Friday Social: Snapchat’s Creator Shows, Facebook Diversity, & Insta Combats Bullying

  • Social Media

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

Snapchat Announces Creator Shows

A new addition to Snapchat’s Discover page has been announced this week – Creator Shows will feature celebrities such as Serena Williams and Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as video creators including Emma Chamberlain and Loren Grey.

The video shows, which will start airing later this month, will each be three to five minutes long with between eight and 10 episodes per season.

Snapchat says the first-person, vertical videos will cover themes from beauty and fashion to fitness, with series including motivational advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger, retro toy unboxings and pop culture episodes.

Facebook Doubling Minority Hires

Facebook has revealed its 2019 Diversity Report, and while progress has been made since the report’s inception five years ago, there’s still a long way to go.

The report records the total workforce as 63.1% male, making minimal progress from 2018’s 63.7%. Though the number of black men and women employed by the social giant has multiplied by 10 and 25 times respectively, its US operations remain 44.2% white.

These stats have prompted Facebook to implement a diversity-focussed succession plan, promising to double its numbers of female and Black and Hispanic employees. About time!

Facebook said in a blog post: “We envision a company where in the next five years, at least 50% of our workforce will be women, people who are Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islanders, people with two or more ethnicities, people with disabilities, and veterans.”

Instagram Tackles Bullying

Ever wanted to block someone online without them knowing?

Well, your wish is Instagram’s command this week as they introduced Restrict – a new function that allows you to secretly block people. The feature, which doesn’t notify restricted users, aims to give young people control over potential bullies without the added fear of escalating the situation.

Once restricted, a person’s comments will only be visible to you and them, they won’t be able to see when you’re active and they’ll no longer receive read receipts in direct messages.

Alongside Restrict, the platform has rolled out a feature which notifies users when their comment may be considered offensive before it gets posted. The intervention aims to give people a chance to rethink and retract their comment, preventing a harmful notification for the recipient.

Trump Banned From Twitter Blocking

Following a New York judge’s ruling in 2018, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals this week upheld that US President Donald Trump is not allowed to block critics on Twitter just because they disagree with him.

The White House said early in Trump’s administration that his tweets are to be considered official statements, with the president having used the social media site to announce new policies, hirings and firings – making it unjust for him to exclude people from his dialogue.

And it seems the ruling has sparked wider debate, as congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now faces two lawsuits for blocking Twitter users.

And finally…

Ever since Apple brought out their AirPods back in 2016, people have been questioning their ability to stay put without falling out. Well, the inevitable happened to one Twitter user this week who lost one of her luxury earphones to the subway. RIP.

But the story didn’t end there – the great AirPod rescue mission began and Twitter was gripped by the whirlwind thread. We think you should experience it for yourself…