Tuesday Tune-Up #274

News
alex.mills
Facebook’s autoplay videos will soon start with auto-sound

Bad news if you want to browse Facebook on the fly during lectures or meetings – videos in your newsfeed will automatically start playing sound as you scroll towards them on your feed. If you stay on the video and continue watching, the sound will get louder until you scroll past it. Sly users can opt out in Settings if they’d like and – PLOT TWIST – sound will only play if you have your phone sound on. Initial feedback hinted at users not liking the update, but like many Facebook updates, once you’re used to it you couldn’t possibly imagine life without it.



Facebook plans customisable filters for nudity and violence

In another Facebook update, they’ve given you the power to define what is and isn’t objectionable. As such, you can select how much nudity, violence, graphic content and profanity you’re comfortable seeing.

Currently, Facebook relies on a one-size-fits-most set of standards about what’s allowed on the network. The only exception is that it abides by local censorship laws, which has led to trouble for Facebook – newsworthy historical photos with nudity and citizen journalism accounts of police violence have been wrongly removed (then restored) after media backlash or executive review. The new approach allows Facebook to give vocal, engaged users a choice while establishing reasonable, localized norms without forcing specific policies on anyone or requiring all users to configure complicated settings.

Launch date is still tbc and some questions still remain – what happens to teens? Do they get strict defaults or the same control, and do parents have license to select their kids’ settings? The central theme of these changes is that Facebook is empowering users to define their own experience. It wants to see the social world move toward a supportive, safe, informed, civically-engaged and inclusive global community. However, it still sees itself as just a tool, with the direction of progress defined by those who wield it.

Basketball teams take a shot at NBA’s new social media sanctions 

Trolls will be trolls, it seems.

Last week, the NBA released new rules preventing teams from “mocking and/or ridiculing” each other on social media. The sanctions took place in response to some recent outbreaks of unsportsmanlike digs at opposing players and teams.

The Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks decided not only to follow the rules but also give them their own satirical twist in a series of…over-the-top-compliments?


It continued..

If you tell snide social media professionals not to do something, they’ll abide, but not without finding the snarkiest way to do so. #sorrynotsorry

YouTube to kill the 30-second unskippable ad (in 2018)
It seems that even YouTube can’t deny how annoying it is when you’re trying to impress your date with an awesome David Attenborough video but are first forced to watch 30 seconds of a pregnancy test advert –  I wouldn’t know from experience or anything, but I’d imagine that’s kind of a buzzkill… Therefore, in order to improve my dating life user experience they have said that this format will be put to bed by 2018. Unfortunately, its marginally less annoying cousin – the 20-second unskippable ad  – will be sticking around for the foreseeable future.

Twitter also takes on trolls

On the subject of trolling, Twitter’s number one priority in the last couple of months has been combatting abuse on the platform.

In November, the company launched a set of measures to get rid of trolls, including a “mute” button that helps users filter out unwanted conversations. In early February, Twitter announced a new “safe search” feature that blocks potentially offensive tweets.

Now, Twitter announced it will no longer notify users about replies to threads started by accounts they’ve blocked or muted (unless those replies are from people they already follow). Between pro sports leagues and platforms, will anyone be able to keep angry social media users under con-troll? 

Apple bases new iPad Pro ads around real-life complaint tweets
Apple’s new iPad Pro ads feature real-life tweets from users around their products. While the purpose of the ad is to show how the product addresses users’ real-life problems, unfortunately ‘why does the screen smash so easily when I drop it on the street at 2 am?’ is not featured…

The United States continues to be run via Twitter

The ultimate troll, Donald Trump, has risen again. While notoriously-safe Australia already got its day in the United States’ social spotlight, this week he chose seemingly-harmless Sweden as his next victim of online bullying. His recent comments about an imaginary terrorist attack sparked commentary, and comedy, around the world.

True to form, Sweden handled it light-heartedly. A current government initiative allows a new Swede to tweet from the country’s handle each week, so Stockholm’s Max Karlsson was determined to get to the bottom of what happened #lastnightinsweden. He fired off a fleet of tweets on behalf of his country.

And it wouldn’t be internet warfare without meme militants…




And even England got in on the foreign affair’s fun with JK Rowling leading the charge.

Who’s next on Trump’s Twitter hit list? Will Australia get another shot? We’ll have to wait and see!

This post courtesy of @mills2k