Meta Adds New Tools and Settings to Protect Young Users from Online Predators
Meta has announced a new set of updates that could potentially protect its younger users from online predators and harmful behaviours.
There will now be stricter privacy settings that will limit who can see users’ friends lists, hide any tagged posts that they may have been mentioned in and stop any non-connections from commenting on posts.
Although these settings are being introduced, users can still revert their settings to the default, meaning that they can still be exposed. As well as this, the new tools do not stop any user’s profile from being displayed within the search function.
Meta introduced similar functions across Instagram back in July with users under the age of 16 now automatically defaulted to private.
Meta is also testing a new process which limits the capacity for kids to make content with suspicious adults when using its apps. Whenever an adult has been blocked by a younger person, it will limit that user’s access to messaging younger people on the app. Alongside this, Meta is adding in new notifications within its apps that will encourage younger users to make full use of its new protective tools and features.
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WhatsApp Launches New Business Search Functionality, Expands In-Stream Payments
In order to take full advantage of the messaging industry’s revenue potential, including click-to-message ads and other direct connection tools, Meta has announced its intentions as social media activity increasingly turns to messages.
The objective is to encourage more businesses to use WhatsApp, the most widely used messaging app in the world. And in that regard, at the first-ever WhatsApp Business Summit in Brazil, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new update that would enable WhatsApp users to directly search for businesses using either a category or a name.
With WhatsApp usage on the rise, particularly in the US, that might now be a much more essential concern. That could provide businesses wishing to use WhatsApp as a connection tool a big boost.
People are posting updates to private DM groups rather than their social feeds. Indeed, Zuckerberg claims that social feeds are becoming platforms for discovery. It’s possible that consumers are growing more receptive to interacting with marketers via their DMs.
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Twitter on Shaky Ground as More Staff Exit the App, Reducing the Platform to a Skeleton Crew
After Elon Musk demanded that the app’s remaining personnel agree to ‘extremely hardcore’ working conditions or quit the firm with three months’ pay, Twitter may very well be on its final legs, or at the very least, it may be about to see substantial outages.
Since the new owner took control, Twitter has reduced its employees by 88 per cent. As a result, many have speculated that the app cannot continue to function at such a low capacity. Some claim that internal systems are already malfunctioning because no one is watching them, and the app may also malfunction if there is a major surge in usage, such as during the World Cup. Only time will tell what the outcome for Twitter will be.
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Elon Musk Reinstates Trump, as Twitter Keeps Running Despite Reduced Staff
Last weekend, twitter also restored former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, which may be the pinnacle of Elon Musk’s experiences with the app. This was in spite of Musk having just three weeks earlier stated that account reinstatements would not be decided until Twitter had established a “content moderation council” to make such decisions.
The accounts of The Babylon Bee, Kathy Griffin, and Jordan Peterson, who had been suspended, were reinstated on Friday when Elon tweeted that it was “Freedom Friday.”
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