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Blog
Instagram ‘BMO’ ads use AI deepfakes to scam banking customers
Instagram ads impersonating financial institutions like Bank of Montreal (BMO) and EQ Bank (Equitable Bank) are being used to target Canadian consumers with phishing scams and investment fraud. Some ads use AI-powered deepfake videos in an attempt to collect your personal information, while others use official branding to drive traffic outside of the platform to lookalike illicit domains that are not affiliated…
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How to Edit Your Instagram Grid
For many Instagram users, the grid is sacred. Every post you make ends up in the grid in reverse chronological order, so, to many users, each post needs to be carefully thought through. You don’t want a new post to throw your grid out of whack, especially if you’ve meticulously designed a specific theme. Aside from pinning posts or adjusting…
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Instagram isn’t just for square photos anymore
Instagram now supports photos that have a 3:4 aspect ratio, meaning that when you upload a photo with that ratio, “it’ll now appear just exactly as you shot it,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri says in a Threads post. He also notes that “almost every phone camera defaults to” that format. An image from Instagram’s broadcast channel shows how the change…
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Google says Instagram fixed a battery drain issue on Android
If you’ve been having unusual battery drain issues on your Pixel phone lately, Instagram might be to blame. In a new support post, Google says that Instagram has updated its app to address the issue. The fix comes in Instagram version 382.0.0.49.84, which you can grab from Google Play now. If you don’t see the option to update, it could…
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Meta says it’s made Instagram and WhatsApp about as good as they could get
For five weeks, the Federal Trade Commission asked a federal judge to imagine a world where Instagram and WhatsApp flourished outside Meta’s control instead of being acquired by the tech giant. In the sixth and final week of trial, Meta asked Judge James Boasberg to consider that actually, these apps might be as good as they can get. Meta rested…
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Instagram CEO testifies about competing with TikTok: ‘You’re either growing, or you’re slowly dying’
When Adam Mosseri took over Meta-owned Instagram as CEO in 2018, the app was experiencing what he’d later call “concerning” drops and plateaus in user engagement, thanks partly to fierce competition from a new app: TikTok. Instagram estimated in 2019 that 23 percent of the decline in time spent on Instagram in the US was due to TikTok. Bytedance’s video…
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Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom says Zuckerberg “saw us as a threat”
When Instagram was acquired for $1 billion in 2012, co-founder Kevin Systrom believed that joining Facebook would help Instagram’s “skyrocketing growth” reach even greater heights. In some ways, it did. Instagram now has billions of users and has since “generated many multiples of that price and then some,” Systrom said on Tuesday from a Washington, DC courtroom. But according to…
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Instagram Is Using AI to Automatically Enroll Minors Into ‘Teen Accounts’
Meta is getting serious about the teens who use its services. Last year, the company rolled out “Teen Accounts” for Instagram, which add a number of restrictions, limitations, and features for users under the age of 18. Earlier this month, Meta rolled out Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger as well, and expanded some of those restrictions on Instagram specifically.…
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Mark Zuckerberg tells court that Meta made WhatsApp, Instagram better
Towards the end of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony in a Washington, DC courthouse, a smile flashed across his face. Meta’s lead attorney, Mark Hansen, had asked the CEO if he was “happy” about paying $19 billion for WhatsApp in 2014. Zuckerberg flashed a grin, took a brief pause, and responded, “I’d do it again.” Over the last decade, the growing scale…
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg defends Instagram purchase in antitrust trial
“Your honor, the FTC calls Mark Zuckerberg.” Flanked by two bodyguards, Meta’s CEO solemnly strode into a Washington, DC courtroom. Despite his last-ditch efforts to avoid a trial, he was there, jaw clenched, to defend his company from being broken up by the US government. Shortly after he was sworn in, the Federal Trade Commission’s lead attorney for the case,…
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