Media Perception Of Social Workers

Laura Normand / The Verge Some of the biggest names in tech will testify before the US Senate on January 31st, 2024 during a hearing about online child exploitation. In a Wednesday announcement , the Senate Judiciary Committee said it will hear from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X (formerly Twitter) CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, and Discord CEO Jason Citron. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) issued subpoenas for Yaccarino, Spiegel, and Citron earlier this month after receiving “repeated refusals to appear during several weeks of negotiations.” Zuckerberg and Chew voluntarily agreed to testify. The senators say the hearing will give the CEOs the chance to “testify about their failure to protect children online.” Meta is currently facing lawsuits from dozens of states over claims it misled the public about the safety of Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, school districts across the US have filed suit ag...

Image: Instagram Instagram’s latest feature lets you limit your posts to just close friends. You could already share Stories and Notes with only the users on your close friends list, but including posts and Reels could drastically change how Instagram works. Since you no longer have to share posts with your entire follower list, and other users can do the same, your Instagram feed could start to feel like it’s filled with posts from a more close-knit community. You see a green star next to the accounts of close friends, and expanding that “green list” to Reels could go a long way toward making the app feel more private. Instagram took a stab at a close friends-only platform with the launch of its original Threads app in 2019, but now, it seems like it’s trying to carry over that feeling of privacy to Instagram as well. Meanwhile, Facebook has long let users limit posts to certain groups of people on your friends list, whether it’s for close friends, acquain...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta has reportedly broken up its Responsible AI (RAI) team as it puts more of its resources into generative artificial intelligence. The Information broke the news today, citing an internal post it had seen. According to the report, most RAI members will move to the company’s generative AI product team, while others will work on Meta’s AI infrastructure. The company regularly says it wants to develop AI responsibly and even has a page devoted to the promise, where the company lists its “pillars of responsible AI,” including accountability, transparency, safety, privacy, and more. The Information ’s report quotes Jon Carvill, who represents Meta, as saying that the company will “continue to prioritize and invest in safe and responsible AI development.” He added that although the company is splitting the team up, those members will “continue to support relevant cross-Meta efforts on responsible AI development and use...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is changing a lot these days, especially when it comes to the ways in which we can share our content with others and segment different audiences. But today, the Meta-owned app is bringing the focus back to its creative tools — adding a handful of features including Instagram’s first new filters in ages. And there are a ton of them: I count 25 new filter additions on iOS before you reach the ones that were present before. “From subtle color edits to options for expressive styles, these updates make it easy for you to try various looks for your posts,” Meta’s blog post reads. As always, you can adjust the intensity of any filter with a slider. For the first time, some of these filters (like “wide angle” and “wavy”) make significant changes to your original images instead of just switching up the color and tone. GIF: Instagram Instagram has added dozens of new filters. And there ar...

Meta says Emu Edit “precisely follows instructions” to avoid altering anything besides user-specified changes. | Image: Meta Facebook and Instagram are getting some new AI-powered creative tools that will allow users to edit their photographs and produce “high-quality videos” using text descriptions. On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced two new capabilities built on Emu — the company’s foundation model for image generation — that are being integrated into Facebook and Instagram. The first, dubbed “Emu Edit,” will allow users to “precisely alter images based on text inputs.” The video demonstration for this looks similar to existing tools provided by Adobe , Google , and Canva , providing a way for users to remove or replace objects and people from photographs without any professional image editing experience. Image: Meta It seems the tool will know which sections of the image to edit (based on a text prompt) without you ...

It’s fine to say aspartame is safe — but not to obscure that you’re being paid to do it. | Photo by Long Wei/VCG via Getty Images The first rule of sponsored content: You have to tell people it was paid for. Today, the Federal Trade Commission publicly admonished over a dozen health influencers for publishing videos on TikTok and Instagram about sugar and the artificial sweetener aspartame without disclosing that the posts were paid for by the American Beverage Association and The Canadian Sugar Institute. The FTC says this makes each of them potentially on the hook for fines over $50,000 if they continue posting without disclosures. Samuel Levine, who heads the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, called it “irresponsible for any trade group to hire influencers to tout its members’ product” without making sure content creators are clear about the deal. The FTC identified instances of “inconspicuous placement, ambiguous language, or the failure to clearly i...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta, ByteDance, Alphabet, and Snap must proceed with a lawsuit alleging their social platforms have adverse mental health effects on children, a federal court ruled on Tuesday . US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected the social media giants’ motion to dismiss the dozens of lawsuits accusing the companies of running platforms “addictive” to kids. School districts across the US have filed suit against Meta, ByteDance, Alphabet, and Snap, alleging the companies cause physical and emotional harm to children. Meanwhile, 42 states sued Meta last month over claims Facebook and Instagram “profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans.” This order addresses the individual suits and “over 140 actions” taken against the companies. Tuesday’s ruling states that the First Amendment and Section 230 , which says online platforms shouldn’t be treated as the publishers of t...

Illustration: The Verge Many Threads users are now saying they have the ability to opt out of having their posts shown on Instagram and Facebook. To keep Threads posts from showing up Meta’s other platforms, tap the two lines in the top right of the Threads app > Privacy > Suggesting posts on other apps — two switches let users turn off suggestions on Instagram or Facebook. Meta tends to roll out Threads features slowly, so if you don’t see the new toggles yet, give it time. Instagram and Facebook each got a “For you on Threads” carousel in the last few months. Responding to user grumpiness, Threads said in October it was “listening to feedback” shortly before testing the opt-out switch that’s rolling out now. The feature was clearly intended to drive engagement on Threads, as the platform seemed to be foundering after its impressive initial launch . But things are looking a lot better now. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call last ...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta is starting to prompt users to sign up for the paid “no ads” version of Facebook and Instagram that’s launching in Europe. It’s rolling out as Meta responds to new EU privacy regulations by positioning the use of its services with targeted ads as a choice by users. Of course, that choice is also the only alternative available to paying around $20 per month to disengage from ads on Facebook and Instagram. The new prompt clarifies that people using both Facebook and Instagram will eventually need to pay an additional fee to cover both profiles. The pop-up appeared on one of our editor’s Instagram accounts (and Matt Navarra mentions people are seeing them on Facebook as well), so you can see what it looks like right here. Image: Thomas Ricker Meta’s Instagram prompt for a subscription to use it without ads The fee to go ad-free is €9.99 per month when purchased on the web or €12.99 per m...

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta announced Wednesday that it would require advertisers to disclose when potentially misleading AI-generated or altered content is featured in political, electoral, or social issue ads. The new rule applies to advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that contain “realistic” images, videos, or audio falsely showing someone doing something they never did or imagining a real event playing out differently than it did in reality. Content depicting realistic-looking fake people or events would also need to be disclosed. The policy is expected to go into effect next year. “In the New Year, advertisers who run ads about social issues, elections & politics with Meta will have to disclose if image or sound has been created or altered digitally, including with AI, to show real people doing or saying things they haven’t done or said,” Nick Clegg, Meta president of global affairs, said in a Threads post Wednesday. Content th...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Soon, Instagram users will have a choice about using read receipts in direct message conversations. Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri both announced on their Instagram Broadcast channels that the change is currently in testing, and Mosseri included this picture showing the toggle as well as what it looks like in action. Image: Meta Instagram’s read receipts toggle for DMs. What they didn’t mention is if that option is coming to Messenger, which similarly forces users into using read receipts without any way to turn them off. We also have no idea how soon this could roll out more widely, but keep an eye on your conversations to see if those indicators suddenly start to disappear or if anyone is turning down your very important event invitations. As we reported a few years ago , opting in or out of read receipts can enable passive aggression in its own ways — but at least it will be a choice instea...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge There are now 1 million paid subscriptions to creators on Instagram, slowly transforming the platform into a space where creators can get paid directly by their fans. It’s a big milestone but a small number for Instagram: the service has around 2 billion monthly users . Patreon, meanwhile, is estimated to have more than 30 million paid subscriptions — albeit with about a decade’s head start. Meta announced the milestone today alongside some other news related to creators getting paid. The company is going to start promoting subscriptions in Instagram’s feed, putting a big “Subscribe” button at the top of every post so that non-paying followers know it’s available. Creators will be able to offer 30-day free trials, and Instagram is adding a tool to let creators bulk DM new subscribers to chat with them, which could help get fans to stick around. Image: Meta Instagram is adding a “Subscribe” butto...

Image: The Verge If you don’t like the idea of your Threads posts popping up on other users’ Instagram and Facebook feeds, Meta may soon add a way to stop this. As spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi , Threads appears to be working on a new privacy setting, titled “Suggesting posts on other apps.” From what it looks like, the setting will let you prevent Threads from recommending your posts on Instagram, Facebook, or both. Currently, Meta may suggest your Threads posts to other users on either platform if you have a public profile, which is why you might have noticed carousels of Threads posts sandwiched within your Facebook and Instagram feeds lately. #Threads is working on "suggesting posts on other apps" privacy setting pic.twitter.com/4Qe5cvEWKj — Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) November 2, 2023 Meta is obviously using recommended posts as a tool to promote and grow its X (formerly Twitter) alternative, but it’s nice that Meta...