Friday Social: Ban on the Aubergine, WhatsApp is Silenced, Conan Trumped Twitter and #HalloMeme
- Social Media
Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days. Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf / @daniiyk
Ban on the Aubergine
Whilst the aubergine and peach emoji are of course designed to represent the foods, we all know they often carry sexual connotations on social media sites.
Facebook and Instagram have recently banned these two emoji, as well as the water drip, for being too ‘sexually suggestive’.
Facebook and Instagram ban 🍆🍑 so now you can’t insinuate antioxidant foods in your posts. 😂😂😂😂 #banned #emojibanned #emoji
— Darryn (@darrynsfood) October 30, 2019
The change is part of an update of Facebook’s Sexual Solicitation Community Standards which now mentions that these suggestive emoji, used alongside sexual statements, are no longer permitted as they ‘facilitate, encourage and coordinates sexual encounters between adults.’
WhatsApp is Silenced
An update to WhatsApp has finally fixed one of the most annoying features on the app!
The latest version of the iOS app for iPhones will finally allow users to properly mute conversations that they do not want to receive notifications from – without having to turn notifications off completely.
This was already available for Android users and now iPhone users will be able to do the same.
Conan Trumped Twitter
Twitter has had a field day after Trump tweeted a photoshopped image of himself handing a medal of honour to the US military dog, Conan, who helped take down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The image featured a watermark of The Daily Wire, a conservative site founded by political commentator Ben Shapiro.
AMERICAN HERO! pic.twitter.com/XCCa2sGfsZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2019
Users quickly began sharing their own photoshopped images inspired by Trump’s tweet.
— Jim Olson (@jimolson90_jim) October 31, 2019
embarrassed by how much effort i put into this pic.twitter.com/2NRnYCjswo
— evan jacorpse (@esjesjesj) October 30, 2019
Unfortunately, Conan didn’t receive a medal of honour from Trump, but he has been certified as a very good boy by the internet.
Politics Banned
In light of a December election, Twitter has announced that it will ban all political advertising worldwide, adding pressure on Facebook to do the same.
CEO Jack Dorsey has justified his reasoning to ban all political advertisements saying that the reach of such messages “should be earned, not bought and while internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics.”
We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…🧵
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019
Twitter’s ban will be enforced from 22nd November, with full details released by the 15th.
And finally: This Week in Tik Tok
As the spookiest night of the year dawned upon us yet again, the nation took to Tik Tok showcasing their scary (and not so scary) Halloween costumes. Here’s just a couple of our favourites – #hallomeme: