CNET - Mar 2 - Gab, an alternative social network popular with right-wing users, was hacked and a large trove of data was stolen. The hacked data, dubbed GabLeaks, was shared by transparency group DDoSecrets. It includes 70GB of public posts, private posts, user profiles, hashed passwords, direct messages, and plaintext passwords for groups, according to DDoSecrets. The group said it's only offering the data set to journalists and researchers due to privacy concerns. A hacker was able to siphon data from Gab's site via a "SQL injection vulnerability," DDoSecrets told.
Social Network Gab Was Hacked
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TikTok Grabs 3.5% Share of UK Video Viewing
CAMPAIGN - Mar 2 - TikTok accounted for 3.5% of online video viewing time in the UK in 2020, according to TV marketing body Thinkbox's annual report on video viewing habits. TikTok's share of the 16- to 34-year-old age group's viewing was even higher; it garnered 20% of their time spent with online video and 9% of their overall viewing time. However, Thinkbox estimates that the video-based social network's share of advertising viewing was just 1.4%. It claimed that an overwhelming (91%) share of video advertising is viewed within broadcast TV content in its various forms.
by Kim Benjamin
See full article at Campaign
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Twitter's Battle With India Is Boosting Its Local Rival, Koo
THE NEXT WEB - Mar 2 - India is trying to promote a local alternative to Twitter called Koo. This happened after Twitter didn't comply with a government order and restored a few accounts - including publications, activists, and actors - after blocking them briefly. Authorities later criticized the social network's actions and even threatened with penal actions. Koo, India's social app which works like Twitter, was the winner of the government's Atmanirbhar' ('self-reliant' in Hindi) challenge that challenged local developers to make world-class apps. As a result, the new social network is now being promoted by various government authorities.
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Cappuccino: Social App to Share Short Intimate Audio Stories
TECH CRUNCH - Mar 2 - Cappuccino is called the anti-Clubhouse, but the company has been iterating on its app concept for a couple of years. The startup says it is building an app that helps users record podcasts with others. The app lets users create groups with their friends or families. Members of the group can record a short audio message - a bean, as the startup calls it. They talk about what's on their mind for a couple of minutes. The next morning, group members receive a notification saying that your morning cappuccino has been brewed. Cappuccino is focused on close friends and family. Everything is private by design and focused on groups of real-life friends. Over the past couple of weeks, Cappuccino attracted 225k new users. They created 130k groups and sent ~1M audio stories.
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Yammer, Microsoft's Social Network for Businesses
BUSINESS INSIDER - Mar 1 - Yammer is a social network for businesses designed for communication and collaboration within organizations. Like a closed version of Facebook, Yammer lets co-workers chat, share files, hold surveys, and more. Originally launched in 2008 and purchased by Microsoft in 2012, Yammer is now a part of the Microsoft 365 enterprise suite. Yammer available to business users who are part of a Microsoft 365 Enterprise plan. It's available via a browser or as a stand-alone mobile app and has features common to social networks. Office 365 E1 is available for $8 per user per month. Users can also choose Office 365 E3 ($20 per user per month) or Office 365 E5 ($35 per user per month).
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The New Era of Social Media With Hryzn
NEWS ANYWAY - Mar 1 - Hryzn, a blogging and social networking service where communities can share and connect through niche topics, aims to tackle the issues of present-day social media by offering a democratized approach for its users. Hryzn isn’t focused on fake personas and likes, but rather is a place where communities can come together to share genuine interest over various topics. Hryzn works as a discovery platform with an enhanced system for users to explore through search, hashtags, and categories. Users also work together through a voting system that puts the power back in their hands to decide what content they want to see, features to add, and much more. Users' content on Hryzn can be blogs, pictures, videos, audio, or text. Users can customize their profile with various pre-set themes, fonts, colors, background images, music, and more. Users can join groups to connect and share with similar people. Users can also make money by monetizing their content.
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ShareChat Eyes a $200M Round From Tencent
KRASIA - Feb 26 - Bengaluru-based social media platform ShareChat, which also operates short-video app Moj, is looking to land a check of $200M from Chinese technology major Tencent. The funding will be raised through optionally convertible debentures and routed via a Europe-based entity. Optionally convertible debentures are long-term debt instruments that can be converted into shares of equity stock after a specified period. If the transaction goes through, it could subsequently lead to a change in management control of ShareChat. The startup claims to have 160 million active users on its main social networking app and 80 million on its short-video app, Moj.
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TikTok Agrees to Pay $92M to Settle Lawsuit Towards Its App
BUSINESSWIRE - Feb 26 - The law firms of Carlson Lynch LLP, FeganScott LLC, and Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow, P.C. moved for preliminary approval of a $92M proposed class action settlement on behalf of users of the TikTok app. The settlement, if approved by the court, would resolve claims that the social media company wrongfully collected its users' biometric information and private data, and disclosed that information to third parties. In addition to creating a monetary fund for TikTok users, the settlement requires that TikTok initiate a new privacy compliance training program and take other steps to protect its users' privacy going forward.
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Disposables, the Future of Photo Sharing
NEW YORK TIMES - Feb 26 - Dispo, a new photo-sharing app that mimics the experience of using a disposable camera, is taking off. The app is founded by David Dobrik, a YouTube star. In the app, users frame photographs through a small rectangular viewfinder. There are no editing tools or captions. Multiple people can take photos on the same roll, as might happen. Though Dispo's latest version has only been available to the public for less than a week, the app climbed the ranks in Apple's App Store this week. Dispo has already begun expanding internationally, especially in Japan, where the company plans to open an office. In a seed funding round in October, led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's firm Seven Seven Six, Dispo raised $4M. This week, the company raised $20M at a $200M valuation in a Series A funding round led by Spark Capital. Dispo has also held talks with other major venture firms, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Benchmark.
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TikTok Removed ~350k Videos Related to Election Misinformation
CNET - Feb 26 - TikTok removed a total of 347,225 videos from the platform and made an additional 441,028 videos ineligible for the recommendation on the For You page in the US for violating rules on election misinformation or manipulated media in the second half-year. TikTok prepared for more domestic efforts to influence the 2020 election based on trends it had observed on the spread of misleading information. It said its partnerships with fact-checkers allowed it to verify how accurate videos posted to it are, as well as limit the distribution of those containing "unsubstantiated content".
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Ashley Whillans - Reclaiming Time, Living a Happier Life, and Improving Relationships
LTR - Feb 25 - Over 80% of working adults report feeling "time poor." The added stress of feeling like there is not enough time in the day to accomplish necessary tasks has had negative impacts on health and social relationships. Ashley Whillans, Assistant Professor in Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets at Harvard Business School discusses the importance of making smart decisions to balance time and money. According to research, the detrimental effects of time poverty surpass those of unemployment. The pandemic and working from home have increased the daily workload and aggravates the problem. Professor Ashley Whillans provides several proven strategies to reclaim time to live a happier life in the latest video in the LTR Webinar series.
LTR stands for Love, Technology, Relationships and the online conference covers the Internet dating and Online Social Communities space. It is for members of IDEA and OSCA.
The November LTR was kindly sponsored by RealMe, vPaaS by The Meet Group & Utopia Analytics.
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"LinkedIn for Creatives" Vampr Raises Further £570k Ahead of Series A
VERDICT.CO.UK - Feb 25 - Professional social networking app Vampr has raised a further £570k ahead of an upcoming Series A funding round, bringing its total funding raised to £1.9M. Founded in 2015 by musician and tech entrepreneur Baz Palmer and The Music Network's 30 Under 30 Power Player Josh Simons, the platform helps creatives find people to collaborate with, create new music and monetize their work. Dubbed "Linkedin for creatives", Vampr has built up a network of ~750k people, providing users with tools for distribution, publishing, and education. In the past year, its MAU grew by 400% and it has experienced a 1,273% increase in revenue. It has also expanded its teams in its Nashville and London offices. The funding will go towards further expansion with a new live streaming tool to allow creatives to broadcast their performances. Investors in the platform include music industry executives at Warner, Sony, and Beatport, institutional investors, and National Hockey League players.
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Francisco Partners Is Acquiring MyHeritage for $600M
TECH CRUNCH - Feb 25 - Israel's MyHeritage.com - a profitable site that lets people test DNA and track their family lineage and has some 62M users - is getting acquired by Francisco Partners, for $600M. The deal will be announced officially very soon. MyHeritage - which is available in 42 languages - also has a database of some 13B historical records. Users have built and expanded on some 58M family trees on its platform. It's also run ~5 M DNA tests for its users. Part of the deal will see some individual and institutional investors continuing to keep stakes in the company alongside Francisco Partners. They include HP Beteiligungs GmbH, Yuval Rakavy, Japhet, and Gigi Levy.
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Clubhouse Confirms Data Spillage of Its Audio Streams
BBC - Feb 25 - US cyber-security researchers said a Clubhouse user found a way to stream feeds from multiple chatrooms. Clubhouse confirmed the spill, which is when data is released to a place that is not authorized to have access to it. The firm said that it had banned the user and installed new "safeguards" to prevent conversations from being streamed again. "This individual's account has been permanently banned from the service and we have added additional safeguards to prevent people from doing this in the future." Program's chief technology officer of Stanford University's Internet Observatory, David Thiel, and Australian cyber-security researcher Robert Potter stressed that the data spill was not malicious or a "hack". By understanding how this worked, the user could connect a Clubhouse API to his website, and essentially "share" his login remotely with anyone on the internet who wanted to listen to the audio chats from the app.
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Reddit Ups Series E Round by Another $116M
TECH CRUNCH - Feb 24 - Reddit, which announced a $250M Series E earlier this month, has added ~$116M to the financing event, upping the round's most recent total to $367M. The document shows that Reddit is aiming to raise up to $500M in this capital raise. The new capital is from "new and existing investors." They offered no specifics on names. The new capital did not come with a new valuation, keeping the platform at its previously-announced valuation of $6B pre-money.
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