Facebook has quietly hired away several engineers from sound studio WaveGroup Sound. “WaveGroup is responsible for creating many of the social network’s in-app notification sounds,” Venture Beat reports. Per the new hires, “Part of Facebook’s overall strategy appears to include creating original audio content.” Contrary to preview reports, however, Facebook has not acquired WaveGroup. 

The Times of India and its sister publications are now requiring that its reporters turn over their Twitter and Facebook passwords so that the publications can post content in their personal names. That means “even after [they] leave the company,” notes an incredulous Quartz. “Under a contract unveiled to employees last week, Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd -- India’s largest media conglomerate and publisher … told staffers they are not to post any news links on their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts.” 

On Tuesday afternoon, Instagram is expected to debut a new video editing app named Hyperlapse. “Using clever algorithm processing, the app makes it easy to use your phone to create tracking shots and fast, time-lapse videos that look as if they’re shot by Scorsese or Michael Mann,” Wired reports. “What was once only possible with a Steadicam or a $15,000 tracking rig is now possible on your iPhone, for free.” At launch, the app will only be available to Apple’s mobile operating system. 

So much for what The Washington Post calls Aereo’s “last-ditch argument to save itself.” The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has decided not to hear the case. “Instead, if the shuttered streaming video company wants to keep fighting for its survival, procedural reasons require that it do so at the district court level,” WaPo reports, citing an official statement released this week. “The decision is a win for broadcasters, who had sought a ban on Aereo from the beginning.” 

LinkedIn is losing its head of product, Deep Nishar, reports Kara Swisher. Regarding Nishar -- who joined LinkedIn six years ago from Google -- Swisher writes in Re/Code: “He does not have another job, although the exec has been joining a number of boards and taking advisory roles at several startups of late.” At least for the time being, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is expected to take over Nishar’s duties. 

Have you heard about the odd little social network that Atlantic Media has been developing? The one named This., which limits the number of links its members can share a day to one? If not, it’s creator Andrew Golis describes it thus: “This. is an attempt to build on the rebellions against The Stream that are popping up all over. We love content recommendations from people we trust, but we can’t keep up, we feel constantly distracted, and are increasingly aware of how narrow ‘nowness’ is a primary definition of value.” 

Re/Code’s Nellie Bowles goes deep inside the sort-of-creepy new world of Secret parties -- intimate affairs for select members of the anonymous sharing app Secret. “I want a place where I can be raw again,” a party host tells Bowles, referring to the anonymous nature of Secret (the app) compared to more public socials networks like Facebook. “Where it doesn’t always have to be vacation pictures and ‘Look how great I am.’” What implications for parties have for Secret’s broader success are unclear, but they obviously have the attention of industry watchers. 

Getting the full Google treatment in Europe, Facebook has been given an ultimatum to respond to a privacy-based class-action suit led by an Austrian group named Europe vs Facebook. “The news comes as some 60,000 people have now signed up to the suit, 25,000 of which have assigned their claims to join the class action, and 35,000 of which have registered to assign their claims when and if the suit widens to cover more users,” TechCrunch reports. 

Think Twitter feeds are clogged enough? Well, the company just changed the Timeline’s official parameters to include an even broader range of content. Now, in addition to “all Tweets from those you have chosen to follow on Twitter,” along with retweets and ads, “when we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline,” the company explains. Quartz, for one, calls the move “a fundamental change in how Twitter works.” 

Going forward, Twitter will now remove images of deceased individuals at the request of family members. The move is the first following the company’s broader promise to change its policing policies in the wake of Robin Williams’ suicide and harassing messages directed toward his daughter. “Williams’ daughter said she [was] quitting the platform after being sent disturbing photo-shopped images of her father’s death,” The Wall Street Journal reports.