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Posts Tagged ‘Instagram’

Instagram posts will soon be screened by Facebook fact checkers

08 May

The amount of fake news and conspiracy theories on Facebook and Twitter is troublesome, but by no means limited to those two social media platforms. Instagram users have to deal with a fair share of general misinformation as well.

The company has already been working to reduce the reach of posts containing false information, but is now taking things one step further. Soon potentially misinforming posts will go through parent company Facebook’s fact checking procedures.

Posts that are identified as false will not necessarily be removed but won’t appear on the Explore page or hashtag search. Talking to Poynter, a company spokesperson said: ‘Our approach to misinformation is the same as Facebook’s — when we find misinfo, rather than remove it, we’ll reduce its distribution.’

The newly introduced measures now ensure the fact checkers also find images on Instagram that have not previously been flagged on Facebook.

According to reports Instagram has been working closely with Facebook’s fact checking teams since the US midterm elections. When images with misinformation are identified on Facebook, an image recognition algorithm can search for the same image on Instagram. The newly introduced measures now ensure the fact checkers also find images on Instagram that have not previously been flagged on Facebook.

According to Poynter, Instagram is also considering the option to add pop-ups that alert users who are searching for misinformation. It’s good to see the platform and its parent company Facebook taking a stronger stance against misinformation in social media but for many the measures to counteract fake news and hate messages are still not going far enough.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Instagram is officially testing hiding like-counts to put focus on content

03 May

If you’ve ever listened in to a conversation among a bunch of keen Instagram users you’ll have noticed that the discussion tends to circle a lot more around likes and follower numbers than the actual images and content that is being posted.

It looks like Instagram has identified this focus on stats as a problem and it was recently revealed that the company is considering hiding the like count on images and other content.

Now a field-test has been launched with users in Canada who won’t be able to see like numbers on the photos of accounts they are following during the next several days. You can still see the likes on your own content, though.

At its F8 developer conference Instagram parent company Facebook confirmed that it is considering a roll-out to its entire platform. In the affected accounts a message is displayed to make users aware of the test.

‘We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get. During this test, only you will be able to see the total number of likes on your posts.’

The fact that Instagram likes are an important currency in the social media influencer industry has likely contributed to the obsession with the metric and resulted in people trying to cheat the system and followers being offered for payment.

Instagram’s attempts to keep those kind of activities under control and put the focus back on content can only be a good thing but if the latest test will be expanded to all users will likely depend on the reaction of the users in Canada.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Facebook, Instagram sue company that made over $9M selling fake likes and followers

27 Apr

Despite Instagram’s Terms of Use (TOU) saying purchasing likes, followers and general activity isn’t permitted, there’s no shortage of services available that’ll do just that. Instagram has long tried to shut these services down, but now the issue is going to be challenged in court for one particular New Zealand-based company.

Facebook has announced in a post on its Newsroom website that it and Instagram have filed a lawsuit in United States federal court against a company and three individuals located in New Zealand. According to the complaint, the defendants used various websites and corporations ‘to sell fake engagement services to Instagram users.’

A screenshot provided in the complaint showing the pricing of LikeSocial, a website Facebook and Instagram allege the defendants used to sell inauthentic Instagram activity.

Jessica Romero, Director of Platform Enforcement and Litigation, writes in the post titled ‘Preventing Inauthentic Behavior on Instagram’ that ‘By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message that this kind of fraudulent activity is not tolerated on our services, and we will act to protect the integrity of our platform.’ She later adds:

‘Inauthentic activity has no place on our platform. That’s why we devote significant resources to detecting and stopping this behavior, including blocking the creation and use of fake accounts, and using machine learning technology to proactively find and remove inauthentic activity from Instagram.‘

The lawsuit specifically seeks to stop the defendants from ‘Engaging and profiting in the sale of fake likes, views and followers on Instagram,’ ‘Violating our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines’ and ‘Violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other California laws for distributing fake likes on Instagram even after their access was revoked and their accounts were suspended.’

According to the complaint, the defendants amassed roughly $ 9,430,000 from the allegedly fraudulent services and companies. Some of the specific websites mentioned in the complaint include SocialEnvy.co, IGFamous.net, Social10x.com, smseries.co.nz, SocialSteeze.net and LikeSocial.co.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Instagram is considering hiding the like counts on photos

20 Apr

Instagram boasts one billion active monthly users. One is its defining features is the ability to like posts. Recent studies indicate that addiction to social media, and the number of likes received on content, is akin to drug use. Instagram is currently working on a prototype design that will conceal the number of likes on posts. Likes will only be visible to the person who made the post.

This testing in design change was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, a prominent reverse-engineering expert who has uncovered many of Instagram’s planned features before they were announced or launched. Wong spotted the tweaks in the Instagram Android code base and has generated the following screenshots:

The screenshots clearly display the adjustments in design as likes are not visible on the public interface. There is also a ‘View Likes’ button which lists the users who liked a specific post.

Wong says the test states that Instagram ‘want(s) your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get. During this test, only the person who shares a post will see the total number of likes it gets.’

Instagram claims it has not tested the feature. In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson for the company said: ‘We’re not testing this at the moment, but exploring ways to reduce pressure on Instagram is something we’re always thinking about.’

Wong has also discovered testing for new stickers in Instagram’s Direct Messaging service.

Instagram has faced a series of challenges this year. Facebook recently revealed that millions, not tens of thousands, of Instagram users had their passwords stored in plaintext. The services co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, also parted ways last September over disagreements with Mark Zuckerberg on the app’s future.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Facebook now says ‘millions of Instagram users’ had their passwords stored in plaintext

19 Apr

Last month, Facebook shared a blog post detailing how passwords of Instagram, Facebook and Facebook Lite users were stored in plaintext on its servers. At the time, Facebook said only ‘tens of thousands of Instagram users’ were affected. Now, Facebook has updated the post to say ‘millions of Instagram users’ had their passwords stored in plaintext on its servers.

Facebook claims ‘these stored passwords were not internally abused or improperly accessed’ and says it will notify the users with exposed passwords. Krebs on Security reports more than 20,000 Facebook employees had access to the plaintext passwords, some of which date as far back as 2012.

Regardless of whether or not you’ve been notified by Facebook of a breach, it would be a good idea to change your Facebook and Instagram passwords as well as the passwords on any other login that shares those passwords.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Instagram starts demoting ‘inappropriate’ content, even if it doesn’t violate its rules

12 Apr

In a meeting with journalists yesterday, Facebook detailed changes it is making to its family of products aimed at dealing with what it calls ‘problematic content.’ For Instagram, this change means a demotion of content Facebook refers to as ‘inappropriate,’ though the posts don’t violate the platform’s Community Guidelines.

Demoted content will not appear in Instagram’s Explore or hashtag pages, according to a new page on the platform’s Help Center. The demotion applies to posts that ‘might not be appropriate for our global community,’ even if those posts aren’t in violation of the Community Guidelines, the company explains.

Instagram’s Help Center page, seen in the screenshot below, doesn’t offer any visual examples of ‘inappropriate’ content, only providing ‘sexually suggestive’ as one category that will be demoted. This change doesn’t apply to the user Feed at this time, but there’s no word on whether Facebook will lower the Feed ranking of these posts in the future.

TechCrunch has published multiple images from Facebook’s press event that include visual examples of ‘non-recommendable’ content set for demotion on Instagram. Though dealing with certain posts, such as ‘likes’ spam and fake news, would obviously be a good thing for users, other categories encompass large, vague content segments with no clear definition of what is and isn’t ‘appropriate.’

Based on the images from Facebook’s press event, Instagram will demote posts that feature sexually suggestive, ‘graphic/shocking,’ and violent content. Examples include, among other things, images of someone being sprayed with pepper spray, a woman in a bikini and a skull.

The vague nature of Facebook’s sweeping ‘non-recommendable’ categories leaves many users in a state of uncertainty and may reduce the platform’s overall usefulness for certain creatives and brands. Though a user’s existing followers will still see the ‘inappropriate’ posts in their respective Feeds, being filtered from Explore and hashtag pages greatly limits the user’s ability to gain new followers.

Though Facebook didn’t go into details in its press release about the changes, TechCrunch reports that the company will use AI algorithms to determine which posts are demoted. Human content moderators have been tasked with labelling ‘non-recommendable’ content; Instagram will use those labels to train machine learning algorithms on identifying borderline content.

Instagram’s content demotion effort is now underway.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Post Photos to Instagram from your Computer using Bluestacks

09 Apr

The post How to Post Photos to Instagram from your Computer using Bluestacks appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ian Johnson.

Instagram. Ever heard of it? It is the ever-present, popular social media platform to show off your photography to over a billion users. Savvy users may rapidly spread the impact and influence of their images, message, and brand making it a preferred platform for many photographers. Sounds amazing right? So what is the catch? The catch with any social media is that it takes time to curate and post your work which takes time away from other photography tasks. Instagram can exacerbate that because its platform is proprietary to phones and mobile devices making it tedious to post your professionally-edited work from your computer. If you agree with that, I have great news! Bluestacks Android Emulator can access and post to Instagram from your computer.

I want to start this article by saying Bluestacks did not solicit or pay me in any way to do this. When researching for solutions to post to Instagram from your computer, I came across Bluestacks and have been using it for a year. I have written this article from my experience using their software. I review its usage for Instagram, some cons, and some pros.

Safety

One of my main concerns when initially installing Bluestacks was its security. You may be concerned about putting your passwords into it, or that Bluestacks may contain spyware. They guarantee that no spyware or malware is packaged with their software. After doing much searching online, I found the consensus was that Bluestacks was secure overall and that entering your password information for Instagram was no different than entering it into the Instagram app on your phone.

Usage

Booting Up

You can follow the installation steps from Bluestacks to get started. In short :

  1. Download Bluestacks Emulator from bluestacks.com and run the installer.
  2. Open up Bluestacks and sign in with your Google Account like you would on your cell phone.
  3. Open up the Google Play Store and install Instagram. You will be familiar with this as it is the same as your phone’s app store. Note: if you have two-step verification installed for Instagram you will have to temporarily disable it to sign into Instagram on Bluestacks. You can re-enable it once you have signed into Instagram.

Using Instagram

Using Instagram through Bluestacks is simple. Export your images from your editing software. Use Bluestacks’ “Media Manager” to import the image into Bluestacks. This will make the image available for use on Instagram.

Bluestacks, Usage, Photography

Use Bluestacks’ media manager to import your exported image on your computer.

Bluestacks, usage, photography

I like to store my exported images in a separate location than the RAW files. Bluestacks remembers this location to make it easy to access the images.

Open up Instagram to make your post. Assuming you already use Instagram, you will go through the same steps you use on your phone. You will appreciate being able to make the post using your keyboard!

Instagram, Photography, Bluestacks, usage, steps

To create a post open up Instagram in Bluestacks. Create the post using the same steps you would on your phone.

Thoughts and Review

I hope the steps above demonstrate how easy Bluestacks is to set up and use. After using Bluestacks for a year, I have appreciated the ease in creating posts and responding to users on Instagram. I like knowing I am using my time as efficiently as possible! I’ll break down the pros and cons of Bluestacks as I see them.

Pros

Bluestacks makes it efficient to post your edited photos to Instagram. In contrast to other solutions such as posting from Lightroom, you can interact with all of Instagram’s features and respond to comments and followers. I appreciate knowing I can spend more time photographing and editing with less time spent on social media. I also like using Instagram on a large screen and the ability to type using a keyboard.

One efficiency you should use is storing your common hashtags in a notepad document. You can simply copy and paste them into Instagram in Bluestacks. No more worries about mistyping or missing your most productive hashtags!

Hashtags, Instagram, Bluestacks,

I keep a list of commonly used hashtags in a notepad file. This allows me to copy and paste them into my post on Instagram.

Cons

There are some cons to the Bluestacks software that I’ve encountered. First, it is a RAM and graphic-heavy software. You may get speed performance issues with Bluestacks if you have moderately low ram (e.g., 8Gb). This is prevalent when you have multiple programs open eating up lots of RAM on your computer.

Second, there have been some bugs in Bluestacks which I have found workarounds for. I already mentioned the two-step verification bug. Another bug I have encountered is Instagram closes after starting it and will not open again until you reboot the software. This is not common and I’m not sure what triggers it, but you simply need to be aware of it.

Last, Bluestacks is a third-party app. At this time I trust the software’s security and commitment to no malware in their software. However, those terms could change in the future and you should always be conscious of what is contained in software updates.

The Bottom Line

I hope you like the Bluestacks solution and start to use it to improve your social media efficiency so you can spend more time working on your photography! As I always say, “Pixels are cheap.” I hope you make more pixels and spend less time on Instagram thanks to Bluestacks’s efficiencies!

Do you have other solutions that you would like to share? If so, feel free to comment below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post How to Post Photos to Instagram from your Computer using Bluestacks appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ian Johnson.


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Instagram appears to be testing new video control feature

30 Mar

Nearly six years after launching video sharing on its platform, at appears Instagram is finally working on adding the ability to fast-forward through videos in your timeline.

Discovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, the new feature makes it possible to skim through videos in your timeline. Until now, videos in your timeline timeline would simply play from beginning to end and repeat themselves. Now, it’s possible to effectively fast-forward through videos with a little swipe of your finger, as seen in Wong’s GIF below:

It’s perplexing it’s taken this long for Instagram to implement an otherwise common feature, but that seems to be the ongoing theme for Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Report: Instagram bug revealed some users passwords as plaintext in URLs

23 Mar

Less than a day ago, it was revealed more than 20,000 Facebook employees had access to over 600 million user passwords that were stored in plaintext on Facebook’s servers. Now, it’s being reported that Instagram too has suffered from a bug that inadvertently exposed users passwords in plaintext.

According to an exclusive report from The Information, Facebook informed affected Instagram users about a security flaw that caused passwords to be shown in plaintext when users opted to use Instagram’s ‘Download Your Data’ tool, a tool that ironically enough was created to help users see just how much information Instagram (read: Facebook) has collected on them.

A screenshot of the text shown after users request a download of all the data Instagram has collected from them.

In an email sent out by Instagram to affected users on Thursday, passwords were exposed in the URL that was sent when a data download request was made. This means if the download link was viewed on a shared or public device, it would be possible for anyone to see the affected users’ password. In a statement to The Information, an Instagram spokesperson said the issue was ‘discovered internally and affected a very small number of people.’

Regardless of how many Instagram users were or weren’t affected by this bug, such an issue shouldn’t be possible if Instagram were properly keeping passwords hidden with the proper encryption technology, as the passwords should never be able to be seen in plaintext — anywhere. In a statement to The Information, principle research scientists at security firm Sophos, Chet Wisniewski, said:

‘This is very concerning about other security practices inside of Instagram because that literally should not be possible. If that’s happening, then there are likely much bigger problems than that’

The ‘Download Your Data’ tool has since been updated to fix the issue, but it might be a good idea to change your Instagram passwords regardless as a precaution.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Instagram rolls out Checkout payment feature, data handled by Facebook

20 Mar

Instagram has announced Checkout, a new feature that is not directly imaging-related, but should still be of importance to many users. Checkout will allow users to purchase goods and services from Instagram business accounts without leaving the app and finalizing the transaction in another app or browser.

After tapping on a product page users will be able to select sizes, colors, and other product characteristics and make payments inside Instagram. Previously they would have redirected to the retailer’s website for these actions.

Instagram says it will “securely” save your name, email as well as billing and shipping information after your first order. This information package will be stored and managed by parent company Facebook but only be used by Instagram for the time being.

Checkout is currently in closed beta and only available to users in the USA. Participating brands include Adidas, Burberry, H&M, MAC Cosmetics, Nike and Zara. The current list of brands will be expanded soon. Retailers are charged a selling fee by Instagram for the service.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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