An app wanted to bring back Instagram's creepiest feature for stalking loved ones

Happy Halloween, here's something creepy for you. Imagine every time you liked a post or commented on someone's Instagram, your signficant other would get a notification about it. Instagram took action against this stalker app, stick around [UNKNOWN] to find out more. [MUSIC] All right, welcome to the Daily Charge. Today is Thursday, October 31st, I'm Alfred Ng. I'm Ben Fox Rubin. And here are today's top stories. [MUSIC] Instagram on Wednesday said I was taking action against an app called like Patrol which is as dystopian as it sounds the app charge people up to eighty dollars a year so they could get notifications anytime someone they follow on Instagram liked or commented on other people's posts. The founder of it told me that it would help keep couples in happy relationships. Because they wouldn't be ogling other people on Instagram anymore. As you know, all loving relationships are built on constant surveillance and fear. Yes, of course they are. [LAUGH] I mean, I heard that that is the secret to all marriages. So the thing is, this was a feature on Instagram since 2011. They had this thing called the following tab where You could go on and see, Hey, my friend from high school is liking a bunch of bikini photos, that kind of stuff. But you never got a notification about it or anything like that. And That is what this app is promising, as if you know that was a great feature. Somebody saw that and thought let's bring that back, and let's make it even you know creepier. Do you know whether instagram outwardly said we are getting rid of this feature becaue people say it's creepy? They didn't say we're getting rid of it because people think it is creepy. They were saying that like There are better uses for people on our social media and we want people to be engaged in healthy activities on our social network. So they didn't straight up say, yeah, this is a stocking tool, but it's kind of it's mostly acknowledges something like that. So another interesting thing to mention is that Twitter lets you see other people's likes too. Yeah. So there are still elements of this on social, I agree with you. This seems like a really creepy ad and good for you for helping get rid of it. Yeah, they have bots on Twitter hat will do that. The Trump alerts like Twitter account will tell you anytime somebody from the Trump administration like Unfollow somebody, follow somebody, likes a tweet, retweet somebody, that kind of thing. And that a lot of people would say that that has its purposes. I would never imagine though that somebody would see that and think, let's do that for people to stock their significant others and get notifications every time. So it's a good time to remind people that the rules of the road when it comes to anything related to social is It's probably being monitored and you should definitely be careful and not just post Willy Nilly. Yeah, speaking of making posts Willy Nilly. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made a announcement last night and said that the social network would Not be accepting political ads anymore starting in November. Dorsey said that political influences should be earned not bought. He mentions that this was not a big chunk of their finances to begin with. And it was more about making sure that Political disinformation doesn't, can't be bought on a social network like Twitter. Right. So, one important element here which I'm pretty sure that most people don't actually realize is that broadcasters are not allowed to do this. Any political campaign for a politician that's currently running for office They're required to host their ads. They're required to actually air their ads on television. So, even though I know that this has been a really big knock on Facebook, there's, that's an important element to at least reference here. Yeah, and obviously this is kind of a direct reaction to what Facebook has been doing. Very different from Facebook's decision as Mark Zuckerberg said on Facebook's earnings' call on Wednesday that it would continue to allow lies and political ads. If you're not familiar with it, Facebook has basically Basically held down on the controversial opinion that political ads people should be like should be able to lie in them. And Zuckerberg has said on multiple occasions that it should not be Facebook's role to determine what the truth is. And that he wants voters and people decide it for themselves. That's not their job to fact check it. So, I think Jack Dorsey made the most compelling argument in his Twitter thread about this, specifically Typically saying that for instance, it's not credible for us to say we're working hard to stop people from gaming our system, to spread misleading information. He specifically talks about things like anti vaccination campaigns and things like that. But if someone pays us to target and force people to see our political ads, well, they can say whatever they want. Yeah. Zuckerberg has basically said on multiple occasions that this is about free expression on social media, saying that None incumbant who are running and people who are running on issues like they should be able to. Political ads benefits them the most and if they completely just ban them, it would hurt democracy in the end. I don't think anyone's buying it. Zuckerberg did say that the controversy over their decision was not worth The money that they were getting for political ads. And when we see Facebook's ad revenue, it still seems to be booming. From their earnings call, it mentioned that Facebook beat revenue expectations by earning $17.65 billion this year, and that's just the third quarter. And it doesn't really show any signs of slowing down. Yeah, what's really suprising about that is that this is a company that is In a lot of trouble, in a lot of different ways. And they don't seem to be taking a hit in any way financially. The interesting thing is that they do take down ads that are lies if they're not political. If I put an ad for something, saying that the Daily Charge is the best show online, they would take that down. They would be like, that's a lie, we know that's not true. [LAUGH] Facebook will take that down. But if I was a registered politician and I'm saving for office, I could take an out and out and out and say the daily charge is a really well put together show with great people and they would just leave it up. I'm so right going back to the broadcaster point. I'd love to you know hear from folks and hear from the audience to just talking about the idea that, Does it does this make sense? Do you agree with Zuckerberg position Do you agree with Jack Dorsey's position. Ultimately Dorsey is saying we're not gonna take money for this kinda stuff, but at the same time, you would probably agree that they still have a long way to go as far as dealing with misinformation, disinformation campaigns. Things like that. They're just saying we're not going to take money related to this stuff anymore. So, there are still, there's still more work I would say for Twitter to do, as well. For the Daily Charge, I'm Alfred Ng. I'm Ben Fox Rubin. Thank you for joining us. [MUSIC] Can't get enough? Check out the daily supercharge, our extended host show with extended features, audience Q and A, and in-depth reviews. Available now, where ever you get your podcasts.