What’s MGHappening in Social Media: October 23, 2018

The Verge – In 2016, Facebook disclosed that video viewership metrics had been inflated, which was responsible for an industry pivot from more traditional writing to an increased amount of video content. While the importance of video was rising, Facebook did not have the vastly higher viewer numbers it was indicating in reports. The news is now resurfacing two years later as recent findings show that Facebook had known about the errors for more than a year before disclosing them to the public. To make matters worse, when Facebook initially admitted to inflating the metrics, they estimated being off by 60 to 80 percent. It is now believed that Facebook video metrics were anywhere between 150 and 900 percent off. This new info has prompted a class action lawsuit against the social network. (Full Story)

Variety – Facebook is initiating a new partnership with MTV (with other outside content partners likely to come) in an effort to boost viewership on the Facebook Watch video platform. The first component of this new partnership is a relaunch of the MTV show Real World. By introducing these types of new licensing deals, Facebook hopes to add to its 50 million monthly Watch users while also using social tools to help define a new way of watching TV. While those 50 million users are a relatively small portion of Facebook’s total user count, the number has increased 14 times over so far this year. (Full Story)

TechCrunch – Facebook’s latest algorithm change will demote posts that link to copied content. In other words, when publishers share content on their sites that is illicitly republished from another source with little to no modification, Facebook will be much less likely to push those links out to users’ News Feeds. Clickbait headlines and pages overflowing with low quality ads will also see a decline in reach as a result of this change. (Full Story)

Variety – Facebook is making it even easier for users to play games from its Instant Games library by expanding the service to Facebook Groups and the Facebook Lite app. Additionally, the social network is adding new tools for developers and rolling out new monetization options. To make Instant Games more accessible across the globe, Facebook will change how games download and update on mobile, specifically aimed to benefit users on 2G connections. With Facebook’s player base rising by 25 percent from June to September, these updates aim to make it a more serious competitor in the mobile gaming space. (Full Story)

The Verge – Twitter wants to add more transparency and openness to reported tweets as part of its continuing quest to improve conversations and minimize harassment and hate speech on the platform. Within the next few weeks, Twitter will introduce a change that highlights when a tweet is taken down. By making this change, Twitter aims to help the public understand that a Tweet was removed because it violates Twitter’s policies and was not simply removed by the poster due to backlash. The message indicating that a tweet has been removed will be present for 14 days from the time it is taken down in spaces where that tweet would otherwise appear, such as on a user’s profile. Additionally, when tweets are reported, they will now automatically be hidden for the user that reported the tweet, even if it is not taken down. (Full Story)

Engadget – Snapchat has added three new templates to its Lens Studio, increasing the flexibility Lens creators have when trying to find new ways to build upon the feature. The first template helps bring 2D visuals to life by adding animations to them. The new segmentation template allows for transformations to portraits, hair or the background, and the introduction of an “add from camera roll” option for a more personal view. These tools previously existed for the Snapchat team, but are now available to all Lens creators. (Full Story)