Instagram introduces ‘emoji sliders’ for polling your followers

Instagram thinks binary options for polls aren’t enough, they want you to work with a scale… or an emoji slider, in this case. It’s a new way to get feedback from your loved ones and followers about what they feel about anything you want to poll them on. For example, how much of a snake your ex is on a scale of not a snake to 100 percent snake. The emoji slider was borne out of the popularity of the poll sticker. If you want to try it out, it’s now rolling out to users and you can find it with the rest of the stickers in the sticker tray.

Source: TechCrunch

‘Black Panther’ director open to working on an all-female spin-off of the successful Marvel film

If given the chance Black Panther director Ryan Coogler says he’d want to direct a spin-off movie based on the women of Wakanda. When asked during a talk at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday about whether the women were just as important as the men in the film, Coogler said, “I think you could argue they are more important.” So when asked if he’d be onboard to directing a film that centers around the characters played by actresses Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, and Letitia Wright, he said “That would be amazing if the opportunity came up. They did it in the comic book version.”

Now, whether Marvel Studios follows through and does something about this is an entirely different discussion. If you are interested in the female warriors on Black Panther, Sony has partnered with a Nigerian network to produce a television series about the 19^th-century Dahomey Warriors, which were the all-female military regiment that inspired the creation of the Dora Milaje.

Source: CNET

Spotify takes R Kelly out of its official playlists

As part of the music streaming service’s new “Hateful Content & Hateful Conduct” policy, Spotify announced it would be taking out R Kelly’s music from its official playlists and recommendations (for example, playlists like Discover Weekly). While the R&B singer’s music will remain on the service, Spotify will no longer actively promote it. "We want our editorial decisions—what we choose to programؙ—to reflect our values," Spotify told Newsbeat. What classifies as hate content for Spotify is: "Content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability."

The company says it has been working on this global policy for “some months” and even invited users to report content it feels violates this policy. R Kelly has been the center of sexual assault allegations for years but has denied the claims.

Source: BBC

Space epic The Expanse cancelled by Syfy after three seasons

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The Expanse, which is a sci-fi space epic based on the books of the same title by author James S.A. Corey which focuses on factions from Earth, the Belt and Mars facing off in a precipitous galactic war while a mysterious alien organism tips the balance.

Shot in Toronto, The Expanse features a stellar cast or characters, engrossing visuals and arguably the best special effects for a TV show we've seen. Now on its third season, the show has generated great acclaim and has a solid global fan following. Despite this, Syfy (and by extension their Canadian wing Space), has announced it is dropping the show after the third season concludes.

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