The Social World: A Weekly Round-Up

While reports suggest that Facebook is on track to hit 2 billion users later this year, the platform is busy making itself more user-friendly and cyber-secured all this while. Well, that’s what Facebook’s latest ad policy updates suggest. Here’s a glimpse from the developments in the social media world that happened in the week that was.

Facebook updates its ad policies: Discriminatory advertising has no place on Facebook and with its latest ad policy update, Facebook has made it loud and clear. The new ad policy prohibits discrimination by not allowing the advertisers discriminate against people based on personal attributes like race, colour, sextual orientation etc. The social giant is also testing new enforcement tools that’ll help to identify ads that are in violation of its policies. Learn the details of new policy here.

Another update that caught our attention was ‘Community Help’ under Safety Check. Instead of sending thoughts and prayers to crisis victims, you can now share food, shelter and transportation; things that’ll actually help! Facebook’s crisis assistance is now galvanizing local communities to support each other in tangible ways. Read more about the move here.

Pinterest adds visual search tool: Pinterest just launched a new tool that lets you find all those things you don't have the words to describe. When you spot something in a Pin that you want to learn more about, tap the search tool in the corner. Then select the part of the Pin you’re interested in, and Pinterest will show you Pins just like it. You can even filter your visual search results by topic so you find exactly what you’re looking for. Catch all the action here.

YouTube opens mobile live streams: The online video king has opened-up mobile live-streaming for creators with over 10,000 subscribers. In addition, they’ll also have access to a feature called ‘Super Chat’, that lets viewers pin a comment to the top of the live chat window. The feature aims to render the power of live streaming in the hands of hundreds of thousands of talented creators, giving them a more intimate and spontaneous way to share their thoughts, lives and creativity. Read more about the feature here.

Twitter protects users from abuse: Twitter has begun identifying people who have been banned for abusive behaviour and it will stop them from creating new accounts. The company said its changes, which also include a new "safe search" feature, will be implemented in the coming weeks. By default, the feature will hide graphic and sexually explicit images and video from search results. It will also hide tweets from any accounts that you have muted or blocked. The tweets will still be “discoverable” if you want to dig for them. Read more about the feature here.

Do share your thoughts about these developments in the comments box.