Social Media

In the world of tech, apps spring up, hit the headlines, and fade into the background almost as fast as they appeared. From Peach to Vero and FaceApp, it happens all the time.   Kik appeared to be one of these apps, particularly in the UK. After launching in 2009, it quickly rose to the tops of the App Stores and then slowly veered off but it’s remained popular in the US, with around 300 million users, most of which are teenagers. Kik’s life as a messaging app is now over as the company appears to be moving more into the cryptocurrency space. About two years ago, it launched a cryptocurrency named Kin and raised nearly $100 million in an ICO (sort of like crowdfunding but for crypto). Thanks to this, the coin is one of the most used cryptocurrencies in the world with 600,000 monthly active spenders of the coin. Speaking about the Kin project, Kik’s CEO Ted Livingston took to Medium to say: “Two years ago we set out to build a new economy that offered … [Read more...] about Kik is shutting down in favour of cryptocurrency bet

YouTube said Thursday it had found and disabled 210 channels that were spreading disinformation about the anti-government protests in Hong Kong, at least the third such action by an American social media company since the street marches began months ago. YouTube said in a blog post that it took down the channels this week as part of its effort “to combat coordinated influence operations,” a higher priority for social media networks since they found that Russians ran “influence operations” campaigns ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election by posting divisive material under pseudonyms. Twitter and Facebook said Monday they had removed a sweeping network of hundreds of troll accounts linked to China that aimed to fuel political discord in Hong Kong. YouTube said its takedown was “consistent” with the actions by Twitter and Facebook, though YouTube, which is owned by Google, did not mention the Chinese government in its blog post. The company … [Read more...] about YouTube removes 210 channels spreading Hong Kong disinformation

Reddit today revealed it’s testing its own livestreaming service, called RPAN or Reddit Public Access Network. It’ll be running all week, presumably to see what kind of shows redditors put on before the site rolls it out to everyone. The R/PAN subreddit includes a series of short videos comparing the service to public access TV. The videos, which appeared over the weekend before the official announcement, appeared intentionally vague to tease the coming announcement. It seemed to work, because there’s nothing Reddit likes more than a good mystery to solve. How will blockchain impact finance and business? Find out at TNW’s Hard Fork Summit Take me there According to the RPAN sub, the feature will be available from 9am to 5pm PT every day this week. According to Alex Le, Reddit’s VP of Product speaking to Wired, no more than 100 streams will be allowed concurrently and they have a cap of 30 mins. Redditors can upvote or downvote broadcasts they like, and … [Read more...] about Reddit tests live broadcasting with a Public Access Network

The world of social media — already awash in conspiracy thinking in the Trump era — erupted with new theories Saturday after the news broke that Jeffrey Epstein had died by suicide under mysterious circumstances in his jail cell. Many of the theories ventured into the realm of outlandish conjecture, amplified by conservative commentators and at least two Republican officials. Many people who have spent the last few years blaming the nation’s problems on either the Clinton or the Trump administrations found new reasons to pin Epstein’s death to their favorite targets — despite a complete lack of evidence at this point explaining how Epstein was able to kill himself. The conspiracies spanned a wide range of topics from Epstein’s connections to the Clinton family and President Donald Trump to fringe theories including QAnon. Others simply questioned the circumstances around Epstein’s death. Travis View, an independent conspiracy theory researcher, … [Read more...] about After Epstein’s suicide, conspiracy theories flourish online

Discord today announced it’s premiering its own internal livestreaming feature, appropriately titled Go Live. It’s essentially a very small video stream where a few friends can comment on your gameplay — but it sounds like a fun alternative to other livestreaming services. Go Live lets Discord users broadcast their gameplay over a voice chat channel in a server. That means, given the limitations of voice chat rooms, that up to ten people can watch you play. Hard Fork! Hard Fork? Hard Fork This update adds a game bar to the bottom of your server’s room list. It shows what game you’re currently playing and the Go Live button. Once you go live, your gameplay is broadcast to everyone who’s in the same voice chat channel as you are. It’s nothing fancy — just gameplay, with no extra adornments, and viewers can stop watching the stream any time they want (presumably without exiting the voice chat itself). It looks like it’s somewhat … [Read more...] about Discord launches its own mini-livestreaming service