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For all the issues putting social media in the news these days, one of the most fascinating might be the topic of content moderation.

What qualifies as content violation? What constitutes hate speech? Can artificial intelligence be trusted to figure it out — and for that matter, can humans? 

The questions keep piling up. And we wanted to know: What’s the public perception of all this?

Mostly, we wanted to ask people what they think of content suppression, or censorship. Allegations of it have been flung far and wide, most of which have yet to be proven — and some of which have been disproven.

Among this narrative, we wanted to know what who — if anyone — the public believes is being censored on social media. So, we asked over 600 people to weigh in.

Who’s Being Censored? The Public Perception

We asked 622 people across the U.S., UK, and Canada who they believe are over-censored on Facebook:

• Conservatives
• Liberals
• Fringe groups (e.g., conspiracy theorists)
• All of the above
• None of the above

Nearly half of respondents across the board — an average of roughly 43% — answered “none of the above,” indicating that they might not think Facebook is over-censoring anyone.

Data collected using Lucid

It was in the U.S. where the highest number of respondents (28%) said that they think conservatives are over-censored on Facebook. 

Data collected using Lucid

We posed the same question about Twitter to 671 people across the same regions. The results were similar, with nearly 43% of respondents answering “none of the above.”

Data collected using Lucid

Again, that answer was the highest among respondents in the UK (49%). 

Data collected using Lucid

It’s interesting to note that, here again, the U.S. had the highest percentage of respondents answering that they believe Twitter over-censors content from conservatives.

For several months in that region, this narrative has been publicly reinforced. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee, for instance, held two separate hearings on the “filtering practices” of Facebook and other social media platforms within a few months of each other.

Twitter also came under fire for allegedly “shadow banning” the profiles of high-profile conservative users, which was later denied and disproven.

People are asking us if we shadow ban. We don’t. Read more to get all the facts.https://t.co/UUg6NTPvJK

— Twitter (@Twitter)
 
July 27, 2018

If these allegations of censorship continue — and as of publishing this post, they are — we expect additional, formal research to be conducted. 

But based on our sample, a fair amount of the general public seems generally unconcerned with certain groups or belief systems being censored on social media.

In fact, when we asked 713 people across the U.S., UK, and Canada which problematic issue should be the highest priority for Facebook, content moderation fell pretty low on the list — with only 4.1% of respondents citing it as the problem to be fixed first.

Data collected using Lucid

Who’s Actually Impacted?

If anyone is being censored on social media, some say it’s not necessarily those with the biggest platforms.

“It’s often not the powerful loudest voices, the people with the most access, who end up being affected by [censorship] policies,” said journalist and UC Berkeley lecturer Geoff King at a panel discussion held by Facebook. “But those policies tend to often times be used against people who don’t have political power.”

In fact, there have been stories of brands flagged and unable to share certain types of content (like links to their sites) on Facebook — sometimes without explanation. 

We’ll be keeping an eye on social media censorship and reporting on any new developments. 

This year, more than 700 companies have raised over $18 billion, without giving a single percentage of equity stake to their investors. The catch? There really isn’t one.

Through initial coin offerings, companies can create and sell their own digital currencies to investors and raise a ton of money without giving away any equity, which they would have to do if they sold stock to investors or raised money from venture capitalists.

And since ICOs are generally more beneficial to businesses than other fundraising methods, they’re one of the most exciting types of crowdfunding.

But since ICOs are so new and unregulated, they’re a high-risk, high reward venture for both companies and investors. If you can’t prove the value of your new coin or token, your ICO could fail, and if you invest in a fraudulent ICO, you’ll never see that money ever again.

If ICOs pique your interest as an investor or business, but you don’t know much about them, we’ve got you covered. In this blog post, we’ll teach you what exactly an ICO is, its risks and rewards, and the process of effectively launching one.

For instance, in 2017, Filecoin, a blockchain-based data storage company, launched the largest initial coin offering ever, raising over $257 million. Their investors will be able to pay for space on the cloud storage network that Filecoin has promised to build with the funds.

Another reason why investors buy a company’s tokens or coins is to trade them on cryptocurrency exchanges, just like how investors trade stocks. People who buy a company’s cryptocurrency to trade them for a profit later think the company will finish building their product or service soon, which will raise their token’s or coin’s demand and value.

Most ICOs don’t raise loads of cash for companies or generate huge profits for investors, though. 92% of ICOs that had a minimum market cap of $50 million and were expected to actively trade failed to list on ICO exchanges. The new fundraising method also has a reputation for being riddled with scams.

ICO Scams and Controversy Around the World

With no contractual or legal obligation for companies to build their promised product or service, there can be little incentive for them to actually deliver on their promise. And since ICOs have a lot of hype, criminals can exploit naive or overly optimistic investors with a fake ICO.

Over the past two years, investors have handed almost $100 million to companies who don’t build their promised product but keep their investors’ funds anyway. Another study by Satis Group, an ICO advisory company, claims that over 80% of ICOs are scams.

The projects that inject value into new cryptocurrencies also tend to fail at a high rate. Almost 50% of all digital currency is considered dead, which means they’re usually trading at less than one cent.

Due to the amount of fraud and risk surrounding ICOs, China and South Korea have made raising money through custom digital currencies illegal. The United States hasn’t banned ICOs, but the SEC explicitly warns investors about the risks of investing in ICOs on their website, and they even created their own fake ICO website to prove how easy it is to scam investors.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google have also banned ICO advertisements from displaying on their platforms.

Even though there’s been a lot of publicity about fraudulent and failing ICOs lately, companies can still successfully raise money through their own digital currencies. In fact, 47% of ICOs listed on cryptocurrency exchanges in Statis Group’s research successfully hit their fundraising goal.

How to Launch an ICO

To launch an ICO, you first need to create your own cryptocurrency. There are four ways you can do this:

1. Use cryptocurrency creation tools on blockchain-based computing platforms like Ethereum to build your own token on top of its existing blockchain infrastructure.

2. Hire a company like WalletBuilders to build your own custom coin or token.

3. Take an existing blockchain’s open-source code and tweak it to create your own coin.

4. Build your own blockchain to create your new coin.

Next, you need to write a whitepaper that pitches your product and the value of your cryptocurrency. It should include:

• Your product’s or service’s purpose and value proposition
• The minimum amount of money you need to raise to build or complete your product or service
• How many tokens or coins you’ll keep for yourself
• What type of currency you’ll accept
• How long your ICO campaign will last

After you write your whitepaper, it’s crucial to generate hype and buzz for your ICO in the crypto community or else investors won’t know anything about it.

You can market your business and cryptocurrency through crypto forums, crypto channels on Reddit, crypto discussions on Quora, create Slack channels to field questions from potential investors, join crypto groups on LinkedIn and Facebook, reach out to crypto journalists and influencers to cover your ICO, and leverage paid online advertising.

Once you’ve written your whitepaper, you should submit your token or coin to ICO exchanges, the best of which can be found on this list. You can then run a presale for your currency before your campaign goes live.

Unfortunately, failing to raise the minimum amount of money after your campaign ends means your ICO failed, and you’ll need to return any funds earned back to your investors.

ICOs: Worth the Risk?

Investing in or launching your own ICO is a risky endeavor. But if you invest in credible companies and can prove the value of your business and currency to investors, you could reap huge dividends.

With over 250 million people using Instagram Stories daily, it’s no surprise you want in on the action. But the sheer quantity of Stories can be overwhelming — how’s your business supposed to stand out?

One of the easiest ways to add personality and flair to your Stories is through Instagram Stickers. With Stickers, you can ask questions and create polls for your audience, add GIFs to an otherwise average photo, and include relevant information like temperature and location. Or, you could simply include an emoji to make your post more captivating.

Let’s explore the full range of possibilities with Instagram Stickers.

Instagram Stickers

Let’s take a look at a few different ways you can use Stickers in your next Instagram Story (featuring HubSpot’s Desirae Smith as our Instagram Story model!).

1. Open up the Instagram app, and click the camera icon in the top left. This will open your Instagram Story.

2. Take a picture (or upload one). Click the peeling square smiley face in the top right — that is your Stickers icon.

3. Here is your complete list of stickers. You can scroll through them, or search for one in the search box at the top.

4. To create a poll, click the “poll” sticker, and then type your question. Drag to reposition the sticker on your image.

5. To add a GIF to your image, click the “GIF” icon and then scroll through trending GIFs, or search in the search box.

6. The best way to learn about stickers is by experimenting. Try clicking on different stickers, like temperature, location, or emojis, to decide what works best for you.

7. When you’re happy with the finished product, click “Your Story” in the bottom left to add the post to your Instagram Story (but beware — too many Stickers can quickly become overwhelming).

There you have it! Stickers are one of the easiest and most effective tools at your disposal to ensure your Instagram Stories are fun, captivating, and original. For more Instagram Stories tips, check out “How to Make an Instagram Story Like a Pro“.