Tag Archives: Social Media

Disappearing Tweets & The Return Of Verification

Twitter made two recent announcements about changes to the platform, one of which was the launch of their new “Fleets” messaging, which allows users to send a series of short messages (text, images or video clips) that disappear after 24 hours. Fleets? Fleets give Twitter users a way of posting an Instagram Stories-like series of […]

Which Social Media Platform?

Although broadly similar on the surface, the various social media platforms can differ widely in the intent of their users, and as a result, choosing the right social media platform to promote or advertise your business is an essential part of an effective marketing strategy. Each can have benefits and drawbacks, depending on the type […]

Twitter Tests Flags For False Tweets

With increasing concerns about the proliferation of false or misleading information on social media, Twitter appears to be planning a way for users to provide feedback by labelling tweets from politicians and other public figures as being likely to be “harmfully misleading.” A leaked demo, (later confirmed by Twitter) showed brightly coloured labels prominently displayed […]

Leaked Facebook Emails Reveal Poor Data Practices

According to internal messages leaked from Facebook earlier this month, top-level employees strategised about how they could leverage the vast quantity of user data Facebook controls in order to limit or disadvantage companies which they perceive as threats, including YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. Although Facebook does not sell user data, it does share some of […]

Facebook Shareholders Vote Against Zuckerberg

At the beginning of this month, Facebook revealed that outside investors had voted overwhelmingly in favour of a series of proposals to fire Mark Zuckerberg, owner and CEO of the social media platform, and make sweeping changes to the share structure of the company. 68% of ordinary shareholders voted to bring in an independent figure […]

Facebook To Remove White Nationalist Content

As we’ve seen from far too many recent articles, Facebook is under global pressure from the governments of many different companies to both be more conscious of, and to take more responsibility for, the content that is posted on their platform. As a result, Facebook announced earlier this month that they will begin taking down […]

Britain Seeks Leading Role In Regulating Social Media

The internet has traditionally been seen as largely “ungovernable” thanks to its decentralised nature and the potential (fast decreasing) for anonymity. A  popular description for it has been that it’s like the Wild West, which has struck me as amusing for years, since I remember when the internet really was a lawless and wild place, […]

Fact Checking WhatsApp

With the continuing proliferation of so-called Fake News, it is becoming more and more important to ensure that we can differentiate between them. And while on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, fake news is often spotted and called out, it has proven a little more difficult to do on platforms which are not […]

South Africans Online

According to the Global State Of Digital In 2019 report by Hootsuite, South African’s spend among the most time online of any country, with an average of nearly 8.5 hours a day spent online, compared to a bit over 6.5 hours a day for US users. This is despite the fact that we still have […]

The Law And Digital Media

It has long been the case that the law lags behind our social and technological development, sometimes by a considerable margin. However, it looks like the law is finally getting ready to catch up when it comes to digital platforms like Facebook, as regulators in several countries are in the process of proposing a range […]