It would be tempting to think that Apple
just doesn’t ‘get’ social media. Two previous
attempts by the company to build a social
networking component around its famed
music services – with iTunes Ping and then
Apple Music Connect – failed to take off and
were ultimately shuttered. In 2016, Apple
was rumored to be working on a video-based
social network app, but this was apparently
re-engineered into the video creation app
Clips, which was intended to fuel creativity on
existing social networks.
It all might initially look like a case of ‘three
strikes and you’re out’ when it comes to Apple’s
hopes in the social media space. However, in an
age where privacy scandals have increasingly
wrecked social media, Apple might have
inadvertently created the perfect remedy: a
more privacy-conscious version of Instagram.
It’s on all up-to-date iPhones and iPads, and
it’s the Shared Albums feature of the well-
established Photos app. Could we be looking at
the Instagram of the future?
MORE AND MORE EVIDENCE THAT THE
FACEBOOK SHIP IS SINKINGIt’s probably not excessive to say that in recent
years, Facebook has apparently sleepwalked
from one scandal to another. As well as facing
allegations that it provided a platform for
Russian tampering with the democratic process
during the 2016 U.S. presidential election,
Facebook has been left reeling by revelations
that the U.K.-based political consultancy
Cambridge Analytica sourced personal data
from millions of Facebook profiles without
securing consent.