We Are Social Asia’s Tuesday Tune Up

Tuneup
hannahcurrey


Twitter sues Elon Musk over $44bn takeover deal
Things have got legal in the Twitter-Musk conundrum. Twitter is now suing Elon Musk to try to force him to buy the social media firm. The news comes after Musk announced he was walking away from the deal, but Twitter is having none of it. The lawsuit accuses Musk of a number of violations of the merger agreement, with the platform hoping to start the trial as soon as September. Musk has opposed this fast-track trial, requesting the major legal showdown be moved to next year. Things are only going to get messier.

TikTok to roll out maturity ratings and content filters
If you’ve ever spent any time on TikTok, it’s not hard to come across content that may be considered a little ‘fruity’ for younger viewers. Now TikTok is taking steps to make the app safer, developing a new system that will restrict certain types of mature content for young users. ‘ Content Levels’ will allow users to filter videos with certain words or hashtags from showing up in their feeds. The idea is that this will place more moderation control into the hands of users and content creators.

Instagram starts testing new creator marketplace
US brands watch out. You may have received an invite to Instagram’s new creator marketplace, Designed to help brands discover and contact creators about partnerships and campaigns. Currently in the testing phase, invited brands can filter for creators based on the demographics of their engaged audience; specifics like gender, age, interests, country and city. Almost like a brand + creator dating app, businesses will be able to see creators who have expressed interest in working with them via an ‘interested creators’ tab. Once brands have discovered creators that they’d like to partner with, they can use the marketplace to create campaigns and share them with creators. A (creator) match made in heaven.

Twitter will remind you to add alt text to your images
We’ve all been guilty of it. Uploading an image and thinking that’s that. But for many people, the addition of alt text to images is an essential feature that offers context, allowing everyone to be part of the conversation. Twitter is trying to remind us to add alt text, by testing a feature that will prompt users to use the accessibility tools available to them. Users will have to turn on this reminder.  If you have access to the feature, click “Accessibility,” and then scroll to the “Images” header. There, you can turn on a reminder to prompt you to add alt text before sending a tweet with an image.

Snapchat is experimenting with NFTs as AR filters
It’s the latest platform to delve into the world of NFTs. Snapchat is exploring ways to let artists show off their digital collectibles as AR filters on the platform. Set to begin in August, artists will be able to create and mint NFTs on an alternative channel and then import them into Snapchat as Lenses. Word on the street is that the platform won’t take any money from creators, instead placing effort into helping artists monetise their own work.

Reddit brings GIF comments to all users
You no longer have to pay to get the GIFs. Reddit is enabling GIF replies for all users, a feature previously only available through Powerups, Reddit’s paid feature. The company observed that this was a popular feature, so have decided to kindly offer it to all, with users able to access a range of GIFs from Giphy’s moderated collection.