When you think of Judith Audu Foght what comes to mind isn’t just her acting talent but also her versatility. She is a talent with her fingers in many pies. Foght is a blogger,OAP and a budding producer. Judith got her break in 2004 when ASUU was on strike, she quit shortly after to pursue her education only to return in 2011.
Amazingly, Judith met her man on social media via Facebook. Speaking in a recent chat with Broadway TV Africa she said:”Ah me, social media is my life . I keep telling people that I am one of those people that social media has helped in a lot of ways that can’t be said into one. My marriage was from social media, my career was bloomed from social media, every single I have done I have probably gotten from social media. For me, social media has been absolutely amazing in my life, I can’t even begin to count how I have benefited from it”.
When asked how long it took her to eventually marry her husband she said:”I did not just start chatting with somebody and we got married the next day. After we met, we actually dated for about three years “.
US visa applicants may be required to disclose any social media handles, email addresses, and phone numbers used over the previous five years, under new procedures approved by the Trump administration. As Reuters reports, a new questionnaire for visa applicants was approved by the Office of Management and Budget on May 23rd, after receiving sharp criticism during a public comment period.
The procedures allow consular officials to request 15 years worth of personal information — including applicants’ previous addresses, employment history, and travel records — in addition to the social media data. More than 50 academic groups criticized the proposed screening procedures in a letter to the State Department earlier this month, writing that the protocol would fuel “uncertainties and confusion” that may discourage students and researchers from coming to the US.
The new questions are described as voluntary, though applicants who do not disclose additional information may see their processing delayed or halted, according to the questionnaire. A State Department official tells Reuters that the additional information will be requested if officials determine that it “is required to confirm identity or conduct more rigorous national security vetting.”
Previously, the State Department said that the questions pertaining to social media use, emails, and phone numbers would only apply to applicants “who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibilities.” Earlier this year, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ordered a “mandatory social media check” for all visa applicants who visited ISIS-controlled territory, as part of the “extreme vetting” that Trump vowed to implement when campaigning for president.
More than 200 people commented on the proposal during the public comment period, which ended on May 18th. The majority of comments were negative, Reuters reported last month.
The Federal Government on Wednesday said it would support stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector to create and strengthen a national data ecosystem for sustainable development.
This was made known by Mr Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communications at a news conference as part of activities to mark the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Big Data, for Big Impact’’ with focus on the power of Big Data for development.According to him, the aim is to explore how to turn imperfect, complex, often unstructured data into actionable information in a development context.
Shittu said the insight brought on by advanced data analysis was capable of complementing the evidence-based nature of decision-making that could be leveraged at local, national, regional and international levels. He noted that it could also help to drive success toward attaining all 17 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
According to him, this will enable data being generated to be captured, shared and analysed in innovative ways, thus increase the value of data and analytics in our development context process.
He said the ministry would encourage cross-sector, cross-agency and cross border data collaboration by developing unified standards for emerging data sources and data interoperability.
Shittu added that efforts were also being made to establish a data-driven decision making, service and operational efficiency culture by developing national policies and data strategies to promote open data and Big Data analytics to enhance data transparency and utility.
“Government is also poised to providing equitable data protection and strategies for information release; implement an inclusive and open process to foster privacy, security, public trust and ethical use of data involving a variety of stakeholders.
“Government will also support and scale up research and development in the sector to provide the opportunity for exploring the possibilities to leveraging big data for improving the national landscape for data education and training.
“This is in response to the increasing demand for both deep analytical talent and capacity for the broader areas; government will also ensure continuous international collaboration to foster innovation using Big Data.’’
Speaking on the effects of Big Data on businesses, the minister further said that the digital economy holds huge potential for entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
He added that new digital trends such as cloud computing, mobile web services, smart grids, and social media were radically changing the business landscape, reshaping the nature of work, boundaries and responsibilities of business leaders.
According to Shittu, Big Data is the way to go in this age and the world is embracing it for insights and business value.“Big Data can promote growth and increase efficiency and profitability across the entire telecom value chain.’’
He called on all stakeholders, government at all levels as well as concerned bodies to come up with stiff measure to address the various ongoing questionable acts taking place on the internet and in the sector.
In his message to mark the Day, Mr Houlin Zhao, the Secretary-General, International Telecoms Union (ITU) called for a deliberate action by member nations to ignite a global dedication.
This he noted was to leverage the insights provided by Big Data for new opportunities to address development challenges.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that May 17 was set aside by the United Nations General Assembly to mark World Information Society Day. The Day was to recognise the efforts being made to advance communication and ITU’s role in helping people connect around the world.
It is a day set aside to remind the world of the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society to build “a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society” based on fundamental human rights. It also aims to raise awareness of how information and communication can be beneficial for societies and economies.
Ensuring that right persons are added in a Facebook Group, Facebook has rolled out a screening feature that allows admins to set up three questions for people requesting to join the Group.
This allows admins to screen the potential member and make sure the added member does not troll or spam the Group, TechCrunch reported on Friday.
“Screening new membership requests requires time and legwork for admins – particularly for groups built around focused passions or purpose. For these groups, admins typically have specific criteria they require before admitting new members.
“Establishing these open-ended questions enables them to more quickly review and approve member requests; in turn, people seeking communities of support or shared interest can more quickly connect with others,” the report quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying.
Potential members can answer the questions in up to 250 characters each that can be seen by admins and moderators only, and will not be posted on the Group.
“Users who hit ‘Join’ on a Group with a questionnaire will be asked to fill it out immediately, while those invited to join will get a notification linked to the form. Applicants can edit their answers until they’re reviewed,” the report noted.
The new update gives more control to the Group admins, who can select the questions and decide whom to add in the Group – something that can lead to productive discussions.
“One of the things that we’ve seen in online communities, also including offline communities, is that having an engaged and talented leader is one of the key things for making a strong community… but right now our Groups product hasn’t really been built to facilitate the leaders,” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook had said in February.
Facebook is holding its first Communities Summit for Group admins in Chicago in June.
It is expected that more updates related to Groups would be rolled out that might define specific roles and permissions of moderators and admins.
The Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu, has described the Internet as a resourceful tool that could be employed to transform Nigeria’s education sector and contribute to economic transformation of the continent.
Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu.
Shittu stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kigali on Friday.
He was commenting on a report of a new study on internet released at the African Regional Internet and Development Dialogue in Kigali by the Internet Society.
The minister, who commended the study, stressed that internet was not only the future of education but of other sectors such as commerce, transportation, health, governance among others.
Shittu said Nigeria was putting in place mechanism to take its rightful place on the continent and world’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
He said that the present administration had invested and still investing in the development of ICT and had also created favourable environment to attract investors to the sector.
The study, which results were released in Kigali, showed that internet offers an opportunity for addressing the learning needs of diverse groups in Africa.
This, it stated, included the bulk of learners that are currently out of school.
The study titled: “Internet for Education in Africa,” stated that a blended learning environment that leverages internet could potentially help connect education to work and improve the skills that allow youths to access employment.
“It could also help empower lifelong learners, and importantly, support women, girls and disabled people to participate in learning without space, time and other cultural and social barriers.”
It described blended learning as an education system that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods.
“The participation in the global economy is now dependent on 21st century skills, which includes the ability to navigate in the digital world.
‘‘Progress in countries like India, China and South Korea shows that connectivity serves as a foundation for access to information economy jobs and advancing innovations,” it stated.
The study shows that in Africa, using internet for learning is a real possibility.
It added that more than a quarter of the African population (334 million) has access to internet, the majority of which are young people.
According to the study, there are 147 million Facebook users in Africa as of June 2016.
It, however, noted that such access to internet and use of social media had not been harnessed systematically to advance education and learning at individual and institutional levels.
The study said there was hope that internet and ICT can transform the education landscape in Africa, but that there are still challenges blocking internet use in education in Africa.
These, it stated, included limited literacy and skills that are needed to participate in the Internet economy and lack of infrastructure to host and exchange locally available content.
Others, it stated, are inadequate supportive infrastructure such as electricity, and high taxes on ICT hardware and software, among others.
Dr Lishan Adam, one of the lead researchers behind the study, said it was also part of reviewing the position of Africa in global education commitments.
“As internet is growing, educational challenges are advancing and normally the two are not supposed to be intersecting.
‘‘What we are trying to do is to look at where we are in terms of providing access to quality education, which is in line with the global education commitments under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
‘‘The education targets of the SDGs, among others aim to ensure universal pre-primary, primary and secondary education, achieve gender equity among learners, ensure disabled learners attain equal education, and foster youth employability,” he said.
To achieve this, Adam stated that improved connectivity in the region and the vast learning resources that are available over the internet are useful.
According to him, while access to mobile broadband has increased in urban areas, last-mile connectivity remains a challenge.
‘‘With about half of the population more than 25kilometres from the nearest fiber connection, broadband connection in rural areas remains very low.
‘‘With over 70 per cent of the population living in rural areas, the majority who need internet the most, such as rural schools, do not have it,” he said.
A study by researchers at Vrije University in Amsterdam has linked the use of Facebook to hedonic addiction.
With people spending more time glued to their phones, social media is quickly becoming addictive, the new study warned.
The worrying study found that the mere sight of the Facebook logo is now enough to get some people craving time online, according to Daily Mail, that first reported the result of the study online.
The findings illustrate just how obsessed people are becoming with social media, and could help to develop a social media rehabilitation programme.
The research claims the site is just as addictive as chocolate or nicotine.
Researchers from Vrije University in Amsterdam studied the online habits of 200 people, and found that showing frequent Facebook users the site’s logo sparked spontaneous pleasurable reactions – which made it difficult for them to resist.
Social media has been found to be more addictive than drinking or smoking – with doctors warning it can endanger mental health.
Now, it has been illustrated just how obsessed people can become with the mere sight of the logo sparking immediate “hedonic reactions”.
In the study, participants were asked to rate a series of images as pleasant or unpleasant after being shown either the Facebook logo or a neutral cue.
The results showed that frequent social media users reacted more positively to the images that followed the Facebook logo.
But it did not affect the responses of the less frequent users.
A second study replicated the first, but added another dimension – measuring Facebook cravings among the participants.
This included questions such as “I want to use Facebook right now,” “I would love if it was possible to use Facebook right now,” or “I don’t need Facebook at the moment”.
Results showed that there was a direct link between the level of their cravings and their earlier reaction to the Facebook logo.
Dr Guido van Koningsbruggen, who led the study, said “Frequent Facebook users showed more favourable affective reactions in response to Facebook cues compared to control cues.
“Less-frequent Facebook users’ affective reactions did not differ between Facebook and control cues.
“These results support our hypothesis that exposure to social media cues triggers spontaneous hedonic reactions in frequent social media users”.
The findings are consistent with the idea that social media users have strong and positive reactions to media content.
Dr Koningsburggen added that “Given that cravings reflect one of the aspects of problematic or unregulated media use and have been associated with a preference for immediately rewarding behaviour when tempted, we speculate that the observed spontaneous hedonic reactions to social media cues might also be associated with people’s failures to resist social media temptations”.
The researchers believe that their findings could be used to develop a social media rehabilitation programme.
Dr Brenda Wienderhold, who also worked on the study, said “Understanding hedonic reactions, both psychological and physiological, to social media cues can help us to develop more effective treatment and prevention protocols”.
Facebook is planning to intensify its crackdown on so-called clickbait websites, saying it will begin giving lower prominence to links that lead to pages full of deceptive or annoying advertisements.
The downgrade of the links was expected to take effect beginning on Wednesday on News Feed, the home page of Facebook where people go to see posts from friends and family.
Facebook said it wanted to downplay links that people post to websites that have a disproportionate volume of ads relative to content, or that have deceptive or sexually suggestive ads along the lines of “5 Tips to be Amazing in Bed” or “1 Crazy Tip to Lose Weight Overnight!”
Links to websites with pop-up ads or full-screen ads also would be downplayed, it said.
People scrolling through their News Feed are often disappointed when they click on such links and do not find valuable information, Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s Vice President of ads and business platform, said in an interview.
“People don’t want to see this stuff,” he said, adding: “We’re just trying to figure out how to find it and rank it further down News Feed when possible”.
Facebook uses a computer algorithm to determine which posts people see first from friends and family, and it frequently refines the algorithm to keep up with spam or other concerns.
The company said in August it was adjusting the algorithm to downplay news stories with clickbait-style headlines, a style of headline that intentionally withholds information or misleads people to get them to click on them.
In December, facing criticism that hoaxes and fake news stories spread too easily on Facebook in the run-up to the US presidential election on November 8, the company made it easier for people to report those kinds of posts.
Facebook, the world’s largest social media network with 1.9 billion monthly users, has enormous power with its algorithms to potentially drive traffic to media publishers or stymie it.
The company said it reviewed hundreds of thousands of websites linked to/from Facebook to identify those with little substance but lots of disruptive or shocking ads.
Bosworth declined to name any websites Facebook wants to target. He said only publishers of spam needed to worry about seeing less traffic, and other publishers could see their traffic go up.
“This is a small number of the worst of the worst,” he said.
The Indian government has urged its netizens to be “soldiers” by not forwarding “malicious” content circulated by “enemies” on social media.
India Union minister, Rajyavardhan Rathore on Monday made the remark at the inaugural session of ‘Women Economic Forum’ in New Delhi in response to a question on cyber stalking of women, according to Press Trust of India.
“You need not wear the uniform to be a soldier of this country; you need not go to the borders now, because the enemy can actually strike in your home (through social media).
“All you have to do is be aware and not forward any malicious content or anything that you are not aware of and actually be a soldier by preventing forwarding of such information,” he said.
He asked the people to self-regulate, contending that governments across the world are yet to find solutions to deal with the issue of circulation of malicious content on the Internet.
Rathore stated that although the issue was being handled by the information and technology ministry, people should try to solve it at an individual level and spread the word on social network.
The Olympic medallist also called for self-regulation of media, adding the government has not taken any restrictive action against it.
Slovenia’s Development Minister Alenka Smerkolj also attended the event.
Jammu and Kashmir, a state in India has on Wednesday banned all social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for one month in the Valley in order to prevent “anti-national and anti-social elements” from spreading “inflammatory messages”.
This is coming after Mobile Internet services have remained suspended in the Valley since April 19 following widespread students’ unrest.
According to a report by NDTV, the Home Department order, written by R. K. Goyal, Principal Secretary to Government, in this regard read: “On careful examination of all relevant factors, it is observed that the use of social media platforms, which are being misused by anti-national and anti-social elements by transmitting inflammatory messages in various forms, are immediately required to be regulated/curbed”.
The order places a blanket ban on social networking platforms including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, QQ, WeChat, Qzone, Tumblr, Google+, Baidu, Skype, Viber, Line, Snapchat, Pinterest, Telegram, Reddit, Snapfish, YouTube (upload), Vine, Xanga, Buzznet, and Flickr.
The order cites Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 read with the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007, to note the Central Government or State Government has the power to take possession of licensed telegraphs and order stoppage of transmission or interception or detention of messages.
The order directed all Internet service providers (ISPs) that any message or picture through the above-mentioned social networking platforms should be immediately banned.
The ban remains effective till further orders or for a period of one month, whichever is earlier.
The authorities had also blocked over 300 WhatsApp groups that, the government said, had been spreading rumours to stoke passions among the youth during the volatile situation in Kashmir.
The Home Department issued the order to this effect in exercise of powers conferred under the Indian Telegraph Act, an official said in Jammu.
Nollywood actress, Ruth Kadiri has condemned the fake lifestyle people live on social media, saying it is a far departure from who they truly are. The talented role interpreter said people are waking up sad because they think others are doing better than them. She made the statement on her Instagram page.
According to her: “The generation we’re in! The Instagram life doesn’t add up with the reality. People are waking up sad because they think others are doing better than them.
“Those who seem to have a little, deliberately oppressing their followers and claiming haters, girls doing shit just to stay relevant on social media. A platform where happiness is faked, nobody wants to go through the process but we all want the glory.
“Easy my darlings! Understand that those who try so hard to show you how happy they are, most probably are very sad and depressed. Live your life like its golden and don’t envy anyone. Forget about how glittery the car looks the engine is what matters and that’s the part we never get to see”
Ruth Kadiri gained attention into Nollywood when she featured in the movie Boys Cot. As a screenwriter, she has written and co-written several movies some of which include: Matters Arising, Heart of a Fighter, Ladies Men, Sincerity, First Class, Over the Edge and lot’s more
