Social Media

It is quite some time since Facebook was hit with the "free the nipple" campaign that demanded the company stop censoring or removing images of breastfeeding women. But now Meta is facing new recommendations from its independent Oversight Board to update the Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standard that it applies to Facebook and Instagram content to ensure it is "governed by clear criteria that respect international human rights standards".

The recommendation comes as the Oversight Board overturned Meta's decisions in 2021 and 2022 to remove content posted by a couple -- one of whom is transgender, the other non-binary -- for violating Sexual Solicitation Community Standards. Meta is criticized for taking a simplistic view of gender, with the Board saying that it is "unclear how the rules apply to intersex, non-binary and transgender people, and requires reviewers to make rapid and subjective assessments of sex and gender, which is not practical when moderating content at scale".

Twitter has, without making an announcement, removed a feature that directed users towards suicide prevention services after searching for certain content.

The #ThereIsHelp feature was removed after Elon Musk issued an order to that effect. Sources familiar with the matter say that the removal is only temporary and that a revamped version will be launched in the future. But the social platform has been criticized not only for the timing -- Christmas is a tough time for many people -- but also for removing the existing support feature before having a replacement ready. [UPDATE -- the feature is now back. Despite the fact Twitter confirmed its removal, Musk used a series of tweets to denounce reports that it had temporarily been removed as 'fake news']

Things have been more than a little turbulent at Twitter since Elon Musk took over at the company. Having overseen various controversial changes including an overhaul to the verification system, the CEO has now announced a feature that is likely to be rather less divisive -- View Count.

The feature is a very simple idea, revealing how many people have viewed a tweet. The information is public so you can see how popular other people's tweet are as well as monitoring your own viewing figures.

The past couple of years have seen a boom in eCommerce as more people have worked -- and shopped -- from home.

But as the industry's profile has grown so has the risk of cyberattacks. What’s also been thrown into sharp focus is that delivery systems sometimes don't live up to the buying experience. So how will the eCommerce sector address these things in 2023? Here's what some industry experts think.

We know that not many consumers actually care about the metaverse, but that hasn't stopped tech giants investing heavily in preparing for it.

A new report from Tenable, based on a study of 1,500 professionals representing roles in cybersecurity, DevOps and IT engineering, shows 68 percent of respondents plan to do business in the metaverse within the next three years, with 23 percent having already begun initiatives in the past six months.

Starting Monday 12 December, Twitter is relaunching Twitter Blue and giving users the opportunity to pay for the blue checkmark of verification.

Since Elon Musk took over at Twitter, the decision to open up verification to anyone willing to pay was one of the more controversial decisions. The scheme was paused last month, but now the paid-for blue tick is opening up once again. This time around, however, things are a little different, with iOS users getting a worse deal.

One of the problems with signing up for just about any online service, particularly social platforms, is trying to bag yourself the username you want. On Twitter, this could be about to get a bit easier.

It is no secret that since Elon Musk took over the company, Twitter users have been leaving the site in droves, mainly to Mastodon. Add to this the number of accounts that were set up years ago and never used, accounts that have fallen inactive and there are a lot of Twitter handles that could be opened up to new owners -- and this is precisely what is on the cards.

Almost two years after Donald Trump was banned from Twitter, Elon Musk has permitted the former US president back onto the site. Trump was evicted form the site following the January 6 attacks on the US Capitol

This weekend Musk conducted a poll on Twitter asking people to vote about whether or not to "reinstate former President Trump". After more than 15 million votes were cast, a majority voted in favor, and it wasn't long before Trump's account was reactivated.

In the world of social media, most of the attention is -- understandably -- focused on what's happening at Twitter, but there are changes afoot at Facebook too.

Starting at the beginning of December, some information fields are being removed from user profiles. The fields in question are Religious Views, Political Views, Address, and Interested In, with the latter being the field used to indicate sexual orientation.

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has been nothing short of chaotic, leading to thousands of employees being fired, an unknown number resigning, countless users jumping ship, and confusion for those left behind. So... what to do? Download your Twitter archive.

It is one thing to find a new home on a Twitter alternative such as Mastodon, but what about everything you are leaving behind? While the future of Twitter is very much an unknown, it is hanging in the balance, and recent events have shown that just about anything is possible. Rumors abound about the site being closed, so if you are concerned about losing years' worth of tweets -- many of which may contain valuable data -- here's how to go about downloading them for posterity.

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has polarized opinion, there are those who think he's a champion of free speech, and those who think it marks the beginning of the end for the blue bird.

But while Twitter was a unique concept when it launched back in 2006 there is now no shortage of other microblogging platforms that operate in a similar way, allowing you to post messages, pick up followers, get into virtual fights, etc.

Is Kanye West (aka Ye) mentally ill? While I am not qualified to determine such a diagnosis, it does seem that way to me. That is purely my opinion. He is certainly erratic and prone to posting inflammatory statements.

Over on Twitter, West recently declared in a now deleted tweet "I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE." Yes, the self-proclaimed "genius" showed his stupidity by confusing "death con" and "DEFCON." That ugly tweet is not up for interpretation -- it is pure hate. And it is unacceptable, which is why Twitter temporarily suspended Kanye West's account.

Twitter is taking steps to increase engagement on the platform by discouraging people from taking screenshots of tweets. iOS users are the first to be subjected to prompt to share a tweet rather than a screengrab of it.

The move makes it clear that Twitter is able to determine when users are taking screengrabs, and while many of the images will end up being shared on Twitter itself, the company would prefer that links were shared to other platforms to encourage click-throughs.

Social media technology is restlessly inventive, providing thousands of awesome ways for you to market your business inexpensively and on a large scale -- often directly into the pockets of consumers. But in the proliferating, ever-changing world of tweets, influencers, handles, and alerts, it can be hard to know where to begin and then to evaluate what’s actually working for you.

In the new edition of Social Media Marketing for Dummies, leading SMM voices Shiv Singh and Stephanie Diamond clear away the confusion and show you the smartest, most effective ways to plan, launch, manage, and assess your campaigns -- and then iterate and optimize for increased success.

The ability to edit tweets is something that Twitter users have been asking for since the service first emerged. There have long been rumors that the feature is in the works, and now Twitter has taken the wraps off this much-requested option.

News of the tweet edit button was shared via the Twitter Blue account, indicating that -- as thought for some time -- that tweet editing will be limited to paying subscribers, at least to start with.