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Instagram is a social media service owned by Facebook for sharing photos and videos. Instagram launched in 2010 exclusively as an iOS app and didn’t come to Android and the web until 2012.

Facebook acquired Instagram in April of 2012 for $1 billion. Facebook also offered to buy Instagram’s closest competitor Snapchat back in 2013 for $3 billion.

In June of 2017 Instagram shared that it reached 250M daily users, surpassing its rival Snapchat by almost 100M. It also has over 700M total users.

Instagram has been criticized for taking popular features from Snapchat such as face filters, stories, and stickers. The company also has plans moving forward to introduce more business focused features.

Spotify and Instagram working on an MSN-like feature to share songs in real time

Spotify Connect broken

Streaming apps like Apple Music and Spotify already provide some kind of integration with Instagram that lets users easily share the song they’re listening to in a post or Story. However, Meta and Spotify have been working on an MSN-like feature that will let Instagram users show in real time the music they’re listening to.

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Meta to discontinue its ‘Spark’ platform for creating AR filters for Instagram

Instagram icon on a gradient of Instagram colors

Meta on Tuesday announced a major update coming to Instagram and its other apps. However, rather than adding a new feature, the company is removing one. That’s because Meta has confirmed that it will be shutting down its Spark platform, which lets anyone create AR filters that can be used on the camera within apps like Instagram and Facebook.

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Meta is using your data to train AI models; Europeans can opt out [U: Investigations]

Meta is using your data to train AI models | Colorful office building

Update: Both the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office and the European Commission have now launched investigations into the legality of making it opt-out instead of opt-in.

If you use Instagram or Facebook, Meta is using your data to train its AI models. The company uses posts as training material for its generative AI systems. Privacy legislation in the UK and European Union means that the company is forced to offer an opt-out option – but it is doing so in a rather sketchy way …

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Instagram Limits tool offering increased harassment protection for teens

Instagram Limits for teens | Screengrabs of workflow

Meta is offering teenagers a strengthened version of its Instagram Limits tool. When set to its highest level, only Close Friends will be able to comment, reply, tag, mention, or message them.

It’s the latest development in the company’s protections for teens, after anti-grooming blocks and nudity blurring introduced earlier in the year …

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Teen Instagram addiction under investigation; TikTokers sue US government

Teen Instagram addiction under investigation | Close-up of teenager using smartphone

An EU investigation has been opened into growing concerns about teen Instagram addiction, to determine whether parent company Meta is breaking the law by deliberately seeking to make its apps addictive.

The investigation will also look into whether the company’s age-verification procedures are sufficiently robust, and the phenomenon of sending users down potentially harmful ‘rabbit holes’ …

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Unfollow Everything lawsuit could change the way we use social media apps

Unfollow Everything | Back of a man looking out to sea

A court is being asked to decide whether or not Meta has a legal obligation to allow the use of Unfollow Everything – a browser tool which effectively empties your Facebook feed.

The idea behind the tool is that instead of being sucked into an effectively endless feed of posts from every friend, group, and page you have ever followed, you get to proactively choose the posts you read …

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Meta ignored reports of parents exploiting children | Young girl covering her face

Zuckerberg has no personal liability in child addiction lawsuit [U]

Update: A court has ruled that Mark Zuckerberg cannot be held personally liable for claims that Meta sought to make its apps addictive to children. Lawyers will be able to re-file, this time claiming against Meta rather than Zuckerberg.

Two separate reports today accuse Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta of ignoring reports of parents sexually exploiting their own children for financial gain using paid subscription tools …

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Meta protecting teens by blurring nude photos in Instagram DMs, with warnings [U]

Blurring nude photos in Instagram DMs | Screengrabs of the feature in use

Instagram is rolling out a new safety feature, designed to protect teens from being exposed to unwanted nude photos in Instagram direct messages. The system will blur nude photos in Instagram DMs when the recipient is believed to be a teenager.

The safety measure is designed to protect against three problems, including the growing problem of ‘sextortion’ on the platform …

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Global meta outage: What do we know, and what was the likely cause?

Global meta outage cause | Plug removed from socket

Yesterday’s global meta outage seemingly took out the company’s entire network, with users unable to access Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Threads, and Quest headsets.

The outage lasted between one and two hours for most users, and while everything now appears back to normal, questions are naturally being asked about what went wrong …

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