Tag: Social Media

Social Media

Death sentence: Facebook meets with Pakistani govt

A senior Facebook official met with Pakistani interior minister on Friday to discuss a demand the company prevent blasphemous content or be blocked.

The meeting comes after a Pakistani counter-terrorism court sentenced a 30-year-old man to death for making blasphemous comments on Facebook, part of a wider crack-down.

Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president of public policy, met Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, who offered to approve a Facebook office in Pakistan, which has 33 million users of the network.

Khan said Pakistan believes in freedom of expression, but that does not include insulting Islam or stoking religious tensions.

“We cannot allow anyone to misuse social media for hurting religious sentiments,” Khan said.

Facebook called the meeting “constructive”.

“Facebook met with Pakistan officials to express the company’s deep commitment to protecting the rights of the people who use its service, and to enabling people to express themselves freely and safely,” the company said in an email.

“It was an important and constructive meeting in which we raised our concerns over the recent court cases and made it clear we apply a strict legal process to any government request for data or content restrictions.”

Pakistan’s social media crack-down is officially aimed at weeding out blasphemy and shutting down accounts promoting terrorism, but civil rights activists say it has also swept up writers and bloggers who criticise the government or military.

One of five prominent writers and activists who disappeared for nearly three weeks this year later told a UN human rights event in March that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies had kidnapped him and tortured him in custody.

Others’ families said right-wing and Islamist parties had filed blasphemy accusations against them to punish them for critical writings.

Anything deemed insulting to Islam or the Prophet Muhammad carries a death penalty in Pakistan, and sometimes a mere allegation can lead to mob violence and lynchings. Right groups say the law is frequently abused to settle personal scores.

In April, a Pakistani university student, Mashal Khan, was beaten to death by a mob after being accused of blasphemous content on Facebook. Police arrested 57 people accused in the attack and said they had found no evidence Khan committed blasphemy.

July 10, 2017
Tekno gives indigent students,businesses lifeline

Made Men Music Group act, Tekno has set aside N5 million to support small businesses and indigent students on social media.

The Afropop singer took to his Twitter page on Friday to proclaim that he is prepared to help small businesses as well as students struggling to pay their fees, as long as they send a proof.

The “Pana” crooner selected those with genuine requests and assisted them by sending them the amount they needed. He also assured his fans that he was going to continue on Saturday, affirming that he’ll give 5 people N100k each.

In addition, the Pana singer donated 200k to help a cancer patient with his treatment.

Tekno Miles was first signed under K-Money Entertainment. His first single titled “Holiday” was released under the imprint. With featured vocals from Davido, “Holiday” was positively accepted and gained massive airplay.

July 8, 2017
I own ten pieces of land ,I don’t show off on social media- Reekado Banks

In a time where celebrities fall over themselves to flaunt their wealth and material acquisition on social media, Reekado Banks has stated that he doesn’t display what he owns on social media. While other artistes are investing in luxury apartments, expensive trips, and luxurious automobiles, the sensational Mavin artiste said the things he owns are not assets people will go crazy about on social media.

Hear him: “I don’t feel pressured to show off what I own. Things I own are not the things the youths will go crazy about. I am not a car freak, I am property guy.I like lands. Right now I own about ten. I have a house and I am building a school. I am not the kind of guy that will come and be showing off on social media”.

When asked If he has plans to purchase a private jet, he said:”Getting a jet is not a priority right now”.

July 4, 2017
Techlationship: Tech tips to maintaining long distance relationship

Relationships are taking different dimensions in our world today given especially the advancement of technology; and given that certain types of jobs means people travel and be away for a long time or even travelling for educational purposes or to seek greener pastures, long distance relationships then become an issue.

It’s difficult to balance your friendships and your career with any romantic relationship, let alone one in which you don’t get to see the other person whenever you want. Plus, while romantic relationships can be wonderfully fulfilling, they are work as it is.

Factor in time differences, busy schedules, and miles apart, and you could really start feeling the strain of a long distance relationship. Let’s face it: long distance relationships can be rough. If you’ve been there, you know it all too well.

But, thanks to technology, maintaining a long distance relationship these days is easier than ever. Here are tips to maintaining your long distance relationship:

Use the tools

No matter how archaic you might be, if you want your long distance relationship to work out, you must learn to adopt tools technology has presented in these times for connection, communication and collaboration.

Using technology tools such as WhatsApp Facebook Messenger video calling or Snapchat, Skype, or FaceTime can certainly make that distance gap feel narrower. Being miles apart can be great for your sext life and improve your phone sex skills that keeps relationships burning like hot coal.

These apps are basically free; what you will need is a Smartphone and a data bundle, and your relationship is tickling like you two are actually in one place together.

Maximize the power of video calling; do virtually everything together at all places, even when you are in the toilet. There would be no reason for a partner to think the other is cheating.

Avoid distractions

With so many devices and notifications, it can be really, really easy to get distracted when you’ve got screen time with your loved one, especially when the video lags and it doesn’t feel like you’re having a conversation.

Make a concerted effort to spend one-on-one time the way it was meant to be spent: one-on-one.

Close any programs and any windows that aren’t your video chat app of choice.

Go old school

>>Also read: Techlationship: Useful tips for online dating

Yes go old school!

There’s nothing quite like a letter in your mailbox but sometimes it’s not possible to send a letter or it takes too long to deliver.

Emails are wonderful and so fast… but there’s something special about being able to see the other person’s handwriting, not just uniform letters on a white screen.

So, send a digital love letter instead. Use a pen and write a letter on paper, draw some coloured hearts, snap using your Smartphone’s camera, and forward to your love one, email address or WhatsApp line.

Its a beauty to behold those fowl scratched handwriting you know.

It’s easy to do with a tablet.

Say “I love you”

Too much of “I love you” won’t kill your relationship. Say “I love you” to your partner across all channels at every opportunity possible and impossible; and mean it.

Talk raw and don’t be vague… nothing is wrong with spilling your soft side out with your gal. Say “I love you,” and keep saying it. There’s no such thing as saying it enough, if you mean it.

Know technology’s limitations

Be patient. The nuances of face-to-face communication are lost when you’re forced to connect online and over the phone. Don’t dwell on what your partner “meant” by something if you think there are two ways to interpret a text, or an email, or whatever. Whatever you “thought” they meant won’t matter tomorrow. Consider video to text to diminish miscommunication.

When you cant get your partner on the line, don’t let negativity set in.

Turn off tech

Dear technology, we love you, and we hate you. Turn the tech off to make time for yourselves. Be social from time to time, but also be conscious of nurturing what matters most to you guy – your relationship.

Technology can’t augment the human experience; so turn off the tech, and meet face to face.

And sometimes, doing nothing at all is most fun. Consider time your partner spends at the office or hustling or time at school and all that.

And when you finally meet again, the fire consumes more, and the heat more than 100 degrees.

Have any tech tips to maintaining long distance relationship? Share it with everyone by leaving a comment below.

July 3, 2017
Techlationship: Useful tips for online dating

We can’t ignore the fact that technological advancement has made life easier for us, and one of the products of technological advancement is social media.

The social media has given room for online dating, and as such people from different walks of life have come to embrace online dating due to different reasons.

Due to this, there is a need for people to know how to go about dating online to prevent stories that touch the heart.

Therefore, below are tips for dating online.

Honesty

Be completely honest in your profile; don’t put down wrong details about yourself. Online dating has been seen as a place for scammers, so there is a need for you to come out plain. Don’t build up a relationship on lies because it won’t end well.

Compatibility

Look for someone who shares the same interest with you. Go through his or her online profile, get to know if this person is really who you will love to develop a conversation with and if you share the same interest. This will make the conversation to flow easily and from there you will be able to talk better and chip in what you want.

Safety

Never provide your surname, full address, financial information for someone you have never met before. Also be careful about anyone that constantly ask you for money all the time to solve one issue or the other. This person probably sees you as an ATM where he or she can fetch money from at any time.

Desperation

Get to know and talk with the person online before meeting the person. Don’t ever be in a hurry to fix a date with someone you just met. Ladies, this act will only make you look desperate for a man. Also, before you meet in person, move the conversation from online to phone call. During a phone chat, you’ll get a better picture of who the person really is. When you finally decide to meet the person for the first time, make sure it is in an open place e.g. a pack, busy restaurant, coffee shop etc. Make sure you keep your meeting short. Also, make sure someone else is aware of your movement.

Shrewdness

>>Also read: Techlationship: Tech tips to maintaining long distance relationship

Pay attention to some tiny details. Sometimes, these tiny details can actually give you a hint to who the person really is. Look out for consistency in behaviours and answers to your questions. Also, pay attention to warning signs that someone might not be genuine. Does the person just go offline for days and comes back with some excuse? Has the person refused to give you details about his or her life but always want to know about your life? All these and more can stand as a red flag for you.

Online dating can be so much fun and people also find love through this medium. Therefore, it is imperative to use this carefully and be security conscious when dating online.

Have any useful tip to make online dating best? Share it with everyone by leaving a comment below.

July 3, 2017
Instagram: How to use new AI mechanism to block offensive comments

Facebook-owned photo-sharing service, Instagram has released an artificial intelligence mechanism which will serve to filter off offensive comments and spam.

“Many of you have told us that toxic comments discourage you from enjoying Instagram and expressing yourself freely,” Co-founder and Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a blog post yesterday.

“To help, we’ve developed a filter that will block certain offensive comments on posts and in live video,” he added.

This is coming as Internet companies, including Facebook, are working to curb trolls, hate speech and the spread of violent ideology on their platforms.

Instagram said that the filter scanning for spam is designed to work in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish; and according to Systrom, the offensive-comment filter will launch first in English.

“Our team has been training our systems for some time to recognize certain types of offensive and spammy comments so you never have to see them,” Systrom said, adding: “The tools will improve over time”.

He further stated that “All other comments will appear as they normally do and you can still report comments, delete comments or turn them off”.

To access the comments filter, click the “…” settings menu from the profile and scroll to tap “Comments”. [See illustration below].

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube this week announced the launch of an anti-terror partnership aimed at thwarting the spread of extremist content online.

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism intends to share engineering, research and knowledge to help “continue to make our hosted consumer services hostile to terrorists and violent extremists,” the companies said as reported.

Each of the technology giants has been working individually to prevent its platforms or services from being used to promote or spread extremist views.

June 30, 2017
Facebook partnering govts to reminding citizens of civic responsibilities

Facebook has started a partnership with government of nations that will ensure citizens of countries are reminded of their civic responsibilities on the social media network.

One of the civic responsibilities Facebook would be reminding citizens of, is electoral responsibility that will have to do with reminding users of the social media platform to register to vote.

In April, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) began the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, while also distributing uncollected Permanent Voters Card (PVC).

In order to ensure all Nigerians of eligible age register to vote in the 2019 general elections, the electoral commission said the CVR exercise will run into the electoral year 2019.

But the commission has lamented that over 1.4 million PVCs are yet to be collected in Lagos state alone.

With the new Facebook development, electoral commissions of nations need not bother too much about reminding citizens to turn out for voters’ registration exercises.

India is the recent government to adopt this modality, as the Election Commission of India only just announced it will be using the Facebook platform to remind Indians to turn out for voters’ registration.

According to an official release, a notification of the ‘voter registration reminder’ will be sent on July 1 to Indians who are eligible to vote on Facebook.

The reminder will be sent out in 13 Indian languages – English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Odia.

By clicking on the ‘register now’ button on Facebook, people will be directed to the national voters’ services portal of India which will guide them through the registration process.

“I am pleased to announce that the Election Commission is launching a special drive to enrol left out electors, with a special focus on first time electors.

“This is a step towards fulfilment of the motto of EC ‘No Voter to be Left Behind’,” Chief Election Commissioner, Nasim Zaidi said.

TheNewsGuru reports this is the first time Facebook has been used for enrolling new voters across India.

June 28, 2017
Facebook reports 2 billion users on network

Facebook on Tuesday has announced a total of two billion people now use the social network to connect, communicate and collaborate.

“As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially 2 billion people!” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post marking the milestone.

The social media giant’s founder Mark Zuckerberg recently highlighted his new mission of not just connecting people but helping them find common ground.

“We’re making progress connecting the world, and now let’s bring the world closer together,” he wrote, adding “It’s an honour to be on this journey with you”.

Facebook’s announcement came as it works to redefine its purpose, led by Zuckerberg who travelled the US this year to better understand what people want out of the social network.

“We realise that we need to do more too,” the 33-year-old said in a recent interview with CNN Tech.

“It’s important to give people a voice, to get a diversity of opinions out there, but on top of that, you also need to do this work of building common ground so that way we can all move forward together,” he added.

The firm’s new mission statement says it seeks “to give people the power to build community”.

Zuckerberg’s message was echoed by Naomi Gleit, a Vice President at the Internet giant, who credited the millions of small communities emerging within Facebook for helping drive growth.

More than a billion people take part each month in Facebook “groups” – built around everything from sporting interests to humanitarian projects, she said in an online post on Tuesday.

June 28, 2017
Messenger adds more fun features to your video chats

Video chats with your friends and family in Messenger just got a whole lot more fun.

Check out the awesome new features – like animated reactions, filters, masks and effects, and the ability to take screenshots – available for one-on-one and group video chats.

You can now share your emotions with a reaction, add a filter to feel like your best self, make someone laugh with a bear mask, and even take pictures of your time together.

https://www.facebook.com/messenger/videos/1375587622560914/

Your video chats

Choose one of the five Messenger emoji icons to amplify your emotions and express love, laughter, surprise, sadness or anger.

These reactions will animate onto the screen and then disappear, so you can express yourself in the moment.

To keep the fun alive, most reactions have different versions depending on whether your face is on or off the screen.

Tap the love reaction (like when you’re in a group video chat with your three best friends and someone shares amazing news) when the camera is facing you and tap it again when the camera is facing outward to see the difference.

Add a filter

Look and feel like your best self or express your current mood with Messenger’s new video filters.

Choose from a variety of filters, ranging from subtle lighting tweaks to bold colour changes – like black and white, red, or yellow.

Red not your colour? “Don’t worry, we’ve made sure the live preview allows you to test the filter on yourself before letting others see it,” Facebook said.

Dress up your chats

Masks in Messenger have been available for a while, but they’re even more fun now with a bunch of new ones to choose from.

Some masks have hidden effects, like reacting to your facial movements. (Hint: try opening your mouth while using the rabbit mask…)

“We have also added animated effects, like falling hearts and twinkling stars, to give your video chats expressive flair,” Facebook said.

Check out what happens when you wave your arm in front of the camera while using one of those effects!

Unlike reactions, masks and effects stay on the screen for the duration of the video chat (or until you take them off or switch to another one).

Save and send pictures of your video chats

People like to take screenshots of their video chats and share them with friends – whether that’s one-on-one with your sibling or in a group with your best friends.

Messenger video chat now has a new feature to easily capture and share your memories.

Simply tap the camera icon to take a picture of your video chat to save it to your phone’s camera roll.

From there, decide if you want to post it to your Messenger Day or other social media accounts.

You can also send the picture to the person or group that you’re video chatting with.

So, throw on a love reaction, black and white filter, or flower crown mask and snap a pic with your friends and family.

June 27, 2017
Facebook announces new Video Creation App launch

Social media giant Facebook has announced it is planning to launch a new video creation app that will empower its creator community in churning out astonishing videos.

Facebook says the video creation app is essentially available to verified accounts owned by journalists, celebrities and other online influencers, Engadget reported on Friday.

Apart from the access to Facebook Live, the new video creation app will have a new “creative kit” that includes tools like special intros and outros to videos, custom stickers, custom frames, among other tools.

It will also have a Community tab, where users can interact with their fans and followers on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, the report said.

Reportedly, Facebook is also running a “small test” of a video tab in the navigation bar of its flagship mobile applications.

Pressing the tab, which resembles a play button, brings up “an endless stream” of Facebook videos, from pages users follow and videos liked or shared by friends.

According to Engadget, the video creation app was announced at VidCon, a place where video creators from all over the world flock to promote their show as well as to meet their fanbase and get new ideas.

June 26, 2017