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Tag: Facebook

  • Donald Trump plans comeback with ‘own platform,’ says advisor

    Former President of the United States (US) Donald Trump will reportedly be making a comeback on social media with “his own platform,” one of his senior advisors Jason Miller has said.

    Miller said that the platform “will be the hottest ticket in social media, and will completely redefine the game”.

    “This new platform is going to be big,” remarked Miller, predicting that Trump will draw “tens of millions of people”.

    Trump’s Facebook and Twitter account got suspended after deadly riots broke out at the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6.

    While Miller refrained from sharing further details, he said that “everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does”.

    In the meantime, Miller said that Trump will continue to endorse Republican candidates, hinting that one is expected to come on Monday.

    “There’s a big endorsement coming that’s going to shake things up in the political landscape in Georgia. It’s big, it’s coming tomorrow, and just be sure to tune in,” said Miller.

    The former president had nearly 90 million followers on the social platform.

  • Facebook launches TikTok-like app for rappers

    Facebook has launched a TikTok-like app called BARS for creating and sharing short rap videos.

    According to reports, Facebook’s BARS is specifically designed for making content in rapping style. Rappers can create and share their raps using professionally created beats via this app.

    The app also suggests rhymes from a rhyming dictionary to keep your flow going. There is also a ‘Challenge Mode’ in which users can select ‘freestyle’ along with auto-suggested word cues.

    “Audio production tools can be complicated, expensive and difficult to use. With BARS, you can select one of our professionally-created beats, write lyrics and record yourself dropping bars,” Facebook said in a statement.

    The videos can be up to 60 seconds long and can be saved or shared out on other social media platforms.

    BARS, which was built with a team of aspiring rappers, is available for download through Apple’s US App Store and is initially accessible for a small number of iOS users only.

  • People who use social media for news more susceptible to rumours: study

    People who use social media for news more susceptible to rumours: study

    The United States citizens who rely on social media as their main source of news are more likely to believe false or unproven stories about important topics such as politics and COVID-19, according to a survey.

    The Pew Research Centre report found that people who used social media platforms for news were less informed about major public matters and more susceptible to believing rumors and hoaxes.

    The report comes with social media platforms becoming a growing source of news amid struggles by traditional media to survive in the digital age.

    The Pew report found some 18 per cent of the participants of the survey got most of their political and election news through social media. But those people were less likely to rightly answer the fact-based questions about politics and current affairs than those relying on print, broadcast or news apps.

    Social media news consumers were more aware of specific false or unproven stories about COVID-19 and said they had seen more misinformation about the pandemic such as claims that Vitamin C could prevent infection, the survey found.

    On political news, social media users were less informed about facts such as the function of the state-by-state, Electoral College votes, which ultimately decide who wins the White House, or the unemployment rate.

    The report comes from a series on interviews with some 9,000 US adults from November 2019 through December 2020.

    A majority in the survey said they distrusted social media with Facebook the least trusted among the platforms.

    Among those using traditional media, the researchers also found that roughly a quarter of the US citizen on the political left and right consistently turned to “partisan” news sites, reinforcing their views.

    Pew found that roughly three in 10 Republicans relied on former president Donald Trump as a major source of news about the election and the coronavirus.

    These Republicans were more likely to think the COVID-19 pandemic had been overblown and more likely to see voter fraud as a significant threat to election integrity.

  • WhatsApp clarifies privacy policy update, says no effect on privacy of messages

    WhatsApp clarifies privacy policy update, says no effect on privacy of messages

    WhatsApp is facing massive criticism after users raised security issues ever since the Facebook-owned messaging app updated its new privacy policy. WhatsApp has now released an official statement clearing all speculations surrounding new terms of service and policies.

    Taking to Twitter, the messaging app has said that the policy update does not affect users’ privacy with friends or family. The app also shared a list of things that the company won’t be sharing with Facebook.

    Addressing the issue of group privacy, the company has said: “We don’t share this data with Facebook for ads. Again, these private chats are end-to-end encrypted so we can’t see their content”.

    For users who want additional security, the company has suggested that they can also change message settings to “disappear from chats after you send them”.

    The messaging giant has also issued clarification about the rumor that the company store messages of its users. It said, “WhatsApp will not store your text messages and other media files, even on its own servers. They are only stored offline on your own device”.

    Furthermore, the app clarified that WhatsApp does not share your contacts with Facebook, location and logs of the messages and calls.

  • Internet flooded with memes after WhatsApp privacy policy update

    Internet flooded with memes after WhatsApp privacy policy update

    After WhatsApp updated its privacy policy that states the company will now be sharing the customer data with Facebook and it is mandatory for the users to accept the privacy if they want to continue using the app, memes on the subject took over the internet.

    Check out some of the most hilarious ones below:

  • WhatsApp will delete accounts if user data not shared with Facebook

    WhatsApp has decided to share more user data with other Facebook companies to provide a more coherent experience to users across its services.

    It will share account registration information, phone numbers, transaction data, service-related information, interactions on the platform, mobile device information, IP address, and other data collected based on users’ consent, a new update says.

    This data sharing policy with Facebook and its other services doesn’t apply to EU states. The update is expected to go into effect next month.

    The “key updates” concern how it processes user data, “how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats,” and “how we partner with Facebook to offer integrations across the Facebook Company Products.”

    In a notification quoted by a tech website, Whastapp said it will delete the accounts after “120 days of inactivity .i.e. not connected to the app.”

    “This effectively means that, while the profiles will remain inactive, WhatsApp will eventually end up deleting the accounts after 120 days of inactivity (i.e. not connected to the app) as part of its efforts to “maintain security, limit data retention, and protect the privacy of our users.”

    Facebook Company Products refers to the flagship Facebook app, Messenger, and Instagram, Boomerang among others.

  • Facebook bans Donald Trump indefinitely

    Facebook bans Donald Trump indefinitely

    A day after various social media platforms, including Twitter, temporarily suspended US President Donald Trump’s accounts, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Trump’s account has been banned indefinitely.

    “The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” Zuckerberg said in a statement posted on Facebook. “His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world.”

    “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

    On Wednesday, Twitter suspended Trump’s account. In a series of tweets, Twitter Safety tweeted:

    As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.

    This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked

    Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.

    https://twitter.com/twittersafety/status/1346970431039934464?s=21

    This happened in the wake of the siege of Capitol Hill by pro-Trump mob. Trump released a video on Wednesday night in which he continued to claim he won the election and told supporters who stormed the Capitol: “We love you.” According to the BBC, Snapchat also stopped Trump from creating new posts, but did not say if or when it would end the ban. YouTube also removed the video.

    While his social media accounts remain suspended, Trump released a statement through White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino. It said:

    “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”

  • WhatsApp rolls out payment services in India

    WhatsApp rolls out payment services in India

    WhatsApp began testing its payment services in India with one million users in 2018, and now they are rapidly expanding the feature to capture the world’s second-largest economy.

    The Facebook-owned company said on Friday that it is rolling out payments in ten regional languages in the latest stable version of WhatsApp on Android and iOS.

    The company made the announcement when National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the body that runs the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system, approved to roll out the feature in the Indian market.

    Like Google, Samsung and several other firms, WhatsApp has built its payments service in collaboration with large banks in India.

    NPCI said WhatsApp, which has accumulated over 400 million users in India, can expand payments to its users in a “graded-manner”, and to start with, it can only roll out the payments service to 20 million users and has to work with multiple banking partners.

    WhatsApp said that they are already working with leading banks like ICICI, HDFC, Axis, Jio Payment, and the State Bank of India.

    Google and Walmart are currently dominating the mobile payments market in India; together they have almost 80% of the UPI market share.

    UPI’s popularity has diminished the relevance of several firms in India, including SoftBank and Alibaba-backed Paytm that spent years building mobile wallets. Unlike UPI apps, mobile wallets are not interoperable with other mobile wallets and levy a small fee to consumers.

    “With UPI, India has created something truly special and is opening up a world of opportunities for micro and small businesses that are the backbone of the Indian economy. India is the first country to do anything like this. I’m glad we were able to support this effort and work together to help achieve a more digital India. I want to thank all our partners who’ve made this possible. When people can access financial tools, they’re more empowered to support themselves and others or start a business. Long term, we need more innovation that gives people control over their money, and making payments easier is a small step that can help,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Facebook, in a video posted on Friday.

    Facebook itself has made a big push in e-commerce in the past year. And if WhatsApp gains traction with payments, it could open more avenues for its parent firm.

  • PM Imran becomes 4th most followed leader in world

    PM Imran becomes 4th most followed leader in world

    Prime Minister Imran Khan’s official page on Facebook has crossed 10 million followers.

    With that, Imran Khan has become the first and only Pakistani politician to reach 10 million followers on Facebook.

    Moreover, Imran Khan has also become the 4th most followed politician in the world on Facebook.

    Former US President, Barrack Obama, is the most followed politician worldwide on Facebook with 56 million followers.

    Barrack Obama is followed by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, with 45.8 million followers who is followed by the incumbent US President, Donald Trump, with 30 million followers.

    Meanwhile, PM Imran Khan, with 12.7 million followers, remains the most followed Pakistani politician on Twitter as well.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan’s official page on Facebook has crossed 10 million followers.

    With that, Imran Khan has become the first and only Pakistani politician to reach 10 million followers on Facebook.

    Moreover, Imran Khan has also become the 4th most followed politician in the world on Facebook.

    Former US President, Barrack Obama, is the most followed politician worldwide on Facebook with 56 million followers.

    Barrack Obama is followed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has 45.8 million followers. The world leader on the third spot is US President Donald Trump with 30 million followers.

    Meanwhile, PM Imran Khan, with 12.7 million followers, remains the most followed Pakistani politician on Twitter as well.

  • Facebook to launch free website builder

    Facebook to launch free website builder

    Facebook is planning on launching its own free website builder and paid web hosting service.

    The news was officially announced in a blog post by the company. According to Facebook, this new service will be beneficial for all the startups and medium-sized firms, who are looking for a cost-friendly and reliable services.

    They are also looking forward to provide a new option for businesses to manage their WhatsApp messages via the hosting services that will be provided by Facebook. This option will make it easier for all the small and medium-sized business to get started. They can now sell their products, manage almost everything and respond to the messages they receive. They will easily communicate with their employees and customers.

    Apart from making the hosting service available in a few months, it also plans on introducing ways purchase directly through WhatsApp chats. The compatibility with the existing e-commerce will be monitored, this will make things easier for retailers.