Social

TikTok hit 1 billion monthly active users globally this summer, the company told Reuters, marking a 45 percent jump since July 2020. The United States, Europe, Brazil, and Southeast Asia are the biggest markets for the popular short-video app, the company said. TikTok has experienced surges in users around the world in the past few years,

Social media firms must do more to stop advertising “dodgy financial promotions” that fuel a surge in fraud or face action, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority said on Tuesday. “We are putting them on notice that we expect them to be involved in this process of protecting the community,” the FCA’s head of enforcement Mark Steward

Skype is getting a bunch of new features in its latest update. Microsoft is rolling out design changes along with a bunch of improvements on the video calling platform. The grid displayed during calls on Skype will soon include everyone in a call. Also, Microsoft is adding new layouts and themes to the application. Skype

WhatsApp is found to be working on expanding its multi-device feature to let users access the instant messaging app on multiple devices based on Android and iOS. At present, the feature works in beta as an opt-in offering designed for WhatsApp on the Web, desktop, and Facebook Portal. It allows users to access WhatsApp on

Instagram is pausing work on a version for children younger than 13, called “Instagram Kids”, the Facebook-owned photo sharing app said on Monday. US lawmakers and advocacy groups have opposed the launch of “Instagram Kids”, urging the social media giant to drop its plans and stating that it had failed to “make meaningful commitments to protecting

Facebook said on Wednesday it is underreporting the results of its advertising business on Apple iOS devices, acknowledging that recent privacy changes from the iPhone maker have made it more expensive and difficult for brands to advertise on Facebook. Shares of the social media giant were down 3.7 percent at $344.32 (roughly Rs. 25,390) in morning trading. Facebook said

Over 200 Chinese gaming companies have pledged to regulate their industry to combat gaming addiction, including through the possible use of facial recognition to identify minors, a state-backed gaming association said on Friday. The statement, published by the CGIGC gaming association, which is affiliated to the online game publishing regulator National Press and Publication (NPPA),

The Centre has informed the Delhi High Court that Twitter has appointed Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Resident Grievance Officer (RGO), and Nodal Contact Person in compliance with the new IT Rules. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), in a short affidavit, said Twitter has acknowledged that the personnel (CCO, Nodal Contact Person, and

US social audio app Clubhouse launched a feature on Thursday to let users virtually wave at friends inside its audio-only chat app to show they are open to a private chat, in a move to expand beyond public rooms that can have thousands of listeners. Clubhouse, which pioneered the “social audio” feature that has since

Longtime Facebook executive Mike Schroepfer said on Wednesday that he was stepping down as the company’s chief technology officer. Schroepfer said in a Facebook post that veteran leader Andrew Bosworth, who heads up the social media company’s augmented reality and virtual reality efforts, including products like its Oculus Quest VR headset, will take over the

A US federal judge has ordered Facebook to release records of accounts connected to anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar that the social media giant had shut down, rejecting its argument about protecting privacy as “rich with irony”. The judge in Washingon, DC, on Wednesday criticised Facebook for failing to hand over information to investigators seeking to

Twitter has announced plans to release new updates that would prevent tweets from disappearing while the users are reading them. Many Twitter users have earlier complained that tweets will sometimes disappear from their view when the user switches back to the Twitter app or desktop website and start reading a Tweet. The timeline is said

Facebook has told Australian publishers it has stopped negotiating licensing deals, an email to the industry seen by Reuters showed, a move which came just six months after the passing of a law designed to make tech giants pay for news content. While Facebook has announced deals with most of the country’s largest news outlets, some

Facebook shareholders have reportedly alleged that the social media giant overpaid $5 billion (roughly Rs. 36,928 crores) to the American antitrust watchdog to protect CEO Mark Zuckerberg from personal liability related to the Cambridge Analytica data leak probe. The shareholders said to have alleged in two lawsuits, which were filed last month but made public on

Facebook’s independent Oversight Board said on Tuesday it has asked the social networking giant to provide clarity on the system it uses to review content decisions relating to some high-profile users. The board’s inquiry follows a Wall Street Journal report last week that Facebook exempts high-profile users from some or all of its rules, raising

WhatsApp is testing a new feature to allow users to report specific messages on the platform. This will be an extension to the existing report option that allows WhatsApp users to report individuals and businesses on the basis of the entire chat. WhatsApp is currently testing the new feature with beta testers on Android and

Twitter said on Monday it would pay $809.5 million (roughly Rs. 5,960 crores) to settle a shareholder class action lawsuit accusing the social media company of deceiving investors about how often people used its platform. The settlement resolved a case that had been on the verge of going to trial. Jury selection had been scheduled to

Telegram has announced a major update that will now let users record livestreams and video chats on the app itself. The instant messaging platform’s latest update also introduces eight chat themes. Each theme comes with a day and night version and will follow the night mode settings of the app settings. The app has also

Facebook India on Monday said it has appointed ex-IAS officer and former Uber executive Rajiv Aggarwal as the Director of Public Policy. He succeeds Ankhi Das, who quit in October last year. She was embroiled in a controversy for opposing enforcement of hate-speech rules against right-wing leaders in the country. Aggarwal, in this role, will

Facebook on Saturday slammed a Wall Street Journal series of articles about the social media company’s platform as containing “deliberate mischaracterisations” and said the articles “conferred egregiously false motives to Facebook’s leadership and employees.” The Wall Street Journal, citing a review of internal company documents that included research reports, online employee discussions and drafts of

Instagram is a popular social platform for sharing links about work or some articles and stories worth mentioning. Influencers and creators also often use links to ask their followers to go and visit their work online, promote other brands, or advertise products. Earlier, Instagram offered the ‘Swipe Up’ option for adding links to Instagram Stories but

Facebook has removed a network of accounts linked to an anti-COVID restrictions movement in Germany as it announced a new crackdown on coordinated campaigns of real users that cause harm on and off its platforms. Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday that Facebook’s security teams were expanding the tactics used to take down influence operations using

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature that allows users to convert their images into stickers on the desktop app. The Facebook-owned instant messaging platform is said to be developing the feature as of now and it’s not yet available for beta testers, as per WABetaInfo. WhatsApp hasn’t officially announced when it intends to

Tencent Holdings’s popular WeChat messaging app will start allowing users to access external links from Friday, days after regulators told the company and its rivals to end a long-standing practice of blocking each other’s links. China’s technology giants have historically prevented links and services by rivals from being shared on their platforms. On Monday, however,

Alphabet’s Google and Apple have removed jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s tactical voting app from their stores, his team said on Friday, after Russia accused the US tech firms of meddling in its internal affairs. Russia goes to the polls on Friday to elect a new parliament in a three-day vote that the ruling United Russia

Facebook is taking a more aggressive approach to shut down coordinated groups of real-user accounts engaging in certain harmful activities on its platform, using the same strategy its security teams take against campaigns using fake accounts, the company told Reuters. The new approach, reported here for the first time, uses the tactics usually taken by

Becoming a social media influencer requires minimum capital but a lot of talent. It gives a person flexibility in terms of working hours among other perks that come with being famous. Naturally, the competition is fierce. But artificial intelligence (AI) is now taking humans out of the game. Using AI, companies are creating virtual human models that

Discord has raised $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,680 cores) in a new funding round led by investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group, a company spokesperson said. The deal values the company at about $15 billion (roughly Rs. 1,10,160 crores), Bloomberg News had reported earlier. Discord declined to comment on the valuation. Baillie Gifford & Co, Coatue

Facebook’s messaging service WhatsApp on Wednesday launched a new feature to make it possible to search for businesses within its app for the first time, the company told Reuters. The test in São Paulo, Brazil, which allows WhatsApp users to find shops and services through a directory in the app, is the latest feature in

WhatsApp is reportedly receiving an update that will further extend its multi-device functionality. The update now makes it possible for non-beta users to join the multi-device beta program for a future update, as per WABetaInfo. The multi-device functionality lets users link up to four devices apart from their primary device. With the new functionality, users