Social

Meesho has let go over 150 employees and is looking to eliminate at least as many more positions as the Indian social commerce attempts to streamline its operations following an ongoing struggle to put together a new funding round at favorable terms, sources familiar with the matter said. Meesho, last valued at $4.9 billion in

Twitter quietly reversed a controversial decision the company implemented last week, restoring the text of since-deleted tweets embedded on external websites. The change was first spotted by Twitter user @RuinDig. IndieWeb developer Kevin Marks initially called attention to the change in a blog post, criticizing Twitter for “tampering with the public record” by intentionally hiding

Elon Musk is not joining Twitter’s board, the social network’s chief executive Parag Agrawal said, in a surprising reversal following last week’s announcement that the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive had been appointed to the panel. “We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance.

Indian social media app Koo introduced a voluntary self-verification service to its users on Wednesday in an unusual step that it believes will bring credibility and trust on its platform. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup said users on its platform will have the option to self-verify their profiles “in seconds” using their government-approved identity cards. The feature

Apparently it wasn’t just an April Fools’ joke or an errant Elon Musk tweet. As any true blue Twitter user knows, the divide over the social network adding an edit button is the deepest ideological ravine of our time — and Twitter is poised to switch sides. The company confirmed Tuesday that it is indeed

Qureos, a UAE-based edtech and remote work marketplace that is changing how people upskill and get jobs across the globe, plans to grow the uptake of its platform by 10 times this year in its race to create 100 million jobs over the next few years. The startup has today announced closing a $3 million

Tandem, a startup building corporate communications tools, has released a new product called Spaces, hoping to blend remote and in-office work so that all staff feels properly connected to their coworkers. The release of Spaces comes as many companies are digesting a return to offices and the question of how to manage a team that

Pinterest announced today it’s becoming the first major digital platform to introduce a comprehensive misinformation policy designed to combat false and misleading claims around climate change on its platform. According to the company’s newly updated misinformation guidelines, Pinterest will now be able to remove content that denies the existence of impacts of climate change, denies

The edit tweet button isn’t Twitter’s only new feature that can rewrite history. The company has apparently changed the way it handles embedded tweets that were deleted after the fact, littering webpages across the internet with holes. Previously, a deleted tweet embedded in a webpage would still display the text content of a tweet. Now

TikTok is launching a new Creative Agency Partnerships (CAP) University program that is designed to help creative agencies become “TikTok experts,” the company announced on Wednesday. The company says the five-week program will teach enrollees what they need to know about getting started on TikTok and how to use the platform to up their marketing

Twitter will finally let you be excluded from this narrative. The company announced Thursday that it was testing a new way for users to remove themselves from conversations they don’t want to be a part of. The company calls this “unmentioning” and while it’s only a test for now, it’s one many Twitter users weary

Snapchat announced this week that it’s introducing a new ASL Alphabet lens to encourage users to start learning American Sign Language. The new AR lens will teach users to fingerspell their name and practice the ASL alphabet. The lens also includes games that users can play to test their ASL knowledge. The social media company

Lisa Kaplan Contributor Lisa Kaplan is the founder and CEO of Alethea Group, a technology company that detects and mitigates instances of disinformation, misinformation and social media manipulation on behalf of private and public sector entities. Kaplan was recently recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 and as one of Washington, D.C.’s most powerful women Lee

Arena founder Paulo Martins grew up in Brazil playing video games, an industry that thrives on building communities among the players. Later, he came to the U.S., where he was an early employee at Hulu, helping the streaming TV service grow to over 7 million subscribers and $1 billion in revenue. When it came time

Clubhouse is launching a protected profile setting to allow users to only make their full profile available to people they approve as followers, the company announced on Wednesday. The change is being implemented in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine in an effort to keep users protected on the platform. “We’re grateful we’ve become

Like most smartphone users in India, I use WhatsApp a lot. But I have never sent anyone a voice message — ever. Turns out, others do. WhatsApp said on Wednesday that users on its gigantic messaging app send an average of 7 billion voice messages every day. Communication by the means of voice notes —

Meta and Sama, its main subcontractor for content moderation in Africa, are facing a lawsuit in Kenya over alleged unsafe and unfair working conditions, if they fail to meet 12 demands on workplace conditions brought before them. Nzili and Sumbi Advocates, the law firm representing Daniel Motaung, a former Sama employee that was laid-off for

TikTok and Snapchat need more parental controls, a letter signed by 44 attorneys general stated. Yesterday, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) sent a series of concerns to the two social apps, which are commonly used among teens. The attorneys general cited a range of problems they had with the social media apps, including,

Instagram today is rolling out over a half dozen new messaging features, following promises late last year that its DM (direct message) inbox would get a significant upgrade in 2022. The changes include the ability to share music previews in DMs, the ability to send a message silently, the ability to see who’s online to

Tushop, a social-commerce platform in Kenya that enables the group-buying of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), is set for expansion across Nairobi after raising $3 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by 4DX Ventures. Founded last year by Cathy Chepkemboi, also the CEO, Tushop uses community-leaders, who collect orders from their neighbors and also

Twitter has announced that it’s expanding access to its “Professional Accounts” profile setting to all users globally. Up until now, users have had to apply to convert their account into a professional one. Now, everyone on the platform can opt into a professional account directly from their account settings. A professional account, which Twitter refers

Tumblr is expanding its tip jar feature by introducing blog-level tipping for its iOS and web applications, the company announced on Wednesday. The company rolled out its tip jar feature last month allowing users to leave tips on posts. Today’s expansion will allow users to leave tips on blogs. Tumblr says the expansion will benefit

As competition heats up for creator talent, Pinterest today announced it was more than doubling its initial investment in its Creator Fund with an additional $1.2 million in a combination of cash grants, ad credits, and other creator resources for underrepresented groups. The comapny last year announced the debut of its $500,000 Creator Fund alongside

TikTok today is announcing a new in-app creation tool called TikTok Library, which the company hopes will make it easier for creators to access entertainment content and participate in trends. Initially, the Libary will be populated with select content from GIPHY, including its collection of GIFs with sound, known as GIPHY Clips. Over time, TikTok

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is introducing several new features and shortcuts to its Messenger app. Most notably, the company is adding a new Slack-like “@everyone” functionality that will notify all participants in a chat about a new message. Meta notes that the new feature is perfect for group reminders, get-togethers or when you’re asking

TikTok is testing a new “watch history” feature with some users to allow them to find videos that appeared on their “For You” page that they didn’t have a chance to save. Given the constant stream of content on TikTok, accidentally refreshing your “For You” page and losing a video before you’ve had a chance

Instagram is testing a new feature that will make it easier for users to discover and support social causes directly through hashtags, the company announced on Monday. Now, when you search for specific hashtags associated with certain social movements, you’ll have the option to support them through new options. Once you get get to a

Elon Musk tweeted this weekend that he is “giving serious thought” to building his own social media platform. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” the billionaire serial entrepreneur who is CEO of Tesla and Space X tweeted. “What should be

Twitter has started testing a new clipping tool for Spaces, the company announced this week. Select hosts on iOS are now able to clip 30 seconds of audio from recorded Spaces to share them with others on Twitter. All iOS users can now see and listen to the clips on their timelines, while Android and

A pair of former TikTok content reviewers is suing the company, alleging that it failed to adequately support them as they engaged in the deeply disturbing work of removing objectionable videos from the social network. NPR first reported the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in federal court. Plaintiffs Ashley Velez and Reece Young both did