Facebook is again under fire over policies meant to curb adult content in ads. The company has recently faced scrutiny for scattershot enforcement of its own rules, seemingly penalizing women for showing skin that men get away with. Several people reported to the New York Times that they’d had pictures taken down or rejected from ad campaigns for featuring female nudity, despite the fact that much more explicit photos of men have remained up. Facebook’s policy on adult content in ads states that it prohibits: Nudity or implied nudity, even if artistic or educational in nature, except for statues Excessive visible skin or cleavage, even if not explicitly sexual in nature Images focused on individual body parts, such as abs, buttocks or chest, even if not explicitly sexual in nature Content portraying excessive nudity or alluding to sexual activity Facebook has five examples of non-compliant ads on its page. Four of those have women as the primary subjects — the fifth … [Read more...] about Facebook’s ad policies are infuriatingly sexist
Facebook’s first in-house incubator, LDN_LAB, launches in London
Facebook has officially opened its first in-house incubator, which will be held in its London headquarters. The company first announced LDN_LAB back in December when it opened its new HQ in the U.K. capital. The incubator will launch three 12-week courses throughout 2018, and seven U.K. startups will participate in the inaugural program, which kicked off on Monday. Each three-month program will focus on helping startups grow their business, with the first intake aimed specifically at those using technology to build communities. This feeds into Facebook’s broader mission to help people have more meaningful social interactions. Indeed, Facebook launched its first Communities Summit in the U.S. last year to bring group and page admins together under one roof, and it later expanded the program to Europe. A few weeks back, Facebook also pledged up to $10 million in grants for a new community leadership program. Facebook’s new HQ in London’s West End is the company’s … [Read more...] about Facebook’s first in-house incubator, LDN_LAB, launches in London
Shareaholic: Search overtook social for referral traffic in 2017 as Google passed Facebook
Google passed Facebook as the top referral traffic driver in 2017 as the search giant doubled down on mobile and the social giant cleaned up its News Feed. That move resulted in an even bigger change last year: Search overtook social in 2017, after the two first swapped spots in 2013. The chart above shows this best, detailing the quarterly share of visits for six search engines and the top 13 social networks. The findings come from social discovery and sharing platform Shareaholic, which today released a report covering referral traffic data for 2017. The platform tracks over 400 million users visiting its network of over 250,000 mobile and desktop sites. Before we dive deeper into the numbers, some quick methodology: The data reveals “share of visits,” a percentage of overall traffic — direct traffic, social referrals, organic search, paid search, etc. We source data from a network of opt-in websites that utilize our content marketing and publishing tools. These … [Read more...] about Shareaholic: Search overtook social for referral traffic in 2017 as Google passed Facebook
Facebook ends experiment that split news feed in two
Facebook’s experiment that saw its News Feed split into two hasn’t been well-received in the six countries where trials were taking place. As such, the social network is ending the tests, which have faced criticism for making the company’s fake news problem even worse. Additionally, the Explore Feed tab available to everyone is also being removed. The experiment was yet another reaction by Facebook to its insistence that users want to see more content from family and friends. It moved posts from businesses and non-governmental media organizations into a second feed, meaning the only way they could appear in the main feed was by paying to promote their content. In October, secondary news feed tests were rolled out in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cambodia, Serbia, and Slovakia. But the reaction has been far from what Facebook expected. “You gave us our answer: People don’t want two separate feeds. In surveys, people told us they were less satisfied with … [Read more...] about Facebook ends experiment that split news feed in two
Direct is Instagram’s test to duplicate the success of Facebook Messenger
The Verge It looks like Instagram is thinking strongly about doing something that its parent company, Facebook, did a few years ago. A new report reveals that Instagram is currently testing Direct, an app for direct messaging for its users, in a select few countries. Editor's Pick10 best apps like Instagram Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks on the planet. It's the de facto place for people to share pictures of almost everything. Some people really like the idea, but not the … As first reported by The Verge, Direct is currently available in Chile, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, and Uruguay. If a user in one of those countries downloads Direct, their inbox from the main app goes away and is replaced by this new standalone app for private messaging with other Instagram users. According to Hemal Shah, an Instagram product manager, the reason for this limited test launch for Direct is that the company feels that such features can only be … [Read more...] about Direct is Instagram’s test to duplicate the success of Facebook Messenger