TheNewsGuru

Tag: Facebook

  • Facebook unveils NG_Hub, plans to train 50,000 youth

    Facebook on Tuesday unveiled NG_Hub aimed at attracting the best talents and driving innovation in Nigeria’s technology ecosystem.

    The Manager, Developer Programme Facebook, Mr Emeka Afigbo, said at the formal unveiling of new NG_Hub space in Lagos that it was in partnership with Co-Creation Hub.

    “As part of its commitment and ongoing investment in Africa, Facebook today unveiled NG_Hub in Lagos, Nigeria – its first flagship community hub space in Africa, in partnership with CcHub.

    “Facebook is in partnership with CcHub to help integrate local culture and flavour of the country and the new hub will help them train 50,000 people in digital skills.

    “We understand the important role Facebook plays in Nigeria with developers and start-ups and have invested in helping these communities.

    “In a one week celebration which will bring together developers, start-ups and the wider tech community across Lagos and Nigeria, the launch will showcase the new multi-faceted space which aims to bring together communities to collaborate, learn, and exchange ideas,’’ he said.

    Mr Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Vice-President of Partnerships, also announced partnerships with seven other hubs across the country.

    He said they included Abuja (Ventures Platform), Jos (nHub), Kaduna (Colab Hub), Kano (DI Hub), Uyo (Start Innovation Hub), Enugu (Roar Hub) and Port Harcourt (Ken Saro Wiwa Hub).

    Archibong said it would serve as centres of excellence and would feature dedicated Facebook spaces, where many of Facebook’s training sessions would take place and a space where creatives and developers could book to help them advance their skills.

    “Featuring bespoke works of art from local artists in Nigeria, the NG_Hub space, which includes workspaces, meeting rooms, a games and chill out room, an event space and a well catered café, will also be the focal point for a number of training programmes.

    “Aimed at attracting the best talents and driving innovation in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, these are all designed to equip Nigerian SMEs, tech entrepreneurs and the next generation of leaders to better understand and utilise the power of digital tools for economic growth,’’ he said.

    He noted that the training programmes would include: the Fb Start Accelerator programme aimed at startup and students, and Digify Pro Nigeria — a two-month intensive boot camp where 20 aspiring digital professionals.

    Others are Boost Your Business — Made especially for micro, small and medium sized business owners and SheMeansBusiness that is a one-day training workshop and networking experience for female entrepreneurs.

    According to Archibong, technology provides expansive opportunities to engage young, creative and resourceful Nigerians, especially in delivering solutions to challenges across communities here in Nigeria.

    He said that Facebook’s mission was to build community and bring the world closer together, NG_Hub provides that physical space that would serve as a centre of learning and skills development in Lagos.

    Mr Ife Adebayo, Special Assistant on Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office of the Vice-President, said that the country had no shortage of talents but of opportunities.

    He said that the space being provided by Facebook in their NG_HUB would give innovators the needed platform and opportunity to leverage upon.

    “We are in an age where we are building smart technology and there is need to leverage on the opportunity the Facebook hub will give,’’ he said.

    He called for a collaboration between stakeholders in the tech industry, adding that such would ensure that policies put in place would be well utilised.

    Mr Bosun Tijani, Chief Executive Officer, Co-creation Hub, said that technology had kept evolving and the ability to leverage on it would be to have a good ecosystem.

    He said the NG_HUB of Facebook would come with a lot of expertise for Nigerians to leverage upon and, especially the local technology space.

    “In 10 years, Nigeria’s tech space will have something to show because what is happening now with Facebook is the future of the country.

    “Technology has taken away barriers for people to do more and the hub will enable the traditionally excluded connections or technology to have an impact,’’ he said.

     

  • Facebook’s Zuckerberg faces EU Parliament grilling

    Facebook’s Zuckerberg faces EU Parliament grilling

    Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will meet with leaders of the European Parliament on Tuesday.

    He meets them to answer questions about how the data of millions of Facebook users ended up in the hands of a political consultancy.

    The meeting comes three days before tough new European Union rules on data protection take effect.

    Companies will be subject to fines of up to four per cent of global turnover for breaching them.

    Facebook has come under scrutiny from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.

    The scrutiny arose after it emerged that Cambridge Analytica improperly acquired the data of 87 million users, including up to 2.7 million in the EU.

    Analytica is a British political consultancy that worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign.

    Zuckerberg has apologized for the leak in testimony to the U.S. Congress, but questions remain over how the company’s data policies let the leak happen.

    Zuckerberg will stress Facebook’s commitment to Europe, where it will employ 10,000 people by the end of the year, according to pre-released remarks.

    “I believe deeply in what we’re doing. And when we address these challenges, I know we’ll look back and view helping people connect and giving more people voice as a positive force in Europe and around the world,” Zuckerberg is expected to say.

    He will also apologise for failing “to take a broad enough view” of the company’s responsibilities, “whether it’s fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people’s information.”

    Zuckerberg will meet with the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, the leaders of the parliament’s political groups and the chair of the civil liberties committee, Claude Moraes.

    The meeting will be livestreamed after an outcry over plans to hold it in private.

    Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has suspended 200 apps from its platforms as it investigates third-party apps that have access to large quantities of user data.

    Cambridge Analytica and its British parent, SCL Elections Ltd, have declared bankruptcy and closed down.

     

  • Investment firms dump Facebook over data privacy

    Several socially conscious investment firms are selling or rethinking their Facebook Inc holdings, unsatisfied by the company’s moves to strengthen personal data protection.

    They are not comfortable with online safety after scandals involving the improper sharing of users’ information.

    The retreat from the world’s largest social media network is one of the sharpest responses by investors to concerns about Facebook’s handling of user data.

    Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political data firm hired by Trump’s 2016 election campaign, has been accused of harvesting data for 87 million Facebook users and is under investigation in the U. S. and Europe.

    Facebook shares fell in the first quarter when the scandal broke, and recovered after founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified before U.S. lawmakers in April.

    Although he deflected questions and avoided pledging to support new regulation, doubts were raised about his commitment to fully resolve the issue.[

    “Facebook’s problems, we believe, are founded on a lack of sufficient attention to consumer privacy and data security, compounded by inadequate governance,” wrote Adam Kanzer.

    Kanzer is vice president of Domini Funds, in a May 8 letter to Facebook explaining its plan to sell its 111,000 Facebook shares held in the Domini Impact Equity Fund, he made the comment.

    ”In April Eaton Vance Corp unit Calvert Research and Management also sold Facebook shares on concerns about lax controls.

    That meant “the company clearly violated users’ fundamental right to privacy,” contrary to the firm’s investment principles, according to Emma Doner, one of its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) analysts.

    The divestment by the two well-known firms build on previous concerns by other so-called ESG managers, which consider social responsibility when buying stocks.

    Others may follow. Joe Keefe, president of Pax World Funds, said Facebook’s place in investment vehicles like the Pax ESG Beta Dividend Fund will be reviewed.

    They will be reconsider these with an eye on recent controversies that “may very well affect the company’s scores and its eligibility for continued inclusion in those portfolios.”

    A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.

    Zuckerberg controls a majority of Facebook’s voting power, but must face shareholders at its annual meeting on May 31.

    Top proxy advisers have recommended a number of votes contrary to the board’s positions.

    ESG funds represent just a small fraction of Facebook shares, but their moves may influence top investors including BlackRock Inc and Vanguard Group.

    These investors have paid more attention to social issues in recent years. Representatives for both declined to comment.

    Facebook had already faced skepticism from ESG funds which on average had kept the company at a market-neutral weighting of 1.7 per cent.

    According to Morningstar data,the maitainance likely tied to Facebook’s average score from ESG rating service Sustainalytics.

    Martin Kremenstein, senior managing director at Nuveen, said one reason it would be hard for the company’s socially minded funds to own Facebook is because the problems occurred.

    It happened in spite of a settlement the company struck with the Federal Trade Commission in 2011, which included a pledge to improve privacy protections.

    Referring to the latest revelations involving Cambridge Analytica, he said, “This is a bigger scandal than before, but it’s not a new one.”

    Not all ESG managers aim to divest.

    Lauren Compere of Boston Common Asset Management said Facebook remains attractive given its strong growth and cash generation, and said the company deserved credit for steps like fighting unreasonable government requests for users’ information.

    Julie Goodridge of NorthStar Asset Management, with about 36,900 Facebook shares, said managers should keep their shares.

    They should vote in support of upcoming proxy resolutions like one from her firm calling for Facebook to give all shares an equal vote, which would reduce Zuckerberg’s power.

     

  • Facebook records increased graphic violence

    Facebook records increased graphic violence

    The number of posts on Facebook showing graphic violence rose in the first three months of the year from a quarter earlier, possibly driven by the war in Syria, the social network said on Tuesday, in its first public release of such data.

    Facebook said in a written report that of every 10,000 pieces of content viewed in the first quarter, an estimated 22 to 27 pieces contained graphic violence, up from an estimate of 16 to 19 late 2017.

    According to a report, the company removed or put a warning screen for graphic violence in front of 3.4 million pieces of content in the first quarter, nearly triple the 1.2 million a quarter earlier.

    Facebook does not fully know why people are posting more graphic violence but believes continued fighting in Syria may have been one reason, said Alex Schultz, Facebook’s vice president of data analytics.

    “Whenever a war starts, there’s a big spike in graphic violence,” Schultz told reporters at Facebook’s headquarters.

    Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011. It continued this year with fighting between rebels and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army.

    This May, Israel attacked Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria.

    Facebook, the world’s largest social media firm, has never previously released detailed data about the kinds of posts it takes down for violating its rules.

    Facebook only recently developed the metrics as a way to measure its progress, and would probably change them over time, said Guy Rosen, its vice president of product management.

    “These kinds of metrics can help our teams understand what’s actually happening to two-plus billion people,” he said.

    The company has a policy of removing content that glorifies the suffering of others. In general it leaves up graphic violence with a warning screen if it was posted for another purpose.

    Facebook also prohibits hate speech and said it took action against 2.5 million pieces of content in the first quarter, up 56 percent a quarter earlier. It said the rise was due to improvements in detection.

    The company said in the first quarter it took action on 837 million pieces of content for spam, 21 million pieces of content for adult nudity or sexual activity and 1.9 million for promoting terrorism.

    It said it disabled 583 million fake accounts.

     

  • Data privacy scandal: Facebook suspends 200 apps

    Data privacy scandal: Facebook suspends 200 apps

    Facebook Inc has so far suspended around 200 apps in the first stage of its review into apps that had access to large quantities of user data, in a response to a scandal around political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    “The apps were suspended pending a thorough investigation into whether they misused any data,’’ Ime Archibong, Facebook’s vice president of product partnerships said on Monday.

    Facebook said it has looked into thousands of apps till date as part of an investigation that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced on March 21.

    Zuckerberg had said the social network will investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before the company curtailed data access in 2014.

    “There is a lot more work to be done to find all the apps that may have misused people’s Facebook data and it will take time.

    “We have large teams of internal and external experts working hard to investigate these apps as quickly as possible,” Archibong said.

    Facebook was hit by the privacy scandal in mid-March after media reports that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed data to build profiles on American voters and influence the 2016 presidential election.

    The incident led to backlash from celebrities and resulted in the company losing billions in market value.

    Zuckerberg apologised for the mistakes his company made and testified before the U.S. lawmakers.

    The company, however, regained much of its lost market value after it reported a surprisingly strong 63 per cent rise in profit and an increase in users when it announced quarterly results on April 25.

     

  • Man ends up in prison for Facebook posts

    Man ends up in prison for Facebook posts

    A Ho Chi Minh City court has sentenced a man to four and half years in prison for writing anti-state social media posts, Vietnam’s state media reported on Thursday.

    Bui Vo, 56, was found guilty on Wednesday of “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’’ in his Facebook posts, criticising the ruling Communist Party and government officials, according to Vietnam News (VNS).

    The posts, which date back to 2016, included complaints over land rights compensation, as well as government’s response to chemical spill in 2016 off the Vietnamese coast from a Taiwanese steel plant that killed hundreds of tonnes of fish.

    During a police raid in March 2017, Ho Chi Minh City police discovered 70 documents in his computer, with 49 containing anti-government “false information,’’ in the words of the indictment.

    Prosecutors said Vo transferred the account to a U.S.-based activist with the Viet Tan, a political party in exile that Vietnam classified as `terrorist group,’’ although the group had denied using violence, the Vnexpress news site reported.

    Vietnam is a single party communist state that outlaws dissent.

    Under Vietnamese law, “propagating’’ against the state is punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.

    Another social media activist, Ho Hai, 54, was sentenced to four years in prison in February for his anti-government posts.

     

  • Facebook rejigs after data privacy scandal

    Facebook on Tuesday announced that Jeff Zients, the CEO of Cranemere, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors and audit committee, effective May 31, 2018, immediately following Facebook’s annual meeting of stockholders.

    Following Zients’s appointment the board will consist of seven independent, non-employee directors out of nine total directors.

    “I am proud to join the Facebook Board and I look forward to working with Mark and the other directors as the company builds for the future. This is an exciting time for the company, and I am delighted to be part of the Board as the company works to face the opportunities and challenges of trying to bring the world closer together,” said Zients.

    Zients currently serves as the CEO of the Cranemere Group Limited, a diversified holding company. From March 2014 to January 2017, Zients served as Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama and served as Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget from January 2012 to April 2013.

    He also founded and managed Portfolio Logic LLC, an investment firm, from 2003 to 2009. From 1992 to 2004, Zients served in various roles at the Advisory Board Company, a research and consulting firm, including as Chairman from 2001 to 2004 and Chief Executive Officer from 1998 to 2000.

    He also served as Chairman of the Corporate Executive Board, a business research firm, from 2000 to 2001. Zients holds a B.A. in political science from Duke University.

    Zients serves on the board of Cranemere Group Limited and Timbuk2 Design. He is also a director of the Biden Cancer Initiative.

    Facebook also announced the following changes to the membership of its board committees: in addition to Zients, Kenneth I. Chenault will join the Audit Committee. Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann will move from the Audit Committee to the Compensation & Governance Committee, and Marc L. Andreessen will remain on the Audit Committee but step off the Compensation & Governance Committee.

    Aside from Zients, Facebook’s current board members are: Mark Zuckerberg; Marc L. Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz; Erskine B. Bowles, President Emeritus, University of North Carolina; Kenneth I. Chenault, Chairman and Managing Director, General Catalyst; Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann, CEO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Reed Hastings, Chairman and CEO, Netflix; Jan Koum, Founder, WhatsApp; Sheryl K. Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook; and Peter A. Thiel, Founders Fund.

    TheNewsGuru reports the board shuffling is coming after the social media giant survived a recent data privacy scandal.

     

  • Facebook says to curb foreign Ads related to abortion referendum in Ireland

    Facebook says to curb foreign Ads related to abortion referendum in Ireland

    The Facebook social network said on Tuesday that it would not accept foreign ads related to the referendum of abortions that would be held in Ireland on May 25.

    The eighth amendment to the Irish constitution recognises the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn.

    It prohibits abortion unless the life of a pregnant woman is at risk.

    The May 25, referendum would reveal whether the Irish people want to remove the eighth amendment.

    “Facebook will no longer be accepting ads related to the forthcoming referendum if they are from advertisers based outside of Ireland,’’ the network said in a statement.

    It pointed out that the company was concerned over foreign attempts to influence the outcome of the referendum.

    “Concerns have been raised about organisations and individuals based outside of Ireland trying to influence the outcome of the referendum on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Ireland by buying ads on Facebook.

    “This is an issue we have been thinking about for some time,’’ the statement said.

    Facebook said the move was in line with the company’s strategy aimed at increasing transparency during political campaigns.

    The move is announced amid the scandal around Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica company, which cooperated with the social network.

    In April, media reported that the personal information of about 50 million Facebook users had been harvested without their permission by Cambridge Analytica.

    The firm reportedly worked for multiple political campaigns and gathered data from social media accounts to develop a mechanism that would predict and influence the behaviour of voters.

    In late March, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the situation with Cambridge Analytica and admitted that he should not have trusted the firm.

    In early April, he said that there were several mistakes that had led to the situation, adding that most of the actions needed to prevent this from happening again had already been taken years ago.

     

  • Cambridge Analytica: Facebook material might still be on SCL servers

    Cambridge Analytica: Facebook material might still be on SCL servers

    An independent investigation into the Cambridge Analytica (CA) data privacy scandal has published report affirming that some traces of metadata from Facebook material (actual or historic) might still, in some form, be on SCL Elections servers.

    The report, however, revealed that data analytics firm, CA, an offspring of SCL Elections, had destroyed the Facebook users data it received from Professor Aleksandr Kogan’s Global Science Research (“GSR”).

    TheNewsGuru reports Professor Kogan’s GSR firm had developed ‘This Is Your Digital Life’ personality quiz app with which over 87 million Facebook users data was allegedly harvested.

    Professor Kogan then sold the over 87 million Facebook users data to CA; however, the investigation has revealed the Facebook users data GSR actually sold to CA and the cost of the data.

    The investigators, Julian Malins Q. C. and Linda Hudson, said the former CEO of CA, Alexander Nix, provided an “undated certificate” as proof that the data analytics firm actually destroyed the Facebook data.

    According to the investigators, Nix signed the certificate in the spring of 2017, “Which states that all Facebook data gathered as part of and from the GSR/Dr Kogan’s app and received from or on behalf of GSR, and which was connected to Facebook, had been accounted for and that it had been permanently deleted and destroyed”.

    TheNewsGuru gathers that this included dropping all database tables, and deleting the raw data (stored as csv) from CA’s encrypted fileserver.

    According to the investigators, Nix also certified, undertakings supported by an internal audit, that no third party, at any time, had access to the data derived from the GSR app.

    However, the investigators suggested that the traces of metadata from the Facebook material (actual or historic) might still, in some form, be on SCL Elections servers, and that a forensic audit is being considered.

    “In order to confirm SCL’s and CA’s position that no Facebook data derived from GSR, is currently held by either SCL or CA, a forensic audit is being organized, but this has not yet been undertaken,” the investigators said in their report.

    The report added that after SCL decided that the GSR data was not proving useful, SCL undertook to build its own OCEAN models and SCL generated its own survey data with individual’s consent on its own website and from CINT.

     

  • Breaking: Cambridge Analytica shuts down operations

    Breaking: Cambridge Analytica shuts down operations

    SCL Elections and its offspring data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytic (CA), have filed applications to commence insolvency proceedings in the United Kingdom that will also affect operations of certain SCL affiliates.

    TheNewsGuru reports the Company is immediately ceasing all operations and the boards have applied to appoint insolvency practitioners Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP to act as the independent administrator for Cambridge Analytica.

    CA made this known in a statement, and also said parallel bankruptcy proceedings will soon be commenced on behalf of the firm and certain of the Company’s U.S. affiliates in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

    Giving reasons for the shutting down of operations, the Company said it has lost customers and suppliers in the wake of numerous accusations levied against it.

    “The siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the Company’s customers and suppliers. As a result, it has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business, which left Cambridge Analytica with no realistic alternative to placing the Company into administration,” the statement by CA read.

    “While this decision was extremely painful for Cambridge Analytica’s leaders, they recognize that it is all the more difficult for the Company’s dedicated employees who learned today that they likely would be losing their jobs as a result of the damage caused to the business by the unfairly negative media coverage.

    “Despite the Company’s precarious financial condition, Cambridge Analytica intends to fully meet its obligations to its employees, including with respect to notice periods, severance terms, and redundancy entitlements,” the statement further read.

    Both SCL and CA have continued to deny the numerous accusations levied against them, stressing the suggestion that CA was somehow involved in any work done by AggregateIQ in the 2016 EU referendum is entirely false.

    CA, however, confirmed in 2014 and 2015, it subcontracted some digital marketing and software development to AggregateIQ, and expressed pleasure The Guardian acknowledging AggregateIQ has never been a direct part of CA.

    “And the Guardian also apologised on April 1st for incorrectly “suggest(ing) that AIQ secretly and unethically co-ordinated with Cambridge Analytica on the EU referendum.

    “We are pleased that @guardian has finally acknowledged that AggregateIQ has never been a direct part of Cambridge Analytica nor been the Canadian branch of SCL,” CA tweeted.

    TheNewsGuru reports Facebook had confirmed to parliament that CA spent no money on ads on their platform for the EU referendum.

    CA also debunked it has never received Twitter data from GSR or Aleksandr Kogan, and has never done any work with GSR on Twitter data.

    “GSR was only ever a contractor to Cambridge Analytica and we understand it did work for many other companies,” CA stated.