As the government served WhatsApp with a second notice asking it to check the spread of fake and provocative content, the Facebook-owned platform has said it is launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone in India. In India where people forward more messages, photos, and videos[Read More…]
Tag: Facebook
Viral Facebook post reminds of existing religious harmony in India
India has faced unforgettable communal riots both before and after its independence. Amid the many communal riots comes a Facebook post originally written by Meghna Athwani who, while iterating her experience of sharing a cab with religiously-different people, slams all the political parties for their continuous efforts to instigate religious[Read More…]
Facebook to remove posts that spur violence
San Francisco: Accused of helping to spur violence in countries like Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India, Facebook has said it will begin removing misinformation that leads to violence and physical harm. Currently, Facebook bans content that directly calls for violence but the new policy will cover fake news that has[Read More…]
20 year old Yahoo Messenger shuts down today
Instant messaging service Yahoo Messenger shut down on Tuesday after a 20-year run. The iconic messaging application from late 90s struggled to keep up with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. “We know we have many loyal fans who have used Yahoo Messenger since its beginning as one of the first chat[Read More…]
Facebook shielding far-right activists, under-age accounts: Report
London: Moderators at Facebook are protecting far-right activists, preventing their Pages from being deleted even after they violate the rules set up by the social media giant, the media reported. The process called shielded review was uncovered by Channel 4 Dispatches – a documentary series that sent an undercover reporter[Read More…]
Facebook employs 5 times more female employs than before
The social network Facebook employs five times more female workers than it did five years ago. However, a blatant disparity still exists in regard to the leadership level. Statistically, less than one third of Facebook’s senior leadership is female. The company is slowly diversifying its employees. In particular, there have[Read More…]
IAS officer Shah Faesal faces criticism from Centre for his ‘Rapistan’ tweet
Jammu and Kashmir IAS topper Shah Faesal went public on Tuesday, questioning the government’s disciplinary action against his ‘Rapistan’ tweet, which was trolled by some people in April this year. Bureaucrat Faesal seemed to question the government’s gag order for bureaucrats as well. In a tweet and Facebook poston Tuesday,[Read More…]
WhatsApp concerned about fake messages circulation, announced to fund research in the case
Due to increasing number of reported killings, lead by rapid and wide spread of misinformation across the country through WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service said it would fund research to find out why misinformation spreads on the platform like wildfire in India. WhatAapp, which has over 200 million monthly active[Read More…]
WhatsApp’s ‘one-way’ broadcast mode for group chats is here
San Francisco: Aiming to take on encrypted messaging platform Telegram, WhatsApp has released a new feature for its groups which is essentially a one-way broadcast communication stream. Today, we’re launching a new group setting where only admins are able to send messages to a group. One way people use groups[Read More…]
‘Satire’ often being used as cover for fake news: Facebook
San Francisco: While admitting limitations of fact-checkers in fighting fake news, Facebook has said the problem is often compounded by some publishers who spread the false news on the social media platform in the garb of being satirical. Sometimes people try to call their sites ‘satire’ as a cover for[Read More…]
Indian government requests for Facebook data rose 62% in 2017
New Delhi: Facebook has recorded massive increase in the total number of Indian government requests for data over the past one year — a rise of nearly 62 per cent in 2017 compared to the global average of 30 per cent. In its transparency report released on Tuesday, Facebook said[Read More…]
New Facebook tool alerts website owners about phishing attacks
San Francisco: Facebook has announced a new tool for website owners and developers that will alert them about phishing attacks on their platforms. “We are extending the capabilities of our ‘Certificate Transparency Monitoring’ tool to make it easier for developers to learn about new domains that are maliciously created to[Read More…]
Cambridge Analytica is shutting down
London: Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy firm at the centre of the Facebook data-sharing scandal, is shutting down, media reported. The firm was accused of improperly obtaining personal information on behalf of political clients. According to Facebook, data of up to 87 million of its users were harvested by a[Read More…]
Facebook starts rolling out ‘downvote’ button
San Francisco: Facebook has begun rolling out a feature called “downvote” that lets users register a negative reaction to comments on the social networking platform but it is not the “dislike” button users have long desired. Clicking the “downvote” button hides the comment for the user who taps it, then asks[Read More…]
Facebook shrinks doubtful stories to fight fake news
San Francisco: After Facebook’s red warning labels to flag fake news backfired, the social networking giant is now literally sizing down the doubtful stories to prevent the triumph of falsehood on its platform. As part of its new strategy to combat fake news, Facebook wants its users to miss these stories[Read More…]
The bigotry of Indians and social media
A tweet by a man, Abhishek Mishra went viral on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. He claimed to have cancelled an Ola cab booking because the driver was a Muslim. In his tweet, he announced that he doesn’t want to give money to “Jihadi people”. As people raged against[Read More…]
Facebook clarifies how it collects data when you’re logged out
San Francisco: After Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the US Congress last week, the company on Tuesday tried to clarify on questions how it collects data when people are not directly using the website or app. Many websites and apps use Facebook services to make their content and[Read More…]
Facebook brings political ads under more scrutiny
San Francisco: In order to prevent election interference on its platform, Facebook has introduced new changes to increase transparency and accountability for electoral ads and Pages. To get authorised by Facebook, advertisers will now need to confirm their identity and location. “Advertisers will be prohibited from running political ads —[Read More…]
German minister calls Facebook ‘network of opacity’
Berlin: German Justice Minister Katarina Barley has slammed social media giant Facebook in the ongoing Cambridge Analytical data scandal. Speaking to the press in Berlin on Thursday, she labelled Facebook as a “network of opacity” and demanded consequences for the firm in response to its mishandling of private user data, Xinhua[Read More…]
Facebook junks project to collect patients’ health data: Report
San Francisco: In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach, Facebook has reportedly suspended a research project where the social media giant was in touch with several major US hospitals to collect data about their patients. According to a report in CNBC late Thursday, Facebook aimed to build profiles of[Read More…]
87mn people affected by Cambridge data breach: Facebook
San Francisco: Facebook has admitted that information of up to 87 million people, mostly in the US, may have been improperly shared with the British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica. In a press conference on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that they did not put out the 50 million number[Read More…]
Mark Zuckerberg hits back at Tim Cook
San Francisco: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has hit back at Tim Cook saying that the recent criticism from his counterpart at Apple was unfounded, the media reported. In an interview given to Vox on Monday, Zuckerberg defended his company’s business model by saying: “You know, I find that argument, that[Read More…]
‘Delete’ Facebook, says WhatsApp co-founder amid Cambridge Analytica scandal
San Francisco: Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, late on Tuesday asked users to “delete” the social media platform, Facebook, amid alleged data leakage of its users for political purposes. “It is time. #deletefacebook,” Brian Acton tweeted to more than 23,000 of his followers. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014. Facebook[Read More…]
Jammu government doctor sacked over Facebook post
Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir government has terminated the services of the Registrar of the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu for an “anti-government” post on Facebook, an official said on Sunday. Amit Kumar was sacked after he violated rules that prevent a government servant from using social media to write anti-government[Read More…]
Facebook, Google making profits from ‘pop-up’ brothels: Report
London: Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has accused Facebook and Google of raking in profits from “pop-up” brothels on their platforms. According to a report in The Sunday Times, “Pop-up” sex clubs were discovered in Cornwall, Cambridge, Swindon and holiday cottages in the Peak district. The NCA accused Google and[Read More…]