Social Media Daily News Roundup 07.08.19
Today’s social media news, rounded up in one place so you don’t have to go anywhere else.
⭐ Facebook launches first legal action against ‘click injection fraud
⭐ EasyJet has broken a cardinal rule of social media - PR pros criticise airline’s ‘backless seat’ response
⭐ Twitter ‘mistake’ sees user data inform personalised ads without permission
⭐ Amazon Alexa: Luxembourg watchdog in discussions about recordings
Facebook launches first legal action against ‘click injection fraud - Social Media Today
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the various other platform misuse controversies which have been uncovered since, Facebook is looking to tighten its reigns, and get more serious about on-platform fraud and scammers.
Over the past several months, Facebook has launched legal action against several companies for operating fake Like and engagement services. And now, Facebook's taking aim at another type of misrepresentation, in the form of 'click injection' scams.
As explained by Facebook:
"Today, Facebook filed suit against two app developers for click injection fraud. The developers made apps available on the Google Play store to infect their users’ phones with malware. The malware created fake user clicks on Facebook ads that appeared on the users’ phones, giving the impression that the users had clicked on the ads."
PR professionals have questioned easyJet's decision to ask on Twitter for a person to remove a tweet that shows a passenger sitting on a seat with no back.
The airline has received a barrage of criticism on social media today (6 August) after Matthew Harris shared the image on Twitter.
Jules Ugo, MD at travel and tourism PR specialist Lotus, said: "It is totally understandable that brands need to protect themselves against fake news and misinformation. However, asking for a tweet to be removed and not explaining why comes across as controlling, bullying and as if the brand is trying to hide possible negative content from customers. This is what has led to the uproar in the easyJet case.
Twitter's testing a new option to snooze push notifications for a set time period - Social Media Today
Ever been woken up by a random Twitter notification buzzing through your phone/bedside table at 2am?
If you have, then this new test might be of interest - according to reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, Twitter is now working on a new option which would enable users to pause their push notifications for 1 hour, 3 hours or 12 hours at a time.
As you can see above, those notifications would still be displayed in your Notifications tab, but you wouldn't be bothered by them for the duration of your chosen snooze period.
The option could help those users who want to avoid potential embarrassment in, say, a job interview or work meeting - but then again, you can always turn push notifications off entirely, or switch off noise and vibration on your phone.
Twitter ‘mistake’ sees user data inform personalised ads without permission - The Drum
Twitter has thrown its hands up in a mea culpa after conceding that a ‘mistake’ may have led to it inadvertently utilising user data to personalise adverts.
The embarrassing oversight comes at a time when the social media industry is under pressure like never before to get a handle on data protection issues, and is believed to have arisen due to complications with the website’s settings.
This meant that certain personal data such as the country code may have been shared with advertisers in certain cases where people interacted with an ad. Twitter also admitted that it may have shown ads based on inferences made about the individual where no permission existed to do so.
Amazon Alexa: Luxembourg watchdog in discussions about recordings - BBC
Luxembourg's data privacy watchdog says it is in discussions with Amazon about voice recordings made of customers who have used the firm's Alexa smart assistant.
The regulator is the lead supervisory authority for the company in the EU, meaning that it co-ordinates investigations into the business on behalf of the other member states.
At this point it has not launched a formal privacy probe.
Amazon declined to comment.
But a spokesman for the National Data Protection Commission (CNPD) said that citizens could "file a compliant with our authority or his/her national supervisory authority" if they had concerns.