The advert, which is for a game, asks users if they would “rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown”.

It appears to reference Chris Brown’s conviction for assaulting Rihanna in his car in 2009 while they were dating.

Snap told Newsbeat the advert, which was only published in the US, was published “in error” and had been removed immediately.

Ads on the social media platform are subject to a review process, while it also has a list of banned content.

Snap said: “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines. We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware.”

“We are sorry that this happened,” it added.

American activist Brittany Packnett picked up on a tweet from Royce Mann, which called the ad “tone deaf”.

The daughter of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Chelsea, said the advert being approved was “awful”.

Other Twitter users have called it “disgusting” and “disrespectful”.

Snap’s advertising policy is outlined on its website and includes information on its review procedure.

“All ads are subject to our review and approval. We reserve the right to reject or remove any ad in our sole discretion for any reason.

“We also reserve the right to request modifications to any ad, and to require factual substantiation for any claim made in an ad,” it says.

There is also a list of banned content, including “shocking, sensational, or disrespectful content”.

The controversy comes as Snapchat deals with a drop in value following Kylie Jenner announcing she is “sooo over” the app.

The new update, which has not been received well, has made adverts more prominent by placing them in between stories.

–

Source: BBC

The post Snapchat pulls ‘awful’ Chris Brown and Rihanna advert appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

A source tells TechCrunch the same racist GIF was spotted in Instagram as well, indicating that Giphy is at fault. A tweet by Lyauna Augmon shows the GIF being used within Instagram. Giphy appears to have removed the GIF as it’s no longer available in Instagram. An Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch “This type of content has no place on Instagram. We have stopped our integration with Giphy as they investigate the issue.” The company confirms the change has been made but might take some time to propagate to all users.

[Update: This article has been updated to show that the GIF also appeared on Instagram, not just Snapchat.]

The Snapchat spokesperson says that all GIFs in Snapchat are meant to be “rated PG,” meaning they’re mostly suitable for the 13-and-up teens that are technically allowed on Snapchat.

The GIF includes disturbing text including a racial slur, which TechCrunch has blurred out below. It reads “N—– Crime Death Counter – Keep Cranking Bonzo, the Numbers Just Keep on Climbing!” TechCrunch received a screenshot of the GIF on Snapchat from a reader.

We’ve reached out to Giphy for comment but haven’t heard back.

[Update 3/10: Giphy has now provided a statement to TechCrunch, admitting it was to blame for a bug allowing the offensive GIF through. A spokesperson tells us:

“A user discovered an offensive GIF sticker in our library, and we immediately removed it per our content guidelines.

After investigation of the incident, this sticker was available due to a bug in our content moderation filters specifically affecting GIF stickers.  We have fixed the bug and have re-moderated all of the GIF stickers in our library.

The GIPHY staff is also further reviewing every GIF sticker by hand and should be finished shortly.

We take full responsibility for these recent events and sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended.”

Snapchat only launched the Giphy integration on February 20th so people could jazz up their photos and videos with moving images curated as safe by the Giphy team. TechCrunch broke the news on Instagram building a similar Giphy integration in late January, which launched a week later.

This isn’t Snapchat’s first run-in with racist content. Back in 2016 it was heavily criticized for creating an Asian “yellowface” stereotype augmented reality lens that gave people slanted eyes. Snapchat risks an unsavory reputation if it can’t keep its content under control. The slip-up could deter Snapchat from working more with outside developers, which it’s only recently allowed to bring content into its app via its Lens Studio and the Giphy integration.

The incident is embarrassing for Instagram’s parent company Facebook. It also casts doubt on Facebook’s Messenger Kids app, which also has Giphy integration that is only supposed to show G-rated imagery.

Snapchat and Instagram will have to decide whether they want help from outsiders even if it can’t guarantee the quality or safety of their content, or whether it will go it alone as they compete against each other.

–

Source: TechCrunch

The post Snapchat, Instagram remove Giphy feature due to racial slur GIF appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The two were pretty close when she was alive and he’s been speaking out in sorrow since she passed.

O Gee, speaking on GhOne TV, revealed that he was actually chatting with Ebony at the time she passed away.

According to him, they were chatting on Snapchat and making fun of each other when she suddenly stopped replying his messages.

Lamenting Ebony’s death, he said she was a special lady who treated him like a king and he doesn’t know where he will find another lady like that again.

“…A few days before she died, she prepared Jollof for me; Ebony knew I love Jollof and would always do it for me. She was like my mother,” he revealed.

“Her smiles were infectious, she had a kind heart, she had so many lined-up activities for this year, we were going to tour Europe.” “Who else is going to be like Ebony? I don’t think I will find someone as special and talented like her,” he said with tears in his eyes.

–

Source: ghanacelebrities.com

The post I was on snapchat with Ebony when she died — ‘Boyfriend’ reveals appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Spiegel said at the Goldman Sachs Internet & Technology Conference that even people complaining about the app was a sort of validation that the changes the company wants to happen are, indeed, happening.

Snap aimed to try to separate the idea of communication and broadcasting with Snap into similar buckets, rather than the features being kind of mixed up (like Stories being on a right swipe).

“The tech is an important piece but I think the harder part you can’t get around is the time it takes to learn,” Spiegel said.

“You do need folks to use the product, to communicate with their friends to learn how to better provide that feed. The tech to some degree is a solved problem, the time to… to learn is a hard problem to solve. Even the complaints we’re seeing reinforce the philosophy. Even the frustrations we’re seeing really validate those changes. It’ll take time for people to adjust, but for me using it for a couple months I feel way more attached to the service.”

Of course, Spiegel can say these things on stage and then end up changing his mind. But as Snap faces increasing competition from companies looking to clone some of its products, like Instagram stories, basically Snap has had to look at some pretty significant changes to see if it can keep its users engaged and continue to grow.

That being said, the Snapchat app could continue to go through tweaks and shifts, so it’s hard to tell where things will end up over the course of the next few months.

As with any significant changes, Snap faced a ton of backlash but may be found it had to stay the course. Of course, Spiegel said on stage that it’s basically flattering that people want to copy the app. (Founders often call this “validation of the business,” because why not.)

Snap reported its fourth-quarter earnings earlier this month, which beat some expectations and sent the shares soaring at essentially rocket ship status.

Snap has come quite close to recovering from the significant crash it had through its first year as a public company, something Spiegel said, like many fresh CEOs often say, has made them a better company. As a public company, Snap is much more beholden to public investors and has a newfound fiduciary duty to get its business in order.

Spiegel also said the company is less focused on specific geographies as it looks to continue to grow, and more focused on making sure its users actually understand the app when they join and are able to start communicating with your friends.

“We’re really focused on, how when you come into our service, do you understand stories, do you understand maps,” Spiegel said.

Spiegel has repeated the refrain that Snap is going to be a camera company, emphasizing that the idea of what a camera is used for has changed over time. But Snap has also created a kind of portfolio of products around Snapchat like content and the Snap Maps feature.

Spiegel also said, for example, that 30 million people have watched content related to the Olympics at the conference.

All this is geared toward getting people to find a bunch of different use cases for the app, which can get them to come back over and over and keep more engaged.

“The thing that drives the business is fundamentally the engagement around the products,” Spiegel said.

“That needs to be there first. Even at the time full-screen vertical video ads, no one will make those, what we’ve seen is the value delivered by getting the fundamentals right will drive the business… There’s creation, people making snaps, there’s communication which drives the frequency of use, sometimes people don’t realize, we monetize across all three behaviours.”

Source: TechCrunch

The post Snapchat redesign will stay- Evan Spiegel appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The changes were intended to separate interactions with friends from branded content – including that of celebrities and influencers.

Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel wrote in a blog post that he believed blurring the two had contributed to the rise of fake news.

However thousands of Snapchat users say that the new layout is hard to use.

Nic Rumsey, who set up the petition, wrote that some are using Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps – which use servers abroad to mask the location of a device – in order to access the older version of the platform: “That’s how annoying this update has become,” he said.

“Many ‘new features’ are useless or defeat the original purposes Snapchat has had for the past years.”

The petition, posted on the change.org website, is one of several appealing to Snapchat to revert to its previous state.

Users now swipe left to see and interact with their friends, and swipe right to see branded and celebrity content.

Model Chrissie Teigen tweeted that she didn’t like feeling that her followers no longer felt like “friends” as a result.

“How many people have to hate an update for it to be reconsidered?” she asked.

Kylie Jenner asked her Twitter followers what they thought of the changes, and then agreed with a follower who replied that they hated it.

Snapchat reiterated its statement that updates “can take a little getting used to”.

“We hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in,” the firm said.

Influencer value

Rohan Midha, managing director of influencer marketing agency PMYB, told the BBC that Snapchat had made a mistake in removing celebrities and influencers – high profile individuals with lots of followers – from the “friends” section.

“They hadn’t realised the value that influencers add to the app,” he said.

“People want to follow influencers because they really like them, whereas Snapchat just sees them as brands.”

However Mr Midha added that he didn’t think the petition would force Snapchat into a u-turn.

“It doesn’t surprise me that so many people have signed it,” he said.

“But I don’t think this large Silicon Valley company is going to take notice of a petition.”

–

Source: BBC

The post Snapchat petition attracts one million signatures appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

It’s the app’s first major #facepalm. But good news! There’s a way to switch back to the old Snapchat, and we’re gonna show you how do it. But it does come with one big catch.

Just follow these steps:

After you’ve completed all the steps, you should have the old Snapchat again.

Now, for the catch: A Snapchat spokesperson told Mashable that this workaround is only temporary. If you force quit the app and re-open Snapchat, you’ll get the redesigned version again.

In theory, if you never force quit the app, you’ll have the old app forever. But at some point, you might need to quit the app (maybe your phone freezes or the app crashes) and then you’ll be forced onto the new app.

Snapchat declined to tell us how long this workaround will last.

You could also lose your Memories if you reinstall Snapchat. Snapchat suggests you back them up for safety:

Reverting back to the old update also means you won’t get the new features. But, WORTH IT, if you loathe the new Snapchat redesign as much as Chrissy Teigen does.

No word on whether there’s any way to revert back to the old Snapchat on Android (even if it’s temporary). We’ll update this story if any workarounds pop up.

–

Source: Mashable

The post How to revert to the pre-redesigned Snapchat appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The refreshed look pushed out in the UK, Australia and Canada has proved unpopular, with up to 83% of reviews on the App Store being negative.

Many have complained that feeds are no longer chronological and are confusing.

One user, Leaya Reinhardt, tweeted: “Seriously my snaps To/from people aren’t even in chronological order. Fix it, it’s quite annoying.”

Some have contacted Snapchat support on Twitter to air frustrations and asking it to return to the previous version of the app.

Tech news site TechCrunch reported that data provided to it by analytics firm Sensor Tower showed that only 17% gave it three to five stars, suggesting they approved of it.

No change

Snapchat made the changes as a way for the social network to monetise its service by mixing in more adverts, said experts.

Elyse Betters Picaro, US editor of Pocket-lint and a regular user, said Snapchat had “begun mixing ad-laden Stories into your chats now, because, as the numbers have shown, people are sending tonnes of snaps a day now, but they aren’t posting to their stories as much.

“Stories from your “normal” friends now appear in chats, while famous and popular Snapchat users are still on the side with the media, which appears to create a sort of class system.

“It’s also difficult to find stories from people who don’t follow you back,” she said. “Also stories are no longer in chronological order, and you can’t play all the stories consecutively anymore.”

Ms Betters Picaro added: “It may, as a user, feel like you’re missing out on something now, as it’s harder to find Stories, harder to play them, and they’re just seemingly harder to grasp in general now.”

She added that Snapchat boss Evan Spiegel had warned users and investors about the change in November when he said: “There is a strong likelihood that the redesign of our application will be disruptive to our business in the short term, and we don’t yet know how the behaviour of our community will change when they begin to use our updated application.”

Despite the poor reception, Ms Betters Picaro does not believe the firm will respond to user requests and ditch the changes.

She said: “Unfortunately, people tend to be resistant to change. And this update will take some getting used to, whether you’re a fan or not.

“However, I highly doubt Snap will immediately reverse course due to bad reviews from a limited test in the UK and Canada. After all, it hasn’t even hit the US yet.”

A spokesperson for Snapchat said: “Updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.”

–

Source: BBC

The post Snapchat redesign is a ‘flop’ with users appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The new feature will be available on both Android and iPhone soon, and it’s accessed the same way you’d normally send your location. But now you’ll have the option not just to put a pin on the map where you are, but to let them track you continuously for a duration of your choosing. (A version of this feature was tested earlier this year.)

Fifteen minutes, an hour and 8 hours seem to be the three lengths of time you can choose from, though of course, you can also turn off location sharing manually if you reach your destination or wish to conceal your movements.

Snapchat and Foursquare have their own versions of live location sharing as well, but the everyday messaging space seems like the best fit for me.

One use for this that seems actually quite helpful is making sure someone gets home all right. There are a few safety apps out there already, but this is a simpler way to keep track of someone if you can’t walk or drive them home yourself. Plus, it’s a widely used cross-platform app that isn’t Messenger. Unfortunately, WhatsApp is still the ugliest of all the chat apps, but what can you do?

–

Source: TechCrunch

The post WhatsApp joins other messaging platforms with live location sharing appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The app – called tbh, meaning “to be honest” – is just nine weeks old, but had already been downloaded 5 million times.

The app’s creators said it will remain a standalone program but will now have more resources thanks to Facebook.

“We were compelled by the ways they could help us realise tbh’s vision and bring it to more people,” tbh said.

According to start-up news site TechCrunch, the deal was for “less than $100m”, and tbh’s four person team would become Facebook employees.

‘Emotional needs’

In a statement, Facebook said: “tbh and Facebook share a common goal of building community and enabling people to share in ways that bring us closer together.

“We’re impressed by the way tbh is doing this by using polling and messaging, and with Facebook’s resources tbh can continue to expand and build positive experiences.”

“While the last decade of the internet has been focused on open communication, the next milestone will be around meeting people’s emotional needs,” it said.

Trading niceties

The firm’s achievement has been to create an anonymous app that hasn’t descended into a cesspit of trolling and harassment – something many apps before it have dramatically failed to do.

After a user uploads their contacts, the app will ask pre-determined, positive questions such as “best to bring to a party?”, and the option of selecting one of four friends.

Users are notified when they are selected, but the details of who chose them is kept anonymous.

Facebook now has over 2 billion users worldwide

Mimicking Facebook’s early growth – where it was only available in a handful of colleges for a short time, the makers of tbh only made the app available to users in certain states. Word of mouth would spread at schools as the app was enabled.

“We shipped it to one school in Georgia,” explained co-founder Nikita Bier, speaking to TechCrunch.

“Forty percent of the school downloaded it the first day. The next day it was in three more schools, and then the next day it was in 300 schools.”

Facebook would not provide any more details about the deal, but the firm is clearly eager to snap up the next big thing in its infancy, save it become another competitor like Snapchat.

An investment bank’s recent survey of 6,100 US teens suggested that Snapchat was the preferred social media platform for teenagers – the average age of participants was 16.

Facebook reportedly tried to buy Snapchat in 2013 for $3bn. Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is today worth $19bn.

–

Source: BBC

The post Facebook buys weeks-old app for teens to be nice to each other appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Snapchat said it was asked by the Saudi authorities to remove the Qatari-backed broadcaster’s Discover Publisher Channel because it violated local laws.

Qatar is in an ongoing dispute with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE.

The four countries cut ties with Qatar earlier this year, accusing the country of supporting terrorism.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s most restrictive media environments, according to human rights groups and media freedom advocates.

But the Saudi authorities have a particular dislike for Al Jazeera. At one point they had demanded Qatar’s government shut it down altogether as one of 13 conditions to remove sanctions against the country.

Those conditions were later withdrawn.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest social media markets in the Middle East, boosted by a high rate of smart phone ownership.

That can sometimes place US-listed companies like Snapchat’s parent Snap Inc in an awkward position, as local laws are far more restrictive than in many other markets.

“We make an effort to comply with local laws in the countries where we operate,” a Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement.

–

Source: BBC

The post Snapchat blocks Al Jazeera in Saudi Arabia appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.