By Fred Barnes, Head of Paid Social
Welcome to this week’s FWD which sees big tech receiving a bumper haul of Christmas gifts from lawmakers and regulators around the globe.
- The EU is set to announce new rules that overhaul the way large tech firms are able to operate in Europe, the BBC reports
- Meanwhile across the pond 48 US states and districts have filed joint lawsuits aimed at tackling what they see as “Facebook’s Monopoly”
- Also stateside, the FTC have ordered big tech firms to explain how they collect and use data, particularly in relation to children and teens, Tech Crunch reports
- Here in the UK, Ofcom, the media watchdog, has been confirmed as the regulator of a series of proposed laws that will give it powers aimed at protecting children and other users from harmful content on online services including social media
- Elsewhere in the news – Reddit has announced the purchase of TikTok rival Dubsmash
- Research by GSK suggests Covid-19 has rapidly accelerated the move towards digital healthcare, Wired take a look
- Facebook has revealed the topics and trends they expect to emerge in 2021. Their annual trends report can be found here
- “How to cook eel?” was the 6th most searched ‘how to’ question in the UK during 2020 according to the Google Trends roundup
- Facebook have made their Collab music app available to all. The app allows users to combine three separate videos to create one track/video which can then be shared via social channels
- TikTok are making the jump from small to big-screen, announcing a tie up with Samsung TVs
- Instagram have added shopping tags to Reels, another step to get the platform e-commerce ready as we move into 2021
- The Guardian take a closer look at the anti-trust lawsuits being filed against Facebook in the US, reporting how some experts feel the move by regulators is long overdue
- Meanwhile others argue that breaking up Facebook’s ‘family of apps’ may not solve the issues at hand, as reported by the Canadian Globe & Mail