The Friday Five: Norway Punishes Meta with Daily Fines, TikTok Launches Its First eCommerce Initiative, and People Dislike X’s Logo

Welcome to this week's edition of The Friday Five newsletter, your go-to source for the latest and most intriguing developments in the world of tech, marketing, and beyond!

We hope you've had an amazing week and are ready to dive into the most noteworthy stories that caught our attention.

From fines shaking up the tech giants to exciting shifts in social media landscapes, we've got it all covered. So without further ado, let's jump right into this week's Friday Five!

1. Norway the Latest to Punish Meta with Daily Fines

Norway's data protection regulator, Datatilsynet, has taken a bold step and chosen to fine Meta 1 million krone (￡76,935) per day starting from August 14th, due to privacy breaches.

This decision could have implications for the entire European market. The issue revolves around Meta's practice of harvesting user data, including physical locations, for targeted ads – a common strategy among tech giants known as behavioural advertising.

Datatilsynet had set a deadline of August 4th for Meta to rectify the situation, but as they didn't comply, the daily fine will take effect on Monday (14th).

Tobias Judin from Datatilsynet stated that even though Meta's plan to seek user consent for targeted advertising within the EU is a step in the right direction, it's not enough.

Meta has been warned that they need to halt data processing immediately until the consent mechanism is operational. Meanwhile, the fines will keep on adding up.

This move follows an order from Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner in January, urging Meta to review the legal basis of its ad targeting.

Although Norway isn't an EU member, it's part of the single market, meaning that these daily fines will more than likely have potential ripple effects across the European continent. Meta has not yet responded to the fine announcement.

The Guardian have more insight on this below.

2. TikTok Launches Ecommerce Platform in the UK in Significant Shake Up

TikTok has introduced a logistics initiative in the UK called 'Fulfilled by TikTok' (FBT) for its Shop merchants.

This program is designed to take the 'hassle' out of selling for merchants by handling the picking, packing, and shipping process, leaving them more time to focus on other areas of their business.

The programme, which is already in place, offers users perks including same-day fulfilment for orders placed by 7 PM, next-day premium delivery, improved customer service, and reduced delivery times.

Merchants based in the UK can deposit some of their stock in a designated warehouse. Then, when they get an order, the warehouse picks, packs, labels, and ships the products in one operation.

While giant eCommerce businesses may not be quaking in their boots just yet, it's hard not to see this new initiative as a significant shake-up and potentially a sign of things to come.

If this proves popular there is potential for TikTok to roll it out to other markets and perhaps even evolve it into a fully-fledged eCommerce platform.

Read more about this in TikTok 's statement.

3. Surprised? Hardly. Consumers Like X’s Old Logo Twice as Much, New Study Finds

A new study by marketing research platform System1 has proved what we've all thought since the social media network formally known as Twitter became X, the new logo is very bad.

System1 used its 'Distinctive Asset Testing' tool to reveal that the majority of consumers prefer Twitter's old logo and identity over its new 'X' branding.

In a not-so-surprising outcome, consumers were found to be more than twice as positive about Twitter's previous 'Larry the Bird' logo compared to the new 'X'.

Both the Larry the Bird logo and the new 'X' were equally recognisable and attributable compared to other major social networks.

However, the 'X' logo fell short in terms of evoking positive emotions, with only 12% feeling happy towards it, while 26% had positive feelings towards Larry the Bird.

Interestingly, around 47% of consumers felt neutral towards the 'X' logo, while 29% expressed contempt. This contrasted with 43% feeling neutral and 19% feeling contempt for the Larry the Bird logo.

The research also highlighted that the word 'tweet' held the highest fame and fluency levels among social media network phrases.

To discover more about the study, visit Marketing Beat .

4. TikTok Getting into Line at the Behest of User Experience

TikTok is rolling out a series of changes for its European Union (EU) users in line with the EU Digital Services Act, which aims to enhance user privacy and digital platform regulations.

However, these adjustments have the potential to significantly alter the EU TikTok experience.

One major change is the introduction of an option for EU users to disable personalisation in the app.

This means that the For You and LIVE recommendations will no longer be tailored to users' activities and interests. Instead, they will see popular videos from their region and globally.

The Following and Friends feeds will also be chronological, altering the algorithm-driven experience that made TikTok the behemoth it is today.

Moreover, TikTok will disable personalised advertising for EU users aged 13-17, adding to privacy protections.

The platform is also introducing a feature for reporting potentially illegal content which will, if found to be such, will be removed from TikTok globally.

In the spirit of transparency, TikTok will also inform users of reported content and be clearer about its moderation decisions.

The impact of these shifts on TikTok's user engagement and EU usage trends will be closely watched, especially considering the recent slowdown in user growth.

For more on these changes head to Social Media Today, LLC .

5. Threads Introduces X-like Features as User Count Plummets

Instagram Threads, Meta's messaging app, has introduced new features that allow users to see their own liked posts, much like the feature on X/Twitter.

This update comes shortly after news surfaced that Threads had experienced an 80% drop in its user base, as well as a notable decline in daily active user count, since its launch.

Within a short period after its debut, Threads attracted 100 million sign-ups, but it suffered a drop in daily active users from 49 million to 9.6 million users, as reported by Similarweb.

The recent changes to Threads include the ability to view one's own liked content, which was initially beta tested on Android devices and later rolled out to all users.

Additionally, the app now enables users to upload higher-quality photos and videos, accessible via the accounts tab in settings.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, hinted at upcoming features, including a web version of Threads, in a post on the app. He stated, "Search and web coming in the next few weeks." However, no specific launch date was provided for the web version.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the challenges faced by the app and expressed plans to introduce "retention-driving hooks" to entice users back and improve user engagement.

Gizmodo has more on this story.

And that wraps up this week's edition of The Friday Five!

We hope you've enjoyed delving into the latest updates and trends shaping the tech and marketing landscapes. Stay tuned for more stories next Friday! Until then, have a fantastic weekend!