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Facebook, Twitter cut off data access for Geofeedia, a social media surveillance startup
According to a new study published today from the American Civil Liberties Union, major social networks including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have recently provided user data access to Geofeedia, the location-based, social media surveillance system used by government offices, private security firms, marketers and others. As TechCrunch previously reported, Geofeedia is one of a bevy of… Read More
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NFL teams will now be fined for posting videos and GIFs during games
The NFL just announced a new social media policy that is about as anti-fan friendly as it gets. According to league memos obtained by ESPN, the league’s social media policy (which takes effect tomorrow) effectively bans all video-based social media during games. First, it restricts them from going live on apps like Facebook Live or Periscope during or after the game. Previously… Read More
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The new Hinge, focused exclusively on real relationships, now costs $7/month
Hinge, the newly pivoted “relationship app”, has today unleashed an app that it believes is the solution to the “dating apocalypse.” The whole idea is to ensure that users are all on the app for the same general reason: to find an actual relationship. In order to do that, the company has totally rejiggered the app’s UI and protocol, as well as adding a… Read More
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Greylock closes $1 billion fund
Greylock Partners is getting another $1 billion to invest in startups. The long-time venture capital firm is announcing its 15th fund, bringing the total to $3.5 billion currently under management. With 50 years of investing in the books, Greylock has backed industry leaders in the enterprise IT and consumer internet categories, including LinkedIn, Dropbox, Facebook and Airbnb. Their… Read More
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Facebook tests ads in Groups, its next potential cash cow
Facebook’s latest trick to earn more revenue without drowning the News Feed is to serve ads to the 1 billion users of its Groups feature. After people reported seeing notices that “We’re testing ads in Groups,” TechCrunch inquired and Facebook confirmed that mobile and desktop versions of Groups in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand are part of the… Read More
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Workplace by Facebook opens to sell enterprise social networking to the masses
After 20 months in a closed beta under the working title Facebook at Work, (as we predicted it would the other week) today Facebook is finally bringing its enterprise-focused messaging and social networking service to market under a new name, Workplace. It’s not only armed with a new brand: Workplace is launching with a new kind of pricing model based on Facebook-style… Read More
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Snapchat launches post-roll ads, Story Playlist that loads favorites in bulk
Snapchat is fighting back against Instagram Stories, which rocketed to 100 million daily users by spotlighting the cloned feature atop the feed. To make Snapchat more “friends first,” it’s moving friends’ Stories above Discover where they used to be to make sure you don’t miss people you care about. And to make it easier to watch all your favorites… Read More
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Bumble bans mirror selfies and other dumb photos from users’ profiles
There are certain kinds of photos users of dating apps tend to loathe, and the suggestive mirror selfie tends to be at the top of that list, somewhere near photos of guys holding a fish and gym selfies. That’s why today, the dating app Bumble has taken action to ban selfies of users posing in their underwear, or while wearing swimsuits indoors. In addition, you can no longer upload… Read More
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Facebook launches standalone “Events” discovery and calendar app
650 million people use Facebook Events — 100 million every day — but it’s a smaller sect of hardcore extroverts who discover these parties and meetups, then invite everyone else. Now Facebook is giving its most outgoing users a dedicated app for browsing and searching for stuff going on nearby. And thanks to the Facebook Events app’s ability to pull in calendars from… Read More
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Crunch Network
The case for Twitter’s independence (unless Google or management buys)
The problems associated with the widespread rumors of Twitters “for sale” status and that the management team is divided on whether or not to sell the company were compounded this morning with reports that Google, Disney and Apple will not be bidders. The stock price is down 20 percent to $19.79 at the time of writing. Who runs Twitter — board or management? The impressive… Read More
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Facebook invents “virtual reality emoji” gestures
These are what Facebook calls “VR emoji,” and they’re the company’s vision for how we’ll convey emotion in virtual reality. We’re not talking about yellow illustrated emoticons popping up over your head. Instead, your avatar’s eyes, eye brows, mouth and other facial features will change to mimic how we exhibit body language in the real… Read More
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Prisma adds art filtered video, GIFs coming next
Art filter photo app Prisma is adding a big new feature to its iOS app in an update landing today: support for videos. Read More
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Instagram Stories has 100 million daily active users after just 2 months
Instagram Stories is benefitting from the large active user base Instagram itself enjoys, and now has 100 million daily active viewers. That’s two-thirds of the daily active user population for Snapchat, which reported 150 million global active users across its entire platform in late September. Even with a built-in audience to build from, and prime real estate positioning at the very top… Read More
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Animoto gives businesses an easy way to create social videos
Animoto is launching a new product for businesses that want to post their own marketing videos for Facebook and other social networks — but don’t necessarily have the team or the skills needed to create something slick. The company already offers products that automatically assemble your photos and videos into a video slideshow, and it’s been adding more tools for businesses. Read More
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LinkedIn will now let you discreetly signal when you’re looking for a job
One of the hallmarks of any social network is how it pushes people to share their experiences with others, but increasingly we’ve seen a lot of moves by social platforms to give people the option to remain very private, if they choose. One of the latest moves on this front comes from LinkedIn, the social network for the working world with some 450 million members and currently… Read More
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A few charts that sum up Jack Dorsey’s first year as Twitter CEO
Happy Twitter-versary (for the nth time around), Jack Dorsey. Things haven’t been going well, it seems, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel — Twitter may be acquired by someone somewhere in the tech (or entertainment) industry, perhaps. To be perfectly fair, the company Dorsey inherited from his predecessor(s), including an array of former product leads as well as CEO… Read More
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Shots Studios rebrands from selfie app to social star video factory
Twitter once tried to buy Shots for $150 million to score its 3 million rabid teen users, a source tells TechCrunch. But the Justin Bieber-funded selfie app developer dreamed of a different destiny, where it would become the “Saturday Night Live” of the mobile generation. The Shots app grew to a peak of almost 8 million users, but ultimately it was too difficult… Read More
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How to encrypt your Facebook Messages
All 1 billion Facebook Messenger users can now encrypt their messages so that governments, hackers, and even Facebook itself can’t read them. Facebook announced its “Secret” messages feature back in July. Now it’s fully rolled out, but still a bit tricky to use. Messenger threads aren’t Secret by default, so here’s a step-by-step guide for how to turn… Read More
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Pinterest lagged behind leaked revenue projections in 2015
Today, Pinterest announced that it has hired its first chief financial officer from Twitter, Todd Morgenfeld. However, there’s a more interesting footnote that’s reported in The Wall Street Journal’s story about the hire: Pinterest generated roughly $100 million in revenue last year, according to the report. You may recall that last year TechCrunch reported, based on… Read More
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