TikTok fined £296 million by Irish regulator for ‘policy violations’
After a breach of policy set by Irish regulators, TikTok has this week been fined almost £300 million for mishandling data from children using the platform.
The initial complaint dates back to 2020 and concerns the handling of data, particularly focusing on age verification and privacy settings. The regulators found that TikTok had not been transparent enough with children about its privacy setting, claiming that there were many cases of users aged between 13-17 whose content was visible to anyone as default.
TikTok ‘respectfully disagrees’ with the reasoning behind the fines, however, this is not the first time that the platform has faced a fine for violating national privacy policies. It once again highlights the risk for businesses in investing with platforms such as TikTok as they seem to always be in the news for issues such as this and therefore a large investment into advertising on the platform could be a very risky move for businesses.
Find out more here.
Meta’s new Ad tools aimed at optimising campaigns
Several new ad optimisation tools are being added by the social giant Meta for the final months of the year, including variable campaign budget options, tools to entice purchase actions, and more direct links to purchase products from ads.
The standout addition from the update is the time-based budget scheduling option, which will allow businesses to schedule an ad over a period of time (a month for example) and then select specific days within the time period where more of the budget can be spent to fit in with real-time events.
There is a strong feeling that the new features that are being introduced could give businesses a unique opportunity to reach their audience in different ways and should make it slightly easier to turn leads into conversions through the platform.
Find out more here.
New poll reveals the resurgence of LinkedIn amid competitor struggles
A new poll taken by Social Media Today on Twitter showcased the reported rise of LinkedIn over the last 12 months, partially due to the struggles of other platforms such as X and Meta’s Threads.
The poll was answered by more than 2,400 people and read “In 2023, you’ve been spending ___ time on LinkedIn”, with the answer options being ‘way more’, ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘way less’. A staggering 43% of voters claimed that they had been using LinkedIn ‘way more’ in 2023, alongside 36% admitting that they had been using the platform ‘more’, meaning that 79% had been using LinkedIn more in 2023.
Last month, LinkedIn claimed that the sharing of original content in the app increased by 41% since 2022, alongside reporting “record levels” of engagement on the platform within parent company Microsoft’s quarterly reports. The platform is clearly on the up and could be considered by marketers in the future as their platform of choice for certain advertising campaigns.
Find out more here.
New Threads update includes desktop functionality and following specific conversations
This week, Meta has continued with its trend of rolling out new updates by adding new ways for their users to both access the platform and to keep tabs on specific conversations.
Threads users will now be able to follow a specific thread within the app without having to follow the user who posted it. They are presented with the option to click the bell icon on the thread to receive post alerts for that specific thread, meaning they can keep up to date with whatever is going on.
The addition could become a valuable one if Threads ends up becoming a bigger source of breaking news coverage and therefore is one for businesses to keep an eye on. The option for the platform to be used on desktop has also been added which should give users better ease of access, potentially meaning they are more active on the app.
Find out more here.