TikTok’s ‘blackout’ challenge linked to deaths of 20 children in 18 months
- The ‘blackout’ challenge on TikTok has reportedly been linked to the deaths of at least 20 children in the past 18 months according to a Bloomberg report.
- The challenge encourages people to choke themselves with household items until they become unconscious and film the adrenaline rush once they regain consciousness.
- At least 15 of those children who died while filming the challenge were aged 12 or younger.
- Five of the victims were aged 13 or 14.
- To find out more, go to the Independent’s website.
Twitch is implementing its own ‘panic button’ safety feature
Twitch is implementing its own ‘panic button’ safety feature
- Twitch announced it is implementing a new safety feature called Shield Mode.
- The feature will enact an emergency lockdown of a creator’s livestream.
- This is useful for streamers who have been harassed with hate raids on their streams.
- Within Shield Mode, streamers and their moderators can choose settings that will mass ban chatters using a specific word or phrase, or stop first-time chatters from speaking at all.
- Once the harassment has ended, Shield Mode can be deactivated.
- To learn more about this new feature, go to the Verge website.
Twitter to push recommended tweets to everyone
- Twitter is now pushing more tweets from accounts users don’t already follow in their timelines.
- It is unclear how many more recommendations users should expect to see in their ‘home’ timeline.
- Twitter has said, “We want to ensure everyone on Twitter sees the best content on the platform, so we’re expanding recommendations to all users, including those who may not have seen them in the past”.
- To find out more, go to the Engadget’s website.
