News & Reviews:   Social media

It's been more than a week since Threads by Instagram launched. As always, it was met with enthusiasm on how it would compete with Twitter. It even crossed over 100 million users in just five days but it seems that the hype has gone down considerably.

Twitter users are ironically taking to the platform to express their frustrations at Elon Musk’s recent decision to aggressively limit how many tweets users can view per day. Allegedly implemented temporarily to address “extreme levels of data scraping”, verified accounts are now limited to 6000 posts per day, unverified accounts to 600 per day and new unverified accounts to 300 per day.

The latest in a flurry of changes to the platform since Musk’s takeover, many have expressed willingness to switch to a competing app. Well, Meta may take this opportunity to expedite the release of its Twitter competitor, Threads. In fact, the app briefly appeared on Google Play yesterday.

When you browse through social media, you'll often come across content that are just no good. This includes cyberbullying, discrimination, insults, and scams. Case in point, this tasteless joke about the missing MH370 flight by stand-up comedian Jocelyn Chia that went viral earlier today. She has since deactivated some of her social media accounts, but the backlash was bad.

As you can tell, this is a classic example of a social media content that's unacceptable. And there are plenty of these, especially on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It's important to know how you can report them, so here's how you can report posts on most social media platforms.

One of the things we always encounter in Malaysia is scams. Some are through phone calls or emails, while others try to trick us via social media platforms. And of the many popular platforms, Facebook seems to be the most scam-ridden.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) recently announced that it will take “stern action” against social media platforms and certain applications that “have not been effective at self-regulating the use of their platforms in line with Malaysia’s laws and national interests”. This is in response to 11858 scam complaints, RM1.2 billion in losses and 2125 reported fake news as of April 2023. 

After being suspended for 2 years, Meta has decided that Donald Trump can use Facebook and Instagram once more in the next few weeks. This comes after he was not only suspended from Facebook and Instagram but also supposedly banned for life from Twitter back in 2021.

Twitter is rolling out a new feature under the reign of Elon Musk. The CEO tweeted an announcement on the arrival of "a software update that will show your true account status". According to the report, it's said to be a feature that tells you if you're shadowbanned.

In conjunction with the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15), our Prime Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa told the media that there is a new application for him to tackle fake news online and he has approved it already. The app was made by a task force from the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Elon Musk might compromise and buy Twitter eventually. According to the latest report, the tech mogul isn't planning to take the matter to court by reviving the $44 billion deal, as it could get really messy if involving legal actions. 

Social media is all about short videos nowadays, thanks to TikTok. With that said, other platforms like YouTube and Instagram had also quickly jumped on the bandwagon with YouTube Shorts and Reels respectively. Now, it seems like Twitter will be the latest to join the gang by rolling out a feature that offers an "ever-scrolling feed of video content".