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Tag: Facebook

  • Meta developing new social networking app to compete with Twitter

    Meta developing new social networking app to compete with Twitter

    Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is developing a standalone text-based social network app that could potentially compete with both Twitter and its decentralised rival, Mastodon.

    According to reports, Meta is exploring the creation of a decentralised social network for sharing text updates, providing a separate space where public figures and creators can share timely updates about their interests.

    Meta’s Twitter-like app would allow the company to take advantage of the current confusion at Twitter, where cost-cutting has been widespread ever since Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform late last year. Companies have withdrawn their spending following Twitter’s restoration of suspended accounts and release of a paid account verification that resulted in scammers impersonating firms.

    The new app, codenamed P92, will allow users to log in using their existing Instagram credentials and will be based on a similar framework to Mastodon, a Twitter-like service launched in 2016.

    The decentralised platform cannot be run at the whim of a single entity and cannot be bought or sold. Meta’s plans come at a time when Facebook, its largest platform, is struggling to capture the attention of younger audiences. In addition, the company has invested heavily in the metaverse, a virtual world where users interact and work, which has yet to come to fruition.

    Instagram, its video-sharing app, is also facing tough competition as content creators or hit influencers abandon the platform in favour of TikTok. It is currently unclear when Meta will launch the new app.

  • PTI’s Fayaz Chohan shares pornographic photos on Facebook, says account hacked

    PTI’s Fayaz Chohan shares pornographic photos on Facebook, says account hacked

    Pornographic pictures were shared on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fayaz ul Hassan Chohan on Facebook account on Tuesday, leading to great amusement on Twitter.

    https://twitter.com/CorollaViruss/status/1628107745894203397?s=20

    However, the leader has clarified that his account got hacked.

    https://twitter.com/Fayazchohanpti/status/1628266245224013824?s=20

    In a tweet, the PTI leader said that his Facebook page had been hacked since last two weeks and he has written a request to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

    He added that “Everyone knows who is doing this”.

    Last year, PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s Instagram account and Asad Umar’s Twitter account were also hacked. Prior to that, former federal minister Hammad Azhar’s e-mail, Twitter, and Apple accounts were also hacked.

  • Donald Trump to return to Facebook, Instagram after two-year ban

    Donald Trump to return to Facebook, Instagram after two-year ban

    Donald Trump will be allowed back on to Facebook and Instagram after Meta announced it would be ending its two-year suspension of his social media accounts.

    The ban will end “in the coming weeks,” Meta said. In a statement, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said the public “should be able to hear what their politicians are saying.”

    The former US president was indefinitely suspended from Facebook and Instagram after the Capitol riots in 2021.

    The social media giant had acted following Trump’s “praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol,” Clegg said. “The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,” he added.

    Clegg said a review had now found that Trump’s accounts no longer represented a serious risk to public safety. However, owing to Trump’s past, he would now face intensified penalties for any offences in the future.

    Meta’s Oversight Board, a body it set up to review moderation rulings, said that the decision to reinstate Trump on its platforms “sat with Meta alone; the board did not have a role in the decision.”

    The board had already informed Meta that a review of Trump’s suspension was necessary.

    It encouraged Meta to be open and to offer more details about new laws protecting public figures so that it could assess how they were being applied.

  • Meta to settle Cambridge Analytica scandal case for $725 million

    Meta to settle Cambridge Analytica scandal case for $725 million

    Facebook parent Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the social media giant of allowing third parties to access users’ private data. The amount was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday.

    “The proposed settlement of $725,000,000 is the largest recovery ever achieved in a data privacy class action and the most Facebook has ever paid to resolve a private class action,” lawyers for the plaintiffs said in the filing.

    As part of the settlement, Facebook has not admitted any wrongdoing, which must still be approved by a judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia’s San Francisco division.

    In August, it was reported that Facebook had struck a preliminary agreement, though the sum and specifics of the settlement were not disclosed at the time.

    In 2018, Facebook users accused the social network of breaking privacy guidelines by sharing their data with third parties, including the British business Cambridge Analytica, which was tied to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

    According to the lawsuit, Cambridge Analytica, which has since shut down, then gathered and abused the personal data of 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

    This information was allegedly utilised to create software to sway US voters in Trump’s favour.

    Since then, Facebook has banned access to its data from thousands of apps suspected of abusing it, limited the amount of information available to developers, and made it easier for users to calibrate personal data sharing settings.

    In 2019, the federal government penalised Facebook $5 billion for deceiving its users and mandated independent control of its personal data handling.

  • Twitter reverses controversial new policy that bans links to other social media platforms

    Twitter reverses controversial new policy that bans links to other social media platforms

    Less than 24 hours after it was first introduced, Twitter removed its controversial new policy that banned links to certain other social media sites on Sunday evening.

    Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, asked Twitter users if they thought he should step down as the platform’s CEO before the development took place. The results of the poll are expected early on Monday.

    Twitter deleted the tweet that listed the competing websites users will not be allowed to tweet links to, including Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Truth Social, in response to a significant backlash against the policy.

    Additionally, it removed a tweet thread from its @TwitterSupport account that had earlier in the day announced the policy.

    Another official Twitter account, @TwitterSafety, is now running a poll asking users whether the platform should “have a policy preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms.” That poll is set to conclude Monday at 9 pm Eastern time.

  • Google is officially registered as a company in Pakistan

    Google is officially registered as a company in Pakistan

    Google has opened a liaison office in Pakistan and registered with the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), according to Brecorder.

    A spokesman for SECP stated that the company “has been registered as a foreign company” in Pakistan, while a Google representative also verified that the liaison office had been opened.

    A liaison office is a foreign company’s office set up to promote its products, offer technical support and advice, consider potential joint ventures, and promote exports.

    The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), according to insiders, was in contact with foreign companies and made arduous attempts to attract them to Pakistan, but the businesses hesitated owing to the political unrest.

    However, there has been a breakthrough in this regard with Google and TikTok agreeing to set up offices in the country, while the talks between the ministry are ongoing with Meta.

  • ‘Do I reinstall Facebook or Snapchat?’ Twitter users concerned over rumours of site shutting down

    ‘Do I reinstall Facebook or Snapchat?’ Twitter users concerned over rumours of site shutting down

    Twitter goes through upheavals since Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media app, users have expressed extreme apprehension over rumors the app will shut down.

    The bird app has announced that its office buildings will be temporarily closed, effective immediately and that offices will reopen on Monday, November 21.


    Twitter employees were informed about the closure in a letter, but the company withheld an explanation.


    The statement comes as rumours circulate that employees were leaving after the new owner, Elon Musk, told them to sign up for “long hours at high intensity” or quit.
    After the recent development, rumors of the micro-blogging website shutting down have taken hold of the micro blogging app.


    Twitter users are sharing their concern over the expected shutdown of the site while others are sharing usernames of their handles on other social media sites and some are sharing memes.

    Have a look at the reactions:

    https://twitter.com/servinghun/status/1593546957653508097

  • After Twitter, Meta reportedly planning ‘large-scale’ layoffs this week

    After Twitter, Meta reportedly planning ‘large-scale’ layoffs this week

    With plans to layoff thousands of employees this week, Facebook parent company Meta will join a growing list of digital companies that are reducing their workforces.

    As of September 30, Meta has over 87,000 people working for it across its various platforms, which include the social media sites Facebook and Instagram as well as the messaging service WhatsApp. According to WSJ, the social media business had reduced its ambitions to hire engineers by at least 30 per cent in June, and Mark Zuckerberg had advised staff to prepare for a slowdown in the economy.

    In his announcement of Meta’s dismal third-quarter results, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the company’s headcount will not rise by the end of 2023 and might even decline significantly.

    “In 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas. So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year. In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today,” Zuckerberg said on the last earnings call in late October.

    Profits for Meta dropped to $4.4 billion in the third quarter, a 52 percent year-over-year decline. The poor findings had a significant negative impact on Meta’s stock price, which dropped by 25 per cent in one day.

    Over the past year, the company’s market value has decreased to $600 billion.

    In a previous open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s shareholder Altimeter Capital Management stated that the company needed to streamline by eliminating positions and capital expenditures. They also stated that investors had lost faith in Meta as a result of its increased spending and pivot to the metaverse.

    Owing to increased interest rates, rising inflation, and a European energy crisis, several technological businesses, including Microsoft Corp., Twitter Inc., and Snap Inc., have reduced workforce in recent months.

  • PTA blocks more than 1 million social media accounts for posting illegal content

    PTA blocks more than 1 million social media accounts for posting illegal content

    Over 1.1 million social media accounts were suspended by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for posting “illegal” content and engaging in defamation campaigns against organisations.

    According to specifics, PTA received over 1,200,000 complaints, including 134,000 against Facebook, and barred more than 1,135,000 IDs for uploading “illegal” content and taking part in a smear campaign against government institutions.

    PTA reported that Facebook has blocked more than 112,000 bogus IDs. In addition, the agency received 65,122 complaints for immoral content posted on TikTok; following an investigation, 63,000 IDs were disabled.

    According to ARY News, the PTA took down more than 36,000 YouTube videos and blacklisted 31,860 Twitter IDs in response to complaints.

    After lowering the number of non-operational sites to 163, the PTA previously declared that it has restored telecom services in more flood-affected areas.

    PTA said on Twitter via its handle that ongoing efforts by the organisation and telecom providers to restore connectivity in flood-affected areas have further reduced the number of non-operational sites to 163.

    Additionally, PTA stated that work is underway to restore telecom services completely in flood-affected areas on a priority basis.

  • Best mobile phones under Rs9,000 in Pakistan with WiFi and dual 4G support

    Best mobile phones under Rs9,000 in Pakistan with WiFi and dual 4G support

    Owing to exorbitant PTA approval charges and soaring production costs, phone prices have hit an all-time high in Pakistan. Customers have a relatively limited number of options on the market.

    While some customers are able to afford the hefty PTA approval fees, others consider getting a second phone so they can continue using their SIM as PTA approval charges for certain premium smartphones have increased up to Rs132,000.

    Below are some of the most affordable phones on the market right now, which surprisingly support the majority of applications like Facebook and WhatsApp.

    JAZZ DIGIT 4G – ENERGY

    Touch and Type

    Price: Rs7,999

    JAZZ DIGIT 4G – SHINE

    Price: Rs5,999

    JAZZ DIGIT 4G – STAR

    Price: Rs5,999

    Jazz Digit 4G – E2 PRO

    Touch & Type

    Price: Rs8,900

    These bar phones also have outstanding battery life and can be used to provide a hotspot for your primary smartphone.

    All of these mobile devices are currently available at Jazz franchises or local stores and can be easily unlocked if a user wants to switch to a different network.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt-qYgN8zOs&t=393s