The new feature enables people to let friends and family know that they are thinking of them while the coronavirus pandemic keeps them apart.

People on TikTok can use the Small Gestures feature up to three times apiece to send gifts to loved ones and friends free-of-charge by searching for Small Gestures on the application’s Discover page, searching for Small Gestures and clicking the purple banner at the top of the page.

They can then browse the partner offerings and pick the perfect gift for their recipients.

The following TikTok brand partners provided these free gifts for the Small Gestures initiative:

• Adobe: A free 90-day subscription to video editing app Adobe Premiere Rush.
• Alo Moves: A free 30-day trial of its on-demand yoga, fitness and mindfulness classes.
• The Bouqs Co.: $30 off the purchase of an eco-friendly farm-fresh flower arrangement or plant.
• DoorDash: A free one-month subscription to the on-demand food-delivery platform.
• Fitplan: A free 90-day trial of the personal training platform.
• Fluent Forever: A free 90-day subscription to the language-fluency app.
• Pandora: A 90-day trial subscription to the audio-streaming service.
• Rebbi: A code for 15% off online purchases of its coconut-milk-based beverages.
• Skillshare: A two-month premium membership with unlimited access to classes.
• Square Enix: A limited free offering of game titles Lara Croft Go, Hitman Go and Deus Ex Go.
• Talkspace: A $120 credit toward online and mobile therapy sessions.

TikTok wrote in its blog post, “By collaborating with our brand partners on this new program, we’re able to give users a platform to feel connected with their friends and family through the small gesture of sending a gift to someone who might need it most. And thanks to our generous partners, these Small Gestures are offered free for all TikTok users to send gifts up to three separate times.”

In addition to the fine, the agreement requires executive leaders at the company, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to certify compliance with the FTC quarterly and annually.

Facebook will also create a new privacy committee on its board of directors, made up entirely of independent directors, and the company will work with an independent third-party assessor who will regularly report on compliance to that committee.

Chief privacy officer, product Michel Protti outlined some of the internal steps being taken at the company in a Newsroom post.

Chief privacy officer for public policy Erin Egan will continue to lead engagement in global public discussion around privacy and ensure that feedback from governments and experts globally is incorporated into the company’s practices and policies.

Vice president of engineering Vladimir Fedorov continues to lead the team behind all of the necessary product, tools and infrastructure changes.

Vp of infrastructure Delfina Eberly leads the privacy program management team, which is responsible for driving design, implementation and testing.

Protti said Facebook’s legal team continues to grow, and the company created dozens of technical and non-technical teams solely focused on privacy.

He wrote, “This means we analyze how data is collected, used and stored from the moment people share new data with us all the way to when that data is deleted. We make sure it’s used properly through a risk-assessment process—a comprehensive audit of how we use data across the entire company, assessing risks and putting safeguards in place to address them. We currently have thousands of people working on these privacy-related projects, and we’re hiring many more.”

Protti said the process of onboarding new employees has been updated to ensure that they have privacy in mind when they think about their role and design products and features, and consider potential privacy risks. He added that new and existing employees must complete annual privacy training.

Protti concluded, “The agreement approved today goes beyond anything required by U.S. law, and we believe that it can and should serve as a roadmap for more comprehensive privacy regulation, as other parts of the world have explored. We hope this leads to further progress on developing consistent legislation in the U.S. and elsewhere. Ultimately, our goal is to honor people’s privacy and focus on doing what’s right for people. We believe that’s what the billions of people who use our products expect from us, and we’re going to keep doing that work for them.”

According to documents seen by the news outlet a memo addressed to the company’s marketing team earlier this week informed employees of budget cuts and a marketing hiring freeze to be implemented in the second half of the year.

One message asserts that marketing budgets could be cut by as much as half for the remainder of the year as the company attempts to adapt to the economic impact of the ongoing pandemic.

“As we outlined last week, we are re-evaluating the pace of our investment plans for the remainder of 2020 and will focus on a select number of important marketing efforts,” a Google spokesperson said.

The report comes a week after Bloomberg reported that Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai emailed staff informing existing employees of a hiring slowdown as well as a reduction in spend on areas such as “non-business essential marketing” and travel.

In a note to clients last month, investment advisory firm Pivotal Research Group advised that the current pandemic could impact Google’s advertising business by as much as 15%.

The NRAEF RERF supports U.S. restaurant workers who have been financially impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, and industry legend Guy Fieri led a nationwide fundraising drive for it via a Restaurant Relief America campaign.

And the James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund provides financial assistance to small independent restaurants with immediate needs for funds to pay operating expenses and remain in business.

TikTok said in a blog post, “Restaurants, bars, bakeries and coffee shops are essential to the fabric of the neighborhoods they serve, and the people behind the counters and in the kitchens are what make the restaurant industry one of the most vibrant communities on TikTok. From the moment a friendly restaurant host greets you to the impeccable dining experience a waiter provides, the beautiful meal crafted by the chef and the dishwashers and bussers that help reset tables for hungry guests, it truly takes a village to keep the restaurant industry running like a well-oiled machine.”

NRAEF president Rob Gifford added, “We are thrilled and inspired by TikTok’s commitment to help restaurant employees throughout the industry and across the country impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. Thanks to its substantial donation, we will have the ability to help thousands of people who are out of work and facing financial hardship.”

And James Beard Foundation chief operating officer Kris Moon said, “We are incredibly grateful for TikTok’s generous donation and support during this challenging time. With this donation, we will continue to provide the financial relief necessary to prevent the closure of independent food and beverage businesses, some of which wouldn’t be possible without donations of this magnitude.”

The Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing network said there were more than 16 million uses of the word Ramadan on its platform during the 2019 celebration.

Instagram is encouraging users to share their acts of kindness and invite their friends to do the same, using the hashtag #MonthOfGood, adding in a blog post, “It can be something as simple as giving thanks to healthcare professionals, posting a positive comment or hosting a virtual iftar to bring together friends and family from around the world.”

The augmented reality Ramadan Lantern camera effect is also back in Instagram’s Stories camera, featuring iconography associated with Ramadan and greetings in Arabic, Bahasa, English, Farsi and Turkish.

Instagram will feature content creators from around the world sharing moments from their Ramadan celebrations throughout the month.

The company said in its blog post, “While this year will be different for many people, Ramadan remains a time for generosity, charity, spiritual reflection and connecting with family and friends—even if we can’t physically be together.”

Twitter said in a Twitter Safety tweet Wednesday, “We have broadened our guidance on unverified claims that incite people to engage in harmful activity, could lead to the destruction or damage of critical 5G infrastructure or could lead to widespread panic, social unrest or large-scale disorder.”

A spokesperson for the social network added, “We’re prioritizing the removal of Covid-19 content when it has a call to action that could potentially cause harm. As we’ve said previously, we will not take enforcement action on every tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about Covid-19. Since introducing these new policies March 18, we’ve removed more than 2,200 tweets. As we’ve doubled down on tech, our automated systems have challenged more than 3.4 million accounts that were targeting discussions around Covid-19 with spammy or manipulative behaviors.”

Blogger and developer Jane Manchun Wong discovered an account memorialization feature in Instagram’s code and shared it in a tweet.

Just like memorialized accounts on Facebook, “Remembering” appeared with the username.

An Instagram spokesperson confirmed that the Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing network was working on the feature, saying, “We’re making changes to help people identify if an Instagram account belongs to someone who has passed away. This includes a ‘Remembering’ tag that will appear on the account, among other updates that will be available in a few weeks.”

And Instagram spokesperson Liza Crenshaw told Katie Notopoulos of BuzzFeed News, “We’ve been working on these updates for some time, though this is one—among others—that we’ve accelerated in light of Covid-19 to help support our community during a difficult time.”

Under the process currently in place at Instagram, family members can request that the account of a dead person be memorialized via a form, which will preserve the account so that it is not altered or deleted, as well as prevent anyone from logging into it.

Those accounts do not show up in the Explore tab, and friends can still send Instagram Direct messages to those accounts, although those messages cannot be read by anyone.

Facebook product manager Anita Joseph and Instagram product manager Georgina Sheedy-Collier said in a Newsroom post that the initiative will begin with Facebook pages and Instagram accounts that are based outside of the U.S. but have large audiences that are primarily based in the U.S.

They added that the company is exploring ways to extend these transparency measures further.

Joseph and Sheedy-Collier wrote, “We want to make sure people use our services authentically and can understand who is behind the posts they’re seeing. This is particularly important when it comes to elections, so we’re taking extra steps to make pages and accounts with large audiences more transparent … These changes are part of our broader efforts to protect elections and increase transparency on Facebook and Instagram so people can make more informed decisions about the posts they read, trust and share.”

The social network said in its ongoing News Feed post about the coronavirus pandemic that it will provide a $2 million grant to support the ITDRC’s projectConnect initiative in its efforts to bring internet access to rural and underserved communities in the U.S.

Facebook will also share insights from its disease prevention maps to help the ITDRC gain a better understanding of available options in certain regions and better determine the types of support that are needed.

NetHope will get a $260,000 grant and similar access to the social network’s disease prevention maps to identify vulnerable and affected communities worldwide, including migrants and refugees, and provide them with protective health equipment and internet connectivity kits.

Facebook wrote, “The goal of these partnerships is to better understand the unique barriers these communities face in getting online and create the programs and infrastructure needed to increase the availability and affordability of high-quality internet access.”

The 24th annual Webby Awards ceremony was originally scheduled for May 11 in New York, but it was canceled because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Under the new schedule, the voting period for the Webby Awards begins Tuesday, April 28, when nominees will be announced on the Webby Awards website.

When people make their choices for the Webby Awards, they will also have the opportunity to confirm their voter registration status.

Voting will continue until winners are announced and, with the absence of a live event, a special internet celebration will be held May 19.

The Webby Awards executive director Claire Graves said, “The global impact of Covid-19 has exposed the importance of competent leadership at every level of government to ensure the health and safety of its citizens. It’s become clearer than ever before that voting matters. That’s why we’re so excited to work with Vote.org to do our part to help make voter turnout in the 2020 election the biggest in U.S. history.”

Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey added, “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Webby Awards to encourage millions of people to check their registration status. There has never been a more important time for voters to have access to digital tools that empower them to participate in our democracy from their home. With Covid-19, we see election rules and access to voting changing every day. It is critical to ensure that every eligible voter in America can have their voice heard this November.”