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X Will Now Display Posts from Communities That You’ve Joined In Your Main Feed

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X Will Now Display Posts from Communities That You’ve Joined In Your Main Feed

I’m not sure that X’s communities are ever going to be a key engagement space, or even a valuable consideration for most users. But the X team is trying to boost communities engagement, in the hopes that it can indeed help facilitate more types of discussion in the app, and potentially provide another pathway for growth, and even creator monetization, through enhanced connection within specific niches.

X’s latest update on this front is that posts from communities that you’re a member of will now start to appear in your main ‘For You’ feed, providing another means to highlight community discussions in the app.

That could help to re-engage community members, by highlighting relevant discussions from the groups they’ve chosen to join, though the fact that X even feels the need to expand the appearance of such posts suggests that it is having issues with communities retention.

Communities was initially launched in late 2021, in order to provide dedicated, topic-based spaces to share and discuss relevant subjects, without having to post for all to see.

The concept aligns with the evolving use of social media platforms, which has seen people increasingly shifting their sharing and engagement to private messaging groups, as opposed to public broadcasting, due to the potential backlash and criticism that can come when you open your opinions to broader judgment.

Because of the increasingly divisive nature of the main feed, more people have retreated to smaller, more contained groups, and communities is X’s answer, though thus far it seemingly hasn’t caught on in the way that was originally hoped.

Early returns on communities didn’t seem to reflect a lot of interest in the option, though previous management did report communities gaining more traction in the months before Elon Musk took over at the app.

But then came the great staff cull, which also included the majority of the team that had been working on communities. Which seemed to be the death knell for the option, but more recently, X owner Elon Musk has highlighted the potential of communities as a valuable connective option.

Which has sparked renewed focus on the option, including the re-introduction of the ability to highlight a community on your profile.

Twitter Community Spotlight

So it could still become a more relevant consideration, though it remains to be seen whether it actually adds value to the X experience, which, really, will largely hinge on how X communicates the usage of the option.

As noted, originally, communities was devised in order to make users feel more comfortable about sharing in the app, in order to encourage greater participation. The vast majority of X’s 250 million daily active users never post themselves, and the development team was seeking new options to address this aspect.

As former Twitter VP of consumer product Jay Sullivan explained early last year:

“One of the things I hear from people is, ’Hey, I read a lot of stuff. I’m not necessarily comfortable tweeting or don’t know when or why I should tweet. I would feel better if I was tweeting to a smaller community of people.”

That was the core push behind the development of the option, but it’s not clear whether it actually addresses that use case, especially given the reduced motivation for users to share their content with a smaller audience.

Because for most regular X users, they’ve already curated their community, by posting and following others over time, which has enabled them to establish a largely topic-focused group that responds to their updates.

For these users who are already active, posting to a community just limits their reach. So why would they do that?

In this sense, it does seem like the value of communities is for newer users, or those less comfortable in the app. But relevant group discovery is still not great, and for many, they’re probably not going to post anyway, even with a more enclosed group, because that’s not really what the app has traditionally been for.

X is for staying up to date on the latest news, but discussion of those topics tends to drift off to other places. The challenge of X is how it keeps that engagement in-stream, for which there are no simple answers, at least not yet.

Communities could well play a key role in this, but it will require some re-angling from the X team to communicate why people would want to use them. And given that the X doesn’t actually have a communications department, I’m not sure how that push will be undertaken, but maybe, through some changes in exposure, which enhance the focus on communities, that could lead to more take-up.

Maybe. There’s little evidence to suggest this as yet, but the X team is moving fast, and updates like this could be another step towards enhanced communities exposure.



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Walmart says it has stopped advertising on Elon Musk’s X platform

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Walmart says it has stopped advertising on Elon Musk's X platform

Walmart said Friday that it is scaling back its advertising on X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, because “we’ve found some other platforms better for reaching our customers.”

Walmart’s decision has been in the works for a while, according to a person familiar with the move. Yet it comes as X faces an advertiser exodus following billionaire owner Elon Musk’s support for an antisemitic post on the platform. 

The retailer spends about $2.7 billion on advertising each year, according to MarketingDive. In an email to CBS MoneyWatch, X’s head of operations, Joe Benarroch, said Walmart still has a large presence on X. He added that the company stopped advertising on X in October, “so this is not a recent pausing.”

“Walmart has a wonderful community of more than a million people on X, and with a half a billion people on X, every year the platform experiences 15 billion impressions about the holidays alone with more than 50% of X users doing most or all of their shopping online,” Benarroch said.

Musk struck a defiant pose earlier this week at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, where he cursed out advertisers that had distanced themselves from X, telling them to “go f— yourself.” He also complained that companies are trying to “blackmail me with advertising” by cutting off their spending with the platform, and cautioned that the loss of big advertisers could “kill” X.

“And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company,” Musk added.


Elon Musk faces backlash from lawmakers, companies over endorsement of antisemitic X post

02:23

Dozens of advertisers — including players such as Apple, Coca Cola and Disney — have bailed on X since Musk tweeted that a post on the platform that claimed Jews fomented hatred against White people, echoing antisemitic stereotypes, was “the actual truth.”

Advertisers generally shy away from placing their brands and marketing messages next to controversial material, for fear that their image with consumers could get tarnished by incendiary content. 

The loss of major advertisers could deprive X of up to $75 million in revenue, according to a New York Times report

Musk said Wednesday his support of the antisemitic post was “one of the most foolish” he’d ever posted on X. 

“I am quite sorry,” he said, adding “I should in retrospect not have replied to that particular post.”

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US Judge Blocks Montana’s Effort to Ban TikTok

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U.S. Judge Blocks Montana’s Effort to Ban TikTok in the State

TikTok has won another reprieve in the U.S., with a district judge blocking Montana’s effort to ban the app for all users in the state.

Back in May, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation to ban TikTok outright from operating in the state, in order to protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by China. There’s no definitive evidence that TikTok is, or has participated in such, but Gianforte opted to move to a full ban, going further than the government device bans issued in other regions.

As explained by Gianforte at the time:

The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented. Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.”

In response, a collection of TikTok users challenged the proposed ban, arguing that it violated their first amendment rights, which led to this latest court challenge, and District Court Judge Donald Molloy’s decision to stop Montana’s ban effort.

Montana’s TikTok ban had been set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

In issuing a preliminary injunction to stop Montana from imposing a full ban on the app, Molloy said that Montana’s legislation does indeed violate the Constitution and “oversteps state power.”

Molloy’s judgment is primarily centered on the fact that Montana has essentially sought to exercise foreign policy authority in enacting a TikTok ban, which is only enforceable by federal authorities. Molloy also noted that there was apervasive undertone of anti-Chinese sentiment” within Montana’s proposed legislation.

TikTok has welcomed the ruling, issuing a brief statement in response:

Montana attorney general, meanwhile, has said that it’s considering next steps to advance its proposed TikTok ban.

The news is a win for TikTok, though the Biden Administration is still weighing a full TikTok ban in the U.S., which may still happen, even though the process has been delayed by legal and legislative challenges.

As I’ve noted previously, my sense here would be that TikTok won’t be banned in the U.S. unless there’s a significant shift in U.S.-China relations, and that relationship is always somewhat tense, and volatile to a degree.

If the U.S. government has new reason to be concerned, it may well move to ban the app. But doing so would be a significant step, and would prompt further response from the C.C.P.

Which is why I suspect that the U.S. government won’t act, unless it feels that it has to. And right now, there’s no clear impetus to implement a ban, and stop a Chinese-owned company from operating in the region, purely because of its origin.

Which is the real crux of the issue here. A TikTok ban is not just banning a social media company, it’s blocking cross-border commerce, because the company is owned by China, which will remain the logic unless clear evidence arises that TikTok has been used as a vector for gathering information on U.S. citizens.

Banning a Chinese-owned app because it is Chinese-owned is a statement, beyond concerns about a social app, and the U.S. is right to tread carefully in considering how such a move might impact other industries.

So right now, TikTok is not going to be banned, in Montana, or anywhere else in the U.S. But that could still change, very quickly.



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EU wants to know how Meta tackles child sex abuse

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The investigation is the first step in procedures launched under the EU's new online content law known as the Digital Services Act

The investigation is the first step in procedures launched under the EU’s new online content law known as the Digital Services Act – Copyright AFP Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

The EU on Friday demanded Instagram-owner Meta provide more information about measures taken by the company to address child sexual abuse online.

The request for information focuses on Meta’s risk assessment and mitigation measures “linked to the protection of minors, including regarding the circulation of self-generated child sexual abuse material (SG-CSAM) on Instagram”, the European Commission said.

Meta must also give information about “Instagram’s recommender system and amplification of potentially harmful content”, it added.

The investigation is the first step in procedures launched under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), but does not itself constitute an indication of legal violations or a move towards punishment.

Meta must respond by December 22.

A report by Stanford University and the Wall Street Journal in June this year said Instagram is the main platform used by paedophile networks to promote and sell content showing child sexual abuse.

Meta at the time said it worked “aggressively” to fight child exploitation.

The commission has already started a series of investigations against large digital platforms seeking information about how they are complying with the DSA.

It has sought more information from Meta in October about the spread of disinformation as well as a request for information last month about how the company protects children online.

The DSA is part of the European Union’s powerful regulatory armoury to bring big tech to heel, and requires digital giants take more aggressive action to counter the spread of illegal and harmful content as well as disinformation.

Platforms face fines that can go up to six percent of global turnover for violations.

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