As more media companies realize Russia bought advertising space or promoted news stories — fake and otherwise — on their platforms, covert influence has become the new money laundering. Both activities hide below the surface of legitimate enterprises, cast a shadow of disrepute on those very enterprises and can be neutralized through transparency and accountability. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/Anz-ME0r9FE/
Inside Summit Series, the invite-only getaway striving for altruism
“Make No Small Plans” is the Summit Series motto, and it doesn’t. The “Burning Man meets Davos” event company has bought a mountain, rented cruise ships and, this week, is taking over Los Angeles. If you can get an invite, Summit Series could see you learn to free dive or meditate, watch Quentin Tarantino or Kendrick Lamar debate art, take a class on polyamory… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/ekWwpQCm-R4/
Twitter says it has ‘implemented safeguards’ to prevent Trump account deactivation
President Trump’s Twitter account was deactivated on Thursday for 11 minutes at the hands of a rogue employee on their last day at the company. While many cheered the attempt at halting the controversial tweets, others expressed concern at the lack of control Twitter had over its own service. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/BIuc8JiMVT0/
Niantic acqui-hires Evertoon to add a social network to Pokémon Go and other apps
Niantic, the company behind the hit mobile game Pokémon Go and its predecessor, Ingress, announced today it has acquired the team from the startup Evertoon to help it further build out its mobile products. Deal terms were not disclosed, but from how it’s described, the move seems to be more of an acqui-hire focused on gaining access to talent, rather than Evertoon’s IP. Launched… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/qABhwyAEhdQ/
Twitter posts a new version of its rules with updated sections on abuse, spam, violence and more
Twitter today published a new version of its rules, in an effort to further clarify its policies about abuse, spam, self-harm and other topics, as well as to better explain how it determines the appropriate action – like suspending an abuser’s account, for example. The company says the updated documentation doesn’t represent changes to the “fundamentals” of its… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/l_0Mh0uckjg/
Sources: Snap has acquired Metamarkets for less than $100M to step up its ad tech play
As Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, gears up to report its quarterly earnings next week, it looks like the company is making some moves to beef up its primary business line, advertising. TechCrunch has learned that the company has acquired Metamarkets, an ad tech startup that provides programmatic ad data-related services to marketers, such as a data dashboard to measure how campaigns… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/GTYdGMN9umU/
Query friends or fans with new GIF and photo Facebook Polls
Facebook Questions first launched in 2010 as a Quora wannabe before shifting into lighter-weight polls, but Facebook shut down the feature in 2012. Apparently it was just ahead of its time, as Facebook went poll-crazy this year. Now the social network is launching Facebook Polls, with the options of using photos or GIFs as answers. Polls are coming to people and Pages today. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/ASUBNXuP90s/
Twitter employee deactivates Trump’s account on their last day
President Trump’s infamous Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump went offline briefly on Thursday, setting forth a wave of confusion and emotions. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/1f-TeskvB6Q/
Snap joins the great burger debate with launch of dancing burger AR lens
Just when you thought great burger debate had abated, Snapchat has arrived to pour more lighter fluid on the grill. This week, Snap unveiled a cheeseburger AR filter, and it has the same devil-may-care attitude as its famous sibling, the dancing hotdog. Lettuce catch you up on the drama. On Saturday, author Thomas Baekdal had emoji lovers everywhere scratching their heads when he noticed… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/tcGp26FSV5o/
Here’s how Russia targeted its fake Facebook ads and how those ads performed
It’s impossible to know just how much stuff being circulated on social networks is Russian state content in sheep’s clothing, although tech companies are scrambling to figure that out. Now, thanks to Congress, we just got a rare peek behind the curtain of how Facebook’s ad operations were manipulated by a foreign power to foment outrage and division in American society. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/k6OzQg6oTSI/
Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status hit 300M users, nearly 2X Snapchat
Instagram and WhatsApp’s Snapchat clones aren’t slowing down. Today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status both now have 300 million daily active users. That’s up from 250 million for Instagram in June, and WhatsApp in July. That makes the copies almost twice the size of the original, as Snapchat’s entire app only has 173 million… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/E8LLASChW8g/
Reddit CEO talks taking site from ‘dystopian Craigslist’ to ‘the most human place on the internet’
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman took to the site for his “quarterly inquisition,” an AMA where he fielded questions from users and moderators. The discussion today focused on empowering mods to do what they need to do, which should have a knock-on effect in creating functional communities. But he also addressed some politically sensitive issues, from election interference to… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/k0VH53fAspc/
Zuck says ad transparency regulation would be ‘very good if it’s done well’
Despite Facebook’s effort to rapidly self-regulate in the wake of Russian interference in the U.S. election using Facebook ads, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he would support government regulation if implemented properly. Meanwhile, Facebook elevated its expense estimates for 2018 to fund security hiring. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/cTtNXqJVM7c/
Facebook beats in Q3 with $4.7B profit, record share price despite Russia
Facebook is still in the middle of its House Intelligence Committee hearing about Russian election interference, but the looming concerns over misuse haven’t dampened its business as profits continue to soar and its share price hits an all-time high. Still, CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw it fit to break from his traditional “Our business is doing well” script to add “But none… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/873zUtLRybc/
Here are the Russian ads that deceived users on Facebook and Instagram
Russian interests have been attempting to influence public opinion via social media to an extent no one expected. The content itself, however, has largely been a mystery — the ads and fake accounts have long been taken down. But Facebook delivered them to Congress as part of an ongoing inquiry, and the House’s Intelligence Committee has posted a handful ahead of its hearing tomorrow. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/WE562Wurks8/
On Russia, tech doesn’t know what it doesn’t know
While the Senate has spent the better part of a year making sense of Russia’s actions to influence the 2016 election, tech made quick work of its own analysis — or so it thinks. The glacial pace of Congress is often criticized. But when it comes to examining a high-stakes blind spot undermining governments and endangering users on the biggest social networks, somehow Congress… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/N-fNxT91lbM/
Trump and Clinton spent $81M on US election Facebook ads, Russian agency $46K
Russian information troll farm the Internert Research Agency spent just 0.05 percent as much on Facebook ads as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaigns combined in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While there might have been other Russian disinformation groups, the IRA spent $46,000 on pre-election day Facebook ads compared to $81 million spent by Clinton and… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/BBkGrW3QAm4/
Robinhood stock trading comes to web with finance news for its 3M users
You know what’s cool? Not just being worth over $1 billion, but saving your customers $1 billion. Today, zero-fee stock trading app Robinhood announced that it’s hit 3 million registered accounts, $100 billion transacted in its app, and $1 billion in saved commissions considering competitors like E*Trade cost $7 per trade.
And now, Robinhood is getting a web version where beyond… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/KtQ5IBFG5Io/
In their first Russia hearing, tech giants try to placate Congress (with mixed results)
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee kicked off the first of three hearings this week examining the relationship between social media and Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The hearings mark the first time that lawmakers will hear testimony from Google, Facebook and Twitter around how their platforms were and are manipulated as part of Russian political… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/-ita4VRa7qw/
Congress grills Facebook, Twitter, Google on shells hiding election meddlers
How can internet giants know that innocent-seeming U.S. companies aren’t actually shell vehicles for malicious foreign actors to buy ads to interfere with elections? The short answer is they can’t, and that drew questioning from a congressional probe today into Facebook, Twitter and Google being used to manipulate the 2016 presidential election. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/social/~3/-f5AYBu6dVM/ Source: https://techcrunch.com/
