This week in Digital & Technology - 18th Aug

The social media battleground continues to see platforms vying for market share, with Instagram launching its own TikTok-like Reels and Snap testing a new music feature for Snapchat. Meanwhile, speculation around TikTok’s potential new owners – including Microsoft and now Twitter – continues to grow.

HEADLINES

• With perfect timing, Instagram launches Reels, dubbed the TikTok clone

• Snap brokers increased rights to add music to Snaps

• Facebook adds new sponsored post options for Groups, allowing brands to target communities

• WhatsApp has launched a fact-checking feature to stop the spread of misinformation

• Twitch Prime rebrands as Prime Gaming

INSIGHTS

• From self-care to social connection and, of course, sourdough, here are YouTube’s rising trends of COVID-19

• How two twins listening to old classics are making Dolly Parton and Phil Collins trend

• ‘NeRF in the Wild’ may sound like a new craze, but it’s structuring collections of photos into beautiful 3D images

COOL

• Google faked their own Pixel4a launch with an incomplete website

• TwikTwok converts Twitter’s top videos into a TikTok feed

• IBM built an avatar to answer questions about marine litter

• TikTok announced the first recipients of their $1 billion creator program

• Capture is a Fitbit for carbon emissions

• Modeling nominative determinism – how to use AI to choose your baby name

DEEP READS

• What will (inevitable) increasing regulation of tech look like?

• How cheap and easy deepfakes are getting closer to the real thing