This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.
Twitter Adopts Proactive Approach to Abusive Content
Twitter’s getting more proactive in curbing the number of abusive tweets on its platform.
One new test that’s underway is a mute button. Users can enable the feature to hide offensive replies to their original tweets. It also announced that it is now removing abusive tweets proactively. Up until last year, only tweets that were reported were evaluated and removed, but now Twitter identifies 38% of abusive tweets. Twitter also noted that the number of accounts it’s suspended that were created by users who were previously suspended is up 45% over the prior year.
Twitter’s bullying and harassment problem has been well known and documented for quite some time, so all of these efforts are a long time coming. But now for reasons ranging from a moral necessity to advertisers growing wary of placing their messages in the same environment as offensive content, Twitter appears to be taking offensive content on its platform with a higher degree of seriousness and proactivity than it has been.
Facebook Working on Voice Assistant Technology
Facebook has an in-home smart speaker, Portal, but Portal doesn’t come with digital assistant technology like Alexa, Google Assistant or even Siri. Instead, it relies on Alexa technology to function, but that may not be true for long.
According to CNBC, Facebook is working on voice assistant technology of its own, and this isn’t the first time Facebook’s tried its hand in this arena. It launched M, a messaging assistant within Messenger some time ago, but it has since been shut down. That being said, it’s likely Facebook learned a lot from that effort that could be infused into voice assistant technology.
It’s easy to see why Facebook would want to have voice tech of its own. After all, it’s a data company, and trends in consumer behavior and consumer electronics point to voice playing a big role in the future. What’s not easy to see is why consumers would embrace such tech.
There’s already growing skepticism of Amazon and Google voice tech in homes, and Facebook has done little in the past year and a half to suggest they should vest their trust with it. Still, Facebook isn’t one to shy away from less-than-ideal consumer sentiment in its product launches, so this will be one to watch.
Amazon Launches Free Ad-Supported Streaming Music Service
Amazon just launched a free, ad-supported streaming music service for Alexa device owners. The service will work on any voice service with Alexa built in.
Up until this point, Amazon’s music streaming service was limited to Prime subscribers who had the option to upgrade for an additional fee. So this is the first service from Amazon that requires no Prime subscription. The service features general-interest playlists similar to Pandora and Spotify’s free tier.
This is a pretty big deal as the streaming wars heat up in the music arena. Apple Music just surpassed Spotify in paid U.S. subscribers, and right now Spotify and Pandora are the only free, ad-supported streaming options available. Amazon entering the market with a service of its own could be a big deal given how many people own Alexa-powered devices. That opens up opportunities for advertisers to better reach users on their Alexa-powered devices, which may be one answer to the larger question around how Amazon plans to monetize its deep base of device owners.
News Quick Hits
Hulu has bought out AT&T’s 9.5% stake in the company for $1.43 billion. The move follows Disney’s acquisition of Fox, which gave it majority control over Hulu. The buyout of AT&T’s stake brings the total number of Hulu owners down to two: Disney and Comcast, and it remains to be seen how they will apportion AT&T’s former stake. Disney has stated big plans for Hulu, including an international rollout and plans to acquire the rest of the company from Comcast.
Facebook Watch is completing its transition from being a place for exclusive, high-quality content to a hub for all types of video content. Soon, Facebook Watch’s show pages will transition over to the broader video pages format. The move is part of a broader effort by Facebook to be less about high-quality, professional content to being a hub for all types of video formats. So, it’s shifting away from a Netflix approach and moving more toward a YouTube one. That being said, Facebook still plans to pay publishers to create content exclusively for the Watch platform.
Facebook Messenger got a dark mode toggle this week. Up until this point, dark mode was available but had to be activated by sending a crescent moon emoji in a conversation. Now, users have a much handier toggle that they can use to lower brightness while maintaining contrast, which is helpful in low-light situations.
Facebook is reversing an error uncovered this week. The error uploaded the email contacts of 1.5 million users without their permission as part of an email verification process. Facebook says the contacts were not shared with anyone and it is deleting them. Add this one the growing list of privacy issues Facebook’s faced in the last two years.
Instagram ran a test that removes like counts from user posts. The goal of the test is for users to focus on the content, not the likes. Users who share the content are the only ones able to see total likes. This is among other tests Instagram is running to “reduce pressure on Instagram” and it’d be inline with parent-company Facebook’s stated commitment to make social networking healthier.
Amazon and Google reached a consensus to allow each of their respective video services to appear on the other’s devices. Amazon Prime Video will now be available on Chromecast and Android TVs, while YouTube will be available on Amazon's Fire TV. This is a thawing of a feud that began back in 2015 when Amazon wouldn’t sell Google’s home assistants and then YouTube stopped being available on Amazon devices in 2017. Disney+ may be a big factor in this mea culpa. The two video services are likely looking to grow their user bases as new streaming services get established.
Pinterest went public this week with its price rising 28% in its first day of trading to hit $24.40 per share. That makes it more valuable than retail chains Macy’s and Nordstrom. The price placed Pinterest’s value above its valuation of $12 billion. Pinterest went public the same day as Zoom, which also had a good day. The opening days of both companies show investors still have a healthy appetite for tech companies, even after Lyft’s recent disappointing stock market debut.
In the process of investigating how the passwords of hundreds of millions of Facebook users were stored on internal services of plain text, Facebook uncovered the fact that millions of Instagram passwords had been as well. Facebook said it would be notifying users who were impacted. It’s easy to pile onto Facebook for this oversight, but this is how the investigation process should work. Facebook investigated an error, uncovered another and disclosed it.