• Facebook Advertisers Hit 4M
    The number of advertisers on Facebook  has increased by 25% to 4 million in the last five months. Research firm eMarketer predicts Facebook, along with Alphabet Inc. company Google, will be the major recipients of a boom in mobile advertising dollars in the coming years.  Quoting Sheryl Sandberg's CNBC interview, she noted the most important thing for Facebook advertisers is that the service measures “all the way through” a sale.
  • Periscope Launches VIP Program
    Periscope is rolling out a VIP program to support the efforts of its most active broadcasters. “Through continued usage and engagement, the company promises additional resources to creators that’ll help increase the quality of their content,” Venture Beat writes. “Enrollment in the program is free, but there are some requirements that must be met, such as how many followers a creator has.”
  • Twitter Defies Turkish Court
    Twitter is refusing to comply with orders from a Turkish court to block the account of a well-regarded journalist. “The company got a court order requesting the censorship of 17 accounts, including that of Mahir Zeynalov, a well known DC-based writer,” Motherboard reports. “But as of Monday morning, the account was still up all over the world, including within Turkey.”
  • German Watchdog Bites Facebook Over WhatsApp Data Collection
    German authorities have ordered Facebook to stop processing data of citizens using its popular WhatsApp chat service. Moreover, “Johannes Caspar, one of Germany’s most outspoken data protection commissioners, ordered Facebook to delete any data it already has,” Bloomberg News reports. “The news comes as EU privacy regulators, who previously expressed concerns about the policy shift, meet in Brussels to discuss their position.”
  • One Reporter Lets Facebook Rule His Life
    For several weeks, Buzzfeed writer Charlie Warzel followed every single one of Facebook’s sharing suggestions, and friending prompts. “If the prompts from Facebook’s … algorithms are the purest expressions of how the network wants its users to use the service, then following their every request could -- theoretically -- create the platonic ideal of the company’s social networking experience,” Warzel writes.
  • LinkedIn Launches 'E-Learning' Portal
    LinkedIn just launched LinkedIn Learning -- an “e-learning” portal for people as well as businesses and educational institutions. “The new site … comes about a year and a half after LinkedIn acquired online learning site Lynda.com for $1.5 billion,” TechCrunch notes. “A large part of LinkedIn Learning is based on Lynda content, and goes live with some 9,000 courses on offer.”
  • Bluestacks Adds Facebook Live Option
    Mobile gaming platform Bluestacks is adding a Facebook Live option to its desktop Android emulator, Engadget reports. “So whether you're using a PC or Mac, you can now grab your favorite games from the Play store, launch them and stream using the same interface,” it writes. “Bluestacks added a similar Twitch-streaming option just a few month ago -- while Amazon's platform is known for gaming, Facebook clearly has similar ambitions.”
  • Tumblr Adds 'Live Photos' To Web
    Tumblr just added Live Photos to the Web version of its service, TechCrunch reports. The social network is also debuting some tools designed to help web developers to do the same. “The company has released an open source JavaScript library it calls ‘Laphs’ -- or Live Anywhere Photos -- which lets you support Live Photos on any website,” TC writes. “To activate a Live Photo on the web, you use a click-and-hold instead of a hard press, as on mobile.”
  • Tinder Hooks Up With Spotify
    Harkening back to the days of MySpace, Tinder just hooked up with Spotify so users can connect over musical affinities. Now, “Anyone can add a Tinder ‘Anthem’ to their profile page, show off their top artists on Spotify and quickly swipe through potential mates based on their music tastes,” Engadget reports.
  • Google Unit Jigsaw Takes On Online Trolls
    Jigsaw -- a tiny Google subsidiary -- is about to take on online trolls with so-called “Conversational AI,” Wired reports. “The software is designed to use machine learning to automatically spot the language of abuse and harassment -- with, Jigsaw engineers say, an accuracy far better than any keyword filter and far faster than any team of human moderators,” it writes.
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