Snapchat Competes with TikTok and Instagram

  • Snap is bringing music to Snapchat and setting itself up to compete even more with TikTok and Instagram
  • The company announced today that iOS users around the world will be able to include popular music in their snaps
  • It already brought the feature to users in New Zealand and Australia and in August said it would bring music to more regions this autumn
  • Snap has not indicated when sounds might be available on Android devices
  • The company also said today that it will begin testing to allowing people to make their own sounds, and that function will roll out globally in the coming months
  • If a person receives a snap with sounds, they can swipe up to view the album artwork, song title, and name of the artist. They can also tap the “Play This Song” link to listen to the full song on other streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud

Facebook to Ban Advertising that Discourages Vaccines

  • Facebookwill ban ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, the social media company announced , as it launches a new public health campaign aimed at spreading flu vaccine information
  • The changes are a departure from Facebook’s previous policy, which prohibited ads with vaccine misinformation but allowed ads expressing opposition to vaccines if they did not contain false claims
  • The company said in a blogpost, however, that it would still allow ads advocating for or against legislation or government policies on vaccines, including a Covid-19 . Several ads discouraging vaccine mandates remained on the platform as of Tuesday
  • Anti-vaccine content and discussion will still be allowed to appear organically on the platform, including in Facebook groups
  • A spokesman said, “By leaving this content up we can provide people with important information and context instead of creating an information vacuum.”
  • Facebook said it would begin to enforce the new regulations in the next few days

Facebook Messenger gets Redesign

  • Facebook has announced an update to its Messenger app, giving it a new logo, more chat themes, and custom reactions
  • The Messenger app now has a purple-red gradient logo rather than the previous blue and white one and new emojis are being rolled out
  • The social media giant’s latest look “reflects a shift to the future of messaging, a more dynamic, fun, and integrated way to stay connected to the people you’re close to”, the company wrote in a blog post
  • It also comes as Facebook is integrating its Messenger and Instagram services which will be rolled out to “most users in North America soon”, the company says
  • Part of this new update offers more privacy in the form of being able to control who can reach your chat list on messenger which we have explained on the safety centre here

YouTube Bans Misleading Videos

  • YouTube has pledged to delete misleading claims about coronavirus vaccines as part of a fresh effort to tackle Covid-19 misinformation
  • It said any videos that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities, such as the NHS or World Health Organization, will be removed
  • It follows an announcement by Facebook that it would ban ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated
  • However, that restriction will not apply to unpaid posts or comments
  • YouTube had already banned “medically unsubstantiated” claims relating to coronavirus on its platform
  • But it is now explicitly expanding the policy to include content relating to vaccines

Police Service of Northern Ireland Must Focus on Child Victims of Human Trafficking

  • The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) should review the problem of human trafficking and focus more on cases involving children
  • Those are the recommendations in a Criminal Justice Inspection report, which also calls for improved laws
  • Ninety-one victims were discovered in Northern Ireland in 2019
  • 23 of the victims them were being sexually exploited and 16 were children. The report calls for a “strategic focus” on pursuing the perpetrators
  • Jacqui Durkan, chief inspector of Criminal Justice in NI, said: “These offences are often described as being hidden in plain sight”.
  • “They can involve people working on farms, in food production, at car washes, in nail bars, in domestic settings cleaning homes and providing childcare, as well as children who are trafficked across Northern Ireland for sexual exploitation.”

Zoom Launches Paid for Live Events