Hate Groups Inspired By Donald Trump Are Consistently Using Social Media Platforms For Coordinated, Oft-Violent Protests

Recent hate groups forming in Germany and the USA around the banner of Trump’s vitriol have brought into question the influence that platforms such as Telegram play in their spread.

As annoying (or heck, seething even) it is to admit this, Donald Trump’s presidency has been a significant sociological event with a direct impact on politics at large, while also radicalizing a severe portion of the population. I find no joy in crediting Trump with anything positive or negative. It’d honestly be for the best if we just forgot about his involvement in world affairs entirely. However, even after the man has stepped down from his position as the President of the USA, his effects linger on among thousands of individuals across the world. Sure, maybe taxes were a tad bit better (emphasis on the tad), but what we got in exchange was the further privatization of healthcare and the emboldening of white supremacists in America. Moreover, similar groups have managed to surface elsewhere, with Germany being a recent example. Anti-vaxxers in the country have been consistently rallying around the symbol that Trump represents to them: a voice that enables their damaging behavior.

Much akin to the Capitol Riots, these groups attempted to storm the parliament building, with banners imploring Trump to “Make Germany Great Again” (ugh) being flown with pride. All because someone refuses to get a shot that’ll make them less of a threat to others. What have white people found oppressive this time, you ask? Allow me to reach for this random word generator; oh, here we go! It’s…wearing a mask in public since that’s equivalent to the novel 1984. Huh. Yeah, sure, that tracks: go home minorities being subjected to police brutality, profiling, lynching, and all other forms of oppression major and minor. You just don’t get it.

While my words may come off as belittling towards white individuals, that isn’t what I’m shooting for here. Plenty of Republicans are from minority groups, and plenty of white people have major areas of overlap with other disenfranchised circles. The point is that despite such similarities, it really can be easier to be white in the USA and Europe than it can be anything else. Ahmaud Arbery’s death is still fresh to many of us, and the relevant law agencies spent three months covering for his killers. It took massive rallying over social media and protests across the streets to bring true justice. The sort that Emmet Till and Breonna Taylor didn’t get.

Platforms such as Telegram and Facebook have become increasingly dangerous because they allow for a massive amount of coordinated violence to be planned unnoticed. The US Capitol Riots were mostly planned over Facebook, and all Meta did in response was blame other, smaller social media platforms. The recent Germany riots were majorly planned over Telegram: a platform that actively preaches its privacy guidelines. Honestly, the last one still makes sense, what with the privacy gimmick and all. Facebook, and Meta at large, have no such qualms or hang-ups and yet still fail at the most basic of moderation.

H/T: DD

Read next: Fake Followers And Social Media, How Authentic Are The World’s Biggest Influencers?
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Instagram To Soon Allow Users To Schedule Posts & Reels Directly Through The App

While the feature has long been a part of Instagram’s Creator Studio, we’re hearing about the possible launch of a new scheduling tool.

The company is very keen to add more convenience for users through a tool by which they can schedule all of their posts, including Reels, directly through the app.

The news comes to us thanks to an avid social media app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi who has tweeted about the new tool that will further improve users’ scheduling process on Instagram.

This means you can now post Stories, pictures, videos, and Reels at fixed times, whenever you find it most convenient.

When you actually come to think of it from the aspect of functionality, we don’t see it to be a huge upgrade. And that’s because if users really wanted to do it, they could have since the tool was present in the Creator Studio for the past 2 years.

Likewise, we saw Meta make another new announcement regarding an innovative Reels API. This will enable Reels scheduling through tools provided by third parties. Hence, this paves the way for a new possibility through which your various forms of Instagram content can be scheduled in a plethora of ways.

We see the tool being a revolutionary and very welcoming endeavor. It’s also going to be a big deal for those working as social media managers who are constantly on the move and need to make content through Instagram's tools.

We feel the ability to make such scheduling a reality can really allow users to stay at the top of their game, instead of relying on a single app and allowing for scheduling through another. Also, this rids the hesitation associated with non-native tools that offer limitations.

For now, we’re going to wait for the actual launch and the feedback received by users on this one so stay tuned!

Read next: Instagram Reels Trends and Performance Insights For 2022
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New Study Proves How Small Businesses Are Suffering Thanks To Apple’s App Tracking Transparency

Apple really shocked the digital world when it introduced stringent measures to help keep tabs on apps tracking its users without taking their consent.

The leading iPhone maker introduced its app tracking transparency policy last year and that meant only if people chose to give their consent, companies could strategically target them for their advertising gains.

But as you can expect, the masses refused to give permission, forcing some of the biggest names in the tech world to incur significant losses. We saw the likes of Meta, Snap, TikTok, and more come forward with their complaints.

However, the drama doesn’t just end there. A new report is highlighting how Apple’s new privacy changes haven’t only affected large enterprises but so many small-scale organizations as well.

Yes, the report is shunning its focus on the big players of the tech market and instead, putting small-scale organizations into the limelight and how they’ve been forced to suffer deleterious consequences thanks to Apple’s new privacy policy.

The report comes to us by the Financial Times, which makes claims after Varos carried out a new analysis of nearly 1300 firms. This proved how the expenses related to getting on board with new clients through advertising online have been much higher in 2022 when compared to that in 2021.

Small businesses are calling the price hike brutal and one that they’re having trouble coping with. On the other hand, the report also proved how businesses that don’t directly rely on advertising linked to third-party tracking systems were doing so much better than the rest.

In fact, the likes of Google Search and even Amazon failed to feel the pressure of Apple’s privacy changes because they simply don’t rely on it. Hence, they actually witnessed a boom during Q2 of this year.

Moreover, it’s interesting to note how Apple’s own personal ad business was seen blooming and stealing market share, thanks to its own changes.

Apple has fiercely fought with all critics that accuse the company of monopoly and introducing such changes for its own gains. The iPhone maker was recently caught mentioning in its defense that people’s data solely belonged to them and not to others.

For this reason, anyone that chooses to gain benefits from it must first take their consent into consideration. After all, it’s their right and one that can’t be compromised.

Read next: Google Steps Up The Pressure On Apple To Correct It's Texting by Adopting RCS Messaging
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Pinterest’s New Board Sticker Is Designed To Drive Traffic From Users’ Idea Pins

Pinterest definitely appears to be on a roll as the company was recently seen adding another innovative means through which users can help drive in more traffic for the app.

The new update comprises the launch of a method that drives traffic from users’ Idea Pins, which is another name given to the app’s Stories option. Hence, you can best envision it as a sticker feature that allows users to highlight specific boards through their Idea Pins seen on the Pinterest app.

Thanks to marketing analyst and renowned creator Lindsey Gamble, we’ve got some more information on what users can expect with the new Pinterest feature. She put up displays of the board sticker which has already been rolled out for quite a few users. And in case you still haven’t been able to get your hands on it, well, stay tuned.

More on 'Board Stickers'

- Creators can add up to 5 board stickers per page & 20 board stickers max in an Idea Pin

- Creators can tag any public board they own (they cannot tag private boards or other creators' boards)

- Board stickers are currently only available on iOS pic.twitter.com/OdGBePJihu

— Lindsey Gamble (@LindseyGamble_) August 8, 2022

The tool is available for use inside the app’s Sticker Tray that’s located within the creative flow process for Idea Pins. To avail, simply click on it and you’ll soon be able to select from several boards in existence through which you can directly link.

This is all thanks to different display layouts that are seen access the board sticker, that users would be allowed to include into their frame. With the new sticker at hand, users will get the option to link directly to any topic board that they love. This will help in putting content that they love on display through the app, not to mention the great amount of traffic being referred to, thanks to the direct linking feature.

On average, each creator gets around 5 board stickers to include per picture. And that’s around 20 board stickers as a whole inside their Idea Pin. This way, no one is bound to use just one sole sticker for their whole frame, which we find to be a creative and great idea.

After doing so, creators will get the chance to go on tagging any board that’s on public display which they manage. However, boards that have limited access, or should we say those that are private won’t be allowed to be linked such as those designed by others app users.

We feel this is a wonderful way to put particular products on display, especially with the help of direct links that relate back to bigger Pin displays. What better to highlight a user’s offerings than this?

For now, it’s not available to all users but it’s definitely on its way. And with the holiday season fast approaching, we feel there couldn’t be any other perfect time for a launch than this.

Read next: Pinterest Showed No Growth In Active Users And Lower Revenue Intake During Q2 Of 2022
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New WhatsApp Features Are Just A Few Weeks Away To Become A Part Of This App

WhatsApp is introducing its new features and users are going to love them. The first feature is the deletion of messages. This feature is not new but now WhatsApp is giving its users 48 hours to delete a message. That means the users can delete a message that they send within 48 hours. Although this feature is not new, initially the duration for deleting a message was less. This duration used to frustrate the users to no end but now Whatsapp has listened to the user's demands and is now introducing a feature that will be a favorite.

This deletion feature was just available for one hour but now you can use it for up to 2 days. Using it is very easy too. You just have to hold onto the message you want to delete. An option will come on your screen. You have to tap on 'Delete for everyone and the message will be deleted if only less than 48 hours have passed after you have sent that message.

If you do not have this feature, you have to check if you are using the latest version of Whatsapp. If not, then you can update your app by going to the app store.

Another feature that is under development is the communities tab on the desktop, as spotted by Wabetainfo. WhatsApp Beta for Android is all set to release this feature after it announced hiding phone numbers in Whatsapp communities. WhatsApp has not shared many details about this feature but what we can know is that a communities tab will be available on the desktop of the WhatsApp app, along with the tabs for status, new messages, and calls. You will also have a search header at the top of the desktop. This new feature will change the whole layout of the WhatsApp desktop and make it brand new.

We do not know when this feature will be up for public use. Only WhatsApp beta testers have a hold on this feature. But whenever this feature is ready to use, we know that it is going to bring a nice change to the app.

Read next: WhatsApp Has Once Again Added Some New Features In WhatsApp Beta For Android 2.22.17.23 and 2.22.17.24
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Snapchat Announces New Updates Including Product Stickers And Planned Advances For The Metaverse Shift

Snapchat is following in the lead of many other apps that are trying to make the most of the current economic uncertainty that has affected the digital world adversely. By this, we mean shifts to greater revenue generation through venturing into the realm of eCommerce.

The company is currently busy taking part in a series of tests that would help determine the outcome of an in-stream commerce initiative. This comes at a time when Snap has outlined how its shift into the eCommerce world is slow but steady.

These new tests will entail purchasing and displaying products in a manner that’s never been observed on the app yet. And to make sure things go right according to plan, well, the experiments have begun.

The company is testing Snap Product Stickers that serve as guides for users, linking them directly to pages where they can make an immediate purchase, as spotted by @peplm.

In April of this year, we heard about the app going public with its plans for new tools that allow for better product discovery and put due emphasis on shopping and related eCommerce tools.

There was talk about the tool called Dress Up that was very similar in design to Instagram’s famous shop tab. The only difference was that you’ll get an AR kick with a range of products that can be relayed into the real world.

This way, you can actually check to see how a particular product appears in your home, right before you end up making a purchase. Now, the product stickers are another way to see how the Dress Up tool works in its entirety, including ways to include digital items into your content as well.

Most of the stickers on demand have been related to clothing stores and accessory brands. All you need to do is click on the product and include them in a Snap frame. After tapping on it, you can learn so much about it or simply go on to make purchases as well.

As of now, it’s on offer to many users but that will hopefully be changing soon as the app has plans to expand to the masses.

Next up, Snapchat is working on making new advances in the world of virtual creation. This appears to be a part of the company’s plans to accelerate into the Metaverse, with many tech experts calling it a true changer.

The platform went public today with one of its recently published research papers. This shed light on a brand new way to produce three-dimensional assets through images and video footage of certain objects arising from sources like Google.

Snap hopes the new update would eliminate the need for pictures to get photographed and made up inside classic film studios. This is a difficult move when it comes to capturing 3D objects in today’s time.

Now, Snap hopes creators would be able to make the most of AR and VR technology, where they can simply look for items on the Google search bar, and pick out relevant pictures that are captured from various angles.

Any gaps left to be filled would be done so by the system, without the need of carrying out scanning and allowing for 3D creation with ease.

Snap mentioned through one of its recent blog posts how it plans on getting on board with the project that would enable AR and VR creators and developers to digitize anything they see in this world, provided relevant images are found online.



We see the initiative as a major move on Snapchat’s part in regards to its high ambitions for AR and a possible shift to the Metaverse with the best digital translation.

The ideas will be presented in a paper this week at Vancouver’s SIGGRAPH 2022.

Read next: Snapchat Is Launching A New Supervision Tool That Allows Parents To Keep Tabs On Their Kids
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Role of a Digital Adoption Platform in The Digital Transformation Era

For certain, we are in the digital transformation era; every business knows how important it is to digitally transform its processes. There is an urgent need to integrate new technologies, revamp legacy systems, and everybody is seeing the need to make organizational cultures as flexible as possible.

While every business is taking digital transformation very seriously, it’s frightening to realize, according to a report, that 73% of organizations that embarked on digital transformation failed to add value to their operations. What is also very surprising about this revelation is that though there are a lot of factors that can contribute to this whopping figure, the human factor is the most outstanding; after all, 70% of digital transformation programs were reported to have failed due to resistance from employees.

This should not be the case since we have digital adoption platforms that have come to ease the burden of integrating digital transformation processes.

What is a digital adoption platform?

According to WalkMe, a digital adoption platform (DAP) is a software platform that can enable your organization to measure, drive, and act to ultimately maximize the impact of your digital transformation initiatives and quickly increase the return on your software investment. This ability comes from DAP being able to seamlessly facilitate software learning by employees in a very simple process, making your employees more proficient on any software platform, app, and website.

Why do you need a digital transformation platform?

The essence of embarking on digital transformation is to enhance your business in such a way that you can effectively increase customer experience and your ROI on software investments.

This is not quite an easy endeavor, especially with hundreds of apps or even more, you may need to incorporate into your business processes based on your need to digitally transform and fit into the new business setting. When doing this, you will have to contend with a lot of resistance from employees across boards.

Jumping from one app to another, especially if you take their complexities into account, you may experience employee burnout, dissatisfaction, and performance that is below par. The need to seamlessly streamline digital transformation and ensure that you don’t encounter these problems that can hinder your progress are exactly why you need a digital adoption platform.

Incidentally, technological advancements in the process of reshaping the IT industry, have ensured that digital adoption platforms are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, forcing a dramatic rethink of strategies; to this extent, it is relatively easy for you to personalize a digital adoption platform to address any specific needs. By integrating AI and machine learning into DAPs you can use the insights you gather to identify an employee’s shortcomings and provide tailored guidance in real-time that will ease the friction that occurs due to biases employees have to re-training.

Frictions and resistance occur when employees find it difficult to adopt any new technology and as a fundamental aspect of digital transformation, this can greatly hurt the project. Successful businesses in the world, today, know the importance of data and large volumes of data.

Handling these large volumes of data is not an easy task if you want to do it manually; hence, you need to integrate AI and machine learning to sort out some knotty issues. When employees find it difficult to grasp the relevant training required to understand the workings of the new technology, they tend to resist your change initiative.

You end up with missed revenue and employee turnover. Traditionally, your IT team should be responsible for handling employees’ surface key training and the requisite knowledge for onboarding; this places a lot of burden on IT, hence limiting effectiveness in the more serious areas of enhancing productivity and ensuring customer satisfaction.

This is the area a digital adoption platform can help to address with the digital adoption software. The problem, however, is, do you have a digital adoption strategy?

What is a digital adoption strategy?

A digital adoption strategy is a process you need to create a plan to seamlessly adopt any digital transformation initiative. It enables you to optimize the process, sideline frictions, and resistance, and create a roadmap that seamlessly supports your organization's goal.

If you go about optimizing your legacy system, that may not be a bad initiative, but you need to ensure that you also have a plan in place to remove any resistance. Once you leave room for resistance to crop up, you will have created problems.

To enable a resistance-free digital transformation, you must have a digital adoption strategy, which a digital adoption platform will enhance. The digital transformation vision comes from the CEO which is then relayed to the C-suite and the middle managers, even where everybody in the organization buys into the vision, if it’s not backed up with an appropriate strategy, it will be just wishful thinking; it can never work.

The strategy is the most important thing that will make your vision work. Employees come up with resistance when they don’t understand your strategy; because of the simplicity of a digital adoption platform, your strategy becomes readily understandable due to the strategic guidance it gives to employees.

Your end goal becomes achievable without any iota of confusion. DAP enables you to save time and all other unnecessary conflicts you may have come across in your digital transformation project.

DAP ensures that you can effectively embark on your digital transformation initiatives by:

• Automating all aspects of an employee or customer onboarding
• Providing in-app software training and guidance
• Collecting and analyzing usage data
• Providing proactive support to solve any challenge your employees may encounter

Conclusion

The role of a digital adoption platform in the digital transformation era borders on benefits you can derive for your business; every business focuses on how to improve customer experience and hence, increase ROI. The digital adoption platform helps to reduce onboarding time, the burden on IT support, resistance from employees on new software technology, friction from employees, and builds higher morale across departments.

It enables you to understand what works and what does not work in real-time based on the insight you get from the integration of AI and machine learning.

Featured illustration: Freepik / Rawpixel

by Web Desk via Digital Information World