Kenya Insights

Tag: Instagram

  • ‪One Tech Tip: How To Delete Facebook, Instagram and Threads If You Don’t Like Meta’s Changes‬

    ‪One Tech Tip: How To Delete Facebook, Instagram and Threads If You Don’t Like Meta’s Changes‬

    Should I stay or should I go — from Meta’s social media platforms?

    That’s what some Facebook, Instagram and Threads users are wondering after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement this month that the company is relaxing rules on harmful content such as hate speech and abandoning its fact checking program and replacing it with crowdsourced notes.

    The changes have renewed interest among some users about deleting their Meta social media accounts. If you want to stop using platforms owned by Meta, here are some pointers:

    Save your data

    Before deleting your Facebook account, you should download a copy of all your personal information, which includes details about your activity on the platform, things you’ve shared and data that the company has collected about you.

    You’ll have to go to your settings or the accounts center — the master control panel for all your Meta accounts — where you can choose to download everything or just items such as your profile, posts, messages, comments and reactions, and list of friends, even the ads you’ve clicked on and IP addresses you’ve used to connect to Facebook.

    You can download information from a certain date range, such as the past month or six months, or for all the time you’ve had an account. If you’re downloading photos, you can select their quality level: low, medium, high.

    For security purposes, you’ll only have four days to download your file. The process is similar for Instagram and Threads users.

    Instagram users will need a password to download and access files and it could take up to 30 days to receive a download link by email, the platform sayson its help page.

    Maybe you don’t want to download all your personal information but instead want to get any photos and videos you’ve posted. Facebook provides a separate option to transfer these files to another online service, with options including Google Photos, Dropbox or Photobucket.

    Staying in touch

    A tip for Facebook users: before you pull the plug, check if you have friends or connections you don’t want to lose complete contact with.

    Send them a message asking for their phone, email or other non-Meta contact details. You could also make a final post telling people that you’re leaving, though there’s a chance not everyone will see it.

    Take a break

    If you’re not ready to go all the way, Facebook allows users to temporarily shut down their accounts in case they just want to take a break from social media.

    You can do this through the account center, where you can click on the Personal details section, and then the Account ownership and control setting.

    Temporarily deactivating an account means other users won’t see it anymore, but your posts, photos and videos won’t be deleted and you can still use Facebook Messenger. You can reactivate the account at any time.

    Don’t change your mind too often: Instagram and Threads users can only temporarily deactivate their accounts once a week.

    Deletion

    Ready to take the plunge and delete your account permanently?

    After tying up any loose ends, head back to the accounts center, click the Personal details section, and then Account ownership and control, where you can choose to delete it.

    Once you’ve triggered the deletion process, you’ve got 30 days to change your mind, which you can do by logging back into your account and clicking the Cancel Deletion button.

    “After 30 days, your account and all your information will be permanently deleted, and you won’t be able to retrieve your information,” Facebook warns on its help center.

    Take note: Deleting a Threads account won’t have any effect on your corresponding Instagram account. But deleting an Instagram account will also result in the deletion of the linked Threads account because Instagram accounts are used to manage Threads accounts.

    What about WhatsApp?

    Meta also owns WhatsApp, although Zuckerberg’s content policy changes aren’t likely to affect the chat app.

    Similar to Meta’s social platforms, WhatsApp users can export a copy of their chat history or ask for information on their settings or channels.

    If you decide you want to get rid of WhatsApp and perhaps switch to competing chat services like iMessage or Signal, it’s easy to do through the app’s settings.

    Deleting WhatsApp will erase your account info, your chat history backup and your presence from any chat groups as well as any channels you set up where you’re the only admin.

    (AP)

  • Facebook, WhatsApp Are The Most Popular Social Media Platforms In Kenya, Report Says

    Facebook, WhatsApp Are The Most Popular Social Media Platforms In Kenya, Report Says

    Meta owned social media platform, Facebook, has firmed its position as Kenya’s top social media platform with a share of 49.4pc.

    Audience Measurement and Industry Trends report covering the third quarter of financial year 2023/24 by the Communications Authority indicates that the social media giant with an estimated 2.9 billion active monthly users globally as enhanced its position in three successive quarters as the most used network for social interactions and source of news.

    The social media network enhanced its position from 45.2pc in first quarter to 47.5pc in the second quarter.

    Another Meta platform, Whatsapp which boasts of at least three billion active monthly users worldwide had 47pc of users.

    “The prevalence of Facebook and WhatsApp in social media mentions highlights their extensive adoption and influential presence in the Kenyan digital landscape,” said CA.

    YouTube emerged as the third most popular social media platform in Kenya with a market share of 29.5pc while TikTok grew to 23pc from 17.8pc to 23pc.

    Instagram, a popular photo and video sharing social media platform site had a share of 13.3pc while X,, formerly Twitter commanded a market share of 10.7pc after growing from 7.9pc in the previous quarter.

    Other sites used in Kenya to get news include Google, Operamini, Chrome, Telegram, email, Snapchat and LinkedIn.

    Mobile phones still remain the most popular devices Kenyans use to access internet at 87.2pc.

    “The most mode of internet access is primarily through smartphones, underscoring the pivotal role these devices play in facilitating connectivity and information access for a wide range of users. As mobile technology continues to advance, ensuring equitable access to smartphones becomes crucial for fostering digital inclusion and bridging gaps in connectivity across various demographics,” stated the regulator.

    Laptops emerged second most preferred mode of access the internet with a share of 5pc, smart TV 1.9pc, tablet 0.5pc and desktop with 0.9pc.

    Latest data from the authority indicates that the country currently has 51 million mobile data subscribers.

    During the period under review, total advertisement expenditure dropped to Ksh 15 billion from Ksh 17 billion.

  • EU probes Meta’s Role In Making Facebook, Instagram Addictive For Children

    EU probes Meta’s Role In Making Facebook, Instagram Addictive For Children

    The European Commission is formally investigating Meta to establish whether the design and algorithms used by Instagram and Facebook are addictive for children, regulators announced Thursday.

    The investigation comes under the auspices of the Digital Services Act, a law passed in 2022 that requires online platforms to have strict child safety measures. In a statement, the Commission said Meta’s products may “exploit the weakness and inexperience of minors,” and that their apps’ algorithms create “rabbit-hole effects.”

    The Commission also questioned the effectiveness of the apps’ age verification tools, and minors’ privacy on the apps. If found in violation of the DSA, Meta could face a fine of up to 6% of its global revenue, and be forced to make major changes to the apps if it wants to keep doing business in the EU.

    The investigation mirrors allegations in lawsuits against Meta in the United States: To date, 41 states and Washington, DC have sued the company, alleging Meta knowingly made both Instagram’s and Facebook’s designs and algorithms addictive and did not do enough to safeguard children on the platforms.

  • ‪Instagram Adopts New TikTok Like Algorithm To Boost Small Content Creators‬

    ‪Instagram Adopts New TikTok Like Algorithm To Boost Small Content Creators‬

    Instagram is overhauling its recommendations algorithms in what analysts say is an attempt to capitalise on TikTok’s woes.

    Changes to its system for suggesting content, particularly on Reels – its short-form video service –will prioritise original content and “give all creators an equal chance of breaking through”.

    Experts say the Meta-owned platform is trying to copy what has driven the success of TikTok – as its potential ban in the US looms.

    But some in the creator community say the changes may come too late for users who have lost patience with Instagram’s approach to its Reels feature.

    In a blog post, Instagram said it would “correct” its previous approach to recommending content, which favoured accounts with larger followings and “aggregators” which repost lots of other creators’ content.

    The changes will be rolled out over the next few months.

    Jasmine Enberg, principal social media analyst at eMarketer, said it was clear what Instagram had in its sights.

    “The battle for TikTok creators is on,” she told the BBC.

    TikTok’s highly-personalised algorithm and For You Page of recommended content has made it “the platform of choice” for smaller, emerging creators keen to break through, she said.

    Being so adept at promoting viral videos, regardless of who makes them, is what has helped make TikTok so popular worldwide – and is what Meta is seeking to copy, especially with its rival’s future in doubt, in the US at least.

    “Instagram wants to become the go-to platform for those creators if TikTok were to be banned,” Ms Enberg explained.

    ‘Sick and tired’

    But this is not the first time Meta has tinkered with Instagram – and there is no guarantee it will work, for creators or audiences.

    Katy Cowan, who runs Creative Boom – a Manchester-based platform for design creatives – told the BBC this has been “a kick in the teeth” for smaller creators.

    She thinks the changes may come “too late” for those frustrated by frequent platform and algorithmic changes.

    “I think people are just sick and tired of Instagram changing things,” she said.

    “I love Instagram and it’s where I built my audience but the constant fluctuations in reach and stifled growth have made it not worth the investment in time,” wrote film-maker Travis Meadors on Meta’s app for text posts, Threads.

    Under the changes in coming months, “aggregator” accounts that repeatedly post content they did not create, or make material edits to, will not be included in areas of the app where they are recommended to users, such as in Explore or Reels feeds.

    Instagram will also “reward” original creators by replacing a duplicate of a video with its original in recommendations where it finds multiple versions.

    This will not apply to content which is remixed or edited to become a meme or parody, it says.

    It will also apply labels attributing original creators on reposted content.

    “It takes a lot of time and effort to create original content, so those who create it should get credit and distribution even when it is reposted by other accounts,” Instagram said.

    Instagram says creators will be notified when Reels featuring or reposting their content are replaced with their own, original content in recommendations.

    Meta is not the only social media firm revamping its offering in the face of TikTok’s travails.

    Popular live-streaming platform Twitch – which is owned by Amazon – has also just rolled out its own TikTok-style short video feed to all users.

    The “Discovery Feed” on Twitch’s mobile app will provide users with a personalised, scrollable blend of clips and live streams to “help viewers find content to enjoy quickly and help streamers get discovered, even when they’re not live”.

    Whether these changes are what creators – and customers – actually want is less clear, says Kate Cowan.

    Many are now looking to other platforms such as LinkedIn for an audience.

    Some, she says, feel the key to reaching people in the future may even lie with approaches from the past, and a” humble return to traditional marketing” such as in-person events and meet-ups.

  • Tedd Josiah Urges Blogger Nyakundi To Push For African Social Media Platform

    Tedd Josiah Urges Blogger Nyakundi To Push For African Social Media Platform

    Kenyan music producer and fashion designer Tedd Josiah is urging Africans to build their own social media platforms, citing unnecessary censorship on popular platforms like Twitter.

    Josiah believes that having an African-owned social media platform would give Africans more control over the content they produce and consume, while also providing a platform for the continent’s unique cultures and perspectives.

    In recent years, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have come under fire for their sometimes heavy-handed approach to content moderation.

    Critics have argued that these platforms are not transparent enough in their decision-making processes and that they often remove content or ban users without clear justification.

    This has led some users to look for alternative platforms that offer more freedom of expression.

    Josiah argues that Africa needs its own social media platforms because it can’t rely on platforms like Twitter to be fair and unbiased.

    He points out that Twitter has been accused of censorship in the past, particularly when it comes to political speech.

    For example, in October 2020, Twitter suspended the account of Nigerian politician Adamu Garba after he tweeted in support of police brutality against protesters in his country.

    Josiah also believes that African-owned social media platforms would help promote African culture and creativity.

    He notes that many African artists and musicians struggle to get their work seen and heard on global platforms dominated by Western content.

    By creating their own platforms, Africans could ensure that their voices are heard and their stories are told.

    Of course, building a new social media platform from scratch is no small feat. It would require significant investment and technical expertise.

    However, Josiah believes that it is achievable with the right support and resources.

    He suggests that governments and private investors should collaborate to fund African-led social media projects, with an emphasis on transparency and accountability.

    As Josiah puts it, “Africa needs to tell its own stories, in its own way, and on its own terms. We can’t just rely on others to do it for us.

    Building our own social media platforms is one way to take control of our narrative and showcase our unique perspectives to the world.”

     

    In conclusion, Tedd Josiah’s call for Africans to build their own social media platforms is an important one.

    While it may not be easy, it is a necessary step towards promoting African creativity and ensuring that African voices are heard in the global conversation.

    With the right support and investment, African-led social media could be a powerful tool for change and progress on the continent.

    Tedd Josiah, the ‘Unbwogable’ hitmaker, is actively promoting his new brand of bags, Jokajok. He is primarily using social media to market and sell his products both in Africa and around the world.

    Through his social media presence, Tedd Josiah is effectively showcasing the unique features and benefits of his bags to potential customers.

    He is also engaging with his followers, answering their questions, and providing excellent customer service.

    By leveraging the power of social media marketing, Tedd Josiah has successfully generated a buzz around his brand and attracted a growing number of customers.

    His innovative approach to selling bags has allowed him to reach a wider audience and establish himself as a prominent player in the industry.

    Josiah has asked Cyprian Nyakundi to lead the charge in creating an African social media platform. Nyakundi is a well-known blogger with a large following throughout East Africa.

    Nyakundi has been actively working towards his goal of creating a social media platform for Africans. He has been urging other bloggers to join him in this venture, emphasizing the importance of having a platform that is not controlled by Western powers.

    Nyakundi believes that an African-run social media platform would allow for a more authentic representation of African perspectives and narratives.

    He sees this as an opportunity to challenge the dominant Western narrative and empower people from across the continent to tell their own stories.

    By mobilizing fellow bloggers, Nyakundi hopes to bring together a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to creating a platform that represents the diversity and richness of Africa’s cultures and traditions.

     

  • Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp reconnecting after nearly six-hour outage

    Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp reconnecting after nearly six-hour outage

    Oct 4 (Reuters) – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp at least partially reconnected to the global internet late on Monday afternoon Eastern time, nearly six hours into an outage that paralyzed the social media platform.

    Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram apps went dark at around noon Eastern time (1600 GMT), in what website monitoring group Downdetector said was the largest such failure it had ever seen.

    The outage was the second blow to the social media giant in as many days after a whistleblower on Sunday accused the company of repeatedly prioritizing profit over clamping down on hate speech and misinformation.

    “To every small and large business, family, and individual who depends on us, I’m sorry,” Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer tweeted, adding that it “may take some time to get to 100%.”

    Shares of Facebook, which has nearly 2 billion daily active users, fell 4.9% on Monday, their biggest daily drop since last November, amid a broader selloff in technology stocks. Shares rose about half a percent in after-hours trade following resumption of service.

    Security experts said the disruption could be the result of an internal mistake, though sabotage by an insider would be theoretically possible.

    Soon after the outage started, Facebook acknowledged users were having trouble accessing its apps but did not provide any specifics about the nature of the problem or say how many users were affected by the outage.

    The error message on Facebook’s webpage suggested an error in the Domain Name System (DNS), which allows web addresses to take users to their destinations. A similar outage at cloud company Akamai Technologies Inc  took down multiple websites in July.

    Several Facebook employees who declined to be named said that they believed that the outage was caused by an internal routing mistake to an internet domain that was compounded by the failures of internal communication tools and other resources that depend on that same domain in order to work.

    Facebook, which is the second largest digital advertising platform in the world, was losing about $545,000 in U.S. ad revenue per hour during the outage, according to estimates from ad measurement firm Standard Media Index.

    On Sunday, Frances Haugen, who worked as a product manager on the civic misinformation team at Facebook, revealed that she was the whistleblower who provided documents underpinning a Wall Street Journal investigation and a Senate hearing on Instagram’s harm to teen girls.

    Haugen was due to urge the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to regulate the company, which she plans to liken to tobacco companies that for decades denied that smoking damaged health, according to prepared testimony seen by Reuters.

  • Facebook To Hide Like Counts

    Facebook To Hide Like Counts

    Facebook is at it again and this time around the App’s giant is working on an upgrade that will be removing the like counts and, probably like button from all user accounts and pages.

    Thumbs up or as it is popularly known LIKE has been a universally recognized sign of approval for Facebook posts which has been so integral to the service’s experience pretty much since its inception, for both good and ill.

    As time as gone on, more attention has been paid to the effect that chasing likes and addiction to social media has on peoples’ health, which is why Facebook-owned Instagram has been experimenting with hiding like counts on posts from everyone but the user.

    Facebook, meanwhile, is reportedly wrestling internally with the similarities of that very question. According to  App researcher Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane on Twitter) who is constantly drilling down into app code to discover unannounced features being tested, has disclosed that Facebook is considering an Instagram-like test that would hide like counts on a post from the user’s followers.

    Wong stated this on her blog after sharing the same on her twitter account:

    Currently, with this unreleased feature, the like/reaction count is hidden from anyone other than the creator of the post, just like how it works on Instagram. The list of people who liked/reacted will still be accessible, but the amount will be hidden.

    Along these lines, Facebook has confirmed to the media that it is indeed considering this test but has not gotten underway with it yet.

    “By hiding the like/reaction counts from anyone other than the post creator, users might feel less anxious about the perceived popularity of their content. It has been shown in multiple papers that social media use may influence mental health, including leading to depression and anxiety.” Jane wrote on her blog

    “It takes time to develop, observe, research and release experimental features like this. Experimental features could come and go. But I am certain hiding the public like counts will be beneficial to the digital wellbeing of a large chunk of users.” She added

  • Instagram Meme Users Purged Losing More Than 500 Million Followers

    Instagram Meme Users Purged Losing More Than 500 Million Followers

    Instagram influencers have woken up to another purge that has seen their accounts shut down and deactivated.

    According to Facebook spokesperson, the accounts were disabled following multiple violations of platform policies among them attempted abuse of internal processes.

    One affected Istagram influencer Declan Mortimer 17, claimed that his account generated up to 20million a year through adverts to his former more than 11 million followers.

    Declan said his account deactivated because of Facebook’s massive meme page purge.

    On the Night of Friday 26th, Instagram executed yet another purge terminating more than 30 accounts influential accounts with similar meme-like content citing policy violations.

    For those who don’t know, a meme is an amusing rather interesting item, such as a captioned picture or video that is spread virally online through social media.

    Meme page owners have stated that the termination of their Instagram accounts is heartbreaking and a financial blow to them.

    According to Caige, the One 18-year-old whose account “@autist” was deactivated on Thursday said he had already made more than 3million this year alone.

    Another affected user stated the action as endgame for influencers. Heavily followed Instagram meme users faced the biggest loss within a few seconds. This includes @Finest.Investions who had more than 13 million followers.

    https://twitter.com/spicymp4/status/1154918331348115456?s=19

    A hashtag #memepurge has been trending with users cskking Facebook, instagram owner, to look into the matter.

    According to sources talking to media, meme pages are being deactivated because they were reaching out to users who also violate Instagram policy by selling verification services, retrieving disabled user names and reinstating banned accounts through a private program that is only supposed to be available for members of the media.

    Facebook confirmed that Instagram shuts down accounts that violate the company’s terms of use.

    According to facebook, Violations results in termination if ones accounts include;
    1. Trying to buy, sell or transfer any aspect of an account (including the username) or use login credentials of other users.

    2. Sharing sensitive personal information, names, bank account details, addresses.

    3. Transferring funds or sending money through Instagram or Facebook accounts.

  • How Nairobi Girls Are Lured Into Prostitution On Instagram

    How Nairobi Girls Are Lured Into Prostitution On Instagram

    The society has been filled with ‘get rich quick’ mentality. Many of young generation are doing whatever they are capable of doing to ‘prosper’.

    Our desk has received information of couple of Instagram accounts that are luring girls into prostitution.  Nairobi girls are being lured into sex for cash business in what is termed as private parties and businesses in foreign countries.

    The Instagram Direct message post says an agency in Nairobi has orders from sponsors who offer cash for sex.

                         Instagram Direct Message screenshot     Photo|Christine_rence

    They even claim to have a quotation of  Ksh 50 thousands for a single sex session. They convince unsuspecting girls that they conduct vital tests before joining the agency.

    Instagram has been flooded by photo maniacs’ celebrities and fake Socialites who are actively promoting prostitution.

    Socialites have taken over the Instagram app.  Currently majority of gram users are Posting and sharing travel pic and the Porsche lifestyles.

    Instagram is now a certified prostitution platform.  The platform has verified sex for cash accounts that have misled the entire generation.

    Young girls are tricked to joining agencies that later connect them to sex addicts in Dubai, Qatar, UAE and many other destinations.

    Fake lifestyles posts and big currency quotation are key things these slavery agencies invest in to lure young naive girls.  With some posting fake ownership of businesses on some of the world’s greatest destinations.

    Many cases of sexual assault and abuse have been reported by Kenyans working in diaspora. Some who Kenyan embassy had no idea they were in the respective foreign countries.

    So many young naive girls’ minds have been besmirched by fake travel pics and lifestyles on Instagram. Majority have been enticed to travel to foreign countries like Dubai, Qatar and other Middle East countries only to get sexual abused and assault.

    Instagram has turned a blind eye on the increased sex for cash and sexual slavery promoting agencies on its community.

    They also have verified socialites with fake lifestyles. The same people who are alluring girls into prostitution in foreign countries.

    This makes them accomplices in the now most famous activity on their platform.

    Here’s A Facebook post of Oge Nwabueze elucidating her awful sexual experience in Foreign terrestrial