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Tag: Social Media

Social Media

  • Trump’s plan to abolish birthright citizenship spark off reactions

    The latest plan by US President Donald Trump to abolish birthright citizenship has sparked off reactions, as social media has been abuzz with divergent opinions on the matter.
    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Trump made the plans to end automatic right to US citizenship for children born to non-citizens in the United States known in an interview with Axios.
    “Good job president Trump… they come here pregnant on temporary Visa or crossing the border illegally, give birth to a child and then they bring the whole village here,” a Twitter user known as Riya Sharma tweeted.
    Kevin Vozar stated that “Customs can deny a pregnant foreign national entry to US if it is determined they have no health insurance/money or will become a ward of the state. If they come in illegally with the intent on giving birth they can both be deported”.
    https://twitter.com/CaptainKvo/status/1057255640576507904
    “The 14th Amendment needs to be updated due to abuse from those it was not intended to cover. If someone is already a citizen of another country, birthing in US shouldn’t get birthright citizenship. The policy can be changed with just an executive order for now,” another Twitter user stated.
    The 14th Amendment of the US constitution stated thus: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”.
    Trump described it as “ridiculous”, stressing that “it has to end”.
    “How ridiculous, we’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous, and it has to end,” Trump said.
    President Trump said he had spoken to legal counsel about it and that the change is in the works.
    “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. You don’t. I can do it just with an executive order. It’s in the process, it’ll happen – with an executive order,” Trump said.
    “More shameful and disgusting idea from Trump the orange menace,” Catherine Jackson stated.
    https://twitter.com/catheri77679385/status/1057254682052227073
    https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/1057221071940870147
    “I am reminded that 4 of Donald Trump’s 5 children have immigrant mothers: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump. Also, there is evidence the first lady was once an “illegal immigrant. And the president’s first wife (and mother of his three older children) came to the United States using a “cold war marriage,” Angelo Villagomez stated.
    https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1057254778982580224
    In his argument on the birthright citizenship, Steve Kantrowitz also on Twitter said “The framers of the Civil Rights Act — the immediate precursor to the 14th Amendment, and the first place national citizenship was codified — knew exactly what they were doing”.
    He further stated that “They were clarifying the well-understood principle that children born in the U.S. were citizens regardless of the immigration status of their parents.
    “They even understood this to be true for children whose parents would then have been racially ineligible for citizenship, such as the Chinese”.
    https://twitter.com/skantrow/status/1057229372631998464
    See more reactions:
    https://twitter.com/danvock/status/1057252203809902598


    https://twitter.com/adamemile/status/1057254145449750528
    https://twitter.com/Shaunton_Davis/status/1057254894359457793


    https://twitter.com/atriumofthefall/status/1057269289105842176
    https://twitter.com/humbleresh/status/1057269267794747393


    https://twitter.com/ScienceHoffman/status/1057255387248832513


     

  • How to find your first Facebook post [Video]


     

  • Married man posts lover’s nude photo on Facebook, bags 2-year jail term

    Married man posts lover’s nude photo on Facebook, bags 2-year jail term

    A married man, Ayan Olubunmi, was on Wednesday handed a two year jail term with a fine of N500,000 by a Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti for posting nude pictures of his ex-lover, Arare Monica, on Facebook.
    Justice Taiwo Taiwo, who handed down the sentence, said he had been lenient with the convict.
    The suit marked FHC/AD/17c/2017 was between Attorney General of the Federation and Olubunmi.
    Counsel to the AGF, Mrs A.Oyewole told the court that Olubunmi had earlier threatened to post nude pictures of his ex- girlfriend, Monica, on the social media sometimes in 2017, when the lady told him she was no longer interested in their relationship.
    According to the counsel, Monica, a single lady, had pleaded with Olubunmi, who is married with children, not to carry out his threat, consequent upon which the convict requested that a sum of N200,000 be paid to him as inducement so as not to expose the nude pictures.
    She said in spite of that, Olubunmi went ahead post the pictures when it dawned on him that Monica could not pay the money in record time.
    Justice Taiwo while delivering his judgement, said Olubunmi was found guilty of committing the crime, after considering all evidences made available to the court.
    He said the evidences were weighty and incontrovertible enough to prove that the accused actually willfully and maliciously committed the crime.
    Describing the crime as “disgraceful, very despicable and barbaric”, Justice Taiwo said Olubunmi was guilty of violating Section 24 (1) of the Cyber Crime Act, 2015 and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
    The judge therefore sentenced the culprit to two years imprisonment with a fine of N500,000, to be paid into the coffers of the Federal Government.
    He added that the jail term took immediate effect, stressing that the court was lenient in sentencing the culprit as the punishment for his crime attracts a fine of N7 million and three year jail term.
    This, the judge said was in recognition of the plea of the defense counsel that his client has a family to look after and a first offender.
    The judge however lamented that those who made the law attaching a punishment of N7 million and three year jail term to the persons guilty of such crimes did not make provisions for compensation for the victim.
    He therefore called for appropriate amendment to the law to make provisions for compensation to victims.
    “I find the act of the convict highly disgraceful, very despicable and barbaric to say the least, he has behaved true to the saying that hell knows no fury than a lover ‘s scorn
    “I must say that the defendant who already has a wife and children at home could find it easy to demean and embarrass another woman who was having an amorous affair with him,” the judge said.
     

  • Breaking: Facebook opens elections war room ahead of 2019

    Ahead of the 2019 general elections in Nigeria, social media giant, Facebook has announced opening its first physical elections war room in Menlo Park, California.
    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Facebook’s goal is to get the right subject-matter experts from across the company in one place so they can address potential problems identified by its technology in real time and respond quickly.
    “The war room has over two dozen experts from across the company – including from our threat intelligence, data science, software engineering, research, community operations and legal teams. These employees represent and are supported by the more than 20,000 people working on safety and security across Facebook.
    “When everyone is in the same place, the teams can make decisions more quickly, reacting immediately to any threats identified by our systems, which can reduce the spread of potentially harmful content.
    “Our dashboards offer real-time monitoring on key elections issues, such as efforts to prevent people from voting, increases in spam, potential foreign interference, or reports of content that violates our policies.
    “The team also monitors news coverage and election-related activity across other social networks and traditional media. These efforts give us a collective view and help track what type of content may go viral.
    “To prepare, our team has also done extensive scenario-planning to game out potential threats – from harassment to voter suppression – and developed systems and procedures in advance to respond effectively,” Facebook said on Thursday.
    The social media giant in a statement by Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook Director of Product Management, Civic Engagement, said the preparations helped a lot during the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections.
    “The work we are doing in the war room builds on almost two years of hard work and significant investments, in both people and technology, to improve security on Facebook, including during elections.
    “Our machine learning and artificial intelligence technology is now able to block or disable fake accounts more effectively – the root cause of so many issues.
    “We’ve increased transparency and accountability in our advertising. And we continue to make progress in fighting false news and misinformation.
    “That said, security remains an arms race and staying ahead of these adversaries will take continued improvement over time. We’re committed to the challenge.” the Facebook Director stated.
    Speaking further on efforts to prevent people from misusing Facebook during elections, the social media platform said it has also broadened its policies against voter suppression, action that is designed to deter or prevent people from voting.
    “We already prohibit offers to buy or sell votes as well as misrepresentations about the dates, locations, times and qualifications for casting a ballot. We have been removing this type of content since 2016.
    “Last month, we extended this policy further and are expressly banning misrepresentations about how to vote, such as claims that you can vote using an online app, and statements about whether a vote will be counted (e.g. “If you voted in the primary, your vote in the general election won’t count.”).
    “We’ve also recently introduced a new reporting option on Facebook so that people can let us know if they see voting information that may be incorrect, and have set up dedicated reporting channels for state election authorities so that they can do the same,” said Jessica Leinwand, Facebook Public Policy Manager.
     

  • 2019: Facebook deletes Nigerian-owned Groups, Pages

    2019: Facebook deletes Nigerian-owned Groups, Pages

    Ahead of the 2019 general elections in the country, Facebook has deleted a number of Nigerian-owned Groups, including a network of accounts and Pages from its platform for inauthentic activities.
    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Facebook had on Thursday said it purged more than 800 US publishers and accounts for flooding users with politically-oriented spam, reigniting accusations of political censorship and arbitrary decision-making.
    In doing so, Facebook demonstrated its increased willingness to wade into the thorny territory of policing domestic political activity.
    “One common type of spam has been posts that hawk fraudulent products like fake sunglasses or weight loss “remedies.” But a lot of the spam we see today is different.
    “The people behind it create networks of Pages using fake accounts or multiple accounts with the same names. They post clickbait posts on these Pages to drive people to websites that are entirely separate from Facebook and seem legitimate, but are actually ad farms.
    “The people behind the activity also post the same clickbait posts in dozens of Facebook Groups, often hundreds of times in a short period, to drum up traffic for their websites.
    “And they often use their fake accounts to generate fake likes and shares. This artificially inflates engagement for their inauthentic Pages and the posts they share, misleading people about their popularity and improving their ranking in News Feed.
    “This activity goes against what people expect on Facebook, and it violates our policies against spam. Topics like natural disasters or celebrity gossip have been popular ways to generate clickbait.
    “But today, these networks increasingly use sensational political content – regardless of its political slant – to build an audience and drive traffic to their websites, earning money for every visitor to the site.
    “And like the politically motivated activity we’ve seen, the “news” stories or opinions these accounts and Pages share are often indistinguishable from legitimate political debate.
    “This is why it’s so important we look at these actors’ behavior – such as whether they’re using fake accounts or repeatedly posting spam – rather than their content when deciding which of these accounts, Pages or Groups to remove,” Facebook narrated in a statement obtained by TNG.
    Some of the accounts deleted by Facebook had been in existence for years, had amassed millions of followers, and Facebook said it is shutting down the accounts for having “consistently broken our rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior”.
    “People will only share on Facebook if they feel safe and trust the connections they make here,” the social media giant stated.
    While Facebook only named five of the hundreds of pages it removed, it also deleted a popular Edo Sons and Daughters Facebook Group from the platform.
    In its post, Facebook described the pages, with names like “Nation in Distress” and “Reverb Press,” as largely domestic actors using clickbait headlines and other spam tactics to drive users to websites where they could target them with ads.
    The company said it was not taking issue with the nature of the content posted by the pages, but with the behaviours of the accounts, which used inappropriate tactics to artificially inflate their influence.
    Facebook for years has tried to squeeze spam and clickbait from its platform because it can irritate users.
    But Facebook has usually applied a softer punishment, downranking the sites in its newsfeed so fewer people see them – but not shutting them down altogether.
    But ever since Russian operatives used Facebook to target American voters ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, the company has been on a crusade to demonstrate that its platform won’t be used to disrupt democratic process across the world.
    False information peddled by foreign actors was clear-cut manipulation. But the same content, when spread by domestic actors, could be considered free speech — and a crackdown on it would be contrary to a principle social media embraces.
    Facebook has long struggled with where to draw lines around domestic content. The challenge of policing domestic content is even trickier than going after foreign interference because many – including Facebook itself – question whether Facebook should be in the role of deciding what constitutes legitimate political expression to begin with.
    By removing the groups entirely, Facebook is eliminating any opportunity to redeem themselves.
     

  • 2019: Facebook to work with Nigeria

    Social media giant, Facebook is set to partner with the Federal Government to check the menace of fake news as the 2019 general elections fast draw near.
    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made this known on Tuesday, saying that the National Campaign Against Fake News has received a boost by the development.
    He said the national campaign, which was launched on 11th July 2018, has succeeded in bringing the phenomenon to the front burner of national discourse.
    “We are not under any illusion that our campaign will immediately end the menace of fake news. But we know that by creating national awareness, we are putting the issue of fake news on the front burner.
    “Fake news is now a subject of national discourse, workshops and conferences. In the coming days, the social networking web platform, Facebook, will be meeting with us and other top policy makers across the country in the days ahead to see how to assist us in fighting fake news.
    “That, to us, is a major step forward, and we thank all our partners, and indeed all Nigerians, for this achievement,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
    The Minister, who described fake news as a global phenomenon, said different countries are adopting various measures to tackle the menace.
    He said Nigeria has decided to appeal to the sense of responsibility of media practitioners, bloggers and Social Media Influencers, instead of engaging in coercion or censorship.
    Mohammed said if left unchecked, fake news has the capacity to disrupt the peace and unity of the country and it’s also a clear and present danger to the nation’s democracy.
    “For example, the fake news phenomenon played out during the recent governorship elections in Osun State.
    “Whereas 16 PDP members were arrested for various offences, including impersonating observers and for violence during the rerun, the purveyors of fake news made it look as if the APC was the perpetrators of these crimes.
    He said the campaign against fake news could not have come at a better time, considering that the 2019 general elections are fast approaching and enemies of democracy will latch on to it to wreak havoc.
     

  • UN tasks social media giants to clamp down on hate speech

    UN tasks social media giants to clamp down on hate speech

    United Nations (UN) human rights chief on Wednesday said social media giants, including Facebook, must proactively block content inciting hatred.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the social media must also prevent online campaigns which target minorities, such as those undertaken in Myanmar.

    Zeid, who said Facebook had allowed its platform to be used to incite violence against Rohingya, was speaking after UN experts accused Myanmar generals of “genocidal intent”.

    He said he didn’t feel Facebook took the issue seriously at first but that the company’s attitude began to change after Yanghee Lee, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told a Geneva press conference in March that Facebook was being used in the country to spread hate speech.

    “But it shouldn’t be because the press or the human rights community highlights the problem for them then suddenly to respond. They should be aware of it ahead of time,” Zeid said.

    “So I don’t think they should wait until the crisis begins. They should be thinking proactively about what steps they will take to mitigate that,” he added.

    However, Zeid said there was a danger that social media could be over-regulated in a way that breaches human rights law including the right to freedom of expression.

    Tech giants should “keep the broadest space available and open to the exercise of freedom of expression”, relying on international human rights law for regulation, he said.

     

  • Jack Dorsey to testify before House Panel

    Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive will on September 5th testify before a US House of Representatives committee.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports the panel made this known in a statement on Friday, after some Republicans raised concerns of social media companies removing content from conservatives.

    The House Energy and Commerce Committee “intends to ask tough questions about how Twitter monitors and polices content,” Republican Representative Greg Walden, the panel’s chairman, said in a statement.

    “We look forward to Mr Dorsey being forthright and transparent regarding the complex processes behind the company’s algorithms and content judgment calls,” Walden said.

    On Friday, President Donald Trump accused social media companies of silencing “millions of people” in an act of censorship, but without offering evidence to support the claim.

    “Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!” Trump wrote on Twitter, not mentioning any specific companies.

    Trump also criticized social media outlets last week, saying without providing proof that unidentified companies were “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.”

    Those tweets followed actions taken by Apple, Facebook, and Alphabet’s YouTube to remove some content posted by Infowars, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

    Jones’ Twitter account was temporarily suspended on Aug. 15.

     

  • Trump slams social media firms for ‘silencing millions’

    U.S. President Donald Trump criticized social media companies on Friday for silencing “millions of people” in what he called an act of censorship.

    Trump did not mention any of the companies by name.

    On Tuesday, Facebook, Twitter Inc and Google removed hundreds of accounts tied to an alleged Iranian propaganda operation, while Facebook took down a second campaign it said was linked to Russia.

    “Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely.

    People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!” Trump said.

     

  • First Bank excites social media users, launches chat banking on WhatsApp

    Determined to ensure effective service to its customers, First Bank of Nigeria on Thursday unveiled its chat banking on WhatsApp.

    Mr Chuma Ezirim, the bank’s Group Head, E-Business, said the application would enable customers leverage the real-time messaging capabilities of the WhatsApp Business Solution to check their account balance.

    Ezirim said that customers would also leverage on the solution to perform simple banking queries.

    He said in a statement in Lagos that the launch which took place on Aug. 1 was at its pilot phase and would be available to a select group of customers after which it would be made available to all customers.

    Ezirim said additional details on the solution would be provided in the coming weeks as customers are encouraged to keep interacting with the bank on its various social media channels for updates.

    “Customers expectations are constantly changing and it is our duty as a customer-focused bank to ensure that our customers are provided with the means to carry out banking services through any channel they desire.

    “We are constantly seeking new ways and opportunities to meet customers at their preferred touch points and we understand our customers are actively engaged on WhatsApp.

    “With First Bank chat banking on WhatsApp, it is not just about staying connected with friends and loved ones, but also keeping in touch with your bank anytime and anywhere you are,” Ezirim said.