Page 21 - Social Media Apps

Meta's profits, revenue surge in Q4 thanks to cost cuts, ad rebound

Meta Platforms Inc. tripled its profit and posted sharply higher revenue in the final quarter of 2023, boosted by a rebound in digital advertising as well cost cutting and layoffs in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the year of efficiency. "The company can talk all it wants to about AI and the metaverse, but it's still a social media company that gets nearly all its revenue from advertising, and advertisers still clearly love Meta, said longtime tech analyst Debra Aho Williamson. The Menlo Park, California-based parent company of Facebook and Instagram said Thursday that it earned $14 billion, or $5.33 per share, in the October-December period. That's up from $4.65 billion, or $1.76 per share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 25% to $40.11 billion from $32.17 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $4.82 per share on revenue $39.1 billion, according to FactSet Research. This was a pivotal year for our company. We increased our operating discipline, delivered strong ..

TikTok CEO Shou Chew grilled by US lawmakers regarding China connections

The grilling was held at a dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of the CEOs of major tech companies, who faced intense scrutiny over the potential harms of their platforms on teens

Instagram tests Flipside: Everything about custom profile feature in works

Flipside will let users create custom profiles with a new name, bio and profile picture to share exclusive content

Meta, TikTok & other social media CEOs to testify on child exploitation

Sexual predators. Addictive features. Self-harm and eating disorders. Unrealistic beauty standards. Bullying. These are just some of the issues young people are dealing with on social media - and children's advocates and lawmakers say companies are not doing enough to protect them. On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies are testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about child exploitation on their platforms, as lawmakers, families and advocates are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media on young people's lives. While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a veteran of congressional hearings since his first one over the Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle in 2018, it will only be the second time for TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and the first for Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron are also scheduled to testify. We understand that they are companies and they have to make profit. But whe

Reddit may launch IPO in March, nearly 3 years since its initial filing

Delays in IPO launch may be due to unstable market conditions and Reddit's goal to 'come closer to profitability'

Meta's Director, former COO Sheryl Sandberg to leave board after 12 years

During her time at the tech giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, Sandberg was key to turning the social network into a money-making machine

WhatsApp launches voice notes, multiple admins, other features for Channels

These features include voice updates, users can now listen to voice updates. WhatsApp which has a user base of over 2 billion send seven billion voice messages daily

Meta to restrict more content targeting teens on Instagram, Facebook

The move will make it more difficult for teens to come across potentially sensitive content or accounts when they use features such as Search and Explore on Instagram

Group representing Meta, X sues Ohio over law that curbs social media usage

A trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies sued Ohio on Friday over a pending law that requires children to get parental consent to use social media apps. The law was part of an USD 86.1 billion state budget bill that Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in July. It's set to take effect January 15. The administration pushed the measure as a way to protect children's mental health, with Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted saying at the time that social media was intentionally addictive and harmful to kids. The NetChoice trade group filed its lawsuit against GOP Attorney General Dave Yost in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. It seeks to block the law from taking effect. The litigation argues that Ohio's law which requires social media companies to obtain a parent's permission for children under 16 to sign up for social media and gaming apps unconstitutionally impedes free speech and is overbroad and vague. The law also ..

WhatsApp banned over 7 million accounts in November over policy violation

WhatsApp in a statement said it had received eight orders from India's GAC and all orders were complied with. GAC was formed in February last year to address concerns related to social media platforms

Online platforms may need to delete data of users inactive for 3yrs

New Digital Personal Data Protection Rules proposed by the government may require online platforms, including e-commerce, gaming, and social media, to permanently delete data of inactive users

Govt's advisory to social media portals on IT rules over deepfake concerns

The government has issued an advisory to all platforms to comply with IT rules amid growing concerns around deepfakes and misinformation powered by AI, according to an official release. The advisory mandates that intermediaries (digital and social media platforms) communicate prohibited content specified under IT Rules clearly and precisely to users. "The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has issued an advisory to all intermediaries, ensuring compliance with the existing IT rules," it said. The directive specifically targets growing concerns around misinformation powered by AI-Deepfakes. This advisory is the culmination of discussions held by Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar with intermediaries. "The content not permitted under the IT Rules, in particular those listed under Rule 3(1)(b) must be clearly communicated to the users in clear and precise language including through its terms of service and user agreements and the same must be express

Dealing with deepfakes requires vigilance, investment: Yatharth Saraf

The director of machine learning at social media platforms ShareChat and Moj says consumers and companies will adapt to such misinformation

X back to normal after facing snag for over an hour on December 21

According to Downdetector, reports of outages on X rose from 5 at 10:46 am on Thursday to 4,773 at 11:14 am

Social media unicorn ShareChat lays off 200 employees to reduce costs

This is the second such move this year for the Indian regional social network

Now you can post videos with text captions on Instagram Notes: How it works

Meta has also introduced additional ways to reply to Instagram Notes. Reply to a note can now include photos, videos, audio messages, stickers and GIFs

Snapchat gets new AI features, including AI generated Snaps and extend tool

Snapchat has announced that it will allow Plus subscribers to edit and share AI generated images as regular Snaps

Elon Musk's X 2023 advertising revenue projected to slump to about $2.5 bn

X executives had originally targeted $3 billion in revenue from advertising and subscriptions in 2023, but will fall far short of that number, one of the people said

Notice issued to social media firms to remove child sex abuse material: MoS

The government has issued notice to social media platforms including Telegram, YouTube and X to remove all child sex abuse material and groups circulating such content, Parliament was informed on Friday. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply to Rajya Sabha said that the social media platforms have been informed that existing rules cast obligations on the intermediaries, including social media firms, to observe due diligence and if they fail to observe such due diligence, they shall no longer be exempt from their liability under law for third-party information hosted by them. "The Government has issued notice to various social media intermediaries including Telegram, YouTube and X, to remove or disable access to all such CSAM and groups circulating such material which is violative of rule 3(1)(d) and rule 4(4) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021)," Chandrasekhar ...

Meta's Threads brings 'Tags' for organising posts by topics: Know details

Topics do not appear with a hashtag on a published post, instead, they appear in blue text, resembling a hyperlink