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Welcome to April's newsletter.

This month the UK government published its long-awaited online harms white paper, setting out plans to address public concerns and help keep people safe online. The paper is open to consultation until 1 July. In other news, more far-right groups and figures were banned from Facebook and Twitter, while Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat published better than expected quarterly financial results. Here's more on these and other top stories.

A welcome step towards sane regulation

The proposals in the government's white paper are ambitious and not always feasible, but this is a good first step towards a regulatory framework. (Guardian)

L ush UK gets fed up with algorithms

The cosmetics manufacturer announced in mid April that it will be closing down its corporate social media accounts and instead use just a hashtag (#LushCommunity). This columnist praises the move. (The Drum)

Facebook to be split over next 5 years

In an interview following Facebook's quarterly financial results, CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave details of his plans to split Facebook into two different platforms: one public, one private. (Business Insider)

S napchat reinvents itself to fight Instagram

Snap Inc reported better than expected revenue growth and presented a host of creative new ideas (around gaming, programming and augmented reality), to tackle the head-on challenge from Instagram. (The Next Web)

Does Pinterest's friendly culture hurt growth?

Analysts and former employees say it does, but the social curation platform has done well to avoid the types of scandals around fake news, inappropriate content and use of user data that have plagued Twitter and Facebook. (CNBC)

What's your favourite social network? Let me know :)