February 10-2025: A Recap of What Happened in The Digital Space Last Week

Happy New Week!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Digital Trends and Insights!

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On Sunday evening, the X and Facebook accounts of Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations(DCI) @DCI_Kenya was hacked by Crypto Scammers but they managed to restore it after some minutes. DCI acknowledged in of their posts "we experienced a cyber-attack on the DCI digital platforms (X and Facebook), but have since regained full control."

In last week's newsletter, I covered about Kenya's national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Channel (KBC), X account @KBCChannel1 was hacked and changed to DeepSeek AI' but it has now been restored.

Safaricom PLC

#Safaricom has partnered with global nonprofit Opportunity International to launch FarmerAI, an innovative AI-powered chatbot designed to provide smallholder farmers in Kenya with real-time agricultural insights and best practices.

#LinkedIn

The TikToktification of platforms is no longer a surprise with a professional network like LinkedIn introducing vertical videos and dedicated tab. Now, they are introducing more features for vertical videos; profile preview, videos in search results. Growth of video is 100% and uploads is at 36%

#TikTok

• Elon Musk says he’s not interested in acquiring TikTok?
• TikTok is now allowing Android users to download the app directly on their website since Google removed it from Google Play last month in response to a US ban of TikTok. You can catch up with all US TikTok Ban News here

X

• X Makes Community Posts visible to Non Members. "Everyone on X can reply to Community posts– including non-members–? but replies from Community members will be prioritized"
• X is rolling out a new "Premium Member" dashboard on the side of the main timeline on the web.

• Grok 3 launch imminent! Elon Musk: "Grok 3.0 will be the most powerful A.I. in the world. It is training with 10x, soon 20x the compute of Grok 2."? Early access hints suggest rollout may already be underway. Stay tuned for xAI's game-changer!? #Grok3 #AI

Meta: WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook

• Meta is launching a new program in partnership with UNESCO to collect speech recordings and transcriptions the company said will help the development of future openly available AI.
• Instagram will soon let you edit your profile grid and rearrange the order in which your posts are displayed in the app.
• #Instagram adds a new “WhatsApp” sticker for IG Stories that allows you link to your WhatsApp for Business.? This would be ideal for brand awareness and growth of Business on WhatsApp. Right now, social media users prefer to DM hence offering another way to max engagement
• Threads posts are driving 73.6% higher engagement rates than X on average.
• Did you know you can now create Instagram Reels that are 3 minutes long???Here are expert tips from head of Instagram Adam Mosseri

?If you want your Reels to perform better:

?Have no watermark

?Keep them under 3min

?Add Music/Audio

?Post Regularly

?Experiment, use Trial Reels

• WhatsApp is rolling out a feature to create new communities from the chats tab, and it's available to some beta testers!

Snapchat

• Snapchat Q42024 performance: Here is What You Need To Know!

??453 million daily active users (DAUs) use Snapchat every day on average

??850 million monthly active users (MAUs) use Snapchat every month on average.

?? 1 billion+ Snaps were shared publicly on Snapchat every month

• Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel says that the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future has positively affected its business. Snapchat has short form video format known as Spotlight which is an alternative to TikTok
• Snapchat introduces new features for Snapchat+ subscribers; Custom Gen AI Stickers, Fresh Looks for Bitmoji, An AI Lens Worthy of Award Season

Pinterest

Pinterest now boasts of 553 million monthly active in Q4, up 16 million on Q3.

AI?

• OpenAI rebranded? with a new typeface, word mark, symbol and palette underpin all the ways in which OpenAI’s technology interacts with the real world
• ChatGPT now allows users to use web search without logging in. However to use ChatGPT in any form through the native mobile app, you will still need to be logged in
• ??Australia is the latest country to ban DeepSeek from all government devices and systems, citing security risks posed by the Chinese AI startup.

Other countries and states that have already banned DeepSeek include:

??Italy

??Taiwan

??Texas (U.S.)

???U.S. Navy

• Google deleted policy against using AI for weapons or surveillance
• Researchers from TikTok owner ByteDance have demoed a new AI system called OmniHuman-1, that can generate perhaps the most realistic deepfake videos to date.

Here is a deepfake of Albert Einstein's talk

Social Media Tip:

Out of content ideas for your Instagram Business Page? Here are some content ideas by Fintech Pen

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