What happened on social media in July 2020?
This month has been another busy one for the social platforms, particularly for Twitter. With its enormous security breach going down in history, the platform has been in the limelight heavily this month, and not for positive reasons. Read on for a closer look into social media updates for July 2020.
Facebook Updates July 2020
Facebook Rolls Out Face ID for Messenger
In July, Facebook rolled out new Touch ID and Face ID options for Messenger on iOS. This is designed to stop people from being able to snoop on your private chats in Messenger, making the app a safer place for conversation. Also, this month, Facebook rolled out screen-sharing within both Messenger and Messenger rooms.
Instagram Updates July 2020
Instagram Rolls Out Two New Features
In July, Instagram rolled out the next step of its shopping experience by adding a new ‘Shop’ tab in the explore section, that will allow a feed dedicated to shopping directly through the platform.
As explained by Instagram:
“Instagram Shop is an in-app shopping destination where people can discover products and brands they love from across Instagram. Today, we have started public testing of Instagram Shop in the US and will expand globally in the coming weeks.”
Instagram has also been working on a TikTok-inspired featured named ‘Reels,’ which they have announced will launch in the US next month. Reels allows users to create 15-second, looping video clips, which can be set to music. They are displayed in their own dedicated place within user-profiles and will have a separate section within the ‘Explore’ tab too. However, the question is, will the TikTok community merge back to Instagram for all their video making fun? We’re yet to see.
Twitter Updates July 2020
Twitter Suffers From Major Cyber Hack
It’s been a difficult month for Twitter, with several high-profile accounts hacked, in a security breach that will go down in history. Celebs such as Kanye West, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos, alongside brands such as Uber and Apple, were taken over in a hacking that took place on Wednesday 15th July.
The messages published on all the accounts were the same, just worded differently on each. They all included the same bitcoin wallet address, in a plea to get money.
Twitter has since investigated the incident, and has provided this update:
“Our investigation is still ongoing but here’s what we know so far: We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools. We know they used this access to take control of many highly visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it.
Once we became aware of the incident, we immediately locked down the affected accounts and removed Tweets posted by the attackers. We also limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this. This was disruptive, but it was an important step to reduce risk. Most functionality has been restored but we may take further actions and will update you if we do.
We have locked accounts that were compromised and will restore access to the original account owner only when we are certain we can do so securely. Internally, we’ve taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing. More updates to come as our investigation continues.”
The FBI has been involved in the incident, with it being worryingly close to the US Presidential election, which is only months away. There has been huge concern and speculation since, surrounding the fact that accounts of high-profile users can be taken over so easily. Will these high-profile users begin to abandon the platform with fears of it happening again?
Alongside this drama, Twitter also rolled out direct message overlay to all users –
Slide into those DMs without clicking away from your timeline.
Rolling out on web. pic.twitter.com/BdaeYoyPu2
— Twitter (@Twitter) July 15, 2020
In other news
From Twitter’s high-profile hacking to Facebooks new facial ID functionality, July has certainly been an interesting month in the world of social media, including other social media apps too.
Chinese video-sharing app, TikTok, has been forced to put a stop to finding a new HQ in London amid concerns over its Chinese ownership. This is becoming an ongoing problem, alongside the fact that the company has been fined in South Korea for violating the privacy of minors.
Alongside this, Snapchat has launched a meditation tool, the first of many of its new ‘mini-apps’ which are designed to enable developers to build new experiences in the app themselves. The new app is a meditation tool from well-known mindfulness site, Headspace.
Stay tuned for our guide to future updates in the world of social media.
