Discord acquired Gas, a teen-focused, poll-based social media application that enables friends to share compliments with each other. Terms were not disclosed.

Gas will continue as a standalone app, and its team will join Discord to help the messaging platform continue to grow across its core audience, as well as attract new audiences.

Discord wrote in a blog post, “Gas is all about uplifting and empowering each other through positive affirmations. Its tremendous success shows the opportunity that exists in creating a playful yet meaningful place for young people. Gas’ founders have a proven track record of creating exciting apps and experiences, and we’re thrilled to work with their team to take things to the next level.”

Gas described how it works on its App Store page:

1. Join your school.
2. Add friends.
3. Answer polls.
4. Get flames when picked.

Digital and mobile intelligence provider Sensor Tower said that since debuting last summer, Gas has tallied some 7.4 million installs.

As users type messages in the Discord mobile application, the app may automatically suggest stickers for them to send. Users have the option to turn off these sticker suggestions if they don’t want to see them.

Our guide will show you how to turn off sticker suggestions in the Discord mobile app.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Discord app on iOS.

Step 1: Tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner of the app.

Step 2: Scroll down to the “App Settings” section and tap “Text & Images.”

Step 3: Scroll down to the “Stickers” section and tap the toggle to the right of “Sticker Suggestions” to turn these suggestions off.

Pew Research Center shared a new study examining links shared by prominent Twitter accounts and how they differ from those shared on alternative social media platforms such as Parler and Truth Social.

The think tank compiled a list of 1,125 prominent accounts on Twitter and 200 apiece on seven alternative platforms—BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram and Truth Social—and analyzed all posts with links from those accounts last June, predating Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

Pew found that 66% of links shared by prominent Twitter accounts last June directed readers to media outlets including print publications, television and wire services, compared with just 5% of those shared by prominent accounts on alternative social media sites.

According to the research firm, the 10 most-shared sites by prominent Twitter accounts were the online sites of news organizations such as The New York Times, Reuters and The Washington Post, while the 10 most-shared sites by the other platforms in the study were primarily other social media channels and two digital-only outlets, The Gateway Pundit and Rebel News.

Pew director of data labs Aaron Smith and computational social scientist Regina Widjaya wrote in the study, “While these differences in linking practices between more established and alternative social media sites are notable, they may not come as a surprise to regular visitors of the alternative social media universe. In the center’s recent study, 52% of those who regularly get news on alternative social media sites say that they either extremely or fairly often see news on these sites that they would not have seen elsewhere.”

Meta continued to take actions against data scraping on its platforms, this time setting its sights on Voyager Labs.

The company filed a legal action against Voyager Labs in federal court in California, seeking to ban it from Facebook and Instagram for creating fake accounts and scraping user data.

Meta disabled Voyager Labs’ accounts and filed the court action with the aim of permanently banning it for violations of its terms of service.

Director of platform enforcement and litigation Jessica Romero explained in a Newsroom post Thursday, “Voyager developed and used proprietary software to launch scraping campaigns against Facebook and Instagram, and websites such as Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Telegram. Voyager designed its scraping software to use fake accounts to scrape data accessible to a user when logged into Facebook, including users’ profile information, posts, friends lists, photos and comments. Voyager used a diverse system of computers and networks in different countries to hide its activity, including when Meta subjected the fake accounts to verifications or checks. Voyager did not compromise Facebook—instead, it used fake accounts to scrape publicly viewable information.”

She added, “Companies like Voyager are part of an industry that provides scraping services to anyone regardless of the users they target and for what purpose, including as a way to profile people for criminal behavior. This industry covertly collects information that people share with their community, family and friends, without oversight or accountability, and in a way that may implicate people’s civil rights.”

The National Hockey League teamed up with Pepsi on free-to-play weekly pick ‘em game the Pepsi Zero Sugar NHL Goalie Challenge.

Every week, NHL fans in Canada and the U.S. can choose three NHL goalies to either get a win, have the most saves, have the fewest goals against or have a shutout for the chance to win prizes including NHL regular-season game tickets, NHLShop.com gift codes, signed NHL items or a trip to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.

Fans have until 7 p.m. Tuesday to make their weekly picks, with winners determined after the conclusion of games the following Tuesday. Bonus points can be earned by correctly predicting the goalie who shuts out their opponent that night.

The Pepsi Zero Sugar NHL Goalie Challenge experience was developed in conjunction with Low6, an NHL free-to-play provider, and it will be promoted across NHL and Pepsi digital and social media platforms.

Subscription option Twitter Blue is now available in Japan, joining Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.

The social network said on its Twitter Blue help page that the cost for users in Japan is 980 yen ($7.40) per month via the web and ¥1,380 ($10.43) via iOS—slightly lower than the U.S. fees of $8 and $11, respectively.

The original Twitter Blue subscription service debuted in Australia and Canada in June 2021, followed by New Zealand and the U.S. in November of that year, at $2.99 per month in the U.S., which rose to $4.99 last October.

New owner Elon Musk pushed a revamp of the service to include features such as verification checkmarks, and it relaunched last December at the current U.S. price.