Secrets, Silence and Streaming: Your Favorite Social Media is Changing

11
Jul 2016

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Secrets, silence, and streaming are this week’s hot topics you may have missed as Facebook moves towards an encrypted Messenger, Instagram pushes the mute button on trolls, and YouTube looks to cater to cord-cutters. These are the social media stories in the news.

Facebook is Getting Secretive

When it comes to privacy, Facebook is taking your Messenger experience to a whole new level. But will its new “Secret Conversations,” featuring end-to-end encryption, provide a virtual haven to nefarious or even terrorist organizations?

The platform is rolling out an option for users to encrypt their messages. Facebook says the new higher-level security is to keep messages between the people or groups for which they were intended. On its blog, Facebook said, “That means the messages are intended just for you and the other person — not anyone else, including us.” This move may satisfy people who have suspected Facebook of monitoring messages.

But some like media outlets like the Washington Times theorized that this type of privacy could provide a private online forum for terrorist organizations to use to exchange messages.

After opting into the service, users will be able to set a time frame for how long messages stay active in the messenger stream. GIFs and videos will not be supported on this platform.

Instagram Silences Trolls

If you’re active on social media, whether for personal or professional reasons, you’ve likely come across vicious comments. While those comments may not have been targeted at you, they can be uncomfortable to see on posts.

Now Facebook-owned Instagram is taking aim at the so-called trolls who launch the nasty attacks. According to Tech Crunch, the platform launched a new option called “Comment Moderation.”   The option, which currently is only open to newer business pages, allows users to block comments with words or phrases often reported as offensive from appearing in posts.

instagram-moderation
Source: TechTimes Screenshot

Users can now ban profanity, discriminatory slurs, and even words used by spammers. This allows businesses to run a cleaner social media experience for its fans, knowing that certain words and phrases will automatically be banned from appearing in the comments stream.

YouTube Considering TV Network Streaming Service

YouTube may soon pull out the big scissors to help TV viewers fully disconnect from their set-top boxes with “Unplugged,” a developing new service that could offer traditional television networks on the Google-owned video platform.

According to the Tech Times, citing a report from TheInformation.com, YouTube is putting together a plan for cord-cutters with pricing somewhere about $35 a month.   Tech Times cites ESPN, ABC and CBS among the players that could be involved, but nothing has been finalized.

The live streaming space is crowded, with many individual networks offering live streaming on their apps to users with a current cable or satellite subscription. Advertisers will certainly keep an eye on this.

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