Digital Platform Policy Highlights - Digest 28
Q1 2024 to Q3 2024 Policy Changes: In this post, we look at how well-known platforms are tweaking their policies to keep users happy and improve the overall experience.
This post is part three of a series documenting policy changes and feature improvements introduced by platforms in Q1 2024 to Q3 2024.
TL; DR→ Here are policy changes to retain existing users:
Steam Enhances Family Sharing and Parental Controls
Steam has overhauled its family sharing features, allowing multiple users to play a shared library of games at the same time. The update also simplifies the process for parents to purchase games for their children and implement parental controls. This enhancement aims to make Steam more family-friendly by providing better access and control over shared game libraries, improving the overall user experience for families. The potential catches are that families are now “region-locked”, just like Netflix and developers should consent to family sharing. (link)
Meta Eases Restrictions on AI-Generated Videos
Meta will no longer require the removal of harmless AI-generated videos starting in July. The company agreed to its Oversight Board’s remark that its previous policy was overly restrictive and often incoherent, leading to unnecessary censorship. This change comes as platforms grapple with AI-generated content, balancing content moderation with creative freedom. Also, deferring decisions on tricky cases to a Meta-funded independent Oversight Board appears to be a reasonable compromise between content moderation and freedom of expression. (link)
OpenAI Makes Custom GPTs Free for All ChatGPT Users
Custom GPTs allow chatGPT users to create charts, and ask suggestions to enhance a prompt, design an email campaign, convert chatGPT to a virtual tutor for students, etc. OpenAI made this free while leveraging the advanced capabilities introduced with the newly released GPT-4o (which is also available to all users). This is likely an attempt to compete against Google’s Gemini, which already offered users features like link-reading and image analysis for free. (link)
Meta Lifts Facebook and Instagram Restrictions on Trump
While former President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts were reinstated in 2023, the extra risk for suspension no longer holds since July of this year. Meta justified the reinstatement in 2023 by noting Trump's status as a major presidential candidate. Now, the decision to remove the “guardrails” has come just before the Republican convention. Yet again, Meta has acted in adherence to the recommendation by the Oversight Board. This may also help retain Trump's substantial follower base – Trump has close to 35 million followers on Facebook and close to 27 million on Instagram.(link)
LinkedIn Tests TikTok-Like Video Feed
Yet another social media site wants to have a TikTok like vertical video feed. By introducing short-form video content tailored to professional interests, LinkedIn allows users to scroll through a personalized feed of business and career-related video content. With this new feature, LinkedIn (and Microsoft) joins the growing list of big tech firms embracing the vertical-format revolution. Interestingly, LinkedIn has also been branching out into new kinds of content lately – it even added games earlier this year. (link)
Uber Rolls out Store Pickup Feature in India
In February, Uber started testing a "Store Pickup" feature in India, allowing gig workers that own a two-wheeler to pick up prepaid items from local stores and deliver them to customers. Initially tested exclusively in the Delhi-NCR region, this feature has been expanded to nine Indian cities by May 2024, enabling customers to order and track deliveries through the Uber app. This brings Uber in line with its Indian competitors like Ola and Rapido, which have already rolled out hyperlocal deliveries.(link)
Research help from Jennifer Xie, Angelina Wang, John Mai, Marshall Singer, Anantesh Mohapatra and Anna Li (Thanks a ton, folks!)
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