We may not be very far into this week, but there have already been some newsworthy developments in the world of marketing and social media. Here’s what’s been happening since Monday:
Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News
Google has announced that they will no longer allow “fake news” websites to buy ads on their PPC platform. Many suspect this decision was made in direct response to the recent controversy surrounding what many are calling Facebook’s “fake news problem.”
Facebook as much as confirmed those suspicions a few hours later by announcing that it, too, would be banning fake news from its ad platforms, but as Greg Sterling points out, these changes only affect the related ad platforms, and won’t change what’s shown in Google search or individual Facebook feeds.
Facebook’s announcement also steers clear of the trending news controversy, which may be why there are reports of Facebook staff going rogue and creating their own task force to address what they see as a serious issue for the company.
Twitter Announces New Anti-Harassment Features
Elsewhere in the social world, Twitter has answered ongoing user complaints regarding harassment and abuse by adding new tools that allow muting of selected terms and blocking of conversations. The number of headlines about this development that include the word “finally” make it clear that this change is something a fair number of users have wanted for some time.
It’s clear that the current US political climate is going to affect the state on online marketing in ways we may not have anticipated. Good marketers, however, will keep doing what we’ve always done: watch and adapt.