TheNewsGuru

Tag: WhatsApp

  • India asks telecoms to block Facebook, WhatsApp in case of misuse

    India asks telecoms to block Facebook, WhatsApp in case of misuse

    India has asked its telecom operators to find ways of blocking applications such as Facebook and messaging app WhatsApp in the case of misuse, according to a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

    India has in recent months intensified efforts to crack down on mass message forwards after it found that people were using social media and messaging apps to spread rumors and stoke public anger.

    WhatsApp in particular has faced the wrath of Indian regulators after false messages circulated on the messaging platform led to a series of lynchings and mob beatings across the country.

    The department of telecommunications in July asked Indian telecom service providers, as well as mobile and internet industry bodies, to “explore various possible options” to block such apps.

    “You are requested to explore various possible options and confirm how the Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp/Telegram and such other mobile apps can be blocked on internet,” according to the government letter dated July 18 and seen by Reuters.

    Facebook Inc, which owns both WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram, declined to comment.

    Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    A source at India’s department of telecommunication said the letter was aimed at finding ways to block such apps during “emergency situations”.

    “There is a need for a reasonable good solution to protect national security,” said an official.

    For WhatsApp, India is its biggest market with more than 200 million users and one where it says people forward more messages, photographs and videos than any other country.

    Following calls from the government to stem the platform’s misuse, WhatsApp has moved to deter mass message forwards and launched an advertising campaign to educate consumers.

    In July, WhatsApp said message forwards will be limited to five chats at a time, whether among individuals or groups, and said it will remove the quick forward button placed next to media messages.

    Separately, India’s federal police has begun probing Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of Facebook user data, which New Delhi suspects included information on Indian users.

     

  • 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.

     

     

  • WhatsApp to start charging business users

    Facebook’s WhatsApp messenger service will start charging businesses for sending marketing and customer service messages, it said on Wednesday, as the social network company’s flagship brand faces slowing usage and revenue growth.

    The messages will be charged at a fixed rate for confirmed delivery, ranging from 0.5 cents to 9 cents per message depending on the country, WhatsApp said.

    Facebook has been looking at ways to monetize its WhatsApp service in the face of rising costs as it spends heavily to improve privacy safeguards and tackles concerns about social media addiction.

    WhatsApp, which has around 1.5 billion users, said starting on Wednesday businesses can use its WhatsApp Business API to send notifications such as shipping confirmations, appointment reminders and event tickets.

    WhatsApp acknowledged that it is charging a premium compared to SMS rates.

    Wireless carriers typically charge businesses well below a penny per SMS, and the price is still close to a penny when including fees collected by intermediaries between carriers and businesses.

    WhatsApp had announced in January it would start allowing small business accounts to communicate through the WhatsApp Business application, which has over three million active users.

    Chief operating officer, Matt Idema, said at the time that the WhatsApp intends to charge businesses in the future.

    Facebook also said on Wednesday that users on its namesake app and Instagram can now see the amount of time they spend on the app each day and receive notifications when they exceed a self-prescribed threshold.

    Users also can mute notifications from the apps for up to eight hours.

     

  • Information Minister cautions Nigerians on social media use

    Information Minister cautions Nigerians on social media use

    Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Wednesday cautioned Nigerians on social media use.

    The Minister admonished Nigerians not to share any information they cannot vouch for on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp as a measure to curtail fake news menace.

    He made the admonition in Abuja at the launch of National Campaign against Fake News.

    He urged social media users that before sharing any information on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp, they should ascertain how credible the source was.

    Mohammed said the campaign against fake news was to sensitise Nigerians to the dangers it posed to peace, security and nation’s corporate existence.

    He said though there were existing laws against fake news, the government did not intend to resort to coercion or censorship.

    “There is an epidemic sweeping the world. If left unchecked, it could be worse than all the plagues that the world has recorded put together.

    “It is a clear and present danger to global peace and security. It is a threat to democracy. It is the epidemic of Fake News. Mixed with hate speech, it is a disaster waiting to happen.

    “For the media, the epidemic is even worse. This is because fake news, in most cases designed to misinform, undermines confidence in the media.

    “And once the people lose confidence in the media, the society is in trouble,” he said.

    The Minister noted that fake news is mainly distributed by social media, but periodically circulated through mainstream media.

    He said fake news though not new it becane a issue of concern with the speed at which it spread around the world, and that means is the social media.

    “Anyone with a phone and internet access can author and make fake news go viral in minutes.

    “With the number of mobile phone users in the world expected to pass the 5 billion mark by 2019, you can see the kind of crisis we face,” he said.

    He said fake news is already having far reaching repercussions across the world and Nigeria is no exception.

    “In India, about a dozen people have been killed in the past six weeks just because of fake news or hoax messages.

    “The victims were lynched after they were falsely accused of child abduction based on fake messages circulated via the social media platform, WhatsApp!

    “Right here in Nigeria, the situation is not better. And it is not restricted to the social media.

    “Last Thursday, the front page headline of a national newspaper was: Court orders National Assembly to begin impeachment of Buhari.

    “The problem with that news item is that it is fake news.

    He said the judgment was manipulated to read that the court has given the go-ahead for the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against the President.

    The minister recalled a recent report by the BBC, that fake news circulating in the social media is fuelling the farmers-herders crises in Nigeria.

    “Gory pictures from other lands are circulated freely via Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, purportedly being from the killings in Jos or Benue.

    “In 2017, a fake report circulated on the social media claimed that five students of the College of Education, Gidan Waya, were ambushed and killed by
    Fulani herdsmen in southern Kaduna.

    “That report turned out to be false. No student was killed. I can go on and on,” he said.

    The minister stressed that in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Nigeria, fake news is a time bomb.

    He said that government would consider engaging big technology companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter in addressing the menace.

     

  • WhatsApp introduces new feature to curb fake news

    WhatsApp has announced the launch of a new feature globally that will highlight when a message has been forwarded and not composed by the sender.

    The messaging application made the move public on Tuesday through its official blog following calls from various parts of the world, including India, to tackle the spread of fake news.

    In the statement, the platform, owned by Facebook, said, “Starting today, WhatsApp will indicate which messages you receive, have been forwarded to you.

    “This extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow,” WhatsApp said in a blog.

    “It also helps you determine if your friend or relative wrote the message they sent or if it originally came from someone else.

    “To see this new forwarded label, you need to have the latest supported version of WhatsApp on your phone,” WhatsApp added.

    Recently, while replying a notice by the Indian government to take immediate measures to prevent misuse of its platform, WhatsApp had said that it was testing a new label that highlights when a message has been forwarded.

    “This could serve as an important signal for recipients to think twice before forwarding messages.

    “Because it lets a user know if content they received was written by the person they know or a potential rumour from someone else,” it had said.

    In its blog, the instant messaging application added, “WhatsApp cares deeply about your safety.

    “We encourage you to think before sharing messages that were forwarded. As a reminder, you can report spam or block a contact in one tap and can always reach out to WhatsApp directly for help.”

    The company had last month also announced “unrestricted monetary awards” for research on spread of misinformation on its platform to address the problem.

     

  • Users groan as Govt. imposes new tax on Facebook, WhatsApp, IG, others

    A tax on the use of social media in Uganda has come into effect with many users complaining that it is costly and will also limit their freedoms.

    Telecommunication companies on July 1 started enforcing the excise duty charge on Over-The-Top services dubbed ‘social media tax’.

    The tax affects social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram, Viber, and Skype among other.

    For one to access the platforms, they have to pay a daily fee of 200 shillings (0.05 U.S. dollars).

    Government argued that the move is aimed at raising domestic revenue instead of depending on the increasing cost of foreign financing.

    Frank Tumwebaze, minister of information, communication and technology, described the fee as a ‘small tax’ that will contribute to national development.

    The coming into effect of the tax has however caused concerns with some describing it as an unfair tax since they pay many other taxes to government.

    Daraus Bahikire, a Uganda’s social media activist, told Xinhua that while it is an obligation to pay the tax, the government must also ensure that the revenue collected is not embezzled.

    “My concern is on the utilization of this big tax revenue. What hurts us is to hear billions of money lost in embezzlement, fraud and other forms of revenue misuse,” Bahikire said.

    “I urge all Ugandans to be vigilant on the quality of services in their areas and ensure that our money is not misused by selfish human beings,” he added.

    Martha Chemutai, a public relations practitioner, argued that as the telecommunication companies enforce the tax, they must also improve on the service they offer.

    She argued that most times the connectivity is unreliable.

    Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, told Xinhua in a recent interview that the tax is unwarranted and unnecessary on tax payers.

    “It is a restriction on people’s individual freedom to express themselves and communicate freely since it makes access costly and prohibitive,” said Sewanyana.

    “It is a double tax since we pay for airtime. Such a tax should be rejected,” noting that the law on social media taxation would be subjected to litigation to determine its constitutionality,” he said.

    Some social media users have resorted to installing Virtual Private Networks (VPN) applications in a bid to evade the tax.

    People with VPN unblocked their social media sites without paying the tax.

    Godfrey Mutabazi, the executive director of Uganda Communications Commission, the state regulator of telecommunications companies, said government has all the technology to block the VPN services.

    MTN, one of the telecommunication companies in a statement on its website, said operators will block access to VPNs that are used to evade the social media tax.

    Beside the social media tax, government on June 21 announced that it will also closely monitor social media to arrest people who use it for illegal purposes.

    A Finscope Uganda 2018 report released last week showed that out of Uganda’s population of 40 million people, only 9.7 million people have mobile phones; of these only 1.9 million people have access to the internet.

     

  • WhatsApp raises minimum age in Europe to 16

    WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Facebook Inc, is raising its minimum age from 13 to 16 in Europe to help it comply with new data privacy rules coming into force in May.

    WhatsApp will ask European users to confirm they are at least 16 years old when they are prompted to agree new terms of service and a privacy policy provided by a new WhatsApp Ireland Ltd entity in the next few weeks.

    It is not clear how or if the age limit will be checked given the limited data requested and held by the service.

    Facebook, which has a separate data policy, is taking a different approach to teens aged between 13 and 15 in order to comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law.

    It is asking them to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform, otherwise they will not see a fully personalised version of the social media platform.

    But WhatsApp, which had more than 1.5 billion users in January according to Facebook, said in a blog post it was not asking for any new rights to collect personal information in the agreement it has created for the EU.

    “Our goal is simply to explain how we use and protect the limited information we have about you,” it said.

    WhatsApp, founded in 2009, has come under pressure from some European governments in recent years because of its end-to-end encrypted messaging system and its plan to share more data with its parent, Facebook.

    Facebook itself is under scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers around the world since disclosing in March that the personal information of millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, setting off wider concerns about how it handles user data.

    WhatsApp’s minimum age of use will remain 13 years in the rest of the world, in line with its parent.
    GDPR is the biggest overhaul of online privacy since the birth of the internet, giving Europeans the right to know what data is stored on them and the right to have it deleted.

    Apple Inc and some other tech firms have said they plan to give people in the U.S. and elsewhere the same protections and rights that Europeans will gain.

    European regulators have already disrupted a move by WhatsApp to change its policies to allow it to share users’ phone numbers and other information with Facebook to help improve the product and more effectively target ads.

    WhatsApp suspended the change in Europe after widespread regulatory scrutiny.

    It said on Tuesday it still wanted to share the data at some point.

    “As we have said in the past, we want to work closer with other Facebook companies in the future and we will keep you updated as we develop our plans,” it said.

    Other changes announced by WhatsApp on Tuesday include allowing users to download a report detailing the data it holds on them, such as the make and model of the device they used, their contacts and groups and any blocked numbers.

    “This feature will be rolling out to all users around the world on the newest version of the app,” it said.

    The blog post also points to safety tips on the service, such as the ability to block unwanted users, and delete and report spam.

     

  • France builds WhatsApp rival due to surveillance risk

    The French government is building its own encrypted messenger service to ease fears that foreign entities can spy on private conversations between top officials, France digital ministry said on Monday.

    None of the world’s major encrypted messaging apps, including Facebook’s (FB.O) WhatsApp and Telegram, a favorite of President Emmanuel Macron, are based in France, raising the risk of data breaches at servers outside the country.

    The ministry said about 20 officials and top civil servants are testing the new app which a state-employed developer has designed with the aim that its use will become mandatory for the whole government by the summer.

    “We need to find a way to have an encrypted messaging service that is not encrypted by the United States or Russia.

    “You start thinking about the potential breaches that could happen, as we saw with Facebook, so we should take the lead,’’ the digital ministry said.

    The U.S. social network, which bought WhatsApp in 2014, has drawn heavy criticism since it acknowledged that information about many millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    “The French government’s encrypted app has been developed on the basis of free-to-use code found on the Internet and could be eventually made available to all citizens,’’ the ministry added.

    The ministry however declined to give the names of either the codes or the messaging service.

    Reuters

  • Patent infringement: BlackBerry files lawsuit against Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram

    Patent infringement: BlackBerry files lawsuit against Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram

    BlackBerry on Tuesday filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram apps, arguing that they copied technology and features from BlackBerry Messenger.

    “Defendants created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry’s innovations, using a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features,” Canada-based BlackBerry said in a filing with a Los Angeles federal court.

    The lawsuit followed years of negotiation and BlackBerry has an obligation to shareholders to pursue appropriate legal remedies, BlackBerry spokeswoman Sarah McKinney said.

    Facebook Deputy General Counsel Paul Grewal said in a statement that the company intended to fight the lawsuit.

    “Blackberry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, Blackberry is now looking to tax the innovation of others,” Grewal said.

    BlackBerry is trying to persuade other companies to pay licencing royalties to use its trove of more than 40,000 global patents on technology including operating systems, networking infrastructure, acoustics, messaging, automotive subsystems, cyber-security and wireless communications. BlackBerry is also selling cyber-security software for self-driving cars.

    BlackBerry sued Nokia Corp in February 2017, alleging infringement of patents relating to 3G and 4G wireless communications technology. That case is still pending in federal court in Delaware.

    Last year Qualcomm Inc agreed to pay BlackBerry $940 million to resolve arbitration over royalty payments.

    In October 2017 BlackBerry announced a confidential settlement with Blu Products, a Florida-based maker of low-cost mobile devices it had also sued for patent infringement.

     

  • WeChat officially crosses one billion monthly active users

    WeChat officially crosses one billion monthly active users

    Chief Executive Offer (CEO) Pony Ma of Tencent, parent company of WeChat on Monday has said accounts on the all-in-one WeChat app have crossed the one billion mark.

    Pony Ma revealed the figure on the sidelines of China’s parliamentary session underway in Beijing enthusing “WeChat’s worldwide monthly active users have surpassed the critical one billion mark”.

    The all-in-one app is a daily necessity for most users, bringing together messaging, social media, mobile payment, games, news and other services.

    “In the future we hope to use technological innovation to push forward the next developmental step of reform and opening,” Ma said.

    Although Ma said WeChat’s monthly active users had crossed the one billion thresholds, a company spokesman told AFP he was referring to its total number of accounts.

    Still, the one billion figure indicates the huge user base which Tencent has built up both inside and outside China for its all-in-one app.

    It compares with 2.1 billion monthly active users on Facebook and 1.5 billion on its messaging app WhatsApp.

    The popularity of WeChat, and profits from its addictive mobile games, have pushed Tencent’s earnings and share price sharply upwards.

    The company surpassed Facebook in market value last year and the 47-year-old Ma has rocketed to near the apex of China’s rich list.