China brands online gaming as ‘electronic drug’  

  • An article published by the Economic Information Daily reported that many teenagers have become addicted to online gaming and warned about its negative impact.
  • Stocks in Tencent and NetEase, two of China’s biggest online gaming firms, fell more than 10% following the announcement of a series of measures to tighten China’s grip on technology.
  • The article mentioned the popular game ‘Honor of Kings’, published by Tencent, claiming some students were playing it for up to 8 hours a day. 
  • Tencent intends to introduce new measures to reduce children’s access to games and reduce the time children spend on these platforms.  
  • For more information on online gaming and tips, check out our blog post here and for our Family Screen Time Pack, click here. 
  • Full story here.  

Twitter working with news providers to tackle disinformation  

  • Twitter is collaborating with two of the largest international news providers, Reuters and the Associated Press, to help debunk disinformation. 
  • The agencies will help Twitter to give more context and background information on events that generate a high volume of tweets. 
  • Twitter has faced pressured to remove false content in the past, especially with recent vaccine misinformation.  
  • Check out our post on misinformation here. 
  • Full story here. 

Antisemitism criticism for social media giants

  • Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have been accused of failing to tackle anti-Semitic posts and for fostering a “safe space for racists”. 
  • This follows last week’s news about Twitter’s failing hateful material policies. Read this story here.  
  • Researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) flagged hundreds of anti-Semitic posts over a six-week period this year. 
  • The posts included Nazi, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist content.  
  • Although 714 posts were in violation of platform policies, fewer than one in six were removed or had accounts deleted. 
  • Full story here. 

Say good-bye to Twitter ‘Fleets’ 

  • Twitter’s ‘Fleets’, a similar feature to Instagram and Snapchat stories, is being discontinued today.  
  • The feature was announced in March 2020 following the success of Instagram’s integration and allowed users to post photos and videos that disappeared after 24-hours. 
  • ‘Fleets’ never truly took off, despite several updates allowing GIFs, stickers and the ability for followers to respond to them directly.  
  • While ‘Fleets’ is no longer available, Instagram and Snapchat stories remain popular. Check out our safety cards, here and here, for tips on how to block, report, mute and stay safe on these platforms.  
  • Full story here.