Social Media

White House Gives TikTok Till September 15th to Sell its Business: Here’s What You Need to Know

To recap the current situation – earlier this month, following the Indian Government’s decision to ban all Chinese apps, including TikTok, in its nation amid ongoing border battles with Chinese forces, US President Donald Trump said that he too was considering banning the app as part of punishment for the COVID-19 outbreak. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later clarified that the Government was indeed considering banning the app, but less so as a form of punishment, and more due to concerns that it could be used as both a surveillance and propaganda tool for the Chinese regime. That concern is not unfounded, with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance having in the past worked with the CCP to moderate anti-government content and distribute pro-China material within its apps.

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Snapchat’s Working on a New Option to Add Popular Music Clips to Your Snaps

Snapchat’s working on a new way to share music within Snaps, which could be seen as another nod towards the rising popularity of TikTok, though there are some variances in application.

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Facebook Will Look to Support New eCommerce Functionalities via its Accelerator Program

With Facebook looking to make eCommerce a bigger focus in order to assist businesses impacted by COVID-19, The Social Network has this week announced a new, specific eCommerce element within its startup accelerator program, which will provide training and support to “innovative commerce startups” that are looking to improve the online shopping experience.

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Marketing

Google Analytics Shifts More Data Privacy Control to Marketers

Against the backdrop of multiple data privacy violation lawsuits against tech companies and increasing government regulations on data collection, Google announced new settings that gives marketers more control over data collection. Publishers can now disable personalization, delete data and take advantage of other settings that impact the data privacy of consumers.

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Will Google’s Ad Disclosure Schema Catch On?

Google announced some updates to how it plans to inform users about the ads they see, including a new type of schema, as well as the latest on Privacy Sandbox proposals to manage ad serving, measurement and more without third-party cookies and cross-site tracking on Friday.

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WhatsApp Rolling Out Search the Web Functionality to Help Fact Check Viral Messages

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, but that also means a lot of misinformation and rumors are shared on the platform. Separating fact from fiction is important, especially with everything this year has thrown at us. Now WhatsApp is starting to roll out a feature that lets users quickly search Google for frequently shared messages to see if there’s more info online.

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