After a year of experimentation, Facebook appears to be cooling on podcasting. Last April, the company launched podcasts for U.S. users in addition to Live Audio Rooms and the Soundbites short story feature. Now, Facebook seems to have shifted its priorities to online shopping and the metaverse, according to reports. The news has come as a disappointment to some in the podcasting industry, who valued the exposure and potential advertising revenue that came along with Facebook integration. During its brief focus, Facebook’s podcasting efforts were lauded by some content providers. Continue reading Some Disappointed by Facebook’s Waning Podcast Interest

TikTok has officially gone live with Effect House, the augmented reality tool that allows users to create AR filters and share them with the community. The ByteDance company has been testing the feature since last summer. Since then, at least 450 creators have used Effect House to create more than 1.5 billion videos that generated over 600 billion global views, according to TikTok. “Whether you’re teleporting into new worlds with Green Screen or freeze-framing with Time Warp Scan,” Effect House empowers expression “through a wide array of engaging and immersive formats.” Continue reading TikTok Launches Effect House for User-Generated AR Filters

Less than two weeks after announcing he had built up a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter (and more recently turning down an offer to join its board of directors), billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors Elon Musk has made a cash offer of $54.20 a share to purchase the popular social networking service, valuing the company at about $43 billion. “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” Musk wrote in a letter to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor disclosed in an SEC filing. “My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.” Continue reading Elon Musk Makes ‘Best and Final’ $43B Offer to Buy Twitter

In April, Apple gave consumers the option to turn off ad tracking on iPhones, and this month Google began revealing plans to replace traditional cookie tracking with what it says will be a less intrusive measure. Experts say, however, these changes don’t actually safeguard data privacy. Rather, companies are taking a new approach that consolidates data power among fewer gatekeepers, a change some say may be for the worse. The new method, known as “first-party” tracking, prevents accruing a tracking history from app to app, but lets specific sites gather info with consumer permission. Continue reading Latest Privacy Moves Do Not Prevent Consumer Ad Tracking

Subscribers to the premium Twitter Blue will soon be able to test an edit feature, according to Twitter, which says a tweet edit button has for years been its most-requested UI update. Speculation that the feature would be added has run rampant since Elon Musk, a vocal proponent, announced his significant investment in the company. Following news that Musk will join its board, Twitter revealed that it has been working on such a feature since last year and testing will begin in the coming months. However, the feature is somewhat controversial. Continue reading Twitter Will Begin Testing a Controversial Edit Button Feature

Twitter enthusiast Elon Musk revealed he is also a Twitter investor, surprising Wall Street as well as the communications industry with news that he now owns 9 percent of the company’s stock, making him its largest shareholder. As of March 14, his stake stood at 73.5 million shares, valued at $2.9 billion. The revelation sent Twitter stock up 27 percent on Monday, the company’s largest one-day gain on record. The Tesla chief has more than 80 million Twitter followers. The disclosure indicates Musk owns more Twitter shares than the Vanguard Group and company co-founder Jack Dorsey. Continue reading Tesla CEO Elon Musk Becomes Biggest Twitter Shareholder

A Pew Research study finds the public has a cautionary attitude toward artificial intelligence and human enhancements, with concerns about potentially unintended consequences of autonomous machines, and fear of what accelerated change in these areas might mean for society. The survey of more than 10,250 U.S. adults in November 2021 examined opinions of six technologies broken down into two categories: AI and bioengineering, with crossover in the area of AI-enhanced exoskeletons. Across all categories, a majority believe that federal government and “end users” should be involved — along with the creators or inventors — in setting standards. Continue reading Pew Research Finds Americans Suspicious of AI and Biotech

Community forum aggregator Reddit is looking into expanding user-generated video content. Although it hasn’t yet reached the testing phase, reports say the platform is exploring a TikTok-like suite of editing tools, including a reaction feature comparable to Stitches and Duets (which have inspired similar functionality on Instagram’s Reels and Snapchat’s Spotlight). Reddit already supports video, but not reactions. Reportedly, its interest at this early stage is in reactions as an engagement tool for discussions, not in fostering a full-blown creator economy like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Continue reading Reddit Is Evaluating Video Reactions to Enhance Discussions

TikTok is introducing a new feature, the TikTok Library, aimed at making it easier for creators to augment entertainment content and jump on trends. The TikTok Library will initially be populated with content from Giphy, including the audio-enhanced GIFs known as Giphy Clips. Companies ranging from TV and movie studios to game makers, record labels, sports leagues and media outlets have been sharing licensed content using Giphy Clips. Giphy was founded in 2013, and was in 2020 purchased for $400 million by Facebook, now Meta Platforms.  Continue reading TikTok Library Taps Giphy to Add New Video Creation Tools

Spotify is testing a feature that lets podcast discovery platform Podz help people find new podcasts they may like. Now, Spotify is taking the algo-driven audio newsfeed for which Podz became known and turning it into a more personalized discovery experience. The big idea here is to extrapolate. Podz provided machine-curated audio samples. As part of its Spotify integration it is targeting the next level: letting users tap to read an audio transcript, review show graphics or hear more of the podcast. Spotify acquired Podz last summer for approximately $49.4 million. Continue reading Spotify Puts Podz Acquisition to Test with Discovery Feature

The audience for streaming audio continues to grow, and advertisers are taking notice. A 2021 survey found that 68 percent of U.S. listeners listened to digital audio in the previous month, compared to 47 percent in 2014. While streaming audio advertising still lags behind traditional radio, changes in consumer privacy policies at Apple and the effect that’s had on social media platforms has prompted brands and small businesses to explore their options. Roughly $5.7 billion will be spent on U.S. digital audio ads in 2022, up 14 percent over 2021, according to Interpublic Group’s Magna media unit. Continue reading National Advertisers Embrace Streaming Audio and Podcasts

The European Parliament and EU member states reached agreement Thursday on key points of the Digital Markets Act, a sweeping measure poised to reshape the technology landscape in Europe and potentially around the world. The DMA objectives are two-fold: reining in anticompetitive measures that advantage Big Tech over competitors and consumers, and putting teeth to the new rules. Considered the biggest digital regulatory expansion anywhere in decades, the proposal has been criticized for singling out U.S. firms like Amazon, Apple, Meta and Alphabet, all of which fall into the gatekeeper category targeted by the act. Continue reading Europe’s Digital Markets Act Designed to Regulate Big Tech

Twitter has used its Spaces platform to opine on rapidly developing EU digital regulations, an effort that after two years has become formalized as a policy advocacy group known as the Open Internet Alliance. Vimeo, Automattic, Czech search engine firm Seznam and German social network Jodel have joined Twitter as founding members. The company’s mission statement is twofold: protecting competition to “avoid entrenching the dominance of the biggest players,” and focusing more on “how content is discovered and amplified.” The group aims “to strengthen the advocacy voice of medium-sized companies that promote the Open Internet.” Continue reading Twitter Rallies Midsize Tech Around the Open Internet Alliance

Meta Platforms is beginning to implement parental controls on Instagram and Quest. Last week, Instagram added a Family Center that will eventually expand to allow parents and guardians to “help teens manage experiences across Meta technologies from one central place.” Meta says parental controls will be added to Quest VR in May, and hinted others, like Facebook, are queued-up to join. The Family Center will allow parents to monitor how much time their teens spend on Instagram, setting limits if they choose. Additionally, accounts teens follow and accounts following them will be trackable. Continue reading Meta Adding Parent Controls for Instagram and Virtual Reality

Big Tech executives may find themselves facing UK prosecution or jail time sooner than expected as the target date for Online Safety Bill (OSB) enforcement collapses to within two months of becoming law, rather than the two years originally proposed. Several new offenses have been added to the bill, including criminal liability for those who destroy evidence, fail to cooperate with Ofcom investigations or impede regulatory inspections. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube can all expect audits for the sort of harmful content the OSB seeks to address. Continue reading Criminal Liability Will Be Added to the UK’s Online Safety Bill