Friday Social: Snap Partners, Facebook Ads, and iOS11 Alarm

Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days.  Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf / @GrittAlessandra

Snap Inc Enlists Creative Partners

Snapchat is aiming to help brands drive ROI on their ads by adding to its list of creative partners, including travel start-up Flyr, interactive video specialists Wirewax, and mobile wallet creators Popwallet.

With its new roster, Snapchat aims to enhance a user’s experience after they ‘swipe up’ on an ad – encouraging them to remain engaged.

As covered by The Drum, Snapchat recently took steps into gamification with an exclusive Adidas game that allowed viewers to take part in a competitive touchscreen kick-up tournament.

.@adidas is about to launch its first-ever @Snapchat game. It will run as a Snap Ad as part of the 'Here to Create' campaign. pic.twitter.com/uWNHMxPnsA

— John McCarthy (@JohnGeeMcCarthy) September 15, 2017

We’ll be standing by to see if this turns around Snap Inc’s latest disappointing financial results.

Twitter Silencing Terror Trolls

Twitter’s latest transparency report has revealed that it removed around 300,000 accounts publishing terror-related content from January – June 2017 – 95% of which were silenced after being flagged by Twitter’s AI tools.

Twitter’s transparency reports cover requests received pertaining to content on its platform, and the latest shows that there’s been a large decline in pro-terrorism accounts being reported – down 80% since its last report.

Reporting of said accounts by Twitter’s own tools is up 21% – a win for Twitter, which has been working to convince users and governments alike that it can crack down on both terrorism and trolls on its platform.

Britain’s Large Audience for Jihadist Propaganda

A new report has revealed that online jihadist propaganda receives more clicks in Britain than any other European country.

According to Policy Exchange analysts, Islamic State is producing around 100 new piece of content each week which reaches an audience of tens of thousands. The report includes a foreword from Gen David Petraeus, the former US commander in Iraq and CIA director, who comments that the Parsons Green device could be built from instructions online – which underscores the ever-present nature of the threat.

The report, the NewNetwar, shows that Britain is the fifth most frequent location to access such content after Turkey, the USA, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq and suggests that governments need to increase pressure on internet companies to remove the content.

The NewNetwar report has been published ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Theresa May and French President, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss new measures to tackle extremism online.

Facebook Trials Hiding Alcohol Ads

Facebook is testing a feature that lets users hide advertisements for alcohol, the first time a social network has let people block ads on a specific topic.

The tool has been welcomed by Alcohol Research UK who commented that social media is saturated with alcohol promotions and that advertising rules are not fit for purpose – however the Advertising Standards Authority rejected this claim, responding that the UK has some of the strictest rules in the world.

During the trial, users will be able to block alcohol-related ads for six months, a year, or forever, and it will also allow the same for ads related to parenting while asking users to suggest other topics they wish to block.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Dr James Nicholls, Director of Research and Policy Development at Alcohol Research UK said: “You’ll often find that brands create a range of content: funny videos and memes, competitions, tie-ins with real-world events, that are designed to keep their brand visible in timelines. They can do this without breaking the rules on celebrating drunkenness, or showing people who look under 25, but still saturate the online environment with references to drinking.”

What topics would you block?

iOS11 Causes Alarm Over Disappearing Messages

While iOS11 is full of useful new features and an updated Control Centre that is dividing opinion, one new tool in particular is causing alarm – screen recording.

Mashable journalist Damon Beres has flagged that the screen recorder – while incredibly useful – could also be used to record any ‘disappearing’ social messages such as Snapchat or Insta Stories.

What’s more, the sender won’t receive a notification, unlike when you use the traditional screenshot method.

Think twice before posting, folks…