Social
Social networking shapes society and our news coverage reflects and directs that. We keep tabs on all the biggest social companies, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Reddit, as well as funding and acquisitions of new social startups.
This week saw one of the most widespread IT disruptions in recent years linked to a faulty software update from popular cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Businesses across the world reported IT…
From the Sphere to false cyberattack claims, misinformation runs rampant amid CrowdStrike outage
This serves as an example for how easy it is to spread inaccurate information online during a time of immense global confusion and panic.
Olivia DeRamus is flipping the script: What if scrolling through social media didn’t make us miserable? What if, especially for women, social media could actually make us feel more supported?…
TikTok is partnering with the music distribution service DistroKid to fast-track the creation of artist accounts for members. The ByteDance-owned short video platform introduced an Artist Account feature last year…
WhatsApp is rolling out a “Favorites” filter to let you quickly access chats and groups for sending them new messages or making calls.
The tests indicate there are loopholes in TikTok’s ability to apply its parental controls and policies effectively in a situation where the teen user originally lied about their age, as…
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Hank Green reckons with the power — and the powerlessness — of the creator
Hank Green has had a while to think about how social media has changed us. He started making YouTube videos in 2007 with his brother, novelist John Green, at a time when the first iPhone was in development, Myspace was still relevant and Instagram didn’t exist. Seventeen years later, posting…
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If you’re an AT&T customer, your data has likely been stolen
This week, AT&T confirmed it will begin notifying around 110 million AT&T customers about a data breach that allowed cybercriminals to steal the phone records of “nearly all” of its customers. The stolen data contains phone numbers and AT&T records of calls and text messages during a six-month period in…
If X continues to violate Europe’s data protection rules, the company is on the hook for fines of up to €4,000 per day.
The platform formerly known as Twitter has earned the dubious honor of being the first very large online platform (VLOP) to face a preliminary finding of breaching the European Union’s…
Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, is continuing to develop a downvoting feature that will be used to improve how replies are ranked. Although the company has not yet officially announced…
Retro CEO Nathan Sharp isn’t worrying just yet about Google’s plan to copy his app’s experience, despite the numerous similarities.
The new YouTube features include those that will automatically transform longer videos into Shorts, among others.
Just like in your favorite anime, this is the story of a young group of twentysomethings who started with nothing, traveled the world and ended up with a global license…
Elon Musk faces several lawsuits for firing more than 6,000 Twitter employees, including then-CEO Parag Agrawal, following Musk’s 2022 takeover of the social media platform. On Tuesday, Musk defeated one…
Meta announced on Wednesday that users aged 10 to 12 will soon be able to interact with others in VR if they have their parents’ approval to do so. Up…
The question now is whether Spotify will add something similar for music artists in the future.
As TikTok continues to test the waters with longer videos, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri has said the Meta-owned social network will continue to focus on short-form content. In an Instagram…
Fast-food chain Whataburger’s app has gone viral in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, which left around 1.8 million utility customers in Houston, Texas without power. Hundreds of thousands of those…
Talky social app Airchat gets a major overhaul, making it more like an asynchronous Clubhouse
The concept of Airchat is fun, especially if you’re someone who loves to send voice memos instead of typing out long paragraphs on your phone keyboard.
Ahead of these potential competitors comes Openvibe, a simple aggregator for the open social web.
Two of my friends died within the last three years. By some coincidence, both of their birthdays fall in the beginning of July. So, twice this week, Facebook has reminded…
The feature puts Spotify in more direct competition with YouTube as a place where creators can interact with their listeners.
The essential labor of data work, like moderation and annotation, is systematically hidden from those who benefit from the fruits of that labor. A new project puts the lived experiences…
Over the past few days, Ghost says it has achieved two major milestones in its move to become a federated service.
Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. This week, Figma CEO Dylan…
We’ve created this guide to help parents navigate the controls offered by popular social media companies.
Elon Musk’s X is exploring more ways to integrate xAI’s Grok into the social networking app. According to a series of recent discoveries, X is developing new features like the…
Teddy Solomon just moved to a new house in Palo Alto, so he turned to the Stanford community on Fizz to furnish his room. “Every time I show up to…
Noplace had already gone viral ahead of its public launch because of its feature that allows users to express themselves by customizing the colors of their profile.