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We get it! You're busy scheduling content and engaging with your followers, so it can be difficult to make time to sit down and read about the latest Facebook algorithm update or how brands are leveraging TikTok. But, hey, it's also important to carve out time to learn about new ways to improve your social media strategy. So, put down your phone (we know: it's a big ask!) and indulge in reading about recent social media updates.

If you work in social media marketing, these are the stories you need to read this week!

Up to four options rather than two are now available in Instagram Stories! If you've ever not answered a poll because neither answer fit, or you wanted a "both" option, those days are over. Which is also good news for social media managers trying to capture those taps for engagement metrics. Posters can also now update the color of the poll question text, allowing for more brand alignment.

It's Black History Month! Companies and brands around the world are celebrating in various ways. The Metaverse launched the "Metaverse Culture Series" which will use VR and AR to help amplify black voices through collaborations with black creators, and provide educational resources on black culture and history. Importantly, the series will run for a full year, rather than just the month of February.

Privacy concerns have been at the forefront of social media users minds for several years, and a new study from Snapchat reveals that actually having tools to control their privacy is more important for Gen Z and millennial users than a "privacy policy". The report found that "65% of respondents are actually satisfied with their online privacy" and that having better options for controlling what they share is a priority.

Another social platform dedicated to elevating black creators this month is Pinterest. Continuing their new livestream shopping endeavor "Pinterest TV", which launched just before the holidays, Pinterest will be "amplifying Black creator content through a Pinterest TV series focused around Nourishing Your Soul, working with inspiring creators across food, fashion, beauty and wellness."

A new toolbox hub from Twitter aims to help marketers quickly access all the features, apps, and resources they need to improve their Twitter marketing prowess. The Hub includes links to a number of 3rd party apps and sites, broken up into three sections: Expression tools, Safety tools, and Measurement tools. It remains to be seen how long the hub will be active or if it will change as Twitter promotes more of its internal tools, but for now it's a great way for marketers to keep up!

Update from January 25th

TikTok is planning a few new features, currently in experiment mode and not yet being tested live. These include a customizable avatar similar to Apples "Memoji" in look and feel, audio-only live streaming which gives creators more options to build their audience, and a creator subscription model, akin to what Instagram is currently testing.

Twitter's newest upcoming feature is called "Flocks" and it will enable users to share Tweets with a select group, rather than publicly. It is similar to "close friends" in Instagram Stories which allows you to only show your Story to people on your close friends list. Twitter already offers control over who can see and post replies, so Flocks can add an extra level of protection as well as the ability to create conversation between a close knit group.

In a continuing effort to prevent the spread of hate speech and misinformation, Instagram has announced that it will now demote posts that are detected by the algorithm to contain hate speech or bullying, or that may incite violence. Instagram already shows posts lower on feeds that are reported by independent fact checkers, so this is essentially a step toward automating the process and catching posts that aren't reported.

Meta business platform, Workplace, announced last year that it would be implementing a WhatsApp integration to help facilitate communication between remote teams. In particular the update aims to make it easier for frontline workers to stay connected, ensuring "that information and updates reach frontline workers where they are in real-time."

There's no question that the working world is rapidly changing and a new ad for LinkedIn illustrates how the professional networking site is adapting to accommodate these changes. The promotional video focuses on the changing nature of what it means to be a "professional" and what work-from-home means for work-life balance.

Update from January 18th

The power of manifestation is the subject of the latest ad campaign for Twitter. Billboards have started showing up in various cities, showcasing famous athletes and entertainers early Tweets with career aspirations and dreams. Today these dreams have been realized, and it's a nice reminder of the power of intention setting. Sometimes publicly sending your aspirations out into the universe (or on Twitter) can have powerful results!

2. TikTok Tests Integrated Stories

TikTok is in the early stages of testing a more integrated experience for its Stories feature. While currently Stories on TikTok live in their own separate space, this change would include them in the "For You" and "Following" sections of the app. Navigation to Stories creation would also now be available from your main feed as well. Users scrolling through will see how many cards each Story contains and can tap through to view from right within their main feed, which is the biggest difference from Instagram's Stories.

3. Pinterest Shares How the Male Demographic Uses Pins

While Pinterests primary demographic is women, a new report indicates that more men are using the platform today, and takes a look at what they're interested in. The study reveals that men are making big goals and spending decisions for 2022. According to Pinterest: "75% of men in our study are planning to spend more this year to bring their goals to fruition... the study showed a mix of big-picture intention setting (eat better, find work-life balance) and smaller shifts to have more fun (socialize more, spend more time with friends)."

4. Snapchat Adds More Protections for Minors

In a move similar to one made by Instagram in 2021, Snapchat announced plans to make its platform a safer place for minors. The platform will be adding more safeguards to its "Quick Add" suggestions feature to prevent users under 18 from being connected to and contacted by adults they don't know. Approximately 20% of Snapchats user base is under 18.

5. YouTube Adds a "Media Kit"

YouTube has introduced an exciting new addition called "Media Kit " to help creators share their audience and engagement metrics more efficiently and effectively with brands and advertisers. This will make it easier for creators to earn ad revenue and partner with more brands who are interested in getting in front of relevant influencer audiences.

Update from January 11th

While "sound off" is the default setting for most platforms when showing videos, TikTok is taking the opposite route. With 9 out of 10 TikTok users viewing sounds as essential, the platform seeks to expand their audio offerings and explore the continuing evolution of how sound is used to create content on TikTok. Audio is a key component to TikTok content, and with its popularity it will be interesting to see if other platforms will eventually switch from sound-off to sound-on by default.

Pinterest has made it easier to find specific profiles and creators with a new filter that shows up in search results. The feature showcases Pinners related to certain search terms, so users can identify new people to follow who match their interests.

In what promises to be an eventful year of changes and new features, Instagram is coming in hot out the gate, testing an option that will allow users to rearrange their grid post photos and videos. This would be a welcome addition for content creators on the platform, giving more control over the first posts people see when they visit your profile. Instagram has also teased the possibility of a "pinned post" to come later this year.

A new privacy center is now available on Facebook, describing in fuller detail how Meta gathers and uses data, with more control for users to decide what they want to share. There are five different sections where people can find more information about privacy: Security, Sharing, Collection, Use, and Ads. Currently the new center is only available to US users on desktop, with plans to roll it out to a wider base soon.

Given the popularity of video and reaction-posts on platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok, it was only a matter of time before Twitter tried to get in on the action. They are currently testing a new "live reactions" feature as an additional sharing option. The feature allows users to quote-Tweet with a full screen video response with the quoted Tweet visible.

Update from December 14th

Instagram is continuing its race to keep up with TikTok, adding a new feature that allows users to reply to photo or video comments with an Instagram Reel. This functionality is already available on TikTok, so it's clear that Instagram wants to make sure its users have access to the same types of features as its biggest rival. The further integration of short-form video as replies will boost engagement and encourage content creators to make more Reels (we'll likely start to see a subculture of "response Reels" before long!).

Audio features are set to be a continuing social media trend and WhatsApp is getting in on the action with a new feature enabling users to preview voice messages before sending. In an age where leaving a voicemail causes anxiety for an entire generation, this update is a welcome and useful option. You can play your message back and make sure it sounds the way you intended before sending. No more off-the-cuff rambling or robotic script reading!

In an intriguing update for YouTube creators, the video platform recently launched "Places Mentioned". This is a new feature where any places mentioned in your video will show up visually in the video description box, so viewers can easily get more information about locations highlighted in your content. The feature essentially lessens the manual work on creators to add links, making it a more seamless and easy process. It's unclear at this juncture if the feature is only available on mobile devices.

It's considered best practice these days to always include captions on videos. Not only are they helpful for deaf & hard of hearing viewers, they also helps clarify what's said if the audio is muffled, and additionally most videos play without sound by default so they are an easy ways for viewers to decide whether or not they'd like to engage further with the video by turning the sound on. Auto-captions will now be available for Twitter videos, automatically turned on for all videos uploaded on iOS and Android, while desktop users can switch them on and off manually. Currently Twitter video captions are available in 37 languages.

Update from December 7th

In a bid to join other top social platforms like Instagram and TikTok in a "video first" mentality, Pinterest recently announced that it would be acquiring video editing app, Vochi. According to Vochi CEO & Founder: "The Vochi app gives creators the ability to apply high quality effects based on computer vision on objects in a video instantly...These technologies are unique in the industry, and we're excited to bring them to an even larger audience as a part of the Pinterest team."

Although the old roundup style from YouTube is still on ice due to negative feedback in recent years, YouTube has still provided those who are curious with some top trends and YouTube creators from the past year. The selections are divided into 5 sections: Trending Videos, Music Videos, Top Creators, Breakout Creators, Shorts Creators, plus an additional section highlighting featured creators from a Livestream event Escape2021. From the results, it's clear that gaming, music, and vlogging remain popular, but the TikTok format is also becoming more popular in the YouTube Shorts community.

New features are now available to users on LinkedIn using Creator Mode, including Live Videos and Newsletters. Creator mode is an option for LinkedIn users who use the platform beyond core networking. Per LinkedIn: "LinkedIn creators are members who regularly share content with their professional community to demonstrate their expertise, ignite conversations about ideas and experiences, and build communities around common interests." These power users and thought leaders now have access to create LinkedIn Lives and authoring Newsletters that get seen by your followers through automated emails. These features are already available to business pages with 150+ followers.

Messenger has been making some significant updates and changes throughout the year to elevate it's experience for users. Their most recent addition includes AR features, new sound-mojis, including one from Taylor Swift and one celebrating popular Netflix series Stranger Things. Most notably however, is a Venmo-esque payment option that Messenger is testing called "Split Payments."

Original post:
Social Media News: The 5 Biggest Stories of the Week - marketscreener.com

Social media is used basically for social interaction, access to news and information, and decision making.

Over the past five decades, the means of communication in Nigeria has steadily progressed from the traditional postal services and optical fiber technology in Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to the era of the internet.

Like the rest of the developed world, Nigeria had its modest hut in the global web village by the early 2000s. These include blogs, microblogs, wikis, social networking sites, photo-sharing sites, instant messaging, video-sharing sites, podcasts, widgets, and virtual worlds.

Users can hold conversations, share information, and produce web content on the social media sites.

Thus, Nigerians were able to communicate with the outside world in fields including business and academics and through the eras social platforms.

The publics acceptance of social media has grown to the point that most businesses and organizations have used the platform to obtain competitive benefits.

What appeals to individuals is that it offers a greater chance of effective information digestion, i.e., it sends out appropriate and direct short messages to its audience in a way that facilitates content absorption.

Apart from social connectedness and influence, social media is rapidly displacing traditional business tools such as marketing, advertisement, profiling, and so on. This is because cybercitizens spend a significant amount of time using the cyberspace domain for nearly everything. For a competitive advantage, many brands are shifting to social networking platforms.

Furthermore, social media is globally fuelling a people-driven democracy with liberty and freedom of participation, which is beginning to alter our personal and professional economic, political, social, and relational draperies.

Cyberspace has resulted in a socially connected digital society due to the evolution of the internet, information systems, and networks, as well as peoples mobility and receptiveness.

Read also:Emerging Africa Group sees tech, media, communication attracting new investment in 2022

Social media thus plays an essential role in peoples life as a significant proportion of Nigerians have adopted several platforms to express their opinion.

Statistics from digital 2021 shows that of the over 205 million population in Nigeria, there were over 104 million internet users and 33 million (15.8 percent of the total population) social media users in Nigeria in 2021. The report shows that internet users in Nigeria increased by 19 million between 2020 and 2021, while social media users increased by 6 million.

Also, mobile connections in Nigeria increased by 17 million between 2020 and 2021 to 187.9 million. The access to the internet was highest (70 percent) among young Nigerians between ages 16 to 35. This number is high because many people have more than one phone or device connected to the internet.

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) network data report of 2020, there was an increase in subscribers total volume of data from 123,648TB in December 2019 to 205880.4TB in December 2020. This shows about a 67 percent increase year on year in the volume of subscriptions. The increase may be due to the pandemic shock, which caused restriction of movement and resulted in the disruption of many activities, thereby constraining many activities online.

Using the average cost of N487.18 per 1GB data, as suggested by NCC, Nigerians spent not less than N100 billion on internet data.

Many Nigerian youths who are the primary users of the internet and technology services are propelling this widespread internet usage.

In Nigeria, it is a norm now for people to surf the internet. Most Nigerians that have access to the internet use it for social networking sites/applications. These include professional networking sites (such as LinkedIn), social photo and video sharing platforms (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Instagram), and blogs and news outlets covering social, political, entertainment, and lifestyle issues often utilized platforms.

Furthermore, the report on Statista as of the Q3 of 2020 shows that WhatsApp has the highest percentage of the most used social media in Nigeria, with 93 percent, while Facebook is second with 86.2 percent, YouTube (81.6 percent), Instagram (73.1 percent), Twitter (61.4 percent), Pinterest (26.8 percent), LinkedIn (32.8 percent), and Skype (12.1 percent) among others.

The report also shows that Nigerians spend close to 4 hours on social media and approximately 5 hours on the internet daily.

The constant usage of social media has undeniably disrupted our daily habits and activities, and it is now embedded in our daily routine. Whether stuck in traffic, at the airport, in a classroom, on a lunch break, or even secretly at a boardroom meeting, millions of Nigerians constantly find solace in the escape known as social media.

The utilization of platforms with large audiences comes with several challenges. However, if proper checks are not put in place, the risks may exceed the benefits.

See original here:
The cons of social media may outweigh the pros in Nigeria (1) - Businessday.ng

February 2: Today, more than 450 million people in the country are using smartphones. Due to this, social networking platforms have become an integral part of human life. The social media platforms have given opportunities to the common man which no one could have imagined a few decades ago. These platforms have become flag bearers of free speech and an integral part of democracy. They have given unimaginable powers to the person standing at the last end of the society to connect with the mainstream of the society and express his views openly. With great power comes great responsibilities. Winds of positive change can be brought in society today through these forums, but unfortunately, they are more in the news for their criticism. Social media, their infringement on privacy and their biased nature have become a big issue.

In fact, in the present times, the role of social media has become to spoil social harmony and promote the thinking that divides the society instead of uniting. Be it Twitter or Facebook, YouTube, or WhatsApp, almost all social media platforms have become a heaven for promoting cyber-bullying. These foreign platforms, which have become a means of spreading fake news and hate speech, are playing a big role in spreading hatred increasing anti-national activities in society. They are pushing society towards a bigger and unseen danger. Not only this, the risk of cyber-crimes like hacking and phishing etc. has also increased through them, as is evident from the following:

1. In the last year, there has been a lot of allegations on Twitter for allegedly promoting anti-India tweets that spread hatred and violence. A petition was also filed in the Supreme Court regarding this. The petition has sought directions from the government to enact a law for social media platforms so that Twitter can be prosecuted for anti-India tweets. One needs to understand that this all did not happen overnight. It is as if a plan of action is underway to gradually tarnish India's image at the global level.

2. Spreading fake news through social media has been a major reason behind the riots in many parts of the country. Thats why governments are compelled to shut down the internet to curb riots. Whether it is the Delhi riots or the case of spreading violence by disturbing the communal atmosphere in Bengaluru, such tasks are carried out under a very careful and well thought out strategy. The fake accounts on Twitter propagate and promote casteism, communalism, regionalism, extremism, and separatism. Intentions are made to break the unity and integrity of the country. These matters are not resolved even after complaints to Twitter.

3. India has been under attack by social media platforms that specifically targeted the Indian civilizational values of VasudhaivaKutumbakam. Hostile countries like China and Pakistan have left no stone unturned to spread anti-India content on social media. Be it the case of a clash with China on the border or the case of blaming India in the false incidents of ceasefire, or the terrorism and human rights violations in Kashmir related to Pakistan.

4. Not long ago, Indian security agencies identified more than a thousand Twitter accounts backed and supported by Khalistani sympathisers &Pakistan. These accounts were trying to malign Indias image by taking advantage of farmers' protests. These shared and disseminated misleading information to the public and provocative remarks about farmers' demonstrations. The trending hashtags and handles reveal that a conspiracy to kill farmers was hatched to incite violence and affect public order. Enemy countries have always tried unsuccessfully to derail the country from the development track by systematically attacking India's secular society, democratic structure, and social harmony. Unregulated social media has given a big boost to their breaking India plans.

5. This is not only an issue of Twitter, but others are also in the same category. Because while WhatsApp wants to make a privacy policy mandatory in which it will share the data of all its users with the parent company Facebook for marketing and advertising, it refuses to implement the intermediary guidelines. In such a situation, the government retaliated strongly when messaging apps like WhatsApp went against the IT laws of the Government of India. The Indian government has asked WhatsApp to withdraw its privacy policies which are violative of the Indian laws.

6. The research team of Instagram discovered that the Instagram application impacts teens. It leads teenagers into depression and anxiety. These social media platforms claim that they are committed to tracing and removing illegal practices like child pornography, suicide, drugs, extremism, and fake news. But till now, it seems to sound like a mere tokenism with no effort on the ground.

7. Twitter shadow bans and suspends accounts on slightest provocation citing its community standards but terrorist groups like the Taliban tweet without hesitation. Twitter has done nothing to take off their accounts, and these terrorists keep on peddling their terror agenda without any hindrance.

All is not that bad as now the common man is waking up to the ills of foreign social media platforms. People have realised that while using social media to connect with the world, they are compelled to pay the price. They are exposing their personal data, getting addicted and even risking national security. As we head towards another year, selfies and new year messages are shared widely. Another year will bring some new protests, and their online support groups will be created; signature campaigns and trending hashtags will lend support to the protests. But there will also be voices protesting the protests. Social media should not decide the moral and legal aspects of any protest. They should act as a neutral medium. Hopefully, this year terrorists will be banned from Twitter, and no victim will be punished for asking for help. Hopefully, WhatsApp will not infringe our privacy, and YouTube will not shadowban a video for exposing the truth about forced conversions. Hopefully, in 2022 social media will be a better and more neutral place.

Apurva Agarwal is a well-known lawyer, founding partner of Universal Legal and angel investor. He is an expert on socio-political and economic issues. An alumnus of NLS Banglore, he also pioneered social projects as the president of Rotary Club of Mumbai Nariman Point

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Originally posted here:
2021 was the year of exposing crooked social media tricks: Apurva Agarwal - Free Press Journal

Something for the Weekend, Sir? "Is it in yet?"

There you go! It's working now! "There's no need to push it," I explain calmly. "Just put it right here and it should insert itself automatically, see?"

Mme D is trying to connect two social media accounts so she won't have to upload the same photo twice. Frankly, she doesn't even want to upload it once. She'd rather not have to deal with it at all.

Mme D does not do social media. Never has; never will.

This is a little tiresome because she needs to have an active social media presence to promote awareness of her brand new local business. Oh yes, social media is an absolute necessity. All the influencers say so, and we should always do what influencers tell us to otherwise they won't be influencers any more. And, well, that would be a disaster, wouldn't it?

I once tried to impress on her the importance of UGC. For weeks afterwards she looked at me in a funny way until we eventually cleared the air by establishing that UGC does not stand for Universal Genital Castration. Given that 25 per cent of user-generated content comprises dick pix, this was a misunderstanding too far.

"Social media is a time-wasting pit of crazies, pornographers, criminals, and perpetually angry nobodies flinging insults at each other," she replied.

For someone who doesn't do social media, she has a remarkably strong insight into it.

The argument that won the day, however, was when I suggested the alternative was to print hundreds of leaflets and go door-to-door posting them into letterboxes. Or buy advertising space which would need to be online and backed up with a posh website.

Let's start with just a couple of social media accounts, I said, and we'll connect them so that you can upload your photos to one and then they'll appear in the other by magic! It'll only take five minutes!

Here we are, five hours later, still trying to get it to work.

The first hour was wasted choosing a username. Strictly speaking, she needed two usernames one for each platform but they needed to be the same, or as similar as possible, so that people would recognise them as being related to the same person. There's no point being Jesus_Forgives411 on one platform and Hail_Satan666 on the other; it tends to confuse the message. But registering the same username on two social media platforms these days turns out to be trickier than I remembered from when I last did it more than a decade ago.

By "trickier", I mean impossible.

We kept two browser windows open side-by-side, trying to synchronise names. As soon as we'd found one that worked on one platform, it would be unavailable on the other. I even clicked on the button "Suggest a username" and got DABBS_354168. Who'd have thought there were so many Dabbses? Well, apparently there were even more of them on the other platform as it insisted Username DABBS354168 is already taken. Blimey, common as muck, we are.

Eventually armed with the memorable DABBS_9571684884194295615498, we set up a content link between the two platforms. Great, let's try it out!

Mme D says she is bored with social media already and insists we take a break as she is not yet sufficiently acclimatised to adopt the social media power-user convention of pissing in empty cola bottles under the desk rather than step away from the screen for two seconds. I acquiesce.

After lunch, we sign back in so she can upload her first ever social media post. What ought to be an auspicious occasion is marred by a message when she logs into the first platform.

Your account has been blocked due to a breach of our content rules.

Nowhere is there an explanation of what rules have been broken or how, or indeed what to do about it. We spend the next couple of hours searching the customer support pages [ha ha ha, sorry, it always makes me laugh when they call them that], followed by general Google searches, calls to the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and a telegram to the Vatican. Nobody has the faintest idea, although at least I did manage to confirm that Francis took in that Amazon parcel for me. He says he'll pop it round on Sunday after work.

For further amusement, albeit not ours, we hunt for a contact email address or phone number at the social media platform to ask what to do next. I even try asking on social media itself but of course that doesn't get us anywhere at first: all that happens is that a bunch of people jump on my post to tell me I am "just like Hitler" before sending me photos of their privates.

But then, as I'm scrolling through them, I spot a reply from the feed moderator [Curation: Richard Intimate Photography, I guess the official job title goes] who's pasted a shortened URL we should click on for help. I click on it and and we find ourselves looking at an unblockage request form. At last.

Our reclaim form completed and sent off, we while away the next hour awaiting a response. Mme D goes back to work. I skim through the online news, preferring to remain in front of my computer for a bit longer now that I have lined up a row of empty cola bottles under my desk.

The reply comes back in an instant. The social media moderators had been poring over our case for at least ooh, I dunno a good four seconds before delivering their final verdict.

Your account has been blocked due to a breach of our content rules. You may not contest this decision.

I am disappointed but not surprised. The case almost certainly had not been looked at by a human with a brain but by an AI without one. There is no way to get past this barrier except by trying to kick up a fuss on the public support feeds. I'm loathe to do this as you end up looking like just another shouty arse along with everyone else in social media.

It's funny, though, how social media companies claim to be eradicating so-called "bad actors" and hate-speech posters from their platforms on a regular basis. I say "funny" because they usually quote big numbers in the thousands or tens of thousands, but nobody ever seems to challenge who is included in these regular purges. Has anyone ever asked to look at the list?

I am asking for a friend: specifically, on behalf of DABBS_9571684884194295615498, who has found herself rubbing shoulders with assorted bad actors and haters. She is now banned a lonesome vagabond on the surf of sershal meejah; a pariah of posting; rendered hungry through a lack of feed.

I ask: what the heck did you put in your feed to make them go postal on you like that?

"I haven't posted anything yet," she replies. "We had lunch instead, remember?"

And there you have it: Mme D's social media feed managed to irrevocably breach social media content rules within minutes of creating her account without actually having any content in it.

Hoorah for AI! And hoorah for those tens of thousands of banned accounts! The world feels safer already.

Youtube Video

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How to get banned from social media without posting a thing - The Register

RICH tech giants should be forced to PAY victims of heartless scammers running wild on their sites, the Government has been told.

Flimsy laws at present "make it easy" for fraudsters to rip people off using dodgy adverts on platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, MPs said.

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The Treasury Committee warned that con tricks and economic crime have surged at an "alarming rate".

They think tech firms will take the problem seriously if they had to reimburse anyone duped into parting with their cash.

It comes as people lost record amounts during the pandemic, as vicious tricksters jumped on fears around testing, lockdown, jabs and even postal deliveries.

Overall fraud crime rose by 36% last year, with more than 420,000 offences recorded, according to Action Fraud.

Angela McLaren, Assistant Commissioner for Economic and Cybercrime at the City of London Police said between 2019 and 2020 alone social media featured in more than 39,000 crime reports, resulting in losses of 120 million.

"If we look at the types of fraud that are most emergent at the moment, the vast majority of them will rely on some form of social media platform," she told MPs.

"That applies whether its romance fraud, investment fraud oronline shopping.

"The consistent theme through all these frauds is, obviously, the use of social networking and social media sites."

Facebook and others were also slammed for profiting from adverts by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) designed to make people aware of scams.

While tech firms offered the regulator some free advertising credits, Google still pocketed more than 690,000 from the FCA, while Facebook-owner Meta earned over 364,000 and Twitter took home 161,000.

"We would prefer that these ads were not published in the first place, to be really frank," said Mark Steward, the FCA's director of enforcement.

"The irony of us having to pay social media to publish warnings about advertising that they are receiving money from is not lost on us."

How to protect yourself from fraud

USE the following tips to protect yourself from fraudsters.

Google has since offered 2.2millon in free credits, on top of another 1.5million to support industry awareness.

Others have been urged to "follow Google's example" and pay the regulator back.

The wide-ranging report also recommended that there should be proper regulation for cryptocurrencies to ward off fraud and money laundering.

A rep for Facebook-owner Meta said: "Promoting financial scams is against our policies and we're dedicating significant resources to tackling this industry-wide issue on and off our platforms."

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In other news, Apple has revealed a bunch ofnew emoji for iPhone, including a pregnant man and two saucy symbols.

Experts have warned that futurespace launches could be jeopardisedif "stupid" regimes like Russia don't stop blasting the skies creating debris.

And themost popular phonesince the millennium has been unveiled, with many shocked to find out it's not an iPhone.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Millions of Facebook users could be PAID by tech giant are you owed money?... - The Sun