Social Media Daily News Roundup 30.01.19

Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them

Desperate for data on its competitors, Facebook  has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and web activity, similar to Facebook’s Onavo Protect app that Apple banned in June and that was removed in August.  (TechCrunch)

Mark Ritson: Moving closer to Facebook is dangerous for Instagram’s brand

No company before Facebook has had so many users while being so disliked, but the risk of moving Instagram to the same platform is one Mark Zuckerberg seems willing to take to keep control and integrate the brands’ data. (Marketing Week)

Snapchat is reportedly considering permanent snaps

Snap is looking at letting photos stick around longer on its Snapchat app, according to a report Monday. (CNET)

Pinterest taps Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan to lead IPO: sources

(Reuters) - Pinterest, the owner of the image search website known for the food and fashion photos that its users post, has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co to lead its initial public offering (IPO) later this year, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

YouTube Is Going to Bury 'Borderline' Content. It Won't Tell Us What That Means

Last week in a company blog post, YouTube informed its approximately 2 billion users that it would begin to change how recommendations function, reducing instances of content that “comes close to—but doesn’t quite cross the line of—violating our Community Guidelines.” What defines “borderline” content, and who does the defining? That’s where things get hazy. (Gizmodo)