Meta’s Threads is taking strides to combat misinformation as national elections approach.

Users reported fact-checks surfacing on posts, with engagement confirmed between Threads and fact-checking organizations.

While warning labels, denoting “False Information,” have been introduced, direct fact-checking on Threads content is yet to be fully implemented.

One notable incident involved a video falsely claiming to be from a France 24 broadcast, exposed as AI-generated through diligent fact-checking.

However, some features, like fact-checking links and informational warnings, appeared underdeveloped in tests, particularly on desktop.

As Threads evolves, it aims to differentiate itself from its rival X by incorporating a comprehensive fact-checking approach rather than relying on crowdsourcing.

X, which enlists independent volunteers, faces challenges in achieving consensus, despite support from figures like Elon Musk.

Meta’s cautious approach with Threads stands out, steering clear of amplifying news and political content—a notable departure from X, where verified accounts have occasionally disseminated debunked claims.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri emphasized that Threads will not actively amplify news, aligning with Meta’s commitment to curbing misinformation.

In a recent policy shift, Meta announced it will no longer proactively surface political content in recommendations on Threads and Instagram.

Despite this, news and politics may still find a place in the app’s ” today’s topics” feature.

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TECHDIGEST – As part of a redesigning effort, Meta-owned photo-sharing platform, Instagram, will be rejigging its app to refocus its priorities to “bring people together over what they love.”

The app, in a statement, announced it will remove the Shop tab from the navigation bar.

The removal will end a 3 year stay of the Shop tab on the navigation bar as Instagram introduced it alongside the Reels tab in 2020.

According to the management, the removal, however, will not affect the possibility of making purchases through the app.

Instagram noted that it would put its Create button back in the center of its main navigation bar.

READ ALSO: Imo State Launches Digital Skills Competition For Youth

Speaking on the development, Instagram head, Adam Mosseri, said in a Reel that the move would “simplify” the app and refocus its priorities to “bring people together over what they love.”

Once the re-design takes effect in February, the new order of the navigation bar will be Home, Search, Create, Reels and Profile.

While the dedicated Shop tab is expected to disappear, Mosseri explained that “you’ll still be able to shop on Feed, in Stories, in Reels and in ads.”

The company, on its Help page added that it would “continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across feed, stories, reels, ads and more.”

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TECHDIGEST – Instagram, with parent company Meta, is making some changes on its platform which will enable original content creators scale according to Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram.

The new development by Instagram also includes product tags that allow users tag a product in their post and assign themselves to a category which shows up every time the user is tagged in a post; there’s also enhanced tags and then the ranking for originality.

Explaining these new features in a video posted on Twitter, with a little note — “Creators are so important to the future of Instagram, and we want to make sure that they are successful and get all the credit they deserve” — Mosseri said: “You create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you are re-sharing something that you found from someone else. We’re going to try and do more to try and value original content more, particularly compared to reposted content.”

Mosseri explained further that original contents edited outside of Instagram and uploaded to the app would not be penalized, but this is as long as there’s no watermark on the content. “The idea is if you made it, it’s original. It’s okay if you edited it outside of Instagram and then bring it in via the gallery.”

READ ALSO: Instagram Safety Tips You Need To Know

But how would Instagram know the contents are original even without the watermark? Mosseri emphasized that: “If the account is an aggregator, we’ll more likely be able to detect that it’s not original.”

“We build classifiers to predict how likely something is to be original, but that’s not knowing. We look at things like who’s in the video, and if we’ve seen the video before.” But then it still wouldn’t be easy for Instagram to figure out original contents and Mosseri adds that: “if it’s someone pretending to be the original creator, which is less likely but could happen, it’ll be hard for us to know.”

The ultimate target is the reduction of aggregator sites’ dominance, enabling original content creators get the accolades they deserve. This leads to the question that says; hope this wouldn’t lead to a penalty on innocent content creators as you can never really know who is taking up someone else’s contents in some cases?

Mosseri further points out that Instagram will continue to evolve its detection processes over time to better determine where content comes from, and who posted the original, in order to help amplify the true creators, as opposed to letting bigger, farm accounts take all of the engagement.

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TECHDIGEST – Social networking service, Instagram has launched subscriptions that allow users to subscribe to their favourite creators in order to gain access to exclusive content.

The social network is trialing this experience with a small number of 10 creators and influencers, including basketball player Sedona Prince and Olympian Jordan Chiles.

According to Instagram, the test of subscription which commenced on 19 January 2022, intends to add more creators in the coming weeks.

Creators can select the price of their subscription tiers, ranging from $0.99 to $99.99 per month.

Essentially, users will pay this monthly fee to access content such as subscriber-only Lives and Stories. They will also get a purple badge by their username that shows their status to creators.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has described Instagram subscriptions as “one of the best ways” for influencers to generate income.

Recall that Facebook also has its own version of subscriptions for creators and Twitter recently launched Super Follows.

There are also platforms such as Patreon and even OnlyFans, all of which allow creators to charge their followers in exchange for exclusive content.

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TECHDIGEST – Following widespread concerns about child online safety, Instagram has suspended its plans to build a version of the social media platform aimed at younger users.

Instagram boss, Adam Mosseri, announced that the project had leaked before concrete plans were ready and meant the company was unable to properly address concerns raised in some quarters, adding that Instagram would now ‘take more time’ to work on it.

Reports emerged earlier this year suggesting that the Facebook-owned company had been working on a spin-off version of the app designed for those under 13 and therefore currently too young to use the main platform, with politicians and campaigners raising concerns about exposing younger children to potential online harms.

But Mosseri said the aim had never been to create an ‘Instagram for Kids’ and had instead been focused on improving online safety for young people.

‘We were designing an experience for tweens (10-12yrs), and it was never going to be the same as Instagram today. Parents approve tween accounts and have oversight over who they follow, who follows them, who messages them, time spent, etc.

‘But the project leaked way before we knew what it would be. People feared the worst, and we had few answers at that stage. Recent Wall Street Journal reporting caused even greater concern. It’s clear we need to take more time on this.

‘So we’re pausing. We’re going to take the time to work with parents, policymakers, regulators, experts, to demonstrate why this project is valuable, and how it helps keep teens safe. Critics will see this as a concession that the project is a bad idea. That’s not it.’

Facebook and Instagram have been criticized in recent weeks after reports from the Wall Street Journal suggested the platforms’ own internal research had shown the sites had a negative impact on teenage girls and their body image, but these findings had not been published.

According to Mosseri, many children under the age of 13 were entering false birth date details in order to get onto social media, and that Instagram – like YouTube and TikTok – was trying to be proactive and look for ways to make a version of the site which was more age-appropriate.

He also confirmed that Instagram planned to introduce new parental supervision controls on the app in the coming months.

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