Social Sphere: Twitter Verification Update & TikTok Mansions

Twitter Updates Its Verification Policies

Twitter plans to relaunch its verification process in early 2021 after years of criticism over its previous verification policies. The company is laying out its core account types that are served by verification. They also plan on removing verification badges if a notable account is inactive or incomplete. Twitter knows how important it is for its users to trust who they're engaging with online. So they are leaning on the community to better improve their 2021 verification updates. 

Snapchat Unveils Its New TikTok-like Feature 

Another day and another social platform creating a TikTok-like feature. Shocker! For context, this isn’t the first feature Snapchat has released to compete with TikTok. Just last month, Snapchat released its music-powered feature that allows users to add songs to their Stories. 

Their latest feature, Spotlight, a TikTok-like feed showcasing creators’ videos and Snaps using the new music-powered feature. Spotlight will even use an algorithm similar to TikTok’s to help rank a user’s videos for a more personalized viewing experience. The major difference between TikTok’s ‘For You Page’ and Snapchat’s Spotlight is that Spotlight will display videos from private and public accounts. 

Facebook Experiments Prioritizing “High Quality” News Sources on Users’ Timelines 

Since the 2020 election outcome, many right-wing news sources are sharing false and misleading information on the timeline. This most recent spread of election misinformation caused many Facebook employees to come up with an emergency proposal that changes Facebook’s news feed algorithm. The new algorithm would emphasize “new ecosystem quality” or N.E.Q., based on the quality of news sources journalism.

Zuckerberg has agreed to increase the weight N.E.Q. plays in the news feed algorithm to help prioritize reliable news source visibility. This change is part of Facebook’s “break the glass” plans they spent developing for the election aftermath. This change promotes news sources like CNN, New York Times, and NPR over extremist news publications. This is a vision of what a less divisive Facebook might look like. However, if this change becomes permanent, Facebook could be deciding between social responsibility and the bottom line. 

TikTok Creates New Photosensitivity Features

TikTok prides itself on being an inclusive platform open to all types of creators. However, there was a gap in creators and viewers in the epilepsy community who couldn’t watch videos due to photosensitive content. TikTok met with epilepsy advocates to find ways to improve its platform for these community members. A few months ago, TikTok released a feature that warned creators when they used a feature that could trigger photosensitive viewers. 

In the coming weeks, TikTok will be releasing a new feature that will protect people with photosensitive epilepsy. This feature will allow viewers who come across photosensitive videos to skip all future photosensitive content. TikTok plans to continue meeting with leading epilepsy organizations to spread the word about the new feature and bring awareness to epilepsy. 

Spotify’s Wrapped Is Back

Spotify’s 2020 Wrapped is back and just in time to save us from what’s been the longest and most challenging year yet. Users can access their 2020 listening round-up through Spotify’s mobile app. They can also participate in quizzes, find out their top artists and podcasts, and the decade of music they listened to most. And despite having listened to 500 million new artists this year, your top song will probably be some pop song TikTok made famous this year. 

TikTok Mansions Going Public on the Stock Market

A company attempting to capitalize on TikTok mansions has gone public on the stock market. TikTok mansions have become quite popular in LA, with many management groups renting out houses for TikTok creators and groups to live and collaborate under the same roof. Popular TikTok houses include the Hype House and Sway House. 

The influencers don’t pay rent but rather the companies renting out the homes for the creators receive a percentage of the creators’ earnings – hence the management group. But to make this a more sustainable business model the companies decided to go public. Although currently listed as pink sheet penny stocks, some have seen a surge since COVID-19. To seasoned investors, this might seem like a volatile solution. Still, to the many on social media, this might be a genius idea considering the short life expectancy of the houses. 

Euphoria Actor’s Horrifying Audition Goes Viral 

Euphoria’s Lukas Gage was getting ready to audition via Zoom when Director Tristram Shapeero is heard insulting his space. Gage chimes right back in, saying, “living in a four-by-four box, it’s fine. Just give me the job, and we’ll be fine.” Gage recorded the audition and later posted it to Twitter and Instagram with the caption, “PSA if you're a sh*t talking director make sure to mute your sh*t on zoom meetings.” 

The clip has gone viral and received praise from creative groups like Comments By Celebs and other notable actors like Leslie Jordan. Shapeero has since issued an apology to Gage. But it’s not like Gage needed it after the entertainment community at large came to his defense.

Meg Thee Stallion Creates Another TikTok Dance Challenge

Meg Thee Stallion just released her debut album Good News. It’s now streaming on all major music platforms. Her songs are absolute bangers with the music videos to match. With the visual aid for her latest single “Body,” intensive choreography has quickly turned into a viral TikTok dance – the #BodyChallenge. 

This isn’t the first time one of Meg’s songs trended on TikTok. For example, this year, her song “Savage” and the “Savage Remix” featuring Beyoncé became the TikTok dance of quarantine, and everyone was here for it. Stars like Jennifer Lopez and popular TikTok creator and performer Howard Johnson have posted videos of them performing the choreography. 

Thanks for reading; we’ll catch up with you with our next edition. In the meantime, read our past editions here!