Social Media Daily News Roundup 19.08.2019

⭐  Johnson urges social media firms to block anti-vaccine messages

⭐ Facebook is removing its group chats feature to limit spammers

⭐ What the ASA’s recent ban on gender stereotypes in ads means for marketers - Digi Day

⭐ Facial recognition technology 'an epidemic in UK', says Big Brother Watch

Johnson urges social media firms to block anti-vaccine messages -The Guardian 

Boris Johnson will call on social media companies to do more to stop anti-vaccination messages spreading online as he visits a hospital in the south-west of England.

The prime minister will lay out his plans to halt the resurgence of measles in the UK after more than 230 cases were diagnosed in the first quarter of the year.

He will not go so far as to give his backing to mandatory vaccination, which is not being ruled out by Matt Hancock, the health secretary. But he will set out plans for the UK to regain its lost “measles-free” status.

NHS England will be asked to write to all GPs urging them to promote catch-up vaccinations for older children and those who missed out on a second booster jab.

Facebook is removing its group chats feature to limit spammers - Social Media Today 

Facebook has announced that it's removing the group chat functionality that it launched in October last year, which was designed to facilitate more intimate discussion between group members, separate from post comments.

As you can see here, Facebook will remove the function as of August 22nd. The reasons why Facebook has chosen to remove the option are not entirely clear, but it did provide this additional explanation of the update:

"- On Friday August 16th, the option to start a new chat in a Facebook Group will no longer be available.

- On Thursday August 22nd, existing chats in Facebook Groups will still be readable, but you will no longer be able to chat further.

Our team knows that it's really valuable to communities on Facebook to be able to communicate in real-time the way that Chats in Facebook Groups enabled. The current product infrastructure doesn't support Chats in Groups directly in the Facebook app, which can no longer support this feature. 

What the ASA’s recent ban on gender stereotypes in ads means for marketers - Digi Day 

A ban on harmful gender stereotypes in advertising in the U.K. has snagged its first offenders and put advertisers and their agencies on alert.

Two months after the ban came into force, both Volkswagen and Mondelez’s Philadelphiabrand have been charged by industry watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority with presenting gender stereotypes in a way that was likely to cause harm. Volkswagen perpetuated the idea that men were ineffective child-carers, said the ASA, while Philadelphia reinforced the idea that men are more athletic than women.

The Philadelphia ad was played for laughs, a common tactic in advertising where humour is often based on stereotypes to get across points in a very short space of time. But under the watchful eyes of the ASA’s regime being funny was beside the point. In fact, it took a hard-line approach to gender stereotypes that are subjective in both the ads. Just three people complained to the ASA after viewing the Volkswagen ad, whereas 128 people did so for the Philadelphia ad.

Some marketers and creatives believe the ASA’s bans go too far. Dave Lawrence, managing partner at agency Brave, believes the ASA has taken a heavy-handed view of gender stereotypes that could stifle an industry crying out for bolder, braver marketing creativity.

Facial recognition technology 'an epidemic in UK', says Big Brother Watch - Sky News 

MPs have said authorities should stop trials of facial recognition technology until a legal framework is set up.

Facial recognition tech has been used in shopping centres, museums and conference centres around the UK, according to a civil liberties group.

Big Brother Watch said the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield had used the technology in a trial, and that it had also been used at Liverpool's World Museum and Birmingham's Millennium Point conference centre.

It comes after an investigation was launched this week into the use of the controversial technology at King's Cross in London

"There is an epidemic of facial recognition in the UK," said Big Brother Watch boss Silkie Carlo.

She added: "We now know that many millions of innocent people will have had their faces scanned with this surveillance without knowing about it, whether by police or by private companies.