Clubhouse App No Longer Invite-Only Across All Platforms

Clubhouse has announced that it is no longer invite-only across all mobile platforms. As revealed by company co-founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth via its official blog, this major change is made effective immediately through the latest version of the app that is now available for download on both iOS and Android platforms. 

The decision to remove its invite-only approach is a long time coming, the company revealed. Ever since its launch a year ago, Clubhouse has always been intended to be accessible by anyone in order to have “meaningful conversations” with each other – bypassing limitations such as distance, especially during these trying times.

“The invite system has been an important part of our early history. But we’ve always wanted Clubhouse to be open,” the company said in its latest blog post. “Everyone in the world should have access to meaningful conversations. And the best rooms on Clubhouse are the ones where you meet people from far outside your social circle, with very different views and lived experiences, who change your perspective on the world.”

It added that the invite-only approach was necessary in order to keep things under control during its early stages, especially while the company continues to introduce newer features and improvements to its app. However, this also unintentionally gave Clubhouse a members-only, closed-doors appeal – a similar vibe given by exclusive nightclubs or even secret groups.

Further building up the public’s desire to gain access during this phase are the multitudes of endorsements by public figures and celebrities, who hold exclusive talks or hangout sessions via Clubhouse. This led to a good number of existing members taking advantage of their limited app invites by selling them on various e-commerce platforms, usually at exorbitant prices. Thankfully, this cheeky way of profit-making has become obsolete now that the app finally opened its doors to the public – a move that would definitely anger both scalpers and those who previously paid a premium in order to score an invite.

Along with the announcement, Clubhouse also unveiled its new logo (shown on top) in the same blog post. This will be used to represent the company for general usage such as marketing and so on but will not replace its app icon, it noted. Clubhouse will continue its tradition to update its icon every month, featuring a monochrome image of selected public figures to represent the platform’s community.

With its invite-only element now gone, will Clubhouse retain its appeal? Being a pioneer to the audio-only chat room craze that has spawned numerous clones by competing social media companies, it looks like the app will see no problem by removing the restriction. If anything, it might cause it to flourish even further, especially with the number of well-known names that have been relying on the platform throughout the months since its debut.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water Is Coming To Other Platforms

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water was the last game in the series. And for those who didn’t own a Nintendo Wii U, they probably never got to play it either. But that time will come soon, as Koei Tecmo has announced that it is remastering the game for effectively on all platforms.

The formula of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is pretty much the same as it has been for the rest of the series. You make use of the Camera Obscura to exorcise spirits, but you have to do so at the very last moment. The setting of this particular game is a fictional Mount Hikami.

Being a remaster, you can expect better graphics to fit the machines of today. There’s even an additional photo mode, which sounds a little redundant. But it could be useful if you like seeing the distance between a hostile spirit and you when the Camera Obscura is able to banish them.

As mentioned, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water will be available on basically all platforms when it comes out. Specifically, it will be on PC via Steam, both generations of both brands of consoles, and the Nintendo Switch. But there’s no specific date as to when it will be out beyond the very vague 2021.

Facebook Now Allows You To Transfer Your Posts To Other Platforms

Facebook today revealed that it has rolled out a new feature which would allow its users to preserve their published posts to platforms outside of its ecosystem such as Google Docs, WordPress or Blogger. This greatly expands the existing data transfer tool for photos and videos that was introduced by the social media company last year.

The new feature is part of a cross-company data-sharing initiative that launched in 2018, simply known as the Data Transfer Project. Its aim is to have users freely move their data across various online services and platforms seamlessly without restriction. Among those participating in this initiative includes Apple, Google, Microsoft and Twitter – all of which also have introduced their own data-export tools.

Concurrently, as noted by The Verge, the introduction of this new feature would also help bring Facebook in line with two recent regulation laws, the California’s Consumer Privacy Act and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. “We hope this tool empowers people to take control of their data and encourages the creation of updated rules around data portability by lawmakers,” said company Chief Privacy Officer Michel Protti. “We look forward to working with more experts and companies to expand the scope of what you can move between platforms.”

This new addition to Facebook’s information transfer tool is now available to all users across the globe. Those who wish to utilise the feature may find it in the “Your Facebook Information” page, under the platform’s Settings page. From there, you can choose which type of content you wish to transfer, and to which platform outside of Facebook that you want it delivered to.

Keep in mind that the choices of transfer destinations will differ depending on what type of content you wish to move. Also, it’s worth noting that any data ported to other platforms will not include elements such as comments or data from other users, as they belong to their respective owners.

Analysis Finds That Bots Promoted GameStop Stocks On Major Social Media Platforms

A US cyber security company found that bots on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube fanned the flames of a stock-buying frenzy that took Wall Street by storm, Reuters reported. At the end of last January, small-time investors famously joined forces to push the shares of ailing video game retailer GameStop through the roof.

The event was mostly attributed to Redditors using a sub-Reddit called “WallStreetBets” to promote the buying of GameStop stocks. Last month, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told the US Congress that bots didn’t play a “significant” role in GameStop-related activity on Reddit.

Meanwhile, cyber security firm PiiQ Media found that things were different on other major social media platforms. The firm examined posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube dated right before the buying frenzy through the middle of February. In particular, it looked for keywords like GameStop’s stock symbol “GME” and “Hold the Line”.

From all that, the company managed to uncover predictable day-to-day patterns for GameStop-related content – posts will appear at the beginning of a trading day, and you’ll see a lot of them at the day’s end.

“We saw clear patterns of artificial behaviour across the other four social media platforms. When you think of organic content, it’s variable in the day, variable day-to-day. It doesn’t have the exact same pattern every day for a month,” said PiiQ CTO Aaron Barr.

It’s hard to say how influential these bots were during the GameStop buying spree, and Barr told Reuters that PiiQ didn’t analyse Reddit data. Bots have become a major concern in the US since 2016 when Russian bots reportedly spread misinformation in favour of former US President Donald Trump.