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the week in social: Twitter news, Facebook Watch and Youtube conspiracies

19 Mar 2018 Cassandra Megraw

Twitter is working on revamping its verification process

The social media turned news platform is reassessing its verification process to create a ‘scalable’ program where people can quickly authenticate themselves. It’s even going so far as to call on the public to give their ideas on how to best do so, with the finalists being revealed in the second quarter of this year. CEO Jack Dorsey said polishing the process will help clear up confusion over who gets verified and who doesn’t. “We believe verification is something that is very broken on this platform and something that we need to fix and that we need a much more cohesive view on,” he said.

Snapchat will soon feature influencer-made lenses

Come late March, the Snapchat lens carousel will play host to creator-made lenses. That means the dancing hot dog and famous puppy filter will be joined by lenses created by artists and influencers on the platform. After the rise of Instagram Stories and Snapchat’s previous controversy over stealing artwork, CEO Evan Spiegel has sworn his company would do more to help creators, and this move is him making good on that promise. So while the infamous new redesign might not be pleasing to most, this push to promote the community may make up for it somewhat.

Facebook looking to launch news programs on its Watch video platform

In an effort to get even more people watching Watch, Facebook is working with a number of news publishers to see how various national news show formats could work on its Watch program. Working with a mix of traditional and digital-first news publishers, the social media giant is testing daily news video features with the goal to launch the news feature on Watch by summer. When asked to comment, head of Facebook’s news partnerships, Campbell Brown said: “Timely news video is the latest step in our strategy to make targeted investments in new types of programming on Facebook Watch.”

Twitter is pushing trending news to the top of users’ feeds

Twitter has confirmed that it’s doing even more to solidify its place as a news platform, testing a new algorithm-curated timeline for when big news events happen. Twitter’s Keith Coleman released a statement addressing the changes saying: “People come to Twitter to see and talk about what’s happening. We’re working on ways to make it easier for everyone to find relevant news and the surrounding conversation so they can stay informed about what matters to them.”

YouTube is encouraging viewers to explore further

After criticism about how conspiracy theory videos are promoted on its platform, YouTube is making moves to ensure viewers educate themselves before believing everything they see. The platform is helping users determine whether content is trustworthy by linking Wikipedia articles to certain videos. The move was announced at a recent SXSW presentation, and is expected to debut on the platform in the coming weeks. The CEO Susan Wojcicki said that in the future, additional sources could be added, but for now Wikipedia will be the sole information source.