Easter Digital Digest 28/03/2024 - FCA social media guideline updates, Trump Media floats on NASDAQ, and EU commission investigates Meta, Apple and co

Thursday is the new Friday!

The news is quite heavy this week, with the EU commission using the Digital Market Act to investigate Meta, Google and Apple, the FCA have updated their guidelines after removing thousands of unlawful ads last year and Trump Media floats on the NASDAQ.

NEWS

?? EU Commission investigates Meta, Google and Apple under the Digital Markets Act

The EU has launched investigations into Meta for their ad-free subscription plan, Google’s self-preferencing in the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store ‘steering’ rules.

It’s still early days with the new act in place, so it will be interesting to see the outcome of the above investigations and how these are rectified and how this affects the future of big tech operating in Europe.

??Trump Media & Technology Group floats on NASDAQ

An expected $300 million is expected to flow into the company now its floated on NASDAQ. What that will mean though is that it will have to publish its financial details quarterly, and will now be held accountable to the shareholders.

While over a quarter of Americans have heard of Truth Social, only 2% get their news from it, so the platform itself is a way off becoming a big competitor within the social media sphere.

??X Corp loses lawsuit against hate speech watchdog

A US judge has thrown out Elon Musk’s lawsuit against a non-profit group CCDH (Center for Countering Digital Hate) that criticised his platform X (aka Twitter) for not doing more to reduce hate speech on the platform.

Imran Ahmed, chief executive @ CCDH, in a statement said the judge’s decision affirms his group's right "to hold accountable social media companies for decisions they make behind closed doors."

?? Kate Middleton rumours linked to Russian disinformation

Security researchers believe that a Russia-based disinformation group amplified and added to the online frenzy around the Princess of Wales health. Advising that there were patterns consistent with previous patterns of the group.

There is history with Russian groups utilising social media to spread misinformation and sway public opinion, including back in 2014, with the anti-fracking movement, which succeeded and in turn has contributed to the energy crisis we’re currently experiencing.

?? FCA has published new set of guidelines after removing 10k unlawful social media ads last year

The FCA were long overdue in updating their social media rules, with the last update back in 2015. The FCA had to remove over 10,000 social media ads that did not meet the FCA criteria including companies who had used influencers.

In previous guidance the FCA had stated that FCA registered companies could not do financial promotions which advised people to invest in their products, this also included reposting and firms would be liable for hefty fines. This highlights the lack of due diligence that is still prevalent in the influencer marketing industry, particularly in the finance sector.

DIGITAL DIGEST

??What is the Digital Markets Act???

The new Digital Markets Act (DMA) is the EU’s new law which aims to rein in big tech companies who like to gate-keep their users and monopolise the market. Below are just some of the changes that they will have to adhere to in Europe.

• Moving to rival services with ease: allowing data portability gives users greater control of their data and ease when wanting to move from one platform to another.

• Goodbye defaults: Under the new law big tech companies will have to tell you about other available options. E.g Windows will have to tell you about other browser options like Google Chrome.

• Data privacy: Big tech companies such as Meta link your facebook and Instagram accounts, however under the new ruling users can now make like Gwyneth Paltrow and decouple them.

• Third party payments: Big tech now allows developers to utilise third party payment companies of their choice.

• Interoperability: This in principle means that Meta’s WhatsApp could send messages to other platforms.

• Business data transparency: Users now have the ability to access the data they generate on the chosen platform. For example you are able to download the advertising profile Meta generates for advertisers.

• Third party app store: Whilst Google already allows third party app stores on Android, and now Apple will have to follow suit.

This is just an overview of what the act is bringing into line, if you want to read it in full you can find it here.

WORTH A LISTEN ??

Since social media has gained in popularity over the last 20 years the attention economy has come to the forefront, in the WARC podcast, they discuss the origins and how marketers and PR are using it to their advantage.

You can listen to the podcast on Apple.