Reddit revolt

Parts of the popular social media news site Reddit became inaccessible last week due to a protest over the firing of Victoria Taylor, a paid moderator for the site.

Taylor specifically ran the websites “Ask Me Anything” chat page, also known as a sub-reddit, and her volunteer colleagues working on the AMA section are the force behind the protest.  They claimed that the AMA segment will not run without Taylor, and that they have been surprised by the firing and lack of explanation of the reasons behind it.

The resentment towards Reddit staff from these sub-reddit moderators appears to be a sentiment independant of this incident, as they said staff were “being uncommunicative, and disregarding the thousands of moderators who keep the site running,” according to the BBC.

With more than 7.5 billion page views a month, the closure of large portions of Reddit’s space due to the revolting sub-reddit moderators will not go unnoticed.  As users threaten to abandon the site for competitor social news sites, Reddit will hope to get its public image back on track and its website fully functional soon.

Samsung lawsuit

Korean smartphone giant Samsung is being taken to court in China over the software that it pre-installs on its smartphone handsets.  Consumers in China are unhappy with what has been termed “bloatware.”

Bloatware refers to the pre-installed apps that come with Samsung phones and can drain battery or occupy memory space without the users’ knowledge.  The Chinese consumer protection group that has filed the lawsuit also claims that Samsung purposely makes it difficult for users to uninstall this bloatware.

A similar lawsuit has been filed against Chinese company Oppo.  Neither firm has responded for comment, but the growing number of complaints by consumers to the consumer protection group is a sign that these companies will need to make some changes or risk alienating a crucial market in the smartphone sector.

Snapchat update

The latest Snapchat update offers a couple new features that the company will hope resonates with its 100 million active daily users.

First, the company has introduced the “tap to view” function.  “Today marks a pretty big change for Snapchat – you no longer have to press and hold the screen to view a Snap or Story – instead, simply Tap to View,” Snapchat wrote in a blogpost.  “This means no more tired thumbs while watching a several-hundred-second Story.” The old press and hold format has been in use since Snapchat’s inception in 2011, so this move will change up the user experience of the app.

The company has also offered users an extra layer of protection, with a two factor authentication process now protecting identities.