Umpf / Blog / Friday Social: Rihanna vs Snapchat, Facebook vs Britain First, and YouTube vs Conspiracy Theorists

Friday Social: Rihanna vs Snapchat, Facebook vs Britain First, and YouTube vs Conspiracy Theorists

  • 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 / @GrittAlessandra

Facebook bans Britain First

Facebook has been praised for (somewhat belatedly) removing the pages of far-right group Britain First this week.

In a Newsroom post, the social media giant stated that ‘we are an open platform for all ideas and political speech goes to the heart of free expression. But political views can and should be expressed without hate. People can express robust and controversial opinions without needing to denigrate others on the basis of who they are.’

The post continued to slate ‘speech designed to stir up hatred against groups in our society’, and that content posted on the Britain First Page and the Pages of its leaders had repeatedly broken Community Standards.

Facebook has received positive feedback for the move, with some stating it’s too little, too late. Fingers crossed that more platforms follow in its footsteps.

Stephen Hawking Dies at 76

Social media has been awash with positive tributes celebrating the incredible life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who died this week at 76.

YouTube Talks Conspiracy Theories

We’ve all gotten lost to the black hole of YouTube conspiracy theories, and CEO Susan Wojcicki has been discussing the video giant’s ‘fake news’ problem at SXSW.

Wojcicki revealed YouTube’s solution: Wikipedia, and other trusted sources.

According to WIRED, she said: “People can still watch the videos, but then they have access to additional information”.

The move follows criticism of the content pushed out following the Las Vegas and Florida shootings, which shared ‘crisis actor’ and ‘liberal agenda’ conspiracies.

Facebook opens up Instant Games

Facebook has announced this week that it will be opening up its Instant Games Platform to all developers, following the closed beta launch in 2016. The Developer News post states that nearly 200 games have been built for Messenger and Facebook.

Developers are invited to start building and submitting games right away. Facebook has also announced new features to help developers ‘monetise, measure, and grow their games’:

  • Ads API is now available for all developers
  • Ads Optimisation and Measurement
  • Cross-promotion and Deep linking
  • Ad Units for User Acquisition (coming soon)

Read more here.

Rihanna (rightfully) drags Snapchat

Rihanna has this week posted an Instagram story asking her followers to leave Snapchat after the platform shared an incredibly insensitive ad from Would You Rather:

 

 

The content appears to refer to Chris Brown’s 2009 assault of Rihanna, which resulted in her hospitalisation.

Snapchat pulled the Would You Rather ad and apologised, releasing a statement to say: “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines.”

In response to Rihanna’s Instagram story, the platform added in a statement to The Verge: “This advertisement is disgusting and never should have appeared on our service. We are so sorry we made the terrible mistake of allowing it through our review process. We are investigating how that happened so that we can make sure it never happens again.”

It also stated that the Would You Rather game was unaffiliated with Snapchat, and has been blocked. However, the apology didn’t stop Rihanna’s fans following her request and leaving the app by the dozen: