Social

Nearly a decade ago, South by Southwest was known as a launchpad for Internet phenomena: The annual tech and arts festival was where Twitter broke out and where masses of 20-somethings made group messaging apps a thing. In the spring of 2012, the king of the conference was Highlight. Paul Davison, then 32, had released

Facebook is getting tougher on groups that continually break Facebook’s rules. If a group keeps violating Facebook’s policies, the platform will increase the severity of its punishments incrementally until the group is removed entirely. Facebook Continues Its Crackdown on Harmful Groups Facebook detailed the new measures it’s taking to secure groups in a post on the About

Discord could be working on a Clubhouse-like feature, as per some users on Reddit. Discord already allows users to chat over voice-only or video calls but that is limited to a small group. The new feature, called Stage Channel, will allow Discord to host calls to a wider range of users on a single server.

Dating life during the pandemic is a little awkward. The safest way to go about it is obviously to not meet face-to-face with anyone you don’t know very well. That said, it’s much different trying to get to know someone through only texts and video calls. Tinder, one of the more popular mobile dating apps,

Zoom Escaper offers fun ways of escaping a meeting on the platform by playing sound effects of choppy connection, baby crying, and more. Created by artist Sam Lavigne, the Web widget lets you choose from a wide variety of sound effects (read: excuses) that will help you escape a meeting without raising suspicion among other

Facebook is trying to help Americans locate places where they can receive the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s rolling out a tool that will provide users with nearby locations’ contact information, hours of operation, as well as a link to make an appointment. Facebook Rolls Out COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign As more Americans are becoming eligible to get

Twitter on Monday announced a series of initiatives that it says focuses on encouraging informed healthy conversations between candidates, political parties, citizens, media, and society. The initiatives include an information search prompt with the Election Commission of India and state election commissions to make it easier for users to find credible information about candidate lists, voting dates, polling

The Clubhouse app seems to have it all figured out—whatever it is that makes an app popular in 2021. Everyone knows it too. Twitter launched Spaces soon after Clubhouse blew up, and now both Facebook and Instagram are reportedly building their audio-sharing spaces. So that just begs the question… what’s next for Clubhouse? That’s simple. All

Lobbyists for Facebook and Google threw their weight against new US legislation that seeks to aid struggling news publishers by allowing them to negotiate collectively against the tech companies over revenue sharing and other deals. US lawmakers introduced the plan in Congress on Wednesday to address a perceived power imbalance between news outlets and the

Besides providing endless hours of entertainment and a platform to share dance moves, TikTok allows content creators to make money through virtual gifts. Creators can join the TikTok Live Stream Program so they can live stream and earn gifts from their followers. Here’s all you need to know about coins, gifts, and diamonds on TikTok. What

India’s new oversight of digital news platforms is drawing protest from the media industry and activists who fear the rules will curb press freedom in the world’s largest democracy. India, which has one of the world’s biggest and most diverse media industries, last month announced the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, aimed at

TikTok is introducing a new set of tools to help make its community a kinder place. Not only are content creators now able to filter out inappropriate comments, but TikTok will also give warning notifications to any users who attempt to post rude comments. TikTok Tries for Kindness In a post on the TikTok Newsroom, the platform said

Twitter is trialing full-size image previews on timelines. Instead of having to tap on an image thumbnail while scrolling through your feed, you may soon be able to view the entire image at first glance. Twitter Is Getting More Photo-Friendly A select number of Twitter users on iOS and Android might notice a change to the photos on

In 2018, Instagram launched the Lite version of its app to take up less space on your device and use less data. It was later quietly removed in May of last year. A Facebook spokesperson eventually came forward to say the company was “rolling back the test” of the app, and that you have the

When Dispo opened its beta launch last month, it got much more attention than its development team anticipated. It took zero time at all for Dispo to reach its test limit of 10,000 users. Surely with Dispo’s latest announcement, it won’t be too long until the userbase grows much, much larger. You Can Now Join

Many social media users have both Facebook and Instagram, and it can be fun to link your Facebook and Instagram accounts together and post the same photo on both accounts. Double the platforms, double the likes and exposure. But sometimes, you’ll only want your photos to appear on one platform or the other. So, how

Facebook is giving content creators more ways to make money. This may mean more ads on Facebook, specifically in short-form videos and Stories. Facebook Prioritizes Ads for Short Videos Yoav Arnstein, Facebook’s director of app monetization, outlined the platform’s new monetization options in a post on the About Facebook blog. Facebook is now allowing content creators to

Are you wondering if you’ve been blocked on WhatsApp? While the app takes care to protect user privacy, there are ways to figure out if somebody has blocked you. In this article, we’ll be guiding you on the steps you can take to figure it out. There are a handful of ways to test this,

Ever since Twitter launched, users have asked for an option to edit their tweets. The idea sounds nice, in theory. But it could also cause problems, hence the company’s decision not to introduce one. While an edit feature looks like it’s out of the question, Twitter might be working on another potentially useful feature: an

TikTok has been hit with yet another country-wide ban. Pakistan has now put a block on TikTok, and this isn’t the country’s first time banning the short-form video app. Pakistan Bans TikTok for a Second Time The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) sent out a Tweet announcing a ban on TikTok, noting that the Peshawar High

A computer is only as powerful and intelligent as we build it to be. Engineers and tech enthusiasts all around the world have been trying to tackle one of the biggest challenges with AI: teaching these systems to understand the content of videos as well as humans do. Not at all a simple task, but

Instagram has introduced a much-needed Recently Deleted feature that will let you view and recover deleted posts in the app. The company says it has also added protection to help prevent hackers from compromising your account and deleting posts you’ve shared. The feature is being rolled out to both Android phones and iPhones in a

WhatsApp now lets you make or receive voice and video calls on its desktop app for Windows and Mac. The feature was earlier being rolled out for select users only, but now it is available for everyone in India. It will be useful for those who use WhatsApp desktop every day for work or personal

A Zomato executive allegedly attacked a Bengaluru woman when accosted for late food delivery on Tuesday. Hitesha Chandranee, a makeup artist and fashion influencer on the social media, posted a video on Instagram and Twitter detailing the ordeal. Chandranee said on the post that she has suffered a nasal bone fracture during the confrontation. Zomato

Russian authorities are suing five social media platforms for allegedly failing to delete posts urging children to take part in illegal protests, the Interfax news agency cited a Moscow court as saying on Tuesday. Twitter, Google, Facebook each have three cases against them, with each violation punishable by a fine of up to RUB 4

Russia accused Facebook on Monday of violating citizens’ rights by blocking some media outlets’ content in the latest standoff between a government and Big Tech. Communications watchdog Roskomnadzor at the weekend threatened Facebook with a minimum RUB 1 million (roughly Rs. 10 lakhs) fine and demanded it restore access to content posted by TASS news agency,

“just setting up my twttr” – the first ever tweet on the platform is up for sale after Twitter boss Jack Dorsey listed his famous post as a unique digital signature on a website for selling tweets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The post, sent from Dorsey’s account in March of 2006, received offers on Friday

A US agency investigating Facebook Inc for racial bias in hiring and promotions has designated the probe as “systemic,” attorneys for three job applicants and a manager who claim the company discriminated against them told Reuters on Friday. A “systemic” probe means the agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, suspects company policies may be contributing to

Twitter is reportedly working on an ‘Undo Send’ timer for tweets. This feature was spotted by Jane Manchun Wong, who has found many features in Twitter and other platforms through reverse engineering. The feature will give users a chance to cancel a tweet even after hitting the send button, in case you’ve spotted a typo

WhatsApp voice calling has been added as a new feature on its desktop app. In December last year, the social messaging platform started rolling out voice and video calls from the desktop app for select users only. Now, the company confirmed via a press release that the voice calling feature has been added to the