Facebook ranks last in digital trust among consumers
2020 US Digital Trust Survey ranked nine platforms — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube — according to how respondents perceived them along five pillars of digital trust: security, legitimacy, community, ad experience, and ad relevance.
Nearly one-third of US Facebook users at least somewhat disagreed that they had confidence in the platform to protect their data and privacy. Just 10% of LinkedIn's users said the same of the professional network which is why it was found the most trusted among consumers.
Instagram is building a messaging API to help brands manage their DMs with users
Instagram is building an API for its messaging service, Business Insider has learned. The software tool will help brands and organisations manage their conversations with users.
It's a frequently demanded feature by marketers, and will help brands use the social network more effectively. The exact timeframe for launch isn't clear, and an Instagram spokesperson said to "stay tuned for more details."
Amazon Prime Day 2020 finally has a start date
Typically, Amazon Prime Day takes place in July, but this year, due to obvious reasons, the sale was reportedly delayed for October.
This year’s Amazon’s Prime Day will start on October 13, at least according to four people familiar with Amazon’s plans. Although Amazon declined to comment on the date, it looks like the company has already “blacked out vacation for its full-time warehouse workers from October 13-20.”
TikTok is toughens up ad policies on weight loss and dieting products
TikTok is introducing new ad policies that ban ads for fasting apps and weight loss supplements, and increase restrictions on ads that promote a harmful or negative body image. These types of ads do not support the positive, inclusive, and safe experience we strive for on TikTok.
Spotify, Epic, Tile, Match, and other developers are rallying against Apple’s App Store policies
Several of Apple’s biggest critics — including Epic Games, Spotify, Basecamp, Match Group, Tile, Blix, and Deezer — have banded together to create the Coalition for App Fairness. The coalition’s goal is to “create a level playing field for app businesses and give people freedom of choice on their devices.”
Most of the founding members have individually fought or are fighting with Apple over its App Store policies, so the Coalition for App Fairness marks a more coordinated effort for developers to formally protest Apple’s rules. It also provides a central organization for other developers to join.
The state of shopping app marketing – 2020 edition of Appsflyer report
The State of Shopping App Marketing offers key benchmarks, insights, and trends in every market from Q4 2019 through Q2 2020, including: consumer demand, usage, and spend in shopping apps; user acquisition vs. retargeting; media cost and ad spend trends; a breakdown of General Retail, Fashion and Marketplace apps; actionable takeaways on how best to prepare for a unique Q4.
A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections and political affairs around the world, according to an explosive memo sent by a recently fired Facebook employee.
The 6,600-word memo, written by former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang, is filled with concrete examples of heads of government and political parties in Azerbaijan and Honduras using fake accounts or misrepresenting themselves to sway public opinion. In countries including India, Ukraine, Spain, Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador, she found evidence of coordinated campaigns of varying sizes to boost or hinder political candidates or outcomes, though she did not always conclude who was behind them.
YouTube reverts to human moderators in fight against misinformation
Google’s YouTube has reverted to using more human moderators to vet harmful content after the machines it relied on during lockdown proved to be overzealous censors of its video platform.
When some of YouTube’s 10,000-strong team filtering content were “put offline” by the pandemic, YouTube gave its machine systems greater autonomy to stop users seeing hate speech, violence or other forms of harmful content or misinformation. But Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, told the Financial Times that one of the results of reducing human oversight was a jump in the number of videos removed, including a significant proportion that broke no rules.