Facebook Ends Clone Wars; Twitter De-Verifies: Do Not Read Until Monday

We guarantee if you do, you will see the world from a whole new vantage point – Do Not Read Until Monday.

Facebook’s Clone Wars May Have Ended, But Is There A New Hope?

In a very non-shock move, Facebook this week merged its Messenger Day and Facebook Stories features. They were the worst performers of its Snap clones, even after Instagram allowed pushing its Stories to Facebook.

But it’s interesting to note Facebook jumbles up its Stories atop News Feed with live streams. Facebook Live seems to be the biggest hit of the “Facebook just steals idea now” era, or at least my brother-in-law uses it a lot. It’s also great for selling stuff, apparently. Facebook’s also pushing Live further by tempting vlogger influencers with a bespoke app, Creator, for prettying up their streams. Additionally, it’s beginning to offer those with sizeable followings an option to target their “Fan Club” directly when going live.

When combined with Watch – Facebook’s crack at TV – it’s hard to see what the end game is, but it seems to be a strike at YouTube, Snap, Periscope and … Well, maybe just everyone.

Twitter to White Supremacists: YOU SHALL NOT PASS

…Our New Verification Standards

Icons have had a pretty big week. First, following last week’s verification of sentient garbage pile Jason Kessler (he of Charlottesville ‘fame’), Twitter stripped him and other alleged humans of their badges. While it likely could have been handled better (hey, this is Twitter we’re talking about here), the idea it impacts their “free speech” seems slightly overblown.

In other tiny-symbol news, 75 news outlets have signed on to The Trust Project, an initiative aiming to stave off ‘fake news’ proliferating on social and other digital channels. Facebook and Twitter, along with Google and Bing, have also agreed to display “Trust Indicators” for links to stories 

On a related note, Freedom House also found that not five but 30 countries have misinformation ‘armies’, so, yeah, let’s hurry up and figure this ish out already.

This Week in Sn… [Did they do anything this week? Oh right, yeah, the audience targeting thing]

Evan Spiegel and Co. …erm, sorry, squad have kept a relatively low profile since getting their collective ass handed to them for the third consecutive quarter last week, then announcing a new strategy that flies in the face of everything the company once stood for.

Speaking of, the biggest news for the week furthers the type of activity Spiegel once termed “creepy” on the platform, ad targeting. Through new Audience Filters, advertisers can now target filters based on a user’s interests, age and other demographics. 

Also, SportsCenter now has a Snapchat edition, but it bizarrely can’t include any NFL clips, because legal. Actually, are we even allowed to say “NFL” in this newsletter? 

The Verdict: I’d love to drop an L for the sell-out nature of the move, but Audience Filters might actually be good news for platform revenue and interest, so here’s a W, Spiegel Squad.

 

Odds + The End

Published By

Jason Morton

Jason Morton

Jason Morton has worked for about a decade (!) in digital media in the UK and US. He has extensive experience in digital strategy and a number of creative disciplines. View all posts by Jason Morton >

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