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The Verge’s favorite social networks

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Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Social networking has become more disconnected, to say the least. Two years ago, Elon Musk began transforming Twitter into what is now X, and the ensuing chaos drove a lot of former users elsewhere — elsewhere being several places, including Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and even Facebook or Instagram. We were curious as to where our staff members were going for their social networking fix these days — or whether they had given up on it altogether. Here are some of their answers. I just don’t think any single platform is going to be the one-stop shop that Twitter once was Jay Peters, news editor I primarily use microblogging social networks, and I bounce between many of them because 1) I need to for my job and 2) because none has really risen to become the One Central Place that Twitter used to be. X is awful now, but I need to use it to keep tabs on Elon Musk and the various companies that still post news on the platform fir
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Instagram saves the best video quality for the most popular content

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Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Ever wondered why some of your Instagram videos tend to look blurry, while others are crisp and sharp? It’s because, on Instagram, the quality of your video apparently depends on how many views it’s getting. That’s according to a video AMA from Instagram head Adam Mosseri, in which he explained why some videos are lower-quality than others. Here’s part of Mosseri’s explanation, from the video, which was reposted by a Threads user today: In general, we want to show the highest-quality video we can ... But if something isn’t watched for a long time — because the vast majority of views are in the beginning — we will move to a lower quality video. And then if it’s watched again a lot then we’ll re-render the higher quality video. He continues, adding that the platform does this in order to “show people the highest-quality content we can.” Instagram devotes more resources to videos from “creators who drive more views,” Moss
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Celebrity jet-tracking accounts have vanished from Threads and Instagram

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Jack Sweeney says that 38 of his jet tracking accounts have been suspended. | Illustration: The Verge Meta has suspended several Threads and Instagram accounts that track the private jets of celebrities such as Mark Zuckerberg , Elon Musk , Jeff Bezos , Kim Kardashian , and former US president Donald Trump . Jack Sweeney, who gained notoriety for his @ElonJet account on X and maintained many of the suspended accounts, said on Threads that the development is “reminiscent of all my accounts getting suspended on Twitter .” The shuttered accounts, which used publicly available data to show the flight paths of private jets, initially displayed a message on Monday that read, “The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.” Meta provided no direct warning or explanation for the suspensions, according to Sweeney, who says the accounts appear “blacked out with no options to interact or receive information.” In a statement to TechCrunch , how
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How to switch your Instagram account from public to private

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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Anyone who has followed a social network knows that sometimes the most innocuous post can attract unpleasant responses, especially on apps like Instagram, where your content — whether video, image, or text — can be out there for anyone to see. There are any number of reasons you might want to set your account to private, even if only temporarily. It would make it so that only people you approve can follow you and see the stuff you post on your grid or in your Stories. This isn’t a perfect solution. For example, although only your followers can see your posts while your account is private, some aspects of your account, such as your profile, will remain public. Anyway, let’s begin. Screenshot: Meta It’s not hard to find and toggle on Instagram’s Private Account feature. To toggle your Instagram Private Account on: Using the iOS or Android mobile app, tap on your profile icon in the lower-ri
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Why are Instagram searches for ‘Adam Driver Megalopolis’ blocked for CSAM?

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Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge When people search for “Adam driver Megalopolis ” on Instagram or Facebook right now, instead of seeing posts about Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film , they’re shown a warning, titled, “Child sexual abuse is illegal.” That bizarre fact was pointed out in a post on X yesterday, and as of today, I’m still seeing it when I search for the phrase. But why? Well, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with recent Threads moderation failures . Nor are there bombshell revelations about Megalopolis or its main star that I’m aware of. Screenshot: Instagram Yikes. Instead, Facebook and Instagram seem to be blocking searches containing “mega” and “drive” — I saw it when I searched with those two words together, but not when I searched for “Megalopolis,” “Adam Driver,” or either term mixed with any others. The issue isn’t new, either, as this nine-month-old Reddit post about searching for “Sega mega drive” on
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Instagram adds new guardrails to protect teens against sextortion

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is launching several new features designed to protect teens from sextortion scams, which occur when scammers threaten to share intimate images of victims unless they receive a payment or more photos. One guardrail that’s rolling out soon will prevent people from screenshotting or screen recording disappearing images or videos sent in a private message. If the sender enables replays of the image or video, Instagram will block people from opening them on the web. This won’t stop scammers from capturing the image or video by recording it with another device, however. GIF: Meta Starting today, Instagram will begin using certain indicators, like how new an account is, to detect scammy behavior as well. The platform will then prevent these accounts from sending follow requests to teens by blocking their request or moving it to the teen’s spam folder. It’s also testing a safety notice in Instagr
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How influencers are changing advertising, with Digitas CEO Amy Lanzi

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Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Digitas The future of marketing — and, in a way, everything else — is getting a shakeup. On today’s Decoder , I’m talking to Digitas CEO Amy Lanzi — and you’ll notice this episode is a little different. We recorded this conversation live onstage in New York City at an event graciously hosted by Adweek . I’ve actually been dying to talk to Amy for some time. Digitas is one of the most important agencies in the entire advertising business, with huge clients and massive influence over big platforms like Instagram and YouTube. After all, they’re the ones buying the ads that keep all of those companies afloat. Amy is really sharp on what value a company like Digitas brings to its clients and the role her company plays in the online ecosystem. But it seems very clear that all of that is changing rapidly as more and more ad dollars go directly to creators and influencers on those platforms instead of ad agencies and the p
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