Social

Meta (formerly Facebook) today is introducing a new “Professional” mode for user profiles, designed to be used by creators looking to monetize their followings on the social network. The new mode, which is initially available to select creators in the U.S., will present creators with additional money-making opportunities and expanded insights that had been previously

Twitter has rolled out the option to listen to a recording of a Space to all users on iOS, Android and the web. This latest move brings the social media giant’s Spaces feature more in line with traditional podcasts, as users can now listen to a conversation after the live broadcast has ended. The new

Discord is introducing a new way for creators to make money by offering community members access to paid, subscriber-only content. The new premium membership offering was among the company’s most requested features and would bring a new stream of revenue in-house while giving Discord-based communities the option to streamline the tools they use to grow.

Twitter is trying out some changes to the way that users report tweets that they believe might break Twitter’s rules. Like most social media companies, Twitter has long relied on user reporting to flag potentially policy-violating tweets. But in its new imagining of that system those reports would provide the company with a richer picture

WhatsApp users can now choose to easily have all new messages they send or receive disappear as the world’s largest instant messaging service broadens its offerings for what an executive described as the next privacy standard. The Facebook-owned service, used by over 2 billion users globally, on Monday rolled out an option that allows users

Less than a year ago, WildWorks, the makers of the kid’s virtual world game Animal Jam, launched its next big effort with a game aimed at Gen Z teens, called Feral. But in recent days, the company has angered many of its core users with news that it’s reusing Feral’s technology platform and many of

Facebook Gaming might not be a hot streaming destination like Twitch or YouTube Gaming, but the social network is steadily adding interactive features to build its appeal. Facebook is trying out a new layer of interactivity the company is calling “play with streamer” that lets viewers hop into game streams with their favorite streaming personalities.

MarketForce, a Kenyan B2B retail and financial services distribution startup, has expanded into five additional markets across Africa to grow RejaReja — its retailer ‘super app’ that makes it possible for informal merchants to order and pay for inventory digitally, accept payments for utility bills, and access financing for their businesses. The startup has today

Facebook Messenger announced today that it’s starting to test out a new “Split Payments” feature that introduces a way for users to share the cost of bills and expenses through the app. The company says the new feature is a “free and fast” way to handle finances through Messenger. The new feature is rolling out

TikTok is today introducing new ways for its creators to make money from their content. While already, the short-form video platform allowed creators to accept virtual gifts from fans during TikTok LIVE videos, a set of new features will allow creators to accept payments and gifts when they’re not livestreaming through the addition of Tips

Religion-based apps, tools, and communities aren’t brand new, including to investors. Pray.com, for example, an L.A.-based app for daily prayer and bedtime bible stories that was founded in 2016, has raised at least $34 million from investors, including Kleiner Perkins. Ministry Brands, a nine-year-old, Knoxville, Tenn.-based outfit that now includes dozens of software and payments

IRL, the SoftBank-backed social app and recent unicorn, is today announcing its first acquisition. The company is purchasing, for an undisclosed sum, the “digital nutrition” company AaBeZe Labs and its portfolio of IP with the goal of making IRL a healthier and more ethically designed social networking app. AaBeZe’s founders Michael Phillips Moskowitz, the former

Less than 20% of India’s 1.3 billion people speak English. But LinkedIn, the largest professional social network globally, has so far catered only to this sliver of the population in the world’s second largest internet market. On Thursday, the Microsoft-owned service said it’s beginning to change that. LinkedIn has started to roll out support for Hindi

Meta (formerly Facebook) recently announced its plans to delay the rollout of end-to-end encryption across its messaging service until sometime in 2023, citing concerns from child safety advocates who warned the change would shield abusers from detection. Today, the company offered more details about how it plans to approach the need for harm prevention alongside

Reddit is rolling out several new real-time features including voting and comment count animations, typing indicators, reading indicators and new comment indicators. The new features are rolling out globally across Reddit’s desktop, iOS and Android apps starting today. With this latest update, Reddit says voting will no longer be a static number on posts and

Twitch introduced a new way for streamers to fight accounts that evade channel-level bans Tuesday. The automated tool is called “Suspicious User Detection” and can spot users trying to get around bans, giving anyone moderating a Twitch channel more recourse for dealing with potentially disruptive behavior before it starts. The company announced that the new

Jack Dorsey was Twitter’s first CEO — and also its fourth. He led the platform from its launch in 2006 until he passed the torch to co-founder Ev Williams two years later. In 2015, Dorsey returned to the role after Dick Costolo’s stint, even though he was simultaneously serving as CEO of fintech platform Square.

In a significant push against big tech’s ability to maintain market dominance through sheer buying power, the UK’s competition watchdog has ordered Facebook (now Meta) to reverse its acquisition of animated GIF platform, Giphy — confirming the Financial Times‘ earlier reporting. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its phase 2 investigation cemented earlier competition

When Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced today his plans to step down as CEO, he didn’t go quietly. “There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being ‘founder-led,’” he wrote. “Ultimately I believe that’s severely limiting and a single point of failure. I’ve worked hard to ensure this company can break away

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will go before Congress again this week, this time offering her unique perspective on the company’s moderation and policy failures as they relate to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the key legal shield that protects online platforms from liability for the user-created content they host. The House Energy and

CNBC reported this morning that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is expected to step down from his role at the social media company. Dorsey is the CEO of both Twitter and Square, a financial company that serves both consumer and corporate customers with payment, cash management and transference services. Twitter’s stock rose on the news that

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate for the first time as part of a series of hearings about online safety for children and teens. Per The New York Times, Mosseri’s hearing will take place on December 6. Mosseri’s upcoming testimony comes after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote a letter to Facebook

Twitter is updating its iOS app to prevent tweets from disappearing while users are still reading them. The change comes as the social media giant recently updated its web platform to no longer automatically refresh timelines with new tweets. Twitter acknowledged that in the past, tweets would often disappear from view as users were reading

Reddit is shutting down Dubsmash, its short-form TikTok-like video platform, on February 22, 2022. The company says after February, Dubsmash will no longer be available for download in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Currently downloaded apps will stop functioning on the same date. The company acquired Dubsmash in December 2020 and had

As the world quickly transitions into a global village thanks to the rapid penetration of internet networks, it is easy for some people to be left behind owing to the remoteness of their locations. In most parts of Zanzibar, an autonomous island in East Africa, for example, services by terrestrial cable and satellite networks are

Ira Belsky Contributor Ira Belsky is the co-founder and co-CEO at Artlist. You’ve likely heard of the “creator economy” already — it’s no longer a new concept, although some people are more acquainted with what it entails than others. But the creator economy needs creators. It says so right there on the label. Essentially, what

Facebook’s problems with European privacy law could be about to get a whole lot worse. But ahead of what may soon be a major (and long overdue) regulatory showdown over the legality of its surveillance-based business model, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) is facing a Facebook-shaped problem of its own: It’s now the subject of

Most people in Africa wish to utilize various insurance products but are often deterred by the associated high premiums. It is, therefore, not surprising that insurance penetration across the continent remains marginal, with reported premiums per capita being 11 times lower than the world average, according to a McKinsey study. But the market might soon

There have been countless studies about the damaging effects of social media on mental health, particularly on teens. And yet, most of us just can’t quit social networking. Even if it makes us feel bad about ourselves. The constant comparisons of our lives to the highlight reels that people post on Facebook and Instagram is

Walkie-talkie, a social audio platform developed by Picslo Corp, has raised a $3.25 million seed round led by Heroic Ventures. The round included participation from TI Platform Ventures, LDVP, Partech, Diaspora Ventures, Breega, and Kima Ventures. The Clubhouse-like app launched two years ago and currently has 1.2 million active users. Picslo Corp CEO, Stephane Giraudie,