Cyberstalking, body shaming and being sent explicit content among issues highlighted by Plan International
Most girls and young women using social media have experienced abuse that has driven them offline and left them traumatised, according to a new global survey.
More than half of the 14,000 15- to 25-year-olds interviewed by Plan International said they had been cyberstalked, sent explicit messages and images, or abused online.
Continue reading...Users will be able to send chats, photos and videos between the two platforms for first time
Facebook Messenger and Instagram have merged, more than 18 months after the Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, announced his intention to integrate the two platforms.
Instagram’s old direct messaging service, Instagram Direct, has been replaced by Messenger, allowing users to send chats, photos and videos between the two platforms for the first time.
Continue reading...Reality TV mogul says she will also freeze Facebook as platforms allow ‘spreading of hate and misinformation’
Kim Kardashian West criticised Instagram and Facebook for allowing the “spreading of hate” and said she would freeze her social media accounts on the platforms.
Actors including Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lawrence, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Ruffalo also posted in support of the #StopHateForProfit campaign and called on Facebook to do more.
Continue reading...Guardian investigation finds the Facebook communities are gaining followers as Twitter cracks down on QAnon content
New and established QAnon groups on Facebook are growing at a rapid pace and helping to spread the baseless and dangerous conspiracy theory to new countries around the world, a Guardian investigation has found.
The Guardian has documented more than 170 QAnon groups, pages and accounts across Facebook and Instagram with more than 4.5 million aggregate followers. The Guardian has also documented dedicated communities for QAnon followers in at least 15 countries on Facebook.
Continue reading...The disparity between the fees paid to black influencers and their white counterparts has come under scrutiny after a group of campaigners spoke out
At the start of the pandemic, Vanity Fair asked whether the influencer era was over because people were tired of glossy, edited lives on social media and wanted something more “real”. Instead, it seems the world of influencers is adapting to reflect changes in the rest of the world. In recent weeks, the focus has been the shocking pay disparity between white influencers and influencers of colour.
In June, a group of influencers of colour shared an open letter on Instagram that called out Fohr, a marketing agency that work as a middleman between brands and influencers. Women including Valerie Eguavoen spoke out. “I cannot be silent when I see clear evidence of pay disparities between Black women and other creatives who work with you,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I cannot be silent when you refuse to address racism form [sic] individuals on your team adequately. Enough is enough.” (Fohr replied on Instagram, apologising for its conduct, writing: “We HAVE to do a better job listening to, promoting and working with black influencers.”)
Continue reading...Service adds to firms shunning Facebook over refusal to act against Donald Trump posts
The messaging service Viber, the fifth biggest with more than a billion users around the world, is severing all ties to Facebook as part of a growing boycott of the company by commercial partners.
The campaign, initially started in the US after Facebook’s refusal to take action against posts from Donald Trump which critics said incited violence, has now grown to become an international movement.
Continue reading...Picturesque but precarious spot on private land has been inundated with trespassers desperate to get the perfect shot
They climb over barbed wire, past “private property” signs and pose precariously on the edge of a 50-metre cliff face – all to get the perfect Instagram shot. A growing number of social media users are trespassing on private property at a beach west of Auckland to frolic in natural “infinity pools” on a cliff top – some in the nude – and driving the owners to despair.
“We’ve absolutely had enough,” said Buzz Kronfeld, part of a family who owns three plots of land at Anawhata Beach, 50km from New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland.
Continue reading...Firm that said privacy no longer a ‘social norm’ rolls out tool to delete or archive
Facebook users no longer need to worry about their teenage posts coming back to haunt them in later life, thanks to a new tool for deleting hundreds or thousands of posts at once.
The “manage activity” feature, available now on Facebook’s mobile apps, lets users search for and remove posts from a particular time, mentioning a particular person, or within a range of dates.
Continue reading...Data shows 55% of offences where the means of communication was given involved firm’s apps
More than half of online grooming offences recorded under a law that made it illegal to send sexual messages to children were committed on Facebook-owned apps, figures reveal.
The data, obtained by the NSPCC under freedom of information laws, show 10,019 offences of sexual communication with a child were recorded since the legislation was introduced in April 2017.
Continue reading...The Star Wars actor expanded on his defiance of racist social media users in an Instagram Live video
John Boyega has been praised for a series of uncompromising social media posts speaking out about racism in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.
Boyega’s initial Tweet, “I really fucking hate racists”, currently has 1.3m likes, but came in for criticism for his hard-hitting tone and use of an expletive.
Continue reading...BAT seems to be running accounts to promote e-cigarettes after crackdown on hiring influencers
British American Tobacco (BAT) is marketing e-cigarettes and heated cigarettes with pictures of attractive models and using hashtags such as “I dare you to try it”, despite a crackdown last year after it paid social media influencers to promote its products.
BAT had come under fire after hiring young models to sell its products despite having an explicit policy banning under-25s from appearing in adverts.
Continue reading...Fake Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts seemed to aim to inflame divides in US
A newly discovered Russian-led network of professional trolls was being outsourced to Ghanaian and Nigerian operatives, according to Facebook and Twitter, who removed the network’s accounts on Thursday.
The network was small: just 49 Facebook accounts, 85 Instagram accounts and 71 Twitter accounts in question. But it marks the first time that a Russian information operation targeting the US has been found to be run from Africa.
Continue reading...Callum Manning, 13, whose reviews were mocked by pupils, backed by Matt Haig and others
A 13-year-old boy who was taunted for his online book reviews has received messages of support from bestselling authors.
Callum Manning, from South Shields, Tyne and Wear, created an Instagram account last week to write posts about some of the books he had read. But he was left “devastated” after other pupils at his new school began to mock the reviews in a group chat he had joined.
Continue reading...Policy change involves what Facebook calls ‘branded content’, sponsored items posted by ordinary users who are typically paid by companies
Facebook decided on Friday to allow a type of paid political message that had sidestepped many of the social network’s rules governing political ads, in a reversal that highlights difficulties tech companies and regulators have in keeping up with the changing nature of paid political messages.
Facebook’s policy change comes days after the Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg exploited a loophole to run humorous messages promoting his campaign on the accounts of popular Instagram personalities followed by millions of younger people.
Continue reading...Instagram post about being robbed in the city is accidentally shared by tourist agency
When marketing Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s national tourism agency typically focuses on the city’s world-class beaches, samba-filled music scene and caipirinha-fueled parties.
Violent crime is rarely listed among the attractions.
Continue reading...Thousands of users complained about issues, citing problems with sharing posts and sending messages
For many attempting to share Thanksgiving posts on Facebook on Thursday morning, it seemed the social network was not in the holiday mood.
Thousands of users complained about issues with Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram, citing problems with sharing posts and sending messages, according to Down Detector, a website that tracks such outages.
Continue reading...From its birth in 2010, the app has grown to reach one billion users. These were its winning images
From Gyneth Paltrow to Trump, today’s stars speak directly to their fans. But are they really controlling their message?
I have a friend, Adam, who is an autograph seller – a niche profession, and one that is getting more niche by the day. When we met for breakfast last month he was looking despondent.
“Everyone takes selfies these days,” he said sadly, picking at his scrambled eggs. “It’s never autographs any more. They just want photos of themselves with celebrities.”
Continue reading...While his captions weren’t up to much, the prince’s takeover of the National Geographic’s Instagram on his tour in Africa had a larger purpose
When celebrities become guest editors of corporate social media accounts, it usually results in dozens of pouting selfies. For this reason, Prince Harry’s takeover of the National Geographic Instagram account to encourage people to “look up” and get lost in the beauty of trees is a weirdly enticing concept.
On Monday, the Duke of Sussex curated a set of images of forest canopies each taken by National Geographic photographers, which went out to the publication’s 123 million followers. The idea was to highlight the importance of conservation while spotlighting the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy campaign, which will result in two national parks being created in South Africa, where Harry is touring. As part of the campaign, 50 countries have either dedicated indigenous forest for conservation or committed to planting millions of new trees to combat climate change.
Continue reading...Social media giant said the move was backed by anti-bullying and mental health groups
Some Facebook users will soon no longer see the number of likes, reactions and video views on other’s posts in a world-first trial aimed at boosting users’ wellbeing.
Instead, likes will be private and only visible to the post’s author in a change that follows a similar test on Instagram which started in July in Australia. The new Facebook trial, which begins on Friday, will also kick off in Australia.
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