News

Instagram Adds New Digital Message Board Feature For Creators

The addition is known as Broadcast Channels and will function as a one-way messaging tool.

Published

4 years ago

February 17, 2023

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Yesterday, Instagram users received an unusual notification from Mark Zuckerberg himself. The random invitation from the head of Meta heralded the arrival of a new feature, urging users to “join their broadcast channel: Meta Channel.”

The new addition, known as Broadcast Channels, is a “public, one-to-many messaging tool for creators to engage with their followers directly.”

instagram broadcast channels

In essence, Instagram creators can message all their followers simultaneously in the form of a one-way group chat. Followers can react to broadcasts and participate in polls but can’t write back directly. Finally, Broadcast Channels can be muted at any time or notifications turned off entirely.

Meta is currently testing the new feature on 14 celebrity and influencer accounts, including Olympian Chloe Kim, skier Mikaela Shiffrin, and gamers Valkyrae and FaZe Rug. The Zuckerberg-led company will also be bringing the tool to both Messenger and Facebook over the coming months, as well as adding extra features such as question prompts.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.