Twitter and three other US tech companies have urged the EU to take a flexible approach towards harmful and illegal online content instead of blanket rules requiring takedown, saying this would preserve an open internet. US Internet media group IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned online video platform Vimeo, nonprofit browser maker Mozilla and Automattic, owner of online publishing tool
Social
The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought response of the Centre, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI), and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on a PIL seeking a detailed legal framework for regulating operations of fintech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google,
Twitter has released its most tweeted categories and hastags of the year in India. Virat Kohli’s tweet announcing Anoushka Sharma’s pregnancy was the most liked tweet of the year, whereas Tamil actor Vijay’s selfie with fans was most retweeted tweet in India. #COVID19 was the most tweeted about current affairs topic, whereas #StudentLivesMatter was the
WhatsApp has introduced ‘carts’, to further ease shopping on the instant messaging platform. The new update comes almost a month after the Facebook-owned company brought a shopping button to its app to let users easily browse catalogues offered by businesses on the platform and place orders. With the advent of carts, WhatsApp has moved a
Facebook has highlighted the year 2020 in review which includes the year’s top cultural moments. The social networking platform has segregated the top moments of 2020 into six themes — Icons, Social Awakening, COVID-19, Global Politics, Environmental Causes, and Faith & Community. These moments include Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, conversations around Black Lives Matter,
Facebook on Thursday said it is revising its systems to prioritise blocking slurs against Black people, gays and other groups historically targeted by vitriol, no longer automatically filtering out barbs aimed broadly at whites, men or Americans. The change in Facebook’s algorithm is a shift from the social network’s ethnicity and gender-neutral system that removed
Facebook on Thursday said it would remove false claims about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts, following a similar announcement by Alphabet’s YouTube in October. The move expands Facebook’s current rules against falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the pandemic. The social media company says it takes down coronavirus misinformation that poses
Twitter is rolling back its threaded conversation layout that was launched earlier this year. The company said that the feedback it received from users on the new design was not very positive. This layout showed replies to the original post with thin grey lines to form a thread. Twitter said that it will now work
The Trump administration on Friday opted not to grant ByteDance a new extension of an order requiring the Chinese company to divest TikTok’s US assets, but talks will continue over the short video-sharing app’s fate, two sources briefed on the matter said. A Treasury Department representative said late on Friday the Committee on Foreign Investment in
WhatsApp could be testing the ability to make video and voice calls via its desktop app, as per a tweet by The Guardian’s Alex Hern. This facility is currently not available through WhatsApp Web or through the desktop app either, but it could arrive soon to all users. Hern shared an image on Twitter that
YouTube is introducing new features to its platform to support diverse communities and encourage respectful interactions. The streaming platform will warn users when a comment they are about to post may be offensive to others, giving them the option to reflect before posting. YouTube will also test a new filter in YouTube Studio for potentially
The Trump administration on Thursday sued Facebook, accusing it of discriminating against American workers by favoring immigrant applicants for thousands of high-paying jobs. The Department of Justice’s lawsuit opens a new front in the administration’s push against tech companies, and in its clampdown on immigration, as President Donald Trump enters his final weeks in office. The suit
China’s WeChat social media platform blocked a message by Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison amid a dispute between Canberra and Beijing over the doctored tweeted image of an Australian soldier. China rebuffed Morrison’s calls for an apology after its foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted the picture of an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife
WhatsApp users may lose access if they don’t accept new terms of service. The popular messaging service will reportedly update its terms of service in the coming year, that will take effect starting February 8. If users do not agree to the new privacy rules, however, they could lose access to the messaging app. WABetaInfo
A federal appeals court said on Wednesday it will hear oral arguments on December 14 on the government’s appeal of an order that blocked a ban on Apple and Alphabet’s Google offering TikTok for download in US app stores. US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington on September 27 blocked the Commerce Department order hours before it was
Facebook’s “supreme court” tasked with deciding on allowing or removing sensitive and harmful content has begun operations, with a backlog of some 20,000 cases already piling up for the expert panel. The independent panel, formally known as the Facebook Oversight Board, is considering cases involving Nazi propaganda, hate speech, nudity, pandemic misinformation, and dangerous individuals
Facebook said Tuesday it will launch its news tab feature in Britain from next year, paying publishers for stories delivered through the world’s leading social network. The arrival of Facebook News in January comes after the service was rolled out in the United States in late 2019 and is part of plans to extend it
Reddit has reportedly shared that it averaged 52 million daily active users in October 2020. This marked a 44 percent increase compared to October last year. The social media platform has shared this data for the first time and in a bid to rope in more advertisers, along with being in line with industry reporting.
Instagram is featuring a ‘Giving Tuesday’ story at the front of the stories section on the app today. It will highlight accounts you follow that have used the ‘I Donated’ or ‘Donation’ stickers. This is part of Instagram’s plan to encourage users to donate during the charitable season that lasts till Giving Tuesday. On its
Instagram Live Rooms feature has been launched in India. Aimed at content creators in the country, the feature will facilitate greater audience engagement by allowing creators to go live with up to three additional people, the company explained in a press release. According to the company, the early tests for this feature were done in
Zoom’s videoconferencing service remains a fixture in pandemic life, but its breakneck growth is showing signs of tapering off as investors debate whether the company will be able to build upon its recent success after a vaccine enables people to intermingle again. For now, Zoom is thriving as tens of millions of people who never
The Obama-Biden administration was a charmed era for America’s tech companies — a moment when they were lionized as innovators, hailed as job creators and largely left alone. Now Joe Biden is coming back, this time as president. But times have changed. The halcyon days of an adoring Washington are unlikely to return when Biden
Britain will impose a new competition regime next year to prevent Google and Facebook using their dominance to push out smaller firms and disadvantage consumers. The code will be enforced by a dedicated unit within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which this year said it needed new laws to keep the tech giants in
The US Treasury on Wednesday said it had extended by seven days the November 27 deadline given to the Chinese owner of TikTok to sell the popular social media platform’s American business. “The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has granted ByteDance a one-week extension, from November 27, 2020 to December 4,
The US presidential election is finished: votes cast, the transition, though delayed, begun. But on Facebook, the fight against election misinformation continues, thanks to “super spreaders,” accounts that disseminate rumors and fabrications, falsely spreading the idea that the 2020 election was beset by organised, extensive fraud by the Democratic Party. The US nonprofit Avaaz has identified 25
US software firm Salesforce plans to buy corporate messaging platform Slack, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, leading to a jump in stock prices for the young company. Slack, which has enjoyed increased popularity since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, saw its shares surge 32 percent. Trade was temporarily suspended but prices were still
Snapchat on Monday unveiled a new curated short-form video feed in a stepped up challenge to social media rivals like TikTok. The new format called Spotlight will allow Snapchatters to see content from influencers and other members of the network popular with young smartphone users. Spotlight is aimed at broadening the connections among Snapchat users
Indian cricketer Virat Kohli is now available as an AR effect on Instagram and Facebook. This comes ahead of India’s tour to Australia starting in a few days going all the way till January. The AR effect has been titled as ‘Bat Talk for India’ and it essentially puts Kohli’s AR figure into their picture.
Twitter on Tuesday released plans for its new policy on how people are “verified” on the site, an area the company has long promised to revamp to address confusion and criticisms over the blue check-mark badges it uses to authenticate the identity of prominent accounts. The social media company said in a blog post that it
Twitter will show a warning if you try to like a tweet that has been labelled for potentially including misleading information. Twitter already showed a similar warning to users when they attempted to retweet something that had been similarly labelled, to potentially include misleading information ahead of the 2020 US election. The micro-blogging site is