About 25 experts in various fields formed the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an alternative to the one Facebook has promised to launch soon. Hosted by Recode founder and The New York Times contributing opinion writer Kara Swisher, the Real Facebook Oversight Board will hold its first meeting — via Facebook Live — on October 1, to analyze the social media platform’s content moderation, policies and other issues as the 2020 presidential election looms. Meanwhile, Facebook’s board is expected to begin reviewing cases in October. Continue reading Vocal Facebook Critics Form Their Own Rival Oversight Board

Research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism reveals that younger people have changed their social media habits on consuming news. For Reuters, YouGov surveyed 74,000 people in 37 markets about their social media habits, and found that, among younger people, use of Facebook for news is down 9 percent from last year. Instead, this group is more likely to use Facebook’s WhatsApp to discuss current events in a more private forum. The survey took place before Facebook changed its News Feed filters in January. Continue reading Research Reveals Fewer People Rely on Facebook for News

Twitter’s advertising business is in a slump, and the company is focusing on new ways to sell data to make up for the shortfall. Businesses can pay for “enterprise APIs,” which gives them access to more information about tweets including a searchable archive. Last year, this segment of its revenue comprised 15 percent of the company’s total business, equal to $87 million. For that reason, Twitter unveiled a new version of its “search tweets API,” which is the dataset for those who want a searchable database of user posts. Continue reading Twitter Rolls Out New API to Increase its Revenue From Data