Netflix tests binge watchers worst nightmare, So you think you’re an Influencer? Facebook continues its cull and Gmail for Android saves clumsy emails.

Netflix tests binge watchers’ worst nightmare

Netflix has horrified its fan base by testing video promotion of its original shows in between episodes of the series that users are watching.

The true fans are not happy. This is because Netflix not only spearheaded the on-demand television revolution, but is loved by millions for being an ad-free platform. A lot of customers are arguing that Netflix is a subscription service and are therefore paying not to see ads in the first place.

However it looks as though the company is happy to sacrifice some user satisfaction for its growth and expansion. Techcrunch has spotted that some users are already starting to see these video promotions during their Netflix viewings. The idea of the adverts is to help users discover more content that is available, as they are recommended based on the Netflix algorithm.

Even with the current uproar from Netflix’s biggest binge watchers, the company isn’t backing down and is continuing with the test. They have said that the video promos are supposed to be skip-able and that the feature is not permanent. What do you think about these changes? Will they be permanent, or will they fade into the history of the internet?

So you think you’re an Influencer?

The UK Government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened up an investigation into whether social media influencers are declaring when they have been paid to promote a product or not.

The influencer market has been booming over the past year, and Instagram has been at the centre of it. With beauty brands reporting an average ROI of £8.81 to every £1 spent on Influencer marketing, there are plenty of opportunities for influencers to share their knowledge, show off their skills, AND get paid to do it. Buzzoole found that Instagram posts using the hashtags #ad or #sponsored grew by 44% in the first six months of 2018, in comparison to 2017.

This huge growth is something that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has looked into over the past few years. This intrigue came after certain celebrities got a virtual slap on the wrist for their posts advertising Snickers without previously stating that they were sponsored.

Now this may not seem like the biggest problem that social media and the internet faces, but a problem forms when fans of celebrities truly believe that they love and endorse the product, and young impressionable teens are fooled into buying products that the celebrity does not use themselves.

Facebook continues its cull

This week Facebook announced that it had removed another group of pages and accounts for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”, on both Facebook and Instagram.

Only a few weeks after its previous cull of pages and accounts, Facebook explained in its latest announcement that the latest accounts removed from the platform were pages with activity originating in Iran and Russia, and that “these were distinct campaigns”.Facebook hasn’t “identified any link or coordination between them.” What it has found however, is that they used “similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing.”

It has become clear that Facebook is taking these threats very seriously, and is working to clean up its image that has previously been tarnished. However, it is not as simple as just taking down a page. Even once these pages are identified, the challenge comes in deciding when to remove them, as removing them too early can hinder Facebook’s understanding of what the Page/Account is doing or planning to do. Along with this, the issue of bringing in law enforcement slows down the entire process.

The latest group of pages, groups and accounts that were taken down included: 254 pages, 276 accounts and 3 groups on Facebook, as well as 116 accounts on Instagram. The groups ran ads worth more than $12,000 on Facebook and Instagram.Some of these ads were blocked since the launch of Facebook’s political ads transparency tools. While regarding the organic content, Facebook has yet to disclose its review results.

Gmail for Android saves clumsy email senders

Gmail for Android has added a new feature that lets you “unsend” messages from your device.

Whether you send a small typo, forget to attach a file or just send an email to the wrong person, knowing that you can “unsend” an email puts your mind at ease. Now, if you send an email through Gmail on your android, you have ten seconds to save the day and save your blushes.

Once you have composed an email and hit “send”, you will see a “sending” notification at the bottom of your screen, alongside the new “undo” button.You then have 10 seconds to tap “unsend” which, once pressed, will store the email in your drafts.