TheNewsGuru

Tag: Instagram

  • “My miracle is here” – Toke Makinwa celebrates motherhood

    “My miracle is here” – Toke Makinwa celebrates motherhood

    Congratulatory messages have flooded social media following Nigerian media personality Toke Makinwa’s announcement of the birth of her daughter.

    She shared the news in a heartfelt post about her journey to motherhood via her official Instagram page, @tokemakinwa, on Thursday.

    Makinwa described her baby’s birth as a miracle, a manifestation of God’s power which she said she has now personally experienced.

    She expressed joy while revealing her baby’s name as Yakira Eliana, meaning “God has answered my prayers.”

    “I’m a mummy. This is the happiest I have ever been. My precious daughter, the love I never knew existed, my heart in another human being, my love.

    “I have seen the goodness of God in my lifetime. I have witnessed His power, and I no longer just hear of it.

    “It ended in praise, my miracle is here. Yakira Eliana, Olakitan, Iyanuoluwa, Ikeoluwa, Adunola.

    “My purpose, my reason, my evidence. Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for making me a mother,” she wrote.

    Referring to herself as Mama Yaya, she expressed gratitude to God for answering her prayers, even to the smallest details of her baby’s fingers and toes.

    Toke announced her pregnancy on Aug. 13, describing it as the biggest project of her life and her highest calling.

    As of the time of filing this report, the TV personality had received over 200,000 congratulatory messages from well-wishers and Nollywood stars.

    Celebrities including Funke Akindele, Ini Edo, and Kunle Remi joined fans in celebrating her joyful announcement.

  • Meta warns it may shut down Facebook, Instagram in Nigeria [SEE REASONS]

    Meta warns it may shut down Facebook, Instagram in Nigeria [SEE REASONS]

    Nigerians could lose access to Facebook and Instagram as Meta, the platforms’ parent company, has threatened to suspend its services in the country due to what it describes as excessive fines and “unrealistic” regulatory demands from Nigerian authorities.

    The tech giant is facing fines totaling over $290 million imposed by three Nigerian regulatory bodies last year, citing breaches of competition, advertising, and data protection laws. Meta recently lost its bid to overturn these penalties in the Federal High Court in Abuja.

    In court filings, Meta stated it may be “forced to effectively shut down” Facebook and Instagram in Nigeria to avoid the consequences of enforcement actions. WhatsApp, another Meta-owned platform, was not mentioned in the statement.

    The Federal High Court has given Meta until the end of June to settle the fines. The BBC reached out to the company for comment but has yet to receive a response.

    Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform in Nigeria, crucial not only for everyday communication but also for thousands of small businesses that rely on it for marketing and operations.

    The penalties include a $220 million fine from the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for alleged anti-competitive behavior, $37.5 million from the advertising regulator for unauthorized ads, and $32.8 million from the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) for data privacy violations.

    FCCPC chief Adamu Abdullahi claimed that investigations conducted with the NDPC between May 2021 and December 2023 uncovered invasive practices affecting Nigerian users, although specifics were not disclosed.

    Meta’s main dispute lies with the NDPC, which it accused of misinterpreting data privacy laws. The commission has demanded prior approval for transferring user data outside Nigeria—something Meta calls “unrealistic.” Other requirements include prominently displaying educational content about data privacy risks, co-produced with government-approved institutions and nonprofits.

    Meta criticized the NDPC’s approach, calling its expectations “unfeasible” and arguing that the commission had failed to accurately interpret the country’s data protection laws.

    (BBC)

     

     

  • EFCC tenders more evidence against Instagram celebrity, Mompha

    EFCC tenders more evidence against Instagram celebrity, Mompha

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday, tendered into evidence more documents against the social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha charged with six billion naira money laundering.

    The case is before an Ikeja Special Offences Court.

    Mustapha, still at large, is standing trial alongside his company, Ismalob Global Investment Ltd., on eight counts bordering on money laundering.

    Musa Idi, the sixth prosecution witness, was led in evidence by the EFCC Counsel, Mr Suleiman Suleiman.

    Idi, in his continuation of his evidence-in-chief, on Monday, tendered documents purportedly received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    The Defence Counsel, Mr Kolawole Salami, objected to the admissibility of the documents.

    Salami objected on the ground that the said documents which emanated from the U.S. Department of Justice through the U.S. Consulate office were public documents and were not certified.

    He argued that the EFCC was not the maker of the said document and could not purportedly certify same.

    Justice Mojisola Dada, in her ruling, however, admitted the said document as exhibit P8, P9 and P10 respectively.

    The prosecution witness testified  that Mompha admitted during investigation that the wristwatches that were recovered by the anti-graft belonged to him.

    “Even though he did not input same in the Asset Declaration Form filled upon his arrest,” Musa said.

    Under cross-examination by defence, the witness confirmed to the court that Mompha was arrested in 2019 and was earlier charged before the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, for money laundering related offences which was still pending before the court.

    He told the court that the wristwatches were ordered to be released to the defendant by two separate orders of the Federal High Court, which they failed to comply with.

    The witness said that the document referred to in count seven was obtained in the absence of Mompha and that when he was confronted with the document during investigation, he denied the knowledge of the document.

    Idi admitted that no petition was received from Continental Diary Facility Southwest LLc in respect of Mompha and that it was the commission who enquired from the company and a statement was made.

    The court adjourned the case until March 13 for continuation of trial.

  • Selena Gomez deletes Instagram video after backlash

    Selena Gomez deletes Instagram video after backlash

    American musician and actress, Selena Gomez, has been forced to delete an Instagram video after she filmed herself breaking down in tears while speaking about the deportation of Mexicans from the U.S.

    The former Disney Child star, uploaded an emotional video on her Instagram story in which she sobbed over President Donald Trump deporting undocumented immigrants hours after he issued a daily quota of arrests for border officials.

    In her recording, which has since been deleted, Selena admitted she felt powerless over the situation.

    “I’m so sorry, I wish I could do something, but I can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything.”

    The video, however, did not sit well with social media users, who were quick to slam her for not using her reported net worth of $1.3 billion to take action by herself.

    British journalist and broadcaster, Piers Morgan, said, “Posting yourself weeping over illegal immigrant criminals being deported is a new level of absurd celebrity narcissism.”

    Another person commented saying, “What a moron. What purposes does this serve? Is this a PR stunt???? Who cares what Selena Gomez thinks. Keep it to yourself. Disgraceful.”

    A social media user also said, “Selena Gomez, if you truly want to help, use your millions to make their lives better.

    “One of the people that has enough power and money to actually help people is posting a video of themselves crying on an Instagram story, like can you please give your money away.”

    Other commenters accused Selena of staging the outrage and encouraged her to take a social media break.

    Trump on his inauguration day as the 47th President of the U.S. signed a series of executive orders aimed at hardening immigration policies, including the stoppage of citizenship by birth for children of illegal immigrants.

    Trump had signed orders to declare a national emergency at the Mexico-U.S. southern border, stating the deployment of more troops to the area as he threatened to deport “criminal aliens”.

  • Technical issues shuts out FB, Instagram, Whatsapp users

    Technical issues shuts out FB, Instagram, Whatsapp users

    Users of Meta-controlled social media applications have been shut out globally as the company grapples with a “technical issue.

    Frustrated Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users trooped out to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday evening to report the global outage of the three apps owned by tech giant Mark Zuckerberg.

    Downdetector also showed big spikes for Instagram with 70,000 outage reports above average and Facebook, which had over 100,000 outage reports.

    “We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps,” Meta said in an X post. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.”

    Facebook suffered a similar outage in May 2024 and in October 2021 which was attributed to technical issues, not a security hack as originally feared.

    Users trying to access Facebook were asked to log in but were unable to sign in using the correct password. On Instagram, mobile users were seeing their feeds not refreshed.

    Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform, with three billion active monthly users.

    Instagram has about 1.35 billion users, according to the latest data.

    X, formerly Twitter, saw a spike in online activity as users were locked out of the Meta sites.

    According to Statista, as of 2021, Nigeria had about 33 million active social media users with WhatsApp being the most popular platform used in the country, with over 90 million users.

    About 61.4 per cent of Nigerian social media users use X, 86.2 per cent use Facebook, 81.6 per cent use YouTube, 73.1 per cent use Instagram, and 67.2 per cent use Facebook Messenger.

  • How I recovered my stolen 3.6 million naira – Actress Shan George

    How I recovered my stolen 3.6 million naira – Actress Shan George

    Shan George a veteran Nollywood actress, has revealed that she has recovered ₦3.6 million that was stolen from her Zenith Bank account on May 3rd 2024.

    After crying out on social media about the stolen money, the actress  through a video on Social media disclosed that she’s recovered the money.

    George thanked Zenith Bank, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerians, and all those who assisted her financially in her pursuit to recover her money.

    The actress disclosed this in an Instagram live video. She also thanked Zenith Bank, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerians, and all those who assisted her financially in her pursuit to recover her money.

    “I want to thank Zenith Bank for your swift action. I want to thank Opay for being so transparent. I also want to thank Safe Haven Bank, EFCC, Nigerian Police,” she said.

    The actress promised to share more updates on how the incident happened and how she was able to recover her money.

    Recall that on May 3, the actress took to her Instagram handle crying out for help after a person she identified as Cecelia Chiagoziem Okoro allegedly cleared ₦3.6 million in her Zenith Bank account.

    Sharing a screenshot of the debit alert, George wrote, “I need help cos I’m dy!ng. This person has just cleared my account.

    “Pls my people, everyone pls help. Pls Zenith Bank, Reverse it. I can’t access my app. I’m De@D.”

  • Nigerians react over ‘24-hour buried alive challenge’

    Nigerians react over ‘24-hour buried alive challenge’

    Some Nigerians on Thursday condemned a ‘24-hour buried alive challenge’ undertaken by a content creator known as Young C.

    Young C had embarked on this daring challenge on Wednesday, announcing his intention to be buried alive in a coffin for 24 hours.

    At 23 hours, he took to his Instagram page, @youngcentertainment, to give live footage, emphasising that the stunt was genuine and not a hoax.

    He also notified his followers that he had exhausted his water and would resort to taking his urine as he was obviously famished.

    After being buried alive in a coffin for 24 hours, Young C was successfully exhumed.

    He announced this on his Instagram page  on Thursday afternoon, accompanied by the revelation that his TikTok account had been suspended.

    Some Nigerians, however, took the comment session of his post to condemn the challenge. While some called the attention of the Police to arrest him, others doubted his sanity.

    @Soniahappygisttv said, “You for they live video for 24 hours make we for believe you.”

    @Jenpearlz wrote: “You don’t care about your family to put them through such nightmare. What are you trying to prove? Imagine the heartache you put them through.”

    @Oluwa_tomiie said: “Olobuku you think say I go write RIP for you if you die 😂 Odaju omo wey no pity his parent 🙄 Oloshi oni content isonu.

    “We never finish justice for Mohbad ooo, no think say we go do justice for you 😂. Radarada still you no get pass 3k followers omo ale.”

    Also, Anuoluuwarpho wrote, “@nigerianpoliceforce this guy needs to be arrested. Please look into this. Thanks.”

    @_housemuzic said: “You won’t know when you pass out….get out of there.”

    @Cassandra_samuel6 wrote,  “You are not fine.”

    @Jenny_amama said: “U wan trend by force abi. See u see die…I am just so pained with your challenge 😢.”

    @Berrys_hairempire1 wrote: “You should be arrested after this stunt, what are you trying to achieve, is it for likes or what.”

    Young C’s attempt is similar to the challenge undertaken by American YouTuber, MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), who spent 50 hours buried alive two years ago to raise awareness about deforestation.

    Recently, MrBeast attempted to surpass his record by spending seven consecutive days buried in a coffin, overcoming physical and mental challenges before being exhumed.

  • Instagram ‘big boy’ jailed for impersonation

    Instagram ‘big boy’ jailed for impersonation

    A Federal High Court in Lagos, on Thursday, sentenced a man, Ndifreka Edem (a.k.a BNH Nguyen) to 12 months imprisonment for impersonation on Instagram.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Edem before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke on a count charge of cyber crime.

    Edem pleaded guilty to the charge.

    Following his guilty plea, the court reviewed the facts of the case, with the prosecutor, Mr Abbas Muhammed, tendering  pieces of evidence in support of the case.

    The court admitted them as exhibits.

    The prosecutor then urged the court to  convict Edem based on his guilty plea and evidence before it.

    The judge accordingly convicted Edem.

    Defence counsel, Mr O.E. Odetoki, prayed the court to be lenient on his client in sentencing him.

    The judge sentenced the convict to  12 months in prison but gave him  an option of N1.5 million fine to be paid into the Federal Government’s consolidated account.

    In addition, the court ordered that the convict should carry out 100 hours of community service.

    The court also ordered him to forfeit to the Federal Government,  the device he used in committing the offence.

    EFCC had said that Edem committed the offence on Dec. 7, 2023.

    It said that the convict falsely held out himself on Instagram as “BNH Nguyen” with intent to secure financial instruments to himself, knowing that the representation was false.

    The commission said  that the offence contravened the provision of Section 22(3 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention) Act of 2015.

  • BREAKING: Facebook team visits Tinubu, makes big announcement for Instagram

    BREAKING: Facebook team visits Tinubu, makes big announcement for Instagram

    A team from Meta, owners of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, visited Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu on Thursday and made a big announcement regarding monetisation for its photo sharing platform.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Meta’s team, led by Sir Nick Clegg, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Meta’s President of Global Affairs, was received by President Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.

    Speaking during the visit, Sir Clegg thanked Tinubu for an executive order he issued, which enabled the landing of 2Africa, the Meta-backed deep-sea cable in Nigeria.

    “It is an extraordinary infrastructure project. When it comes on stream in the first quarter of 2025, it will be twice as much as the capacity of all subsea cables that exist.

    “We buried the cable 50 percent deeper than any other subsea cables under the seabed. It is more powerful and more extensive in terms of its geographical connectivity.

    “It could yield up to 37 billion dollars worth of increase in economic activity in the next two or three years across the African continent,” he said.

    Sir Clegg also said Meta will introduce in June 2024 a feature on its Instagram app that will allow Nigerian creators to monetize their content to enable them to earn a living using the app.

    “We have a lot to do with Nigeria to deepen partnerships,” he added.

    Welcoming the delegation President Tinubu said his administration is working to sustain investments in digital technology to enhance the sustainability of small businesses, expand opportunities across sectors, and propel Nigeria to become the lodestar of information and communications technology in Africa.

    Tinubu said Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind in this age of technological advancements; hence, his administration is opening up channels of opportunities in information and communications technology, deepening capacity, and fostering partnerships.

    In view of his administration’s 3MTT programme, which is training three million Nigerian youths in digital technology and essential skills before deploying them to innovation hubs across the nation, the President emphasized that Nigerian youths are the most critical asset in Nigeria’s arsenal as it moves to achieve digital economic expansion.

    “For us in Nigeria, we have a vibrant, gifted and resourceful youth population. Recognizing that the future is most likely to be AI-enabled, we have to prepare our youths and make them ready to compete and participate in the global economy.

    “I can assure you that Nigeria is open for business. We want to lead the African continent in digital technology. Data is valuable to our development. We are ready to cooperate on technological advancements. It is the only way to go. We need a collaboration that will be a win-win for all,” President Tinubu said.

    Emphasizing the importance of technology in driving small businesses, the President said he is committed to ensuring that technology is deployed, adapted, enhanced, and used to catalyze growth across a vast majority of micro businesses, spurring mass prosperity down the line.

    “What interests me is the use of technology in the development of small businesses. We need to make the business environment more conducive for you and more profitable for us as well. I hope we can collaborate and continue to promote our mutual interests,” President Tinubu told the delegation.

    Meanwhile, during the visit, Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, said Meta platforms are critical platforms in Nigeria, and as such opportunities for partnerships and engagement are essential to promoting development in the digital economy sector.

    “We must continue to engage to create opportunities for our people so they can also share in global prosperity. Digital technology is an opportunity to connect Africa to contribute to the development of the world,” Tijani said.

  • BREAKING: Facebook, Instagram are down

    BREAKING: Facebook, Instagram are down

    No, your Facebook account was not hacked. Meta’s servers seem to have suffered a global outage and encountered a glitch with the Facebook app.

    Many users have been logged out of their accounts with a “session expired” message showing on the screen. They are not able to log in back.

    The glitch has also affected the Instagram app. Threads is also affected by the downtime suffered by Facebook and Instagram.

    Several users who tried to log in via the web version of Facebook encountered a similar error with the website saying passwords are incorrect.

    While there is no official statement from Meta on the downtime yet, users are encouraged not to effect a password change.

    Already Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are trending on X (formerly Twitter) as most users have flocked to the microblogging platform to verify if Facebook is down or not.

     

    Details shortly…