Social
Social networking shapes society and our news coverage reflects and directs that. We keep tabs on all the biggest social companies, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Reddit, as well as funding and acquisitions of new social startups.
Photographers are claiming that Meta is tagging their real photos as “Made with AI.” Meta introduced this automated tag to help people understand when what…
Supreme Court rejects claim that Biden administration pressured social media firms into removing misinformation
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Republican-led challenge to the Biden administration’s communication with social media companies to combat online misinformation on topics related to COVID-19 and the 2020…
Activity tracking platform and community Strava is shutting down Fatmap, the Europe-based 3D mapping platform it had acquired last January.
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Welcome to the fediverse: Your guide to Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky and more
The fediverse isn’t just another social media platform; it’s a rallying cry and a manifesto of sorts.
Instagram’s Twitter/X rival Threads is furthering its expansion into the fediverse — the interconnected social network that includes apps like Mastodon, PeerTube and others running the ActivityPub protocol. On Tuesday,…
X still has a verified bot problem. Also, grass is green. We knew it would be a bad idea to let anyone pay for a…
Snapchat on Tuesday announced a new suite of safety features, including updates to its account blocking functionality and enhanced friending safeguards, making it difficult for strangers to contact users on…
Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. This week, Ilya Sutskever launched…
Really, X should have learned its lesson by now.
Instagram is introducing the ability for users to broadcast live to just their Close Friends list, the company announced on Thursday. The new “Close Friends on Live” feature allows users…
Roots is designed to help people get a better handle on what sort of apps are worth spending time on and which are not.
Let’s face it — ads on YouTube can be a nuisance. Whether you’re in the middle of a tutorial or catching up on your favorite…
Butterflies wants to let users create AI personas that then take on their own lives and coexist with others.
Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference had…
There has been a lot of bad news about social media startups lately. Multiple companies, including Twitter alternative Post News, and IRL have shut down. And ShareChat’s valuation has dropped…
Every big social network and internet platform has been hyping new AI features, so it’s probably no surprise that LinkedIn is moving in that direction,…
Meta has confirmed that it will pause plans to start training its AI systems using data from its users in the European Union and U.K. The move follows pushback from…
WhatsApp adds new features to the calling experience, including support for 32-person video calls
WhatsApp updated the video calling experience across devices on Thursday by introducing screen sharing with audio support and a new speaker spotlight feature. It’s also increasing the limit for video…
LinkedIn is launching new AI tools to help you look for jobs, write cover letters and job applications, personalize learning, and a new search experience.
One of the many new features that Apple announced earlier this week under the broad umbrella of Apple Intelligence is something it calls Genmoji, which…
After leading the social media landscape, TikTok appears to be interested in challenging Google’s dominance in search. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s testing the ability for users to…
The acquisition comes as BeReal was struggling to grow its user base and was looking for a buyer.
New York’s state legislature has passed a bill that would prohibit social media companies from showing “addictive feeds” to children under 18, unless they obtain parental consent. The Stop Addictive…
Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. There’s more bad news for…
Meta is quietly rolling out a new “Communities” feature on Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The feature is designed to help organizations, schools and other private groups communicate in…
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A social app for creatives, Cara grew from 40k to 650k users in a week because artists are fed up with Meta’s AI policies
Artists have finally had enough with Meta’s predatory AI policies, but Meta’s loss is Cara’s gain. An artist-run, anti-AI social platform, Cara has grown from 40,000 to 650,000 users within the last week, catapulting it to the top of the App Store charts. Instagram is a necessity for many artists,…
Welcome to Elon Musk’s X. The social network formerly known as Twitter where the rules are made up and the check marks don’t matter. Or do they? The Tesla and…
Bridgy Fed is one of the efforts aimed at connecting the fediverse with the web, Bluesky and, perhaps later, other networks like Nostr.
Ms. Rachel isn’t a household name, but if you spend a lot of time with toddlers, she might as well be a rockstar. She’s like Steve from Blues Clues for…
Sometimes, leaked corporate documents detail the darkest realities of Silicon Valley. Other times, they tell us that there’s a Yoshi game coming out. After years…
