Social media is forever changing which makes it easy to miss an update from time to time. Twice a month, we look into three of the latest key updates from the past few weeks from the various social media giants. Here’s what’s been happening recently…

TikTok Launches New Strikes-Based Penalty System for Repeat Offenders

TikTok is rolling out a new strikes-based system for account suspensions and penalties, in order to weed out repeat offenders in the app, as opposed to taking action on each individual case.

Which, according to TikTok, is a common problem:

“Repeat violators tend to follow a pattern – our analysis has found that almost 90% violate using the same feature consistently, and over 75% violate the same policy category repeatedly.”

In order to impose stronger penalties, and provide more protection for users, TikTok’s new system will see users penalised based on their cumulative actions.

“Under the new system, if someone posts content that violates one of our Community Guidelines, the account will accrue a strike as the content is removed. If an account meets the threshold of strikes within either a product feature (i.e. Comments, LIVE) or policy (i.e. Bullying and Harassment), it will be permanently banned.”

TikTok says that its policy thresholds will vary depending on a violation’s potential to cause harm to our community members.

“For example, there may be a stricter threshold for violating our policy against promoting hateful ideologies, than for sharing low-harm spam. We will continue to issue permanent bans on the first strike for severe violations, including promoting or threatening violence, showing or facilitating child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or showing real-world violence or torture.”

In addition to this, accounts that accrue a high number of strikes across various policies and features will also be permanently banned.

“Strikes will expire from an account’s record after 90 days.”

It seems a good update, which will help TikTok improve its safety practices, and weed out some of the worst offenders in the app. But do you think this it’s enough to combat the TikTok trolls?

Instagram’s Founders Release a New Social App

Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are launching a new social app, though its initial focus will be more on content specifically, as opposed to social elements. At least in its early stages.

The name of the platform is ‘Artifact’ (which is a combination of ’articles, facts, and artificial intelligence’), the new app is designed to provide you with a curated news experience, based on your engagement and interests.

As explained by Platformer:

“The app opens to a feed of popular articles chosen from a curated list of publishers ranging from leading news organizations like the New York Times to small-scale blogs about niche topics. Tap on articles that interest you and Artifact will serve you similar posts and stories in the future, just as watching videos on TikTok’s For You page tunes its algorithm over time.”

The app aims to use the same type of machine learning fueled approached that has propelled TikTok to soaring heights, by using your in-app actions as indicators to then better curate your personal experience – as opposed to relying on your social graph to define what you see.

Though they are also working on social elements. Artifact is also developing a following feed, as well as messaging, but the main impetus is to use advanced machine learning to keep users engaged.

Will that work? Let’s see!…

Twitter Expands Access to Twitter Blue With New Incentives

So, how’s Twitter Blue going? Elon Musk and Co. are making their next big push on Twitter Blue subscriptions, as the app looks to build Twitter Blue into a more significant revenue driver.

First off, Twitter has now expanded Twitter Blue access to Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, which will enable millions more Twitter users to potentially sign-up for a verification tick.

Twitter’s also looking to further incentivise Blue sign-up by offering revenue share for ads shown in reply threads. The idea here is that if users write interesting tweets, they would get compensated for the discussion they generate – but you need to be signed up to Twitter Blue to get it.

Finally, Twitter’s also looking to bring back an improved Spaces/podcast experience, as a Twitter Blue exclusive, while Musk has also hinted at allowing some users to avoid having to pay for basic API access, when it becomes unavailable next week, if they sign-up.

Enough incentives to sign up to the Twitter Blue package? Us neither!

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