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Facebook on Saturday blocked live broadcasts from a chronically ill bed-ridden man who appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron for a medically-assisted death and who wanted to show what he expects will be a painful end to his life after he announced that he was stopping all food and drink. Prostrate on his bed, Alain

Instagram has launched a dedicated Reels tab for users in India that will replace the Explore tab after testing it in August. The latest change will make it easier for people to discover new Reels creators and their videos in the app. India is the first market to get the dedicated tab, and according to

Facebook’s final policy changes in the lead-up to US elections in November are unlikely to stem a flood of disinformation around the vote, which could suppress turnout and sow confusion about results, election experts said on Friday. Restrictions on paid messaging were a net positive, experts said, but warned such moves did little to address

With just two months left until the US presidential election, Facebook says it is taking more steps to encourage voting, minimise misinformation and reduce the likelihood of post-election “civil unrest.” The company said Thursday it will restrict new political ads in the week before the election and remove posts that convey misinformation about COVID-19 and

TikTok’s prospective buyers are discussing four ways to structure an acquisition from its Chinese owner ByteDance, which include buying the app’s US operations without key software, after Beijing stalled a deal which could be worth $30 billion (roughly Rs. 219,792 crores), sources said. Other options being considered include asking for Chinese approval to pass TikTok’s

Facebook said it will block news sharing on its platforms in Australia if the government goes ahead with a law to force it, and Alphabet’s Google, to pay local media outlets for featuring their content on its platforms. The matter is being watched closely around the world as it represents the biggest challenge so far

Facebook said on Monday it is partnering with external researchers to examine the impact of the social media site on society during the 2020 US presidential election. The company said findings of the studies will not be published until the middle of next year, at the earliest. The initiative expands on its Social Science One project

The owner of popular video app TikTok said Sunday it will “strictly abide” by China’s new export rules, which could potentially complicate a sale of the business as demanded by US President Donald Trump. TikTok has been at the center of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing, and Trump signed an executive order on

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg took responsibility and faulted his company for not removing the page and event for a militia group before two people were killed at a protest in Kenosha, saying it was “largely an operational mistake”. The page and event listing violated Facebook’s policies and should have been removed after numerous

TikTok celebrities Bryce Hall and Blake Gray are facing criminal charges after they hosted recent parties in the Hollywood Hills despite the city’s ban on large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Friday. The Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed misdemeanour charges Thursday against Hall and Gray. The internet celebrities with millions of followers

Facebook on Thursday told Reuters that Apple rejected its attempt to tell users the iPhone maker would take a 30 percent cut of sales in a new online events feature, forcing Facebook to remove the message to get the tool to users. Facebook said that Apple cited an App Store rule that bars developers from showing

A Delhi Assembly panel on peace and harmony decided on Tuesday to summon Facebook officials as it initiated proceedings over complaints about the social media giant”s alleged “deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content” in India, an official statement said. The development comes in the backdrop of a report published in the Wall Street

Facebook said on Tuesday it plans to launch its news service in India, Brazil, France, Germany, and the UK in the coming months, after having introduced the feature in the United States last year. Facebook News is expected to launch in multiple countries within the next year. The social media giant also said that it

TikTok and one of its employees on Monday separately sued US President Donald Trump’s administration over his executive order banning transactions in the United States with the popular short-form video-sharing app, calling it a pretext to fuel anti-China rhetoric as he seeks re-election. Culver City, California-based TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance rejected what they called

 Facebook on Friday pushed for legislation that makes it easier for users to transfer photos and videos to a rival tech platform, in comments it sent to the Federal Trade Commission ahead of a hearing on the topic on September 22. Data portability, considered a potential remedy for large technology companies whose control of social media

Some European Union regulators objected to Ireland’s preliminary ruling in a landmark privacy investigation of Twitter, the lead regulator said on Thursday, triggering a process where a majority decision will be sought. Twitter had looked set to become the first big technology company to face a fine by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) under tougher

Facebook is a non-partisan platform which denounces hate and bigotry, the company’s India head said on Friday, amid a controversy over how the US social media giant regulates political content in its biggest market by number of users. Facebook and its top lobbying executive in India, Ankhi Das, have faced criticism after a news report

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has summoned representatives of Facebook on September 2 to hear their views on prevention of misuse of social media platforms, the Lok Sabha secretariat said on Thursday. Another agenda will be the oral evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the subject “safeguarding citizens” rights and prevention of misuse of the social/online news media platforms including special

The country’s antitrust watchdog – Competition Commission of India (CCI) – has dismissed a case against Facebook’s WhatsApp, saying the company has not abused its dominant position to expand in the country’s digital payments market, according to an official order. A case in March alleged that WhatsApp was bundling its digital payment facility, WhatsApp Pay,

Oracle Corp has held preliminary talks with TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, and was seriously considering buying the app’s operations in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday. Oracle was working with some US investors that already have a stake in ByteDance, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital,

After several years operating as a secure text messaging and voice-only calling app, Telegram has finally added video calling to its roster. This feature is now available to both iOS and Android users, albeit in its alpha stage. Telegram Rolls Out Secure Video Calling In a Telegram Blog post, the Telegram team explains that all video

A top Facebook executive in India has filed a police complaint in New Delhi saying she is receiving death threats following a media report that said she and the US social network company allegedly favoured Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. Ankhi Das, Facebook’s top public-policy executive in India, in her complaint to Delhi police

TikTok is alleged to have collected the MAC (media access control) addresses of Android devices without the users’ consent. Although Google previously banned this practice, TikTok continued to secretly steal device data for over a year. How TikTok Broke the Google Play Store’s Rules According to the Wall Street Journal, the China-based TikTok tracked the

India’s main opposition Congress party called on Sunday for a parliamentary panel to investigate what it said was favourable treatment by Facebook’s India team towards the country’s ruling party. Citing a report published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, the party said employees of Facebook and WhatsApp overseeing Indian content had refused to bar

In a move to make Twitter a safer space for conversation, the platform has rolled out a new conversation feature that lets users limit who can reply to their Tweets. Advertisement The change means that users can now feel more comfortable talking about sensitive topics without unwanted replies getting in the way. How Does Limiting

Zee5 HiPi has been launched as a new short-video platform that will join the growing list of TikTok-like offerings, including from the established players like Instagram and YouTube. HiPi will look to take on the Indian alternatives to TikTok, such as Bolo Indya, Chingari, Mitron, and ShareChat’s Moj. The new platform comes as a part

Although Facebook has had a ban on hate speech for a while, it has now expanded its definition of the term. Under Facebook’s new Community Standards, Facebook will remove any posts involving blackface and anti-Semitic stereotypes. Facebook’s War on Hate Speech Facebook’s quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Reports give users insight into what the tech giant

WhatsApp is a popular choice for greetings of any kind, and Independence Day 2020 is no exception. Users will throng groups and chats with messages today, wishing each other, sharing patriotic messages, and even stickers and GIFs. Stickers in particular, have become a popular choice of expression, especially during special occasions and festivals.  Therefore, on this

Social media platforms stepped up fight against misinformation on the US elections, with Facebook starting a hub to help users with poll-related resources and Twitter expanding rules against misinformation on mail-in ballots and early voting. The move comes as online social networks have been drawing flak for what has been called a lax approach to

With the quality of smartphone cameras these days, everyone’s a photographer now. But some of us take this hobby more seriously than others, and some even make money from smartphone photography. Whatever kind of smartphone photographer you are, you’re probably on Instagram. But what if you’re bored of seeing over-the-top food pics, selfies, and other