Social shorts: TikTok under fire for discrimination, Facebook enforces special ads restrictions, Twitter expands Brand Surveys

This collection of social media marketing and new hire announcements is a compilation of the past week’s briefs from our daily Marketing Land newsletter. Click here to subscribe and get more news like this delivered to your inbox every morning.

Facebook’s anti-ad-fraud efforts, Twitter expands surveys

Facebook takes action against ad fraud. The social media giant filed a lawsuit Wednesday against one entity and two individuals for allegedly operating a hacking campaign targeting accounts on the social network. The alleged hackers are being accused of taking over their victims’ accounts to use their money to buy ads and fraudulent products, according to the lawsuit. Facebook said it’s paid more than $4 million in reimbursements to victims of these hacks. The company said it will continue to work toward mitigating malicious behavior on the platform, adding, “Creating real-world consequences for those who deceive users and engage in cloaking schemes is important in maintaining the integrity of our platform.”

Twitter expands access to Brand Surveys. In a play to give marketers more ways to measure campaign lift, Twitter announced this week the general availability of Brand Surveys for all managed accounts in the U.S., UK, Canada, Japan and Brazil. According to Twitter, the tool can be used to help inform and improve campaigns with the added benefit of being a first-party solution, which Twitter says allows the platform to offer “a low minimum media spend requirement while still delivering statistically significant results.”

Facebook now enforces restrictions for special ad categories on all platforms

This week, Facebook announced it will be officially enforcing audience targeting restrictions for ‘Special Ad Categories’ across all of its ad management tools, including Ads Manager, Instagram Promote, the Facebook Marketing API, and ads created within Facebook Pages.

The special ad category requirement is used for ads related to housing, employment, or credit opportunities, prohibiting these advertisers from targeting ads based on age, gender, ZIP code or multicultural affinity. The effort is a move on Facebook’s part to curb discrimination by advertisers. The ‘Special Ads Category’ was first introduced earlier this year for U.S. advertisers running housing, employment, and credit ad campaigns via Facebook’s Ads Manager. Starting this week, Facebook is expanding the requirements to all of its ad buying platforms, including Ads Manager app, Instagram Promote and the Facebook Marketing API.

Facebook said it’s also making these ads available to view and search in the platform’s Ad Archive – an effort to deliver further transparency. Users will be able to view all active housing opportunity ads in the U.S. that started running on or after December 4, 2019, regardless of whether the user is part of the target audience. Users will also be able to search the Ad Archive by the name of the Page running an ad, or by the city or state where the ad is targeted. 

Facebook’s efforts to remove ad targeting options for housing, employment and credit advertisers are the result of a settlement the company reached with civil rights groups earlier this year, which charged Facebook with allowing discriminatory ads on its platform. Facebook first began rolling out the restrictions in March.

TikTok admits to taking the “wrong approach” to combat cyberbullying

TikTok faces discrimination backlash. The popular video-sharing app has admitted to censoring posts from users it identified as disabled, fat or LGBTQ+ as part of a misguided effort to mitigate cyberbullying. The revelation was made public by Netzpolitik.org, which spoke to a source inside the company and obtained private documents from the platform. The findings revealed that TikTok applied automatic restrictions to users who were “susceptible to bullying or harassment based on their physical or mental condition,” including, “facial disfigurement, autism, Down syndrome, or disabled people or people with some facial problems.” In a follow-up statement, TikTok said, “Early on, in response to an increase in bullying on the app, we implemented a blunt and temporary policy. While the intention was good, the approach was wrong and we have long since changed the earlier policy in favor of more nuanced anti-bullying policies and in-app protections.” According to Netzpolitik.org, the rules were implemented as recently as September of this year.

Twitter rolls out a privacy hub. Twitter launched the Twitter Privacy Center – a centralized resource that advertisers and users can use to quickly and easily access the platform’s rules and policies – as well as personal data settings and privacy tools. The new site will contain information about Twitter’s initiatives, announcements, and privacy products, in addition to status updates on security-related incidents. “It should be easier to find and learn more about the work we’re doing to keep your data secure, including what data we collect, how we use it, and the controls you have,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Chrome extension shows Instagram Likes, Facebook tests “Favorites,” Snapchat couples up with Verizon

Return of the Like? Instagram is still testing hiding Likes – but a new Chrome extension from SocialInsider wants to give users the ability to view them again. Once added to your Chrome browser, the extension displays the number of likes and comments for any post on Instagram. The installation terms state that user data is not shared with Socialinsider servers.

Facebook tests a feature similar to ‘Close Friends.’ Rumor has it the social network is experimenting with a new option that allows users to share their Facebook and Messenger Stories with a “Favorite” group of friends – rather than sharing with everyone. The feature bears a striking resemblance to Instagram’s ‘Close Friends’ feature, which adds a layer of privacy and speed for users who choose to share content with only a select group. 

Snapchat to be preloaded on some Verizon phones. Last week, Verizon and Snap announced a partnership that involves Verizon preloading the Snapchat app onto some of its 5G phones as part of a campaign promoting the 5G network. Snap will give Verizon ad placement in its Snap Originals programming, and it will also work with Verizon’s 5G Labs to build augmented reality experiences for live events and Verizon marketing activations. As Snapchat makes efforts to ramp up its AR capabilities (with plans to eventually roll out a wearable component), Verizon’s 5G speeds coupled with Snapchat’s audience reach could make the brand’s AR aspirations a reality. Get ready, advertisers.