Happy Friday, Happy May! We’re back today with another edition of the Weekly Download. Here’s the news you should know this week:
WordPress says goodbye to Twitter social sharing, Gmail introduces a new verification feature, Meta warns Facebook users about malware disguised as AI tools, and TikTok opens its revamped creator fund (with a few conditions).
As always, we’re ending things off with some Friday fun.
Ready? Let’s go!
WordPress drops Twitter social sharing due to API price increase
Does your website run on WordPress.com? If so, this is one you’ll want to pay close attention to in order to adjust your content-sharing process and avoid broken links.
WordPress.com, the world’s most popular open-source content management system (CMS), is saying goodbye to Twitter. Following a substantial hike in the social media platform’s API subscription plans, WordPress is removing its integration, meaning users who were previously automatically sharing content from WordPress to Twitter will no longer be able to do so.
Users will still be able to share their posts to Twitter, but it will now be a manual process, requiring a copy and paste. The change does not affect auto-sharing to Tumblr, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
According to a report by Mashable, roughly 43 percent of the entire web is powered by WordPress, encompassing hundreds of millions of websites, blogs, and ecommerce sites. This is a huge blow to Twitter, and it’s likely not the last relationship we’ll see come to an end as a result of rising API costs.
Gmail introduces a verified blue checkmark to help users identify scammers
The little blue checkmark icon that we’ve all grown to recognize has found its way to your inbox.
In a new initiative from Google, companies that verify their identity through Gmail’s existing Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) feature will automatically receive a blue checkmark icon alongside their profile image to make it easier for users to identify scammers.
According to Google:
“Strong email authentication helps users and email security systems identify and stop spam, and also enables senders to leverage their brand trust. This increases confidence in email sources and gives readers an immersive experience, creating a better email ecosystem for everyone.”
For companies that have already adopted BIMI, introduced by Google in 2021, the checkmark will appear automatically. The verification process requires companies to authenticate ownership of the brand logo they’re using as their email avatar.
You can learn more about the update and how to set up BIMI here.
Meta warns Facebook users about malware disguised as AI tools
A new security report from Meta is warning Facebook users about malware threats, specifically those weaponizing the current AI trend:
“Over the past several months, we’ve investigated and taken action against malware strains taking advantage of people’s interest in OpenAI’s ChatGPT to trick them into installing malware pretending to provide AI functionality,” Meta said in the report.
Posing as ChatGPT and other similar tools, Ducktail, NodeStealer, and other newer malware target people through malicious browser extensions, ads, and various social media platforms to run unauthorized ads from compromised business accounts across the web.
In the full report, Meta claims to have discovered around ten new malware families using AI chatbot tools to hack into users’ accounts, as well as more than 1,000 unique URLs with malware disguised as AI tools. These efforts were blocked from sharing on Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp.
You can read the full report here.
TikTok launches revamped creator fund
This week, TikTok launched the Creativity Program, the platform’s second creator fund. Announced back in February, the fund had been invite-only until now and is meant to pay popular creators for their content — but only if it meets specific criteria. TikTok says the new program is designed to generate higher revenue and unlock more real-world opportunities for creators.
To be eligible, creators must be making videos longer than a minute and have more than 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 authentic views on videos within the last 30 days.
Low payouts from the platform’s previous creator fund have been a source of frustration for many users, with several viral videos earning only a few dollars. According to TikTok, the new fund will “generate higher revenue potential,” but there has been no mention of specific figures.
Friday Fun
We’re loving this cute crossover between two of our favourite grouches. Check it out below!
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