September 2017

Twitter today has nearly four times as many monthly active users outside the U.S. as it does in its home market — 260 million versus 68 million — and this week it quietly launched a new app in an effort to boost those numbers further. The social network is testing a Android app for Twitter Lite, a native app version of a mobile web site Twitter launched earlier this year that uses less mobile data to work. The lighter data load means that the app is especially useful for emerging markets where data networks are often slower and more expensive for consumers to use.

Facebook Inc., under fire over Russia’s use of its social network to spread pre-election discord in the U.S. last year, pledged a sweeping overhaul of political advertising and said it will give Congress all the evidence it has on the campaigns.

More than 3,000 Facebook ads linked to Russia have already been studied by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating President Donald Trump’s ties to the country. Facebook initially didn’t want to share detailed information like this with Congress, but changed its mind on Thursday after a lengthy privacy and legal review.