Editor’s Note: The Social Media RoundUp is a weekly feature of Information Space.
Who knew a selfie could win an Oscar? Well, technically said selfie did not walk on stage and accept an award, but during the Oscars Ellen DeGeneres was responsible for the most retweeted tweet of all time. She tweeted a selfie during the event that included many celebrities, who have large online followings of their own, and at one point, there was so much traffic to retweet the selfie, that Twitter was freezing and unresponsive.
If only Bradley’s arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014
Saying the wrong thing on Facebook can really cost you these days. In one case, a girl cost her father $80,000 by posting “SUCK IT” to Facebook after a court decision that involved her family. The agreement after the case stated that neither Snay nor his wife could speak about the settlement to anyone except for his attorneys and other professional advisers. This post cost her family the $80,000 settlement because this post caused her to break the confidentiality agreement of the case.
It seems that celebrities were crashing social media platforms left and right this week, as Justin Bieber was claimed to have caused a crash in Instagram when he posted a praising picture of ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez. Over 870,000 people liked the picture. Many think this pop duo was to blame for the photo sharing blackout because of the sudden flood of traffic, but an Instagram spokesperson recently stated, “we have no reason to believe that Justin Bieber’s recent Instagram post caused the site to slow down this morning.”
image by entrepreneur.com
We always hear that once you post something on the internet it’s permanent. Well, California is now changing this rule by requiring social media companies to give young users the opportunity to deletes Internet postings. Many are seeing this law as a step in the right direction, as positive changes will come about by giving under-18 Internet users a chance to remove regrettable postings and preserve their reputation. This does seem to raise some questions as to how companies will determine if the user is granted these privileges, as they have to figure out who is a resident of California.
Do you have anything to add to the stories of the week? Let me know in the comments below!