by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : Hitting out at Facebook once again, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has suggested the social networking giant to not only copy itss features but also its data protection policies.
During a ReCode conference in California on Tuesday, the Snapchat chief said Facebook has failed to sufficiently overhaul its user privacy protections.
“We would really appreciate it if they copied our data protection practices also,” Spiegel was quoted as saying during the event.
“Fundamentally, I think the changes have to go beyond window dressing to real changes to the ways that these platforms work,” he added.
Reacting to Spiegel, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos tweeted on Wednesday, “Snapchat’s implicit promise that photos really disappear combined with poor API security has lead to serious mass leaks of revenge porn. So no, I don’t think copying Snapchat would be a smart move.”
The photo-sharing platform Snapchat today has 191 million users globally, including nearly 9 million in India.
Facebook has reportedly copied several Snapchat features, including the most notable one called “Stories”.
Snapchat on April Fools’ Day had trolled Facebook by introducing a filter that makes it appear as if a Russian bot has liked your post.
The filter targeted Facebook following reports that said more than 50,000 bots on Facebook, with links to the Russian government, were used to influence the 2016 US Presidential election.
While redesigning Snapchat in 2017, Spiegel took a dig at Facebook.
“The company is redesigning its app to separate media and social communications, making it easier to use and understand,” he said.
“We think this helps to guard against fake news and mindless scrambles for friends or unworthy distractions,” Spiegel said, taking a dig at Facebook and Twitter.
The design overhaul, however, didn’t go well with the Snapchat users and the company has reinstated most of the old design features.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : Popular image sharing and multimedia mobile app Snapchat and Instagram have temporarily removed their Giphy GIF sticker features after users saw a racist GIF as an option to add to their photographs.
“We are very sorry. This GIF should have never appeared in Snapchat. Our team has worked with Giphy to have the GIF removed and it should no longer appear,” a Snap Inc. spokesperson was quoted as saying by Inverse late on Friday.
“We are in the process of removing Giphy from our application until we can be assured that this will never happen again,” the spokesperson added.
A 21-year-old Snapchat user from England first spotted the racist animation in the library.
The GIF “appears to suggest that millions of deaths are caused by black people committing crimes with a number counter continually rising”.
A similar racist GIF was spotted in Facebook-owned Instagram indicating that Giphy is at fault, according to TechCrunch.
“This type of content has no place on Instagram. We have stopped our integration with Giphy as they investigate the issue,” an Instagram spokesperson was quoted as saying by TechCrunch.
Both Snapchat and Instagram had introduced the feature in February that allows users to include GIFs from the media repository Giphy in their snaps and “Stories”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
London : Millions of users across the world, especially in Europe and the US were left snapped when the popular photo-sharing app Snapchat crashed globally for several hours.
According to independent website Down Detector that monitors web outages, thousands of users reported problems with sending snaps, receiving snaps login issues and connection problems late on Monday, Evening Standard reported.
Snapchat acknowledged the technical glitch on its support page on Twitter early on Tuesday, saying the company is aware of the issue and looking into it.
Some users went to Twitter and shared their frustration.
“I’ve been sending people abuse on snapchat for not replying to me only to discover it’s down. Oops?” one user tweeted.
“Snapchat just went down. I can literally feel the panic of a thousand generations in my bones. #snapchat,” another user posted.
Snapchat currently has 166 million users globally.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
New York : At a time when people struggle with a seemingly diminishing attention span, Snapchat could be the best form of communication but its overuse could make you addictive, researchers say.
“For certain people, Snapchat enables them to overcome communication apprehension by using a different means of communication where they do not have a threat in their face. At the same time, there are people who are addicted to it,” said graduate student J.J. Delacruz at Texas Tech University.
For the study, researchers recruited students in the College of Media and Communication through the department’s Sona survey system, where students earn extra credit in certain classes for participating in online surveys.
They also administered the survey to those who responded to requests through TechAnnounce — the official email announcement/communication method for Texas Tech University — totalling almost 500 students altogether.
The survey asked students who use Snapchat about their reasons for using the medium, including needs and motivations.
It also asked about general social media use motivations, such as personality characteristics and what made them tend to gravitate toward Snapchat as a social medium. It also asked questions to help researchers analyse differences between males and females.
The brevity of Snapchat posts was a key factor for two big reasons.
One, people using Snapchat felt much more trustworthy with how they shared content with others. Two, because the content disappears quickly, users are able to share their lives and don’t feel the pressure to present themselves in any extraordinary form — they can just be their normal, real self, researchers said.
“They thought that was a good way to maintain ties with people they were already very close with, interpersonally,” Delacruz said.
The researchers also mentioned that Snapchat can be a useful tool to help overcome apprehension about communicating on a public forum, it can also swing the other way and become addictive.
“Knowing their motivations would definitely help people who advise those with the addiction. It can help them have a better understanding of how to be confident and effective communicators,” the graduate student added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Media, Muslim World, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
Riyadh : Social media platform Snapchat has blocked access to Al Jazeera content in Saudi Arabia, the media reported on Monday.
the popular photo-sharing app said it was asked by the Saudi authorities to remove the Qatari-backed broadcaster’s Discover Publisher Channel because it violated local laws, reports the BBC.
“We make an effort to comply with local laws in the countries where we operate,” a Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement.
Qatar is in an ongoing dispute with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The four countries cut ties with Qatar earlier this year, accusing the country of supporting terrorism.
After the start of the dispute, Saudi Arabia had also demanded the Qatari government to shut Al Jazeera altogether as one of 13 conditions to remove sanctions against the country.
However, those conditions were later withdrawn.
—IANS
