Friday Social: Snapchat Brings Back GIPHY, Facebook Data Scandal Affects 87 Million Users, and Tinder Swipes Right on Manchester City.

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

Snapchat Brings Back GIPHY

Users of Snapchat may remember that the app temporarily removed sticker sharing feature GIPHY back in March after users saw that a racist GIF was available for use on their images.

According to Tech Crunch “Over the past several weeks, the Snap team worked with GIPHY to revamp its moderation systems. Now Snap is confident that the fresh approach will protect users, so it’s brought the GIF stickers back.”

Following the thorough investigation, bug fix, and apology from GIPHY, Snapchat has re-enabled the feature.

Read more here.

Twitter Tackles Abusive Behaviour

Responding to calls from activists across the globe, Twitter has announced an update to its reporting system to allow users to report abusive tweets and hate speech towards people with disabilities.

In a video recorded with Mic, disability rights activists Natalie Weaver and Dominick Evans called on the social network to mention hatred against people with disabilities in their reporting form.

People with disabilities are often the targets of some of the internet's worst comments. Twitter's hate speech policies allege to protect most — but people living with disabilities feel left out by those protections. pic.twitter.com/c9VBQYspSg

— Mic (@mic) February 7, 2018

Here is Twitter’s response:

It's against our rules to directly attack or threaten someone based on their protected category, including disability. You asked us to clarify this in our reporting flow, and we've updated it to be more specific. https://t.co/h7PrSjPkC2 pic.twitter.com/WXDmyGwwiT

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) April 2, 2018

Instagram’s ‘Wellbeing Team’

Instagram is seen as one of the best outlets for self-expression and is home to some of the most inspiring and encouraging accounts, groups and individuals. However, it also has a reputation for damaging the wellbeing of users, as evidenced by a survey from Britain’s Royal Society for Public Health, which ranked the social network as the number one worst social media network for mental health.

Now Instagram is facing these issues head-on by hiring a team of people to focus on the wellbeing of its community. According to Eva Chen, who heads up fashion partnerships at the app, the aptly named ‘Wellbeing Team’ is in charge of ‘making the community a safer place, a place where people feel good’.

Find out more here.

Facebook Data Scandal Affects 87 Million Users

According to the BBC, Facebook believes the data of up to 87 million people was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Approximately 1.1 million of those users are based in the UK.

Cambridge Analytica responded to the claims with a tweet, stating that the company had licensed data from 30 million individuals, rather than 87 million:

Cambridge Analytica licensed data from GSR for 30 million individuals, not 87 million. We did not receive more than 30 million records from research company GSR.

— Cambridge Analytica (@CamAnalytica) April 4, 2018

Read the full story here.

Tinder Swipes Right on Manchester City

This week Tinder announced that it has agreed a huge multi-year partnership with Manchester City. The partnership is Tinder’s first step into the world of sport and lends its support to both the men’s and women’s first teams.

As part of the partnership, Tinder users and football fans will be able to benefit from exciting activities, including exclusive access to games and stadium events.

Tinder flew a huge blimp emblazoned with Manchester City’s logo and the hashtag #PerfectMatch over Manchester, as well as turning its social platforms sky blue, to mark the occasion.

Find out more here.