Mastodon, the decentralized alternative to X, is going to adopt a controversial feature from the platform formerly known as Twitter: quote posts. The company on Friday shared the progress it’s making on the implementation of the feature, which has divided users over its potential to be used for online abuse and bullying. Critics have long…
Category: social networking
activitypub, Automattic, fediverse, Global IT News, Global Security News, open social web, Social, social media, social networking, tumblr, wordpress
Tumblr to join the fediverse after WordPress migration completes
Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse — the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen. As it turns out,…
Bluesky, Global IT News, Global Security News, Pinksky, Social, social networking, TC
Built on Bluesky, Pinksky brings its Instagram-like app to Android
Bluesky users on Android now have access to a new app that works more like Instagram than X. On Tuesday, an app called Pinksky launched an Android version of its photo-centric social networking experience built on top of Bluesky. The app is now one of many attempting to court former Instagram users by offering a…
Apps, Facebook, gen z, Global IT News, Global Security News, Meta, Social, social media, social networking, trends
Mark Zuckerberg teases a 2025 return to ‘OG Facebook’
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a “return to OG Facebook” as part of his key goals for 2025 in Wednesday’s Q4 earnings call with investors. While the company was short on details as to what specific changes lay in store, it’s clear that Meta is in desperate need of younger Facebook users to sustain itself…
Apps, earnings, Global IT News, Global Security News, Meta, social networking, Threads
Threads adds another 20M monthly users since December, reaching 320M
Threads, Meta’s microblogging service, is growing at a fast pace as users gravitate to the app over rivals like X. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now has 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 300 million last month. The app had 275 million monthly active…
Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, movies, plex, Social, social networking, streaming, streaming service, tv
Streaming service Plex gets more social with public profiles and reviews
Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies. More recently, the company added social networking features, which it’s today expanding with its rollout…
Apps, Bluesky, flipboard, Global IT News, Global Security News, open social web, Social, social media, social networking, surf, Video
Flipboard’s new app Surf adds its own video feed, too
After the TikTok ban went into effect on Sunday, social network Bluesky launched a custom feed for videos on its platform. Now, Flipboard’s newest app, Surf, which is dedicated to browsing the open social web and decentralized services like Mastodon and Bluesky, is taking advantage of that move to introduce a video feed of its…
Apps, at proto, AT Protocol, Bluesky, Global IT News, Global Security News, Mark Cuban, open social web, Social, social networking, Startups, TikTok
Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol
Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, he shared in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday. In anticipation of the coming U.S. TikTok ban, which will go through on Sunday unless paused by the Supreme Court, users have been fleeing to other video platforms, including…
account portability, Apps, federated apps, fediverse, Global IT News, Global Security News, Mastodon, Meta, mobile apps, Social, social apps, social media, social networking, Threads
Instagram Threads won’t share a timeline for account portability
Will Instagram Threads truly integrate with the fediverse, also known as the open social web, to allow its users not only to interact with people on other services like Twitter alternative Mastodon but also to move their account elsewhere if they decide that Meta’s policies are no longer to their liking? Today that answer remains…
Apps, china, Global IT News, Global Security News, Social, social media, social networking, TC, TikTok, TikTok Ban
TikTok users’ attempted migration to Chinese app RedNote isn’t going too well
American TikTok users have been thumbing their collective noses at the U.S. government’s decision to ban TikTok by spitefully joining another Chinese social media app, Red Note (aka Xiaohongshu), sending it to the top of the U.S. App Store on Monday. Unfortunately, many of those who already made the transition have faced problems with having…
Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy, Social, social media, social networking, supreme court, TC, TikTok, TikTok Ban, TikTok Hearing, Trump
TikTok ban: How both sides made their case to the Supreme Court and what the justices asked
On Friday, the nation’s highest court heard arguments on whether to uphold or block a law that could effectively ban TikTok in the U.S. The bill, signed into law by President Biden in April 2024, gives TikTok’s parent company ByteDance until January 19 to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban in the country.…
Apps, Bluesky, Global IT News, Global Security News, Social, social apps, social media, social networking, Startups, Threads, Twitter, X
Bluesky bump from X exodus is slowing down, data shows
Social network and X competitor Bluesky’s massive growth slowed in December in the U.S., after having surged from 9+ million in September to north of 20 million users in November. The slowdown is based on an analysis of web traffic and mobile app daily active users by analytics firm Similarweb, which found that Bluesky grew…