James Bond…
Social Bluebook was hacked, exposing 217,000 influencers’ accounts
A social media platform used to match advertisers with thousands of influencers has been hacked. Social Bluebook, a Los Angeles-based company, allows advertisers to pay social media “influencers” for posts that…
Facebook Messenger ditches Discover, demotes chat bots
Chat bots were central to Facebook Messenger’s strategy three years ago. Now they’re being hidden from view in the app along with games and businesses. Facebook Messenger is now…
Facebook Messenger launches Mac & Windows apps
Facebook Messenger is finally getting desktop apps almost 9 years after its debut. After seeing over a 100% increase in desktop browser audio and video calling, Messenger today releases…
Investor survey results: Upcoming trends in social startups
Voice-based social networks and gaming as a new form of identity were amongst the top emerging trends in consumer social startups, according to an Extra Crunch survey of top social…
Instagram uses its power to put coronavirus tips atop feed
Instagram is embracing its potential as a news source, employing its ubiquity to distribute Coronavirus prevention techniques through a new call-out at the top of its homescreen feed. In…
TikTok to open a ‘Transparency Center’ where outside experts can examine its moderation practices
TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has been under a national security investigation by U.S. lawmakers who have raised concerns about the company’s access…
Facebook’s new ‘Quiet Mode’ option lets you turn off the app’s push notifications
Facebook today is launching a new feature called “Quiet Mode” that will allow you to minimize distractions by muting the app’s push notifications for a time frame you specify.…
Twitter acquires Stories template maker Chroma Labs
Is “Twitter Stories” on the way? Or will we just get tools to send prettier tweets? Well now Twitter has the talent for both as it’s just acquired Chroma…
Quibi is the anti-TikTok (that’s a bad thing)
It takes either audacious self-confidence or reckless hubris to build a completely asocial video app in 2020. You can decide which best describes Quibi, Hollywood’s $1.75 billion-funded attempt at a…
Snapchat preempts clones, syndicates Stories to other apps
If you can’t stop them, power them. That’s the strategy behind Snapchat App Stories, which launches today to let users show off their ephemeral content in other apps too. The…
Google to shut down its India-focused Q&A app Neighbourly
Google is shutting down Neighbourly, a Q&A social app that it launched in Mumbai two years ago, the company has informed users. The app, developed by company’s Next Billion Initiative,…
The pandemic is already reshaping tech’s misinformation crisis
Since 2016, social media companies have faced an endless barrage of bad press and public criticism for failing to anticipate how their platforms could be used for dark purposes at…
Daily Crunch: Jack Dorsey defends his work as Twitter CEO
Twitter’s CEO defends himself from activist investors, Google takes additional coronavirus precautions and a fizzy drink maker raises $30 million. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 6, 2020. 1. Twitter…
Facebook pulls ‘pseudoscience’ from its list of targeted ad categories
Even as Mark Zuckerberg touted the “hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation related to COVID-19” that the site had pulled in recent months, Facebook continued to offer targeted ads…
Facebook’s $5.7 billion bet on Indian giant Jio spells trouble for Amazon and Flipkart
Facebook’s major bet on Jio Platforms could create a headache for mobile payments services that have amassed tens of millions of users while struggling to find a business model in…
Facebook adds new ‘care’ emoji reactions on its main app and in Messenger
As a lot of us continue to stay indoors, Facebook has become a go-to platform for many people to check in with their friends, family and neighbours during the current…
Facebook launches drop-in video chat Rooms to rival Houseparty
Facebook is co-opting some of the top video chat innovations like Zoom’s gallery view for large groups and Houseparty’s spontaneous hangouts for a new feature called Rooms. It could…
The future of collectibles is digital
Ryoma Ito Contributor Ryoma Ito is co-founder of MakersPlace, a community empowering the world\'s digital creators. In prior roles, he co-founded a B2B e-commerce subscription business servicing 100k+ online merchants, was VP…
Twitter broadly bans any COVID-19 tweets that could help the virus spread
You don’t have to go far to find someone online downplaying the severity of a global pandemic that’s shut down entire economies and ground everyday life to a halt. Knowing…
Facebook wants content reviewers back ASAP, slows return plan for most employees
On his personal Facebook account, Mark Zuckerberg offered an update on the company’s roadmap for bringing employees back to work in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In the post,…
