TheNewsGuru

Tag: Facebook

  • ‘Dangerous’ for Twitter, Facebook to ban accounts, says Trump

    ‘Dangerous’ for Twitter, Facebook to ban accounts, says Trump

    US President Donald Trump said on Monday that it is “very dangerous” for social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to silence voices on their services.

    Trump’s comments in an interview with Reuters come as the social media industry faces mounting scrutiny from Congress to police foreign propaganda.

    Trump has made his Twitter account – with more than 53 million followers – an integral and controversial part of his presidency, using it to promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics.

    Trump previously criticised the social media industry on August 18, claiming without evidence in a series of tweets that unnamed companies were “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.” In the same post, Trump said “too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad.”

    Those tweets followed actions taken by Apple, Alphabet’s YouTube and Facebook to remove some content posted by Infowars, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones’ own Twitter account was temporarily suspended on August 15.

    “I won’t mention names but when they take certain people off of Twitter or Facebook and they’re making that decision, that is really a dangerous thing because that could be you tomorrow,” said Trump.

    Trump appeared on a show produced by Infowars, hosted by Jones, in December 2015 while campaigning for the White House.

    In removing Jones’ content, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook each pointed to specific user agreement violations. For example, Facebook removed several pages associated with Infowars after determining they violated policies concerning hate speech and bullying.

    Twitter and Facebook declined to comment on Trump’s statement. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    In July, during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter testified they did not remove content based on political reasons.

    “Our purpose is to serve the conversation, not to make value judgments on personal beliefs,” Nick Pickles, Twitter’s senior strategist, said at the time.

     

  • Hate speech: Facebook to remedy menace in Myanmar

    Facebook has been “too slow” to address hate speech in Myanmar and is acting to remedy the problem by hiring more Burmese speakers and investing in technology to identify problematic content, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

    The acknowledgement came a day after a Reuters investigation showed why the company has failed to stem a wave of vitriolic posts about the minority Rohingya.

    Some 700,000 Rohingya fled their homes last year after an army crackdown that the United States denounced as ethnic cleansing. The Rohingya now live in teeming refugee camps in Bangladesh.

    “The ethnic violence in Myanmar is horrific and we have been too slow to prevent misinformation and hate speech on Facebook,” Facebook said.

    The Reuters story revealed the social media giant for years dedicated scant resources to combating hate speech in Myanmar, which is a market it dominates and where there have been repeated eruptions of ethnic violence.

    In early 2015, for instance, there were only two people at Facebook who could speak Burmese monitoring problematic posts.

    In Thursday’s statement, posted online, Facebook said it was using tools to automatically detect hate speech and hiring more Burmese-language speakers to review posts, following up on a pledge made by founder Mark Zuckerberg to US senators in April.

    The company said that it had over 60 “Myanmar language experts” in June and plans to have at least 100 by the end of the year.

    Reuters found more than 1,000 examples of posts, comments, images and videos denigrating and attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims that were on the social media platform as of last week.

    Some of the material, which included pornographic anti-Muslim images, has been up on Facebook for as long as six years.

    There are numerous posts that call the Rohingya and other Muslims dogs and rapists, and urge they be exterminated.

    Facebook currently doesn’t have a single employee in Myanmar, relying instead on an outsourced, secretive operation in Kuala Lumpur – called Project Honey Badger – to monitor hate speech and other problematic posts, the Reuters investigation showed.

    Because Facebook’s systems struggle to interpret Burmese script, the company is heavily dependent on users reporting hate speech in Myanmar.

    Researchers and human rights activists say they have been warning Facebook for years about how its platform was being used to spread hatred against the Rohingya and other Muslims in Myanmar.

    In its statement on Thursday, Facebook said it had banned a number of Myanmar hate figures and organisations from the platform.

     

  • India asks telecoms to block Facebook, WhatsApp in case of misuse

    India asks telecoms to block Facebook, WhatsApp in case of misuse

    India has asked its telecom operators to find ways of blocking applications such as Facebook and messaging app WhatsApp in the case of misuse, according to a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

    India has in recent months intensified efforts to crack down on mass message forwards after it found that people were using social media and messaging apps to spread rumors and stoke public anger.

    WhatsApp in particular has faced the wrath of Indian regulators after false messages circulated on the messaging platform led to a series of lynchings and mob beatings across the country.

    The department of telecommunications in July asked Indian telecom service providers, as well as mobile and internet industry bodies, to “explore various possible options” to block such apps.

    “You are requested to explore various possible options and confirm how the Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp/Telegram and such other mobile apps can be blocked on internet,” according to the government letter dated July 18 and seen by Reuters.

    Facebook Inc, which owns both WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram, declined to comment.

    Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    A source at India’s department of telecommunication said the letter was aimed at finding ways to block such apps during “emergency situations”.

    “There is a need for a reasonable good solution to protect national security,” said an official.

    For WhatsApp, India is its biggest market with more than 200 million users and one where it says people forward more messages, photographs and videos than any other country.

    Following calls from the government to stem the platform’s misuse, WhatsApp has moved to deter mass message forwards and launched an advertising campaign to educate consumers.

    In July, WhatsApp said message forwards will be limited to five chats at a time, whether among individuals or groups, and said it will remove the quick forward button placed next to media messages.

    Separately, India’s federal police has begun probing Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of Facebook user data, which New Delhi suspects included information on Indian users.

     

  • WhatsApp to start charging business users

    Facebook’s WhatsApp messenger service will start charging businesses for sending marketing and customer service messages, it said on Wednesday, as the social network company’s flagship brand faces slowing usage and revenue growth.

    The messages will be charged at a fixed rate for confirmed delivery, ranging from 0.5 cents to 9 cents per message depending on the country, WhatsApp said.

    Facebook has been looking at ways to monetize its WhatsApp service in the face of rising costs as it spends heavily to improve privacy safeguards and tackles concerns about social media addiction.

    WhatsApp, which has around 1.5 billion users, said starting on Wednesday businesses can use its WhatsApp Business API to send notifications such as shipping confirmations, appointment reminders and event tickets.

    WhatsApp acknowledged that it is charging a premium compared to SMS rates.

    Wireless carriers typically charge businesses well below a penny per SMS, and the price is still close to a penny when including fees collected by intermediaries between carriers and businesses.

    WhatsApp had announced in January it would start allowing small business accounts to communicate through the WhatsApp Business application, which has over three million active users.

    Chief operating officer, Matt Idema, said at the time that the WhatsApp intends to charge businesses in the future.

    Facebook also said on Wednesday that users on its namesake app and Instagram can now see the amount of time they spend on the app each day and receive notifications when they exceed a self-prescribed threshold.

    Users also can mute notifications from the apps for up to eight hours.

     

  • Adegboruwa sues Joe Igbokwe over Facebook post

    Lagos-based lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking the prosecution of the Lagos spokesman of the All Progressives Congress, Joe Igbokwe, over an allegedly offensive Facebook post recently made by the latter.

    Adegboruwa said that Igbokwe, on July 16, 2018, at about 3.20pm, posted on his (Igbokwe’s) Facebook wall that “Wike will not have the audacity and temerity to kill again in Rivers State and run to the Supreme Court to buy justice. It will never happen again in Nigeria where Buhari is the President.”

    Adegboruwa, in his suit filed on Friday, claimed that Igbokwe disparaged the judiciary, alleging that the Facebook post was capable of eroding public confidence in the court.

    He is seeking a court order compelling the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who was joined as a co-defendant with Igbokwe in the suit, to invite the APC spokesman to substantiate his claim that the apex court sold justice to the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, failing which he (Igbokwe) should be prosecuted.

    According to Adegboruwa, following the alleged post by Igbokwe, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, invited security agencies to probe the alleged selling of justice to Wike.

    The CJN, according to him, asked the security agencies to identify the culpable apex court Justices if the allegation is true or to take steps to prosecute Igbokwe if it turns out that the allegation is false.

    Adegboruwa said Wike, on his part, through the Rivers State Government, had demanded explanation from Igbokwe, with a threat of legal action.

    In a 32-paragraph affidavit he filed in support of his suit, Adegboruwa claimed that the alleged post by Igbokwe was capable of being interpreted by the public to mean that “the judiciary in Nigeria, and, indeed, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is corrupt; that there is no transparent system of justice administration in Nigeria, especially in the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

    Adegboruwa is contending that the alleged Facebook post by Igbokwe would create a situation where “lawyers would lose patronage and would no longer be able to handle cases in court, given that it is now possible to buy justice with money.”

    He urged the court to compel the AGF to take steps to prosecute Igbokwe.

    He is also asking the court to sack Igbokwe as the General Manager of the Lagos State Wharf Land Fee Collecting Authority and to declare him as a person not fit and proper to be elected or appointed into any public office in any part of Nigeria.

    The suit has yet to be assigned to any judge.

  • Fake visa agent in court for collecting N900,000 from Facebook friend

    Fake visa agent in court for collecting N900,000 from Facebook friend

    A fake visa agent, Oyadokun Oladele, on Thursday appeared before an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court in Lagos for allegedly obtaining N900,000 from his Facebook friend under false pretences.

    Oyadokun, 34, of Fola Tyre area of Oyo State, is facing a two-count charge of fraud and obtaining under false pretences.

    The Prosecutor, Sgt. Lucky Ihiehie, told court that the accused committed the offences sometime between November, 2017 and March, 2018 at Ikosi in Ketu, near Lagos.

    Ihiehie said that the complainant, one Adenike Eniola, reported the case at the Alapere Police Station, Ketu on April 2.

    “Sometime last year the complainant and the accused met online and became friends after he introduced himself as an engineer working with a company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and also as a visa agent.

    “During one of their conversations, Oyadokun told the complainant that he had some issues with his visa business and needed some money to push it.

    “A deposit of N600, 000 was requested by the accused, which the complainant obliged him and transferred the money from her account to the complainant’s account.

    “After some months, Adenike introduced a man, Arogundade Ishola to the accused to secure him a working visa to Dubai of which a sum of N300, 000 was negotiated for the process.

    “The money was transferred to the accused by Adenike on Dec. 22, 2017 and the visa was to be ready in six weeks.

    “After six weeks the accused said there was a slight delay in the visa process but that it was ready and that Arogundade’s flight had been booked for March 10, 2018.

    The prosecutor said that since March 6, the accused blocked his contacts and Facebook’s account so that Adenike wouldn’t reach him.

    He also said that it was discovered that the accused had been operating from Oyo State and not Dubai as believed by Adenike.

    Ihiehie said that Oladele was arrested in Oyo State through some of his friends that he also duped.

    The offences contravened Sections 280 (1), (a), and 314 (1), (a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    The Magistrate, Mrs E. Ikubehinje, admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N200, 000 with two sureties, who must be taxpayers with an evidence of payment of rent and other utility bills.

    The case was adjourned until Aug. 22.

    NAN

  • Information Minister cautions Nigerians on social media use

    Information Minister cautions Nigerians on social media use

    Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Wednesday cautioned Nigerians on social media use.

    The Minister admonished Nigerians not to share any information they cannot vouch for on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp as a measure to curtail fake news menace.

    He made the admonition in Abuja at the launch of National Campaign against Fake News.

    He urged social media users that before sharing any information on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp, they should ascertain how credible the source was.

    Mohammed said the campaign against fake news was to sensitise Nigerians to the dangers it posed to peace, security and nation’s corporate existence.

    He said though there were existing laws against fake news, the government did not intend to resort to coercion or censorship.

    “There is an epidemic sweeping the world. If left unchecked, it could be worse than all the plagues that the world has recorded put together.

    “It is a clear and present danger to global peace and security. It is a threat to democracy. It is the epidemic of Fake News. Mixed with hate speech, it is a disaster waiting to happen.

    “For the media, the epidemic is even worse. This is because fake news, in most cases designed to misinform, undermines confidence in the media.

    “And once the people lose confidence in the media, the society is in trouble,” he said.

    The Minister noted that fake news is mainly distributed by social media, but periodically circulated through mainstream media.

    He said fake news though not new it becane a issue of concern with the speed at which it spread around the world, and that means is the social media.

    “Anyone with a phone and internet access can author and make fake news go viral in minutes.

    “With the number of mobile phone users in the world expected to pass the 5 billion mark by 2019, you can see the kind of crisis we face,” he said.

    He said fake news is already having far reaching repercussions across the world and Nigeria is no exception.

    “In India, about a dozen people have been killed in the past six weeks just because of fake news or hoax messages.

    “The victims were lynched after they were falsely accused of child abduction based on fake messages circulated via the social media platform, WhatsApp!

    “Right here in Nigeria, the situation is not better. And it is not restricted to the social media.

    “Last Thursday, the front page headline of a national newspaper was: Court orders National Assembly to begin impeachment of Buhari.

    “The problem with that news item is that it is fake news.

    He said the judgment was manipulated to read that the court has given the go-ahead for the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against the President.

    The minister recalled a recent report by the BBC, that fake news circulating in the social media is fuelling the farmers-herders crises in Nigeria.

    “Gory pictures from other lands are circulated freely via Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, purportedly being from the killings in Jos or Benue.

    “In 2017, a fake report circulated on the social media claimed that five students of the College of Education, Gidan Waya, were ambushed and killed by
    Fulani herdsmen in southern Kaduna.

    “That report turned out to be false. No student was killed. I can go on and on,” he said.

    The minister stressed that in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Nigeria, fake news is a time bomb.

    He said that government would consider engaging big technology companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter in addressing the menace.

     

  • Privacy breaches: IMF to press lawsuit against Facebook

    Litigation funder IMF Bentham Ltd. is preparing to potentially sue social media giant Facebook Inc. in Australia over its sharing of users’ data with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    The world’s largest social network said in April that data of up to 87 million people ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, which was employed by Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

    In Australia, more than 311,000 users data may have been used without authorisation, Facebook said in April, when Australia’s Information Commissioner, the country’s privacy regulator, began to investigate.

    IMF said it has complained to the Australian Information Commissioner alleging breaches of privacy laws over the data sharing.

    “A class action lawsuit seeking compensation for users could follow depending on the regulator’s response,’’ IMF said.

    A Facebook spokesperson did not comment directly on Tuesday on the IMF’s statement.

    However, she said the company was “fully co-operating with the investigation currently underway by the Australian Privacy Commissioner,” using the former name of the Information Commissioner.

    The London-based consultancy Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy in May and was unavailable for comment.

    It said previously that it deleted the data and did not use it in Trump’s campaign.

    Facebook has faced widespread criticism from users and scrutiny around the world from regulators and lawmakers since news broke that users’ data had been shared.

    It has also been sued.

    Nathan Landis, an investment manager at IMF Bentham, said the firm already had a prime litigant, a Sydney man who did not want to be identified.

    “There’s just not that much precedent, certainly not for the sort of scale that we’re talking about here,” he said, referring to the potential number of litigants.

    The information commissioner closes most investigations in a year, therefore, IMF said it may take some time before it decides whether to pursue a lawsuit or not with Landis.

    It said that it may wait for regulatory investigations in the European Union and Britain to conclude before making a move.

     

  • Users groan as Govt. imposes new tax on Facebook, WhatsApp, IG, others

    A tax on the use of social media in Uganda has come into effect with many users complaining that it is costly and will also limit their freedoms.

    Telecommunication companies on July 1 started enforcing the excise duty charge on Over-The-Top services dubbed ‘social media tax’.

    The tax affects social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram, Viber, and Skype among other.

    For one to access the platforms, they have to pay a daily fee of 200 shillings (0.05 U.S. dollars).

    Government argued that the move is aimed at raising domestic revenue instead of depending on the increasing cost of foreign financing.

    Frank Tumwebaze, minister of information, communication and technology, described the fee as a ‘small tax’ that will contribute to national development.

    The coming into effect of the tax has however caused concerns with some describing it as an unfair tax since they pay many other taxes to government.

    Daraus Bahikire, a Uganda’s social media activist, told Xinhua that while it is an obligation to pay the tax, the government must also ensure that the revenue collected is not embezzled.

    “My concern is on the utilization of this big tax revenue. What hurts us is to hear billions of money lost in embezzlement, fraud and other forms of revenue misuse,” Bahikire said.

    “I urge all Ugandans to be vigilant on the quality of services in their areas and ensure that our money is not misused by selfish human beings,” he added.

    Martha Chemutai, a public relations practitioner, argued that as the telecommunication companies enforce the tax, they must also improve on the service they offer.

    She argued that most times the connectivity is unreliable.

    Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, told Xinhua in a recent interview that the tax is unwarranted and unnecessary on tax payers.

    “It is a restriction on people’s individual freedom to express themselves and communicate freely since it makes access costly and prohibitive,” said Sewanyana.

    “It is a double tax since we pay for airtime. Such a tax should be rejected,” noting that the law on social media taxation would be subjected to litigation to determine its constitutionality,” he said.

    Some social media users have resorted to installing Virtual Private Networks (VPN) applications in a bid to evade the tax.

    People with VPN unblocked their social media sites without paying the tax.

    Godfrey Mutabazi, the executive director of Uganda Communications Commission, the state regulator of telecommunications companies, said government has all the technology to block the VPN services.

    MTN, one of the telecommunication companies in a statement on its website, said operators will block access to VPNs that are used to evade the social media tax.

    Beside the social media tax, government on June 21 announced that it will also closely monitor social media to arrest people who use it for illegal purposes.

    A Finscope Uganda 2018 report released last week showed that out of Uganda’s population of 40 million people, only 9.7 million people have mobile phones; of these only 1.9 million people have access to the internet.

     

  • World’s most valuable brand: Google displaces Facebook, Apple

    World’s most valuable brand: Google displaces Facebook, Apple

    Google has displaced Apple to become world’s most valuable brand, according to analysis from global brand consultancy, BrandZ.

    TheNewsGuru reports a new study by BrandZ reveals Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., had a brand value of $302 billion, compared to Apple’s $301 billion.

    According to the analysis released by the global brand consultancy firm, the third and fourth brand values were also almost tied.

    Amazon.com Inc. had a brand valuation of $208 billion to Microsoft Corp.’s $201 billion.

    Rounding out the top 10, China’s Tencent’s valuation was $179 billion, followed by Facebook Inc. at $162 billion, Visa Inc. at at $146 billion, McDonald’s Corp. at $126 billion, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. at $113 billion and AT&T Inc. at $106 billion.

    No other brand value topped $100 billion.

    “This was the first year non-US brands grew faster than US brands. Fourteen Chinese brands appear in the Top 100 ranking compared to just one (ChinaMobile) in 2006.

    “The total value of China’s Top 10 grew year-on-year by +47%, more than double that of the US brands (+23%),” BrandZ commented on the rise of Chinese companies.

    Among the top 20 brands with surges in valuation, Amazon was up 45%, Tencent by 65% and Alibaba by 92%.

    Among the top 20 global brands, several lost ground in terms of valuation.

    AT&T fell 7%. International Business Machines Corp. was down 6% to $96 billion, and Verizon Communications Inc. lost 5% to $85 billion.

    Marlboro and Wells Fargo & Co. each lost 6%, to $82 billion and $55 billion, respectively.

    The brand that lost the most value was troubled General Electric Co., which was down 22% to $39 billion.

    The combined value of the top 100 rose 21% to $4.4 trillion, which means that Google and Apple represented 14% of the total.

    TheNewsGuru reports BrandZ ranking of brand valuations lists the brands making the largest absolute $ contribution to the total value of their respective parent companies, considering both current and projected performance.

    “This is the true value of brand building and we want to isolate and reward the brands making the largest contributions to the success of their parent companies.

    “A company may have huge overall business value but the absolute $ contribution made by the relevant brand(s) that the company owns may not be a comparatively large figure – at least not a large enough figure to qualify for the given BrandZ™ ranking of brand values,” the global brand consultancy firm said of its methodology.