The Week in Social: Fact checking images, Twitter podcasting, and Whatsapp in India

Facebook photo fact checking

Facebook is expanding its photo and video fact checking program from four countries to all 23 of its fact-checking partners across 17 countries. The move comes in response to the continued trend of false images and memes peddled out for political and manipulative gains. To assure accuracy of its third party fact checkers, Facebook is developing OCR algorithms to help check results efficiently, and at scale.

Twitter trying live podcasting

Twitter and Periscope users can access a new audio-only broadcast feature. Twitter announced the launch of the feature in response to Instagram’s “Live” update, with intentions of possibly reorienting its live-streaming platform to live-podcasting. Users can access this feature by heading to the compose screen on Twitter and tap the “Go Live” button to pull up the standard live-streaming screen which will now include the audio-only microphone icon.

IG video tagging

Instagram is experimenting with video tagging with a “small percentage” of its users. This feature allows users to tag their friends in videos. Once past the testing stage, this update hopes to drive increased engagement as tagged users are expected to relaunch the app when they receive the tag notifications. In the future, this feature could make way for shoppable videos that would allow Instagram influencers to post about their favorite brands and drive fans to those brand accounts.

Twitter live streams to the top

As of the latest Twitter update, if a followed account starts live streaming it will show up at the top of a user’s timeline. The new feature was announced on Twitter in a tweet to make users aware of the new update. Twitter now allows any livestream from any account, while in the past it only allowed certain streams like NFL games.

FB ads get a pre-holiday makeover

With the holidays approaching, Facebook has rolled out new features to help brands seasonally advertise. Facebook can retarget users that have visited their site with customized ad overlays that highlight discounts for holiday specials or sales. Facebook’s new video creation kit will now include a version with holiday templates and stickers to add to static ads. Collection ads can now be organized into personal categories like “suggested for you” and “most viewed” improving user experience by showing more relevant ads.

A parent’s guide to Instagram

Instagram launched a parent’s guide to help parents understand what Instagram is and how to safely use it. There are benefits, like having an interest in photography and social inclusion, but negatives like inappropriate content and cyberbullying. Social media platforms are unavoidable for children growing up in the the digital age but parents are trying to make children aware of its isolating effects as well.

YouTube launches vertical video ads

YouTube revealed this week that vertical video ads will be available on the platform to allow brands to provide a seamless mobile experience for users. The ads will utilize the full screen when viewing content on YouTube’s mobile app in the same way similar ads appear on Instagram and Snapchat. Brands will be able to redirect viewers to external links like a company website when the vertical video ad is tapped.

Whatsapp spreads in India

WhatsApp is now available for JioPhone devices in India, which run on the Linux-based mobile operating system KaiOS. With the new version, JioPhone users will be able to send end-to-end encrypted messages easily. Whatsapp (which has 1.5 billion people globally on its platform – with India its largest user market at 200 million active monthly users) is available on the JioPhone AppStore now, and will be rolled out on all JioPhones by September 20.

Pinterest hits 250 million users

Pinterest has reached a new milestone of more than 250 million monthly active users. More than half of Pinterest users are located outside of the United States, with 80 percent of new sign-ups also coming from outside of the country. Pinterest now has 75 percent more ideas saved on the network than the same time last year. By category, product ideas have grown by 115 percent, art by 50 percent, style ideas by 38 percent, and DIY by 35 percent.