Social

A former upstart Instagram rival is suing Meta, formerly known as Facebook, over allegations that the company violated antitrust laws by cloning a competing product and ultimately killing its business. The app, Phhhoto, launched in 2014, inviting users to create and share short GIF-like videos. If that sounds familiar, that’s because the same functionality was

At its Facebook Communities Summit today, the social networking giant announced a series of updates and new tools for managing Facebook Groups, including tools designed to help admins better develop the group’s culture, as well as several other new additions like subgroups and subscription-based paid subgroups, real-time chat for moderators, support for community fundraisers, and

Twitter is rolling out the ability for users to share direct links to their Spaces to let others tune into a live audio session via the web without being logged into the platform. The social media giant says the new functionality is aimed at Spaces users who have friends that aren’t on Twitter but would

The company formerly known as Facebook just announced its plans to sneak around Apple’s infamous platform fees, the latest beat in an ongoing war between major software companies and the creator of iOS. In a Facebook post Wednesday, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg said that the social network would give eligible creators on its platform new custom

Twitter has been steadily updating its rebuilt API following its mid-2020 relaunch. Most recently, the company added support for Twitter Spaces to its developer platform. Today, it’s announcing support that will enable developers to build better Twitter bots by launching new end points that allow you to tweet, delete tweets, post polls, use Reply settings

Instagram is bringing back support for Twitter Card previews starting today. Now when users share an Instagram link on Twitter, a preview of the post will be shown in the tweet. Prior to this change, when users posted an Instagram link on Twitter, the tweet would only display the URL of the Instagram link. The

In the days immediately following revelations that Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta held secret wealth in offshore tax havens, Odanga Madung noticed something odd on Twitter. In spite of the damning information implicating Kenyatta in a hypocritical tax shelter scheme, the prevailing conversation on Kenyan Twitter focused on defending the country’s beleaguered leader. The Kenyan president’s

Pearpop, a marketplace for social collaborations, is expanding to Instagram after previously only being available to TikTok creators. The platform, which launched last year, allows creators and brands to buy collaborations with celebrities and larger creators. Pearpop will also become available on Twitter later this month, and on Twitch in December. The official rollout on

Just days after rebranding itself, Facebook announced plans to delete a trove of the most worrisome data that the world’s biggest social network collected on more than a billion individuals. In a blog post Tuesday, Facebook’s newly named parent company Meta explained that it would close shop on its facial recognition systems and delete a

WhatsApp will today begin beta testing a new, cloud-based version of its WhatsApp Business API, hosted on parent company Facebook’s infrastructure. With the shift to the cloud, the setup time for integrating with the API will drop from weeks to only minutes, the company claims, so businesses can more quickly transition to WhatsApp’s API platform

Instagram announced today that it’s introducing a new “Add Yours” sticker that creates public threads in Stories. The new feature essentially allows users to respond to other users’ Stories with their own following a prompt or a certain topic. The global launch comes as Instagram initially tested the feature in Indonesia and Japan last month.

As access to unique sounds is becoming a competitive advantage for social apps, Snapchat announced today it’s inked a deal with NBCUniversal to give users access to licensed audio clips from various NBCU movies and TV shows. With this latest launch, users can add audio clips from fan favorites such as “Saturday Night Live” and

The on-demand transport space in Africa has evolved since San Francisco-based ride-hailing firm Uber first set up operations in South Africa in 2013, setting the stage for its foray across the continent while radically transforming the entire taxi industry. Almost a decade later, Africa’s taxi industry is now dominated by tens of local and international

Kathryn Kosmides Contributor Kathryn Kosmides is a survivor of gender-based violence and the founder of nonprofit background check Garbo. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s message about Instagram’s impact on teenage girls was unequivocal: Facebook’s studies found that 13% of British teens said Instagram prompted thoughts of suicide, and 17% of teen girls say Instagram makes eating

During its big VR and AR-focused event Thursday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a major new title headed to its VR platform that should turn a few heads. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is on the way to the Oculus Quest 2. San Andreas is Rockstar’s well-loved 2004 entry into the hit GTA

Twitter announced last month it would soon introduce an option that allows hosts to record their live audio sessions in Twitter Spaces to make them available for replay. While the company at the time said the feature would launch in a “few months,” it’s not surprising that, given Twitter’s accelerated pace of development, the company

Twitter is rolling out the ability for all iOS users globally to Super Follow select creators. The option was previously only available to users in the U.S. and Canada. Super Follows allow users to subscribe to accounts they like for a monthly subscription fee in exchange for exclusive content. It’s Super Following time –– everyone

Lisa Gilbert Contributor Facebook may have a new name, but a rebrand won’t erase the multiple recent disclosures illustrating how destructive the company is for society — and how harmful it is for its own investors. The revelations from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen were shocking but not surprising. According to Haugen, who worked for the

Former President Trump’s new social network might be in hot water before it even launches. Mastodon, a free social media framework, alleges that Truth Social is passing open source software off as its own and has given them 30 days to fix this. If it doesn’t fix things by the end of next month, things

Well, it’s official. After 17 years of being called Facebook, the social networking parent company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus has a new name. Facebook’s corporate entity is now Meta. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg announced the change at the company’s AR/VR-focused Connect event, sharing that the new title captured more of the company’s core

TikTok is testing a new in-app tipping feature on its platform that would allow creators to accept money from fans outside of TikTok LIVE streams, where gifting is already supported. The company confirmed the feature is part of a limited test for the time being and is not yet broadly available. TikTok creator Jera Bean

Facebook (aka “Meta”) CEO Mark Zuckerberg today took several thinly veiled shots at Apple and the overall app ecosystem when detailing his plans for the metaverse during today’s keynote speech at the company’s Facebook Connect 2021 event. Specifically, he called out app platforms and their associated fees for “stifling innovation,” while simultaneously justifying Facebook’s plans

TikTok announced today it’s expanding its Video Kit offering for developers to include those building apps for the web, desktop, and consoles, in addition to its previous support for mobile platforms. Alongside the news, the company unveiled a host of new third-party apps that would now integrate with TikTok, including Clipchamp, Combo, Grabyo, Kapwing, Mobcrush,

Hinge is rolling out a new ‘Voice Prompts’ feature to give its users a new way to connect with their matches. Voice Prompts will allow users to answer a prompt through a 30-second voice recording. The new feature is rolling out globally starting today. Hinge says the new feature allows people to give others a

Instagram announced on Wednesday that all users now have access to its Link Sticker feature in Instagram Stories. The expansion comes as the company recently ditched the “swipe-up” link in Instagram Stories in favor of the new Link Stickers. Both the previous “swipe-up” link and new Link Sticker feature have been historically limited to businesses

Fallout from revelations around teen mental health on Instagram continues — and not just for Facebook. On Tuesday, policy reps from YouTube, Snap and TikTok faced Congress to talk about kids and online safety, marking the first time the latter two companies appeared in a major tech hearing. The hearing, held by the Senate Subcommittee

Representatives from TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security today to discuss how to protect kids online. This hearing follows Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen‘s document leaks to the Wall Street Journal, which — among many things — exposed Facebook’s knowledge that Instagram is toxic for

After dragging in the same companies and their reticent, overtrained executives time and time again, Congress is turning its attention to two of the tech industry’s fresh but important faces: TikTok and Snap. On Tuesday, lawmakers on the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security will question policy leads from those two

YouTube is rolling out a designated “New to you” tab on its platform after testing the feature earlier this year. The new tab is now available on the YouTube homepage across mobile, desktop and TV devices. YouTube says the feature will help users discover new creators and content beyond the recommended videos they usually see.

U.S. social networking giant Facebook reported its Q3 financial results today after the bell. It reported $29.0 billion in total revenue and earnings per share of $3.22, calculated on a diluted basis. Investors had expected the company to report revenues of $29.58 billion, per data collected by Yahoo Finance, and earnings per share of $3.19.