Tag: Social
Twitter suspends ‘large network’ of fake accounts used to match phone numbers to users
Twitter announced today that over the holidays it identified and shut down “a large network of fake accounts,” as well as many others “located in a wide range of countries,” collectively abusing a feature that let them match phone numbers to user accounts. TechCrunch previously reported this same issue on…
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How Dubsmash revived itself as #2 to TikTok
Lip-syncing app Dubsmash was on the brink of death. After a brief moment of virality in 2015 alongside Vine (R.I.P), Dubsmash was bleeding users faster than it could recruit them. The app let you choose an audio track like a rap song or movie quote and shoot a video of…
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Twitter suspends notorious UK hate preacher for violating abuse rules
Twitter has confirmed it has temporarily suspended the account of controversial rightwing commentator, Katie Hopkins. The move was reported earlier by the BBC. Hopkins, a former MailOnline columnist and presenter on LBC radio, is a veteran of the social media platform, joining Twitter just under a decade ago — and using…
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Daily Crunch: Facebook’s profits disappoint
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Facebook hits 2.5B users in Q4 but shares sink from slow profits In its latest quarterly…
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Social media boosting service exposed thousands of Instagram passwords
A social media boosting startup, which bills itself as a service to increase a user’s Instagram followers, has exposed thousands of Instagram account passwords. The company, Social Captain, says it helps thousands of users to grow their Instagram follower counts by connecting their accounts to its platform. Users are asked…
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Facebook will pay $550 million to settle class action lawsuit over privacy violations
Facebook will pay over half a billion dollars to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged systematic violation of an Illinois consumer privacy law. The settlement amount is large indeed, but a small fraction of the $35 billion maximum the company could have faced. Class members — basically Illinois Facebook…
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