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A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

FACEBOOK’S MESSAGES MERGER SIR NICK CLEGG’S FAKE NEWS WAR ROOM

ALARMING news for anyone who loves Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger arrived this week, when it was revealed Facebook (which owns all three of those apps) plans to merge some of their features.

Of course, the real story was somewhat less dramatic than the headlines suggested, but was also, perhaps, indicative of the direction Facebook plans to take the apps.

All three apps involve an element of private messaging as either its primary function, or a peripheral feature… and Facebook plans on re-writing each app’s messaging infrastructure so they can work together. So far from three apps becoming one, all we are really taking about is three apps being able to talk to each other – so if you’re a big Instagram user, you’ll be able to send a message to a Messenger or WhatsApp fan without even having those apps.

It’s actually a change for the better, especially when you learn that all three apps will adopt the end-to-end encryption that WhatsApp already offers.

Speaking of security… Facebook had other news about what its most famous employee after Mark Zuckerberg has been up to… LET’S not talk about tuition fees, and take erstwhile Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg (pictured) at his word when he says Facebook, his new employers, are serious about tackling “fake news”.

Sir Nick, who has taken up a new post as Facebook’s communications boss, spoke this week about how the company is setting up a “war room” in Dublin to work on how the upcoming European elections are covered on the site. A gaggle of experts and interested parties will gather there to help prevent the spread of misinformation on the social network.

Admitting Facebook might have been on the wrong side of the debate in the past, Sir Nick claimed the company was doing its best to clean its act up, and revealed that more than 30,000 people now work on its content review team.

A new draft charter, outlining Facebook’s plans to set up an external body to deal with complains about content, would be published soon, he said.