Facebook’s ‘Content Oversight’ initiative remains vague Facebook’s Content Oversight Board is not unlike that chattiest yet least-productive person in your office in that to date it has been entirely dedicated to meetings, focus groups, research and notes on what the role of the board should be, as opposed to actually getting shit done.
The purpose remains “increased transparency, legitimacy of decision-making and independent judgment” when it comes to regulating the content on-platform, however, how exactly this is going to get done remains ambiguous due to the admirable level of spin contained therein.
While the board is gunning for independent self-regulation (as opposed to a similar regulation approach to broadcast organisations), one theme that has emerged from the feedback is that, “In making its decisions, the board may need to consult experts with specific cultural knowledge, technical expertise and an understanding of content moderation.”
The implication here is that, not unlike the chattiest yet least-productive person in your office, external forces will at some stage need to step in to actually get shit done. To be continued…
Facebook also announces Civil Rights Taskforce In tangentially related Facebook news, COO Sheryl Sandberg announced a plan to formalise Facebook’s Civil Rights Task Force to address the company’s implication in the spread of discrimination and hate-speech.
In a blog post, Sandberg highlights key areas of change, including Strengthening Policies and Enforcement Against Harmful Content and working closely with key civil rights communities to influence the decisions, Fighting Discrimination in Facebook Ads by creating stricter targetting categories for advertisers, and Protecting the 2020 Presidential Elections Against Intimidation by employing powerful AI to identify misinformation.
The company will put its money where its mouth is by seeking the expertise and council from key community, civil rights and bi-partisan groups: “We will continue listening to feedback from the civil rights community and address the important issues they’ve raised so Facebook can better protect and promote the civil rights of everyone who uses our services.”
Instagram’s Explore section open to advertisers Instagram has announced a new opportunity for marketers to surface content into the perpetual scroll that your life has become.
The new ad format is being pitched as an opportunity for brands to be part of “what’s culturally relevant and trending while reaching new audiences who are looking to discover something new.”
In the announcement blog, Instagram gently reassured the algorithm-phobics among the platform’s user base that the transition will be a seamless one, explaining “after tapping on a photo or video in Explore, people may begin to see ads as part of their browsing experience just like in the main feed. As always, people have control over the ads they see.”
We Are Social’s Managing Director for New York, Benjamin Arnold, shared his take on the latest update right here.
Australian TV’s night of nights gets savagely self-owned The best thing about Australia’s premiere television industry awards, The Logies? Some might say the 364 days in between. Some might say it’s the recognition of a local industry deserving of far more elevation. This year, some said it was comedian Tom Gleeson’s inspired use of social media to manipulate the outcome of the semi-coveted Gold Logie (that’s the small Cubist sculpture afforded to the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television).
Gleeson engaged a satirical affront via his own social channels (as well as through his unofficial media partner The Weekly Show With Charlie Pickering on the ABC) to drive votes for himself in a campaign hallmarked by sarcasm and mockery.
Ironically, he won.
Gleeson was slammed by some for disparaging one of the few industry events championing the local industry, while others praised him for his savage take-down of the award’s questionable validity (via public voting on the TV Week website) but it was the most talked about moment of the night. Social media works.
You can watch Gleeson’s shiraz-punctuated acceptance speech here.
LinkedIn’s launches useful new CTA buttons Roll out the white papers and shower me in thought-leadership because LinkedIn is bringing out a handful of new CTA buttons to get your B2B-focused conversion content to the next level! Sensual new additions include ‘Register’, ‘Learn More’ and ‘Sign Up’, among others.
The platform also unveiled new Mobile Editing functionality for keeping your LinkedIn pages updated in real time after locking down deals in the back of a limo or announcing your new promotion from the top of a ferris wheel.
On a personal note, I want to take this opportunity to praise LinkedIn’s intuitive and hilariously succinct AI auto-responses, forever reminding me that my natural language is far from business appropriate.
Let’s connect, baby!
This edition of the Tune-Up has been lovingly prepared by Suz Tucker
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