Social Media

File under: "This is why we can't have nice things". To counter abuse by people seeking to trigger seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy, Twitter has announced a ban on animated PNG images.

The company says that the fact that APNGs don't respect autoplay settings and pose a risk to some users. As such, the ability to post animated PNGs has been removed "for the safety of people with sensitivity to motion and flashing imagery, including those with epilepsy".

It is not just Google which is coming under the scrutiny of the European Commission – the European antitrust regulator have announced that they are also looking into the data collection practices of Facebook.

Just as with Google, the Commission has sent out preliminary questionnaires as part of an investigation into how Facebook collects and monetizes its data.

Conceding that as a company it "is not perfect at privacy and data protection", Twitter has revealed details of a new Privacy Center. This central repository will serve as the portal through which Twitter will keep users informed about how it handles user data.

Twitter is also introducing updates to its privacy policy on January 1, 2020. These will be compliant with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which places numerous obligations on large companies, including giving customer greater control and transparency, and the right to have their data deleted on request.

Embracing the notion of data portability, Facebook has launched a new tool that lets users transfer their photos and videos from Facebook to other online services.

The social network is kicking things off by making it possible to transfer data from Facebook to Google Photos. It comes as part of Facebook's participation in the open-source Data Transfer Project and the ability to transfer to other services will be added soon.

When Twitter announced plans to close down accounts that have not been used for a period of six months or more, reaction was mixed. While many people recognized the value in getting rid of the millions of accounts that artificially inflate follower numbers and take up usernames that could be assigned to other people, there were concerns too.

In particular, friends and relatives of deceased Twitter users expressed concern that they would no longer be able to access the old tweets of their loved ones. Now Twitter has said that it will put its plans on hold... at least until it is able to devise an account memorialization feature.

When it comes to Twitter accounts, users tend to have two aims: to grab the perfect username, and to gain a verified tick. If you had to comprise when setting up your account, opting for a less-than-ideal handle, there's some good news.

Starting in December, Twitter is closing down inactive accounts ultimately freeing up a huge number of usernames that were previously tied up, but lying unused. Username squatting is a common problem on Twitter, but the new initiative should help to alleviate things a little.

There's a lot to be said for enhancing account security with two-factor authentication (2FA) but Twitter has long-insisted that this be done by handing over your phone number -- not something everyone is happy with.

But now the company has announced a change of heart. With immediate effect, Twitter says "you can Starting today, you can enroll in 2FA without a phone number". The move comes after Jack Dorsey's account was hijacked and used to send racist tweets, and just two months after Twitter revealed that 2FA data had 'inadvertently been used for advertising purposes'.

Many demands have been made of Twitter: longer tweets, tweet editing and an end to trolling and abuse. The company has implemented a number of changes, but the most recent is the ability to schedule tweets.

Until now, this is something that has only been available to people using Twitter clients such as TweetDeck, but finally -- for some people, at least -- it is an option that's available via the Twitter website.

Social media has evolved over the years in ways that few could have predicted. The likes of Facebook and Twitter are used not only for keeping in touch with friends and family, but also for keeping up to date with news.

But there are endless problems with current social networks, with ads and fake or misleading news being serious problems and irritants. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has launched a new social network called WT:Social. It is free from ads and has a news focus. Importantly, users are able to edit headlines which are incorrect or deceptive.

In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of different channels that businesses use to keep in touch with their customers.

But a new study from cloud communications platform Twilio reveals that the newer channels aren't especially popular, with 83 percent of global consumers saying they prefer email when receiving communications from businesses.

Jack Dorsey has announced that Twitter is implementing a ban on all political advertising on its network. The move comes after Facebook said it would not ban political ads, but Dorsey believes that the ability to reach a large audience with political messages "should be earned, not bought".

While the ban is a global one, the impact is likely to be felt most strongly in the US where spending on political campaigning is huge -- and whoever spends the most money has a tendency to fare better. The manager of the Trump 2020 campaign, Brad Parscale, has dismissed Twitter's decision as "yet another attempt by the left to silence Trump and conservatives".

Just a few days ago, Yahoo suddenly announced that Yahoo groups is to close down. More than this, all data that has been uploaded by users is to be deleted.

In just a week's time, it will no longer be possible to upload new content, and then in mid-December Yahoo will start to delete files, messages and more. If you want to preserve what you have uploaded, here's what you need to do.

A piece of internet history is being consigned to the rubbish heap. Yahoo has announced that the once-popular Yahoo Groups service is being closed down later this month.

More than this, the huge amount of information and exchanges that have been uploaded will not be archived. Before the end of the year, all Yahoo Groups content will be permanently wiped out -- so if there's anything you want to keep, you'll have to act swiftly.

Twitter has announced that email addresses and phone numbers provided by users for use with two-factor authentication (2FA) have been "inadvertently" used to deliver tailored ads.

The company says it does not know how many people are affected by the incident, but apologizes for letting private data be used in this way. The timing of the announcement is a little strange. Twitter says that the matter was under control as of September 17, and it is not quite clear why it took three weeks to go public about it -- even though it says "in an effort to be transparent, we wanted to make everyone aware".

On all branches of social media, account verification is what users yearn for. A little checkmark next to a username can lead to a massive increase in followers, and for creators this can in turn lead to a significant increase in earnings.

This is why there is a so much anger at YouTube's decision to introduce sweeping new changes that will see may users who have earned verification losing their verified status. As well as annoyance, there is a widespread feeling of confusion about what is happening, and why.