TECH CRUNCH - Clubhouse announced in-room chat, adding a text chat feature into its voice rooms akin to what people see on YouTube or Twitch. In-room chat is an optional feature, so anyone running a conversation on Clubhouse can toggle the option when they kick off a room.
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Clubhouse Adds Text-based Chat Rooms for the Mic Shy
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Tumblr Ad-free Subscription Costs $4.99 a Month
TECH CRUNCH - Tumblr is rolling out an ad-free browsing experience for web and mobile. Users have to pay $4.99 monthly for what Tumblr calls "pure, unadulterated nonsense," but its yearly price of $39.99 gives users 4 months free.
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The US Has Sanctioned Russia's Largest Social Network Head
THE VERGE - Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian banks, energy and infrastructure companies, and several individual Russian elites. Among the sanctioned individuals is Vladimir Kiriyenko, CEO of VK Group, the parent company of Russia's biggest social network, VKontakte. While he isn't being sanctioned specifically for his work with the VK group, the result still forbids one of the country's most powerful tech executives from doing business with any US entity.
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Trump's "Truth Social" Is Already Censoring Users
CNBC TV18 - The newly-launched social media platform by Donald Trump has started banning users already. The so-called 'free speech app' has already started censoring content and banning users on various grounds. A few users have claimed that posting anything that moderators consider false, defamatory, or misleading can be censored or banned on the platform.
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Russia Is Restricting Access to Facebook
TECH CRUNCH - The Russian government will begin to "partially restrict" access to Facebook, according to an announcement from its internet regulatory agency Roskomnadzor. Russia claimed that it would implement the measures not specified after Facebook restrictions on four Russian state-linked media outlets.
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Tumblr Settles With NYC's Human Rights Agency Over Alleged Porn Ban Bias
THE VERGE - Tumblr and New York City's Human Rights Agency have settled discrimination allegations related to the company's 2018 adult content ban, which city regulators say disproportionately affected LGBTQ users. The settlement requires Tumblr to revise its user appeals process, train its human moderators on diversity and inclusion issues, review thousands of old cases, and hire an expert to look for potential bias in its moderation algorithms.
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Reddit Adds a Discover Tab for Finding Communities, New Navigation
TECH CRUNCH - In over 2 years, Reddit launched the first major change to its mobile app with a new Discover Tab, offering personalized recommendations. A revamped navigation system also includes new Community and Profile menus where users can quickly access and reorganize their subscriptions or access their profile settings.
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Renren, the Chinese Facebook, Plots a New Chapter in Phoenix
PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL - Renren was once hailed as China's answer to Facebook. Still, the company has since exited the social network business and become a holding company. Renren is currently based in Beijing, but its U.S. office is located in Phoenix. CFO Chris Palmer said the company is looking to establish a greater presence in Phoenix.
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Facebook Letting Users in Ukraine Lock Their Social Profiles for Security
REUTERS - Meta has set up a special operations center to monitor the conflict in Ukraine, and it launched a feature so users in the country can lock their social media profiles for security, a company official said in Twitter posts.
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Twitter Plans $1B Senior Notes Offering
TIP RANKS - Twitter plans to offer senior notes with an aggregate principal amount of $1B. The company plans to use the offering's proceeds for general corporate purposes like strategic transactions, working capital and potential acquisitions, repurchase of common shares, debt repayment, investments, and capital expenditures.
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TikTok Pushes Bundle of Teen Safety Measures Internationally
TECH CRUNCH - TikTok is making a promotional push in Europe and Australia around a bundle of safety-focused features and which it says are aimed at protecting teenage users from dangerous challenges. TikTok also said it's making a financial contribution to Western Sydney University to support further research into online challenges and sharing research data with the university's Young and Resilient Research Centre to that end.
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Nextdoor Says Communities' Self-moderation Works
AXIOS - Over the past year, Nextdoor says that ~233K community volunteers worldwide voted on whether to take action on at least one piece of the reported content. Nextdoor says that the median time to remove reported content was 4.6 hours. As for government requests, Nextdoor said it received 18 U.S. subpoenas 11 search warrants and provided content related to two child safety reports.
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LinkedIn Debuts Its Podcast Network
ENGADGET - LinkedIn is debuting a podcast network that features in-house shows from the LinkedIn News team and programs from industry figures. The podcast network ties into LinkedIn's other products - such as newsletters, live events, videos, and posts - with the idea that hosts and audiences will keep conversations outside the shows. The shows will also be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
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Meta Is Working on An AI 'Builder Bot' for The Metaverse
ENGADGET - Meta's AI researchers are working on a voice-powered bot that allows users to change their virtual surroundings with voice commands. Mark Zuckerberg demoed an early version of the concept, called Builder Bot, at a virtual event detailing the company's latest AI research. "It enables you to describe a world, and then it will generate aspects of that world for you," Zuckerberg said.
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Rural Social Network Krishify Gets $6.2M Funding for Expanding Business
BUSINESS STANDARD - Krishify, a social network for Indian farmers, has closed $6.2M in a funding round. Krishify app helps farmers, rural communities, and agribusiness companies to interact and transact among themselves. The company's app has ~6.5M downloads and 1.3M MAU, making it India's largest social network for farmers and rural communities.
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