Social Media Newsfeed: Iraq and Social Media | SoundCloud Berlin Office

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Iraq Shuts Down Social Media to Prevent Government Overthrow (VentureBeat)
The Republic of Iraq Friday blocked Twitter, Google, YouTube, Facebook and other sites, in response to the uprising of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, numerous media outlets claim. The Iraq government ordered the country’s ministry of communications to block the sites, International Business Times reports, “over fears that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) was using the outlets to organize their insurgency.” IBT Shocking footage has emerged showing Sunni insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) beheading a police officer. After the decapitation, the militants took a picture of the officer’s head and posted it on Twitter with the comment: “This is our ball. It’s made of skin #WorldCup.” Huffington Post The brutal act has sparked outrage on Twitter. Isis insurgents took control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. New York Post The Islamic militant group has been turning to social media to boast of its victories as its fighters continue to seize large swaths of the country. The propaganda efforts — meant to shatter the morale of Iraqi government officials and strike fear into the heart of civilians — have been wildly successful in the country, The Washington Post reported. Mashable Earlier on Friday, some Twitter users in Iraq, who have found ways to circumvent the restrictions, said that the sites were all inaccessible. When users attempt to visit these sites they apparently see a message from the Iraqi communications ministry.

SoundCloud’s New Office in Berlin Puts Yours to Shame (VentureBeat)
Berlin’s The Factory has opened its 16,000 square-meter startup office. While all the other startups (such as 6Wunderkinder, Mozilla, Zendesk, and others) are still waiting to finally move into Berlin’s new startup space, SoundCloud’s office is the only one that is ready.

Adidas Spends ‘Double-Digit Millions’ on World Cup Advertising (SocialTimes)
Adidas will spend a record-breaking amount on World Cup advertising this year as nearly half of the world’s population tunes in to watch the 2014 tournament. The company would not disclose exact numbers, but it told CNN it plans to spend a “double-digit million amount” on World Cup advertising this year. LostRemote Univision Deportes’ broadcast of World Cup matches Saturday delivered the most-watched Saturday of group play in Univision Deportes World Cup history. So far, the network’s coverage of this year’s games is pacing ahead of its 2010 World Cup coverage by +25 percent among total viewers and +11 percent among adults 18-49 through eight matches.

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Man Treks U.S. Meeting Facebook Friends in Person (NBC 7)
A Minnesota man is on a mission to get real social with his social media friends: he’s driving across the U.S. in an effort to meet all of his Facebook friends in person, some for the first time ever. “For me, I started to realize that as my Facebook friends number grew, I knew less and less of them very well. I had some free time, and I thought, ‘This might be an interesting experiment for me,’ and a fun one as well to see if I could connect with people on a basis that didn’t involve a computer screen in front of us,” Mikel McLaughlin, 35, told NBC 7.

Report: Facebook Quietly Lifts Ban on Exposed Nipples in Breast-Feeding Photos (AllFacebook)
The #FreeTheNipple campaign was apparently a success, as The Huffington Post U.K. reported that Facebook has quietly stepped back from its ban on photos of women breast-feeding in which their nipples are revealed. The social network has come under fire in the past for bans on both breast-feeding photos and images of breast-cancer survivors who have undergone mastectomies.

#Love: My ‘Friends’ Don’t ‘Like’ Me (TechCrunch)
The other day I received some bad news and instead of my usual distraction of scrolling through every bit of social media I could find, I picked up the phone and called a friend. Hearing her voice and letting her hear the sadness in mine made me feel a thousand times better than a thousand “likes” would have. I was happy to know that I was still a little bit human, rooted in my desire for real, true life interaction.

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One Essential Habit Of Successful Tweeters: Marking Milestones (AllTwitter)
Keeping up a consistent Twitter presence is all about building good habits. Whether your goal is to get more customers, generate ebook downloads, network with potential employers or just follow the latest news, there are a few habits that you can learn from the most successful tweeters out there – and marking milestones is a big one. Milestones are happening all the time.

A Social Media Platform for Your Stock Portfolio (BetaBeat)
At last week’s FinTech Cup, the standout theme was harnessing the power of social media for the greater good of financial technologies. Openfolio achieved this in an unusual but very sleek, easy to use way. They combined Linked In, Facebook and E Trader to create Openfolio, a social media platform for sharing stock portfolios.

The TSA Displays its Catches on Instagram (SocialTimes)
The TSA takes nice pictures of the stuff it’s catching, and uses the #TSAcatch to enable Instagrammers to keep up with the weird stuff people bring to the airport. It’s a campaign that allows the TSA to get their message across about prohibited items, and the result is that the agency is leading the conversation.

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