Social media - risk driver or risk mitigation tool?

It was a scene out of futuristic fiction—a decades-old bank collapsing mere hours after a social media post went viral. 

In what was supposed to be a non-event, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) announced they were selling securities to raise capital. Soon, subsequent Tweets questioning the health of SVB went viral. The posts prompted depositors to withdraw $42 billion within 10 hours, a devastating blow that led state regulators to close the bank. SVB wasn’t the only bank to experience a social media-induced run this year, with First Republic Bank following suit and collapsing two months later.

Read the full story HERE.

Twitter is on the Brink of Bankruptcy

When Elon Musk walked into Twitter's HQ with a kitchen sink, the tech world knew change was coming. But what exactly does this change entail? 

Explore the story behind Musk's Twitter takeover, the introduction of 'X', and what it could mean for the social media giant's future. Are we looking at a super-app revolution or is this just another marketing gimmick?

How Elon Musk Plans to Change Twitter

Twitter will become a private company if Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid is approved. The move would allow Musk to make changes to the site. WSJ’s Dan Gallagher explains Musk’s proposed changes and the challenges he might face enacting them.

A Visual Guide to Profile Picture NFTs

How do you represent yourself on social media? For most people it’s a selfie, a photo with their friends, or a picture of their pet—but what about a digitally-created character?

Profile picture NFTs are pieces of digital artwork that people use to express themselves online. Each item is a depiction of a character’s face, and has a unique mix of attributes that gives it a sense of collectability.

Like other NFTs, they’re secured on a blockchain and can be bought and sold for cryptocurrency. And while there’s nothing to stop you from screenshotting an NFT and using it for your own profile, the market for these items continues to grow.

To learn more, check out this infographic HERE. It explains how three well-known profile picture NFT collections were created.

Evergrande Says It’s Back to Work, But Homeowners Say Not Fast Enough

The world’s most indebted real-estate firm Evergrande has embarked on a social media campaign to show construction has resumed and says it’s doing whatever it takes to deliver homes. WSJ compares these posts with ones from upset buyers.

 

Facebook whistleblower on 'harmful but legal' content - FT interview

Frances Haugen talks to the FT's European tech correspondent Madhumita Murgia about the 'huge opportunity' to introduce strong new digital laws, and why she chose to speak out against the social media giant.

 

Facebook Rolls Out Live Audio Rooms, Its Competitor To Clubhouse

Facebook has launched Live Audio Rooms, the social media giant’s competitor to audio-based Clubhouse. Facebook said, in a press release, that public figures and select Facebook Groups in the U.S. can start to use the feature on iOS, Apple’s operating system, while select podcasts will also be available in the U.S.

How many dead people are there on Facebook?

There are as many as 30 million dead people with Facebook accounts, but the social media giant is simply so massive that these numbers are dwarfed by the total user count. With more than 3 billion active users, 'dead people accounts' are likely only around 1% of the total user base.

Want to find out more? Click HERE

 

Finextra & IBM: The social impact of AI

Michael Conway, IBM, speaks at NextGen Banking London about how the industry is responding to the application of AI, whether there are any ethical concerns we need to consider going forward, where the greatest need to use AI is and what social impact it will have in the future.

 

Could a Bank Deny Your Loan Based on Your Facebook Friends?

From The Atlantic -

“It seemed straight out of the evil-tech-company playbook.

In August, Facebook secured an otherwise innocuous U.S. patent about how to analyze a user’s friend network to let them do something. Most of the patent discusses the fairly mundane technicalities of running a social network—until, last in a list of examples, there appeared the following paragraph:

When an individual applies for a loan, the lender examines the credit ratings of members of the individual’s social network who are connected to the individual […]. If the average credit rating of these members is at least a minimum credit score, the lender continues to process the loan application. Otherwise, the loan application is rejected.”

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Is “Big Text” next big thing? Text analytics can reveal even more about customers

From Banking Exchange -

“Move over, Big Data. Here comes Big Text. Or, as it’s more commonly known, “text analytics.” Or, sometimes, “text mining.”

Essentially, it’s the analysis of all the unstructured data a bank absorbs through email; social media posts; call center notes and transcripts; surveys and feedback forms—any information provided by or about customers not structured in some type of database.

More specifically, it could be a snarky comment on Facebook; the jottings of a call center representative; scribbled notes at the end of a survey; or a mobile text from a grateful customer to a helpful teller.”

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