This Week in Social and Digital (Week of March 22)
This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.
Discord in Talks for Acquisition
Microsoft is in talks with Discord for a $10 billion acquisition. Discord has more than 140 million monthly active users who started using the platform mostly for chatting over text, video and audio alongside gaming, but it's expanded to general chat as well.
Microsoft has been itching for an acquisition as of late with an appetite for TikTok last year and Pinterest earlier this year. Discord makes a lot of sense. Microsoft has Xbox, which Discord seems like a natural fit for. It also has Microsoft Teams, which offers similar functionality to Discord but for more of a business context. That being said, this could all be for not.
Discord has expressed interest in going public and courting a suitor like Microsoft only helps it build its valuation at this point. It's also spoken with Epic Games and Amazon.
Discord is part of a rapid rise of more one-to-one social networking, which shows no signs of slowing down. Its natural integration into gaming gives Discord not only an existing loyal user base but also a sustainable category to continue building around.
Tech CEOs Meet Congress Over Section 230
Section 230 has become a hot topic over the last year for a lot of different reasons, but one thing both sides of the political aisle agree on is something needs to be done with it. Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce met with the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter this week to discuss the role of their platforms in the spread of misinformation and extremism, as well as the immunity Section 230 grants them for content shared by users on their platforms.
Let's take the CEOs one-by-one. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has notably come out for regulation some form, especially if Facebook has a say in what they are. Specifically, Zuckerberg is open to transparency reports on what has been removed and instituting requirements for misinformation handling. Both sound great on paper, but they also create massive barriers to entry for new platforms, even though Facebook has said regulations should be dependent on platform size.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said repealing Section 230 would make handling misinformation more difficult but did favor regulation and clearer content policies for the handling of different types of content. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he'd like users to have more control over how algorithms give them information and expressed a desire to decentralize content moderation.
There are currently seven different bills being considered for handling Section 230 that range from outright repeal to less extreme measures. Either way, the bipartisan concern for it means there's a good chance of something happening.
News Quick Hits
The NFL is getting into streaming more than ever over 11 seasons starting in 2023. Most notably, Amazon Prime Video will be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football. CBS will show all football games on its streaming service Paramount+, and NBC will do the same for Sunday Night Football on Peacock. The news is huge because football is one of the few lagging reasons for traditional TV plans. Not only could this continue to accelerate the rapid expansion of cord-cutting, but it could also shift more ad dollars to streaming.
Instagram is working on a version of its app for children 13 and under. It will feature parental controls and heightened privacy features. The objective is to give kids who often lie about their ages to get Instagram accounts a safer space, while also bringing them into the Facebook ecosystem in a way that protects Facebook from potential liability.
Roku has launched an in-house advertising brand studio that will offer what it calls "streamer-first" video ads and sponsored short-form TV series. The vertical integration move is on top of an acquisition of Nielsen Advanced Video Advertising and the the launch of its ad platform lat year. Roku aims to be more than a video streaming ad platform. It wants to be everything.
Facebook has updated its IP protections by adding new features to prevent creators from violating copyright and scammers form selling fake products. The first protection would allow brands to claim revenue from videos featuring their content, while allowing more content to remain on the platform. They also have the option of having the video taken down. To help stem the flow of fake products being sold brands can now find items similar to what they're selling to find potential trademark infringements.
Slack had a weird rollout for a new feature called Slack Connect. It lets users direct message people at other organizations. After announcing Slack Connect, it became apparent that the tool could also be used to harass individuals by allowing chat invites to contain customized messages. That email with a customized message meant there was no way for users to block unwanted messages. Needless to say, Slack removed the option for custom messages within invites to chat.
Google's cookie-alternative FLoCs will not be launching in the EU at this time because of conflicts with GDPR. GDPR requires users to give expressed consent when their data is collected and processed. Google is still planning on launching FLoCs in the EU, but it needs to figure out compliance. In the meantime, the cookie may have a longer shelf life in the EU than in other countries as Google has no replacement for it.