Internet giants, including social media apps Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, joined several world leaders to issue a global call to better protect children online at a Paris summit on Thursday.

The call, initiated by France and the UN child protection agency UNICEF, acknowledges that “in the digital environment, children can come across harmful and violent content and manipulation of information. Just like adults, children have rights to privacy, which should be respected.”

The text also listed “threats amplified by technology” including cyber bullying, sexual abuse, prostitution, human trafficking, sexual and gender-based violence or violent online radicalization.

“We call upon all governments, online service providers and relevant organizations to stand up for children’s rights in the digital environment,” it said.

Signatories include Amazon, Google and YouTube, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, Microsoft, Snapchat, and Twitter. The call has also been joined by eight nations including France, Italy, Argentina, Jordan, and Morocco — although not the United States.

About 30 heads of state and government and US Vice-President Kamala Harris were participating in the Paris Peace Forum that opened Thursday. The summit, organized both in person and online, brings together world leaders, CEOs, NGOs, and others to discuss global issues such as climate, the COVID-19 pandemic and digital transition.

Macron chaired the session about children’s rights in the presence of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

“We must regulate contents and authorization tools so that an 8-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 15-year-old child … cannot be exposed to all contents without rules,” Macron said. That must go via parental control installed by default on some tools, he said. He also insisted on the need for educating children about the risks of social media.

Macron, Harris, EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also participated in another roundtable on regulating the digital domain, along with Microsoft president Brad Smith. Harris announced that the U.S. is joining the Paris Call launched in 2018 to improve security and better regulate cyberspace.

Children’s rights advocates have for years urged internet giants to take action to better protect children.

Revelations last month from whistleblower Frances Haugen about internal Facebook studies on the harm of Instagram on teenagers intensified parents’ concerns about the popular photo sharing app.

Justine Atlan, head of “E-Enfance,” a group advocating the protection of children on the internet, participated in the Paris Peace Forum.

“We can build a lot of tools … but all these functionalities are useless because children lie about their age. For me, this is the big issue,” she said. “That’s why I think we all need to work together and find solutions.”

Nora Fraisse, head of a French association fighting school bullying, praised “a key moment” that puts “international pressure” on internet giants.

Fraisse founded “Marion La Main Tendue” (“Marion The Outstretched Hand”) after her daughter, Marion, committed suicide at the age of 13 because she was being harassed at school.

“Those who are spreading hatred via their pipes hold some responsibility,” she said about popular social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. Cyberbullying and bullying at school are often interconnected.

Fraisse said social media companies should request proof of identity as a first step and have better control over published content.

Social media companies have generally banned kids under 13 from signing up for their services, although it’s been widely documented that kids sign up anyway, with or without their parents’ permission.

Fraisse, who speaks in schools about online risks, also called for better educating children and parents on these issues.

She cited a nationwide study her association commissioned this year that showed the proportion of those who attempted suicide is higher among children bullied at school (12 percent) than in the general population (7 percent).

The post Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat Join World Leaders to Issue Global Call to Protect Children Online appeared first on Technology News.

Instagram Reels is getting two new TikTok-like features. The latest audio tools called Text to Speech and Voice Effects offer content creators more options while creating Reels. The Text to Speech feature lets creators use an artificial voice to read any text they add instead of using their voice in the video, while Voice Effects can be used to modify the audio and voiceover in Instagram Reels. The latest features released by the social networking platform owned by Meta (formerly known as Facebook) are already available on TikTok.

Instagram on Thursday announced the latest updates via its community page. The Text to Speech and Voice Effects features are aimed at allowing users to be more creative with Reels. The Text to Speech option can be accessed via the text tool in the Reels camera. It enables an auto-generated voice to read the text one added to Reels aloud. As mentioned, Voice Effects gives you options to add an artificial voice to the video for narration instead of using your own.

How to use Text to Speech on Instagram

To add the new text to the speech option on Instagram,

1. Open Reels Camera in the Instagram app.
2. Record a video or upload via the gallery.
3. Tap on the Text tool to add text.
4. Tap on the text bubble and select Text to Speech from the three dots menu.
5. Users will get two options to select from — Voice 1 and Voice 2. Select and tap on Post.

The Voice Effect feature allows modifying the audio or the voiceover in your Reels. At present Instagram offers five voice effect options —announcer, helium, giant, robot, and vocalist to make funny videos with different voices.

How to use Voice Effects on Instagram

1. Record a Reel and tap music note to open the audio mixer.
2. From the Effects menu select a voice effect to modify your reel or voiceover.

The new Instagram features are now being rolled out to users on both iOS and Android.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations.
More

PUBG: New State Publisher Krafton Comments on the Bricking Issue; Age Verification on the Game Fails

Related Stories

The post Instagram Brings Text to Speech and Voice Effects Features to Reels: How to Use appeared first on Technology News.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said on Wednesday it is integrating Workplace, the work-focused version of its social app, with Microsoft’s collaboration app Teams, so users can better share information between the two platforms.

The changes will allow users to share content from Workplace’s newsfeed and from its groups into Microsoft’s Teams platform. Soon, it said, users will be able to livestream video from Teams into Workplace groups.

Remote-working tools have become key fixtures for companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You have to meet employees where they directly are, wherever they’re doing their work, whatever platforms they’re most using,” said Ujjwal Singh, head of Workplace, in an interview. He said the integration was largely aimed at customers of both products.

Workplace, which the Silicon Valley company uses as its internal messaging board, was launched outside of the company five years ago. Former Meta employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen recently leaked internal presentations and discussions shared on the service.

The software is also used by companies including Walmart and Deliveroo. Meta says it has 7 million paid subscribers on Workplace.

Microsoft and Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta to signal its refocus on the metaverse, are also both building out virtual reality solutions for remote working.

Microsoft last week announced it would bring its virtual platform Mesh into Microsoft Teams next year. Meta recently launched a beta test of Horizon Workrooms, a remote work app for users of its VR headsets.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

The post Meta’s Workplace App to Integrate With Microsoft Teams, to Help Users Share Information Between Platforms appeared first on Technology News.

Cuba’s foreign minister on Wednesday said the United States was behind protests over human and civil rights planned for November 15 in the communist-run country, and alleged US-based social media platform Facebook was helping to promote them.

Dissidents on the island, organized under a Facebook group called Archipielago, in September requested permission to conduct the rallies. Cuban authorities denied their request, alleging protesters were working with the United States to overthrow the government.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez reiterated those allegations before a meeting of foreign diplomats in Havana, saying the United States had helped to underwrite and organize the protests in a bid to destabilize the government.

“US policy…is doomed to failure. It is unfeasible. It hasn’t worked for 60 years. It does not work now (…) and it will not work in the future,” he said.

Rodriguez specifically called out the role of Facebook, saying dissidents organized in groups on the platform had violated the social media platform’s own policies, “altering logarithms, altering the geolocation mechanism to simulate the massive presence in Cuba of people with accounts that are known to reside outside our country, primarily in Florida and in the US territory.”

Rodriguez said these practices violated both US and international law.

“As has already happened, Facebook could perfectly be, with strict adherence to the laws, sued for these practices against Cuba.”

Neither the US State Department nor Facebook, which recently changed its company name to Meta, immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.

The recent expansion of web access in Cuba has given new ways for people to share criticisms and mobilize online.

The Facebook group behind the protests, Archipielago, says it has 31,501 members, more than half of which it says reside in Cuba.

Cuban dissident leader Yunior Garcia, of Archipielago, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Cuba’s government has a monopoly on telecommunications, and regularly blames trolls and foreign agents on social media for stirring unrest.

The island nation suffered disruptions in access to internet and social media following large anti-government rallies in July, in an apparent bid to dampen further calls to protest .

Rodriguez also told diplomats that the United States last week had offered Cuba one million doses of vaccine against coronavirus. He criticized the offer as “opportunistic” and irrelevant, given that Cuba has already vaccinated nearly its entire population with home-grown drugs.

Instead, he made a counter-offer, suggesting that Cuba and the United States each offer a donation of their respective vaccines to a country more in need of them.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

The post Facebook, US Helping to Stimulate November 15 Protests, Cuba Foreign Minister Says appeared first on Technology News.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on Wednesday said she was “extremely concerned” about the company’s plans to build a “metaverse” — a virtual reality version of the internet — because of privacy problems.

Faced with a barrage of bad publicity due to Haugen’s revelations, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans late last month to create a digital world where people feel as if they are face-to-face using virtual reality technology.

Speaking to the French parliament on Wednesday during a European tour, Haugen said that she was “extremely concerned about the metaverse.”

Meta, formerly Facebook, “wants to fill our environment with sensors, microphones, other kinds of ways of monitoring us” and the adoption of the technology by companies would be “super problematic”.

“Let’s imagine you work from home and your employer decides ‘I want to be a metaverse company’,” she told lawmakers.

“You don’t get to decide if Facebook can spy on you like you can opt out from using Facebook in your personal life,” she added.

The former Facebook engineer leaked a trove of internal documents to the media that have sparked weeks of criticism of the social media giant over its impact on fragile democracies and vulnerable teens.

During her testimony to American and European lawmakers over the last month, she has insisted that Facebook chooses profit over curtailing toxic content and that the company cannot be trusted to change its ways.

Zuckerberg has hit back, saying that “the argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical”.

Haugen, a 37-year-old data scientist, also told the French parliament about how she had coped with the scrutiny and public exposure since identifying herself in early October as the main source of a series of explosive reports by the Wall Street Journal.

“Providing psychological support is critical for many whistleblowers,” she said, adding that she had been lucky to move back to live with her mother last year because of Covid-19 lockdowns.

“My mother is a priest and I received countless hours of counselling and therapy,” she said.

“Most whistleblowers don’t have that level of support. Making sure that there is someone that can coach them through the process is vitally important.”

Meta reported profits of $9 billion (roughly Rs. 67,074 crore) in the July-September quarter of the year.

The post Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen ‘Extremely Concerned’ by Metaverse appeared first on Technology News.

Meta said on Tuesday it plans to remove detailed ad-targeting options that refer to “sensitive” topics, such as ads based on interactions with content around race, health, religious practices, political beliefs or sexual orientation.

The company, which recently changed its name to Meta and which makes the vast majority of its revenue through digital advertising, has been under intense scrutiny over its ad-targeting abilities and rules in recent years.

In a blog post, Meta gave examples of targeting categories that would no longer be allowed on its platforms, such as “Lung cancer awareness,” “World Diabetes Day,” ”LGBT culture,” ”Jewish holidays,” or political beliefs and social issues. It said the change would take place starting January 19, 2022.

The company has been hit with criticisms around its micro-targeting capabilities, including over abuses such as advertisers discriminating against or targeting vulnerable groups. In 2019, it agreed to make changes to its ads platform as part of a settlement over housing discrimination issues.

“We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups,” said Graham Mudd, the company’s vice president of product marketing for ads, in the post.

Its tailored ad abilities are used by wide-ranging advertisers, including political campaigns and social issue groups as well as businesses.

“The decision to remove these Detailed Targeting options was not easy and we know this change may negatively impact some businesses and organizations,” Mudd said in the post, adding some advertising partners were concerned they would not be able to use these ads to generate positive social change.

Advertisers on Meta’s platforms can still target audiences by location, use their own customer lists, reach custom audiences who have engaged with their content and send ads to people with similar characteristics to those users.

The move marks a key shift for the company’s approach to social and political advertising, though it is not expected to have major financial implications. CEO Mark Zuckerberg estimated in 2019, for example, that politicians’ ads would make up less than 0.5 percent of Meta’s 2020 revenue.

The issue of political advertising on social media platforms, including whether the content of politicians’ ads should be fact-checked, provoked much debate among the public, lawmakers and companies around the US presidential election.

Twitter in 2019 banned political ads altogether, but Meta had previously said it would not limit how political advertisers reached potential voters.

Facebook, which now allows users to opt to see fewer ads related to topics like politics and alcohol, said on Tuesday it would early next year give people more controls over the ads they see, including ones about gambling and weight loss.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

The post Meta, Formerly Facebook, Plans to Remove Thousands of Sensitive Ad-Targeting Options appeared first on Technology News.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the US House of Representatives has introduced a bill that would require internet platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to allow users to see content not chosen by algorithms.

The legislation, introduced by Representatives Ken Buck, a Republican, and David Cicilline, a Democrat, and others, would require big internet platforms to show consumers information not directed to them via algorithms, putting them outside what the lawmakers called the “filter bubble.”

Cicilline is chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, and Buck is the top Republican. The panel wrote a big report unveiled last year that sharply criticized big tech companies, including Amazon and Apple.

The House measure is a companion to a bill introduced in the Senate in June. That one is also bipartisan.

“Consumers should have the option to engage with internet platforms without being manipulated by secret algorithms driven by user-specific data,” Buck said in a statement.

There is also a raft of antitrust legislation aimed at the big tech platforms.

Most recently, Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, and Republican Tom Cotton introduced a bill that would make it easier for the government to stop deals it believes break antitrust law. It is normally up to the government to show a particular transaction would cause prices to rise or is illegal for other reasons.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

The post Facebook, Google, Other Social Media Users Could Disable Content Algorithms in New US Proposal appeared first on Technology News.

Britain’s Prince Harry said he warned the chief executive of Twitter ahead of the January 6 Capitol riots that the social media site was being used to stage political unrest in the US capital.

Prince Harry made the comments Tuesday while he was taking part in an online panel on misinformation in California. He said he made his concerns known via email to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the day before the riot.

“Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January 6 where I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged,” Prince Harry said at the RE:WIRED tech forum. “That email was sent the day before and then it happened and I haven’t heard from him since.”

Social media sites have come under fire for not doing enough to halt the spread of misinformation and inciteful content, with the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump just one example. Big tech in general has been accused of putting growth and profits ahead of public safety.

Prince Harry also accused other social media sites like Facebook of misleading “billions of people” with COVID and climate change misinformation. He also targeted YouTube, saying many videos spreading COVID misinformation were left up despite violating the site’s own policies.

“And worse, they came to the users via the recommendation tool within YouTube’s own algorithm versus anything that the user was actually searching for,” he said. “It shows really that it can be stopped but also they didn’t want to stop it because it affects their bottom line.”

Prince Harry and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, announced in early 2020 that they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media.

Meghan, a former star of the American TV legal drama “Suits,” married Prince Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle in May 2018.

The post Prince Harry Says He Warned Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey of US Capitol Riots appeared first on Technology News.

Twitter Blue is now rolling out to users in the United States and New Zealand, the company announced on Tuesday. The subscription service offered by the microblogging platform brings in a host of features such as the ability to undo tweets and reading some news articles without advertisements, among others. With Twitter Blue subscriptions, the social media giant is looking to diversify its revenue sources.

Twitter Blue, which will cost $2.99 (roughly Rs. 222) per month in the US, will now include the ability to read some news articles without ads, upload longer videos and customise the navigation bar in the Twitter app.

One of the most handy features of Twitter Blue is the ability to undo tweets. With this, subscribers will have a time limit of 60 seconds to preview and make changes to a tweet before it’s made public. While Twitter still hasn’t introduced a much-demanded “Edit Tweet” feature, the ability to undo tweets before posting may help users avoid unwanted typos or other errors in their posts, as pointed out by renowned sci-fi author John Scalzi.

The San Francisco-based company, which earns most of its money by selling advertising, is eyeing more consistent sources of revenue by selling access to certain features to heavy Twitter users who flock to the site for news and current events.

Twitter Blue subscribers can read articles from publications like the Washington Post, USA Today and Reuters without advertisements. A portion of the user’s Twitter Blue subscription will go to the news organisations, Twitter said.

Subscribers can also pin important conversations to the top of the messaging inbox and change the colour theme of their Twitter app. Users can also post longer videos (up to 10 minutes) on the Web.

Subscribing to Twitter Blue is simple and easy as well. All a user needs to do is click on Twitter Blue from the main menu and tap on Subscribe.

Twitter began rolling out the subscription service in June, launching it first in Canada and Australia. The company declined to say how many subscribers it has.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Meta, Formerly Facebook, Gives Estimate of Bullying, Harassment on Its Platforms for First Time

Related Stories

The post Twitter Blue Now Available in US, New Zealand; Will Allow Users to Undo Tweets, Read Ad-Free News appeared first on Technology News.

Instagram is planning to add a subscriptions feature through which creators can earn money on the social media platform. With the rollout of creator subscriptions, users may have to pay to see Stories or access other content or media from creators on the Meta-owned (formerly known as Facebook) app. Instagram’s Apple App Store listing in the US and India now shows an Instagram Subscriptions category under the In-App Purchases section, hinting at the wider launch of the paid feature. Some social media users also confirmed on Twitter that the new in-app purchase option also appeared in the United Kingdom.

Spotted first by TechCrunch, the Instagram app for iOS is updated with new in-app purchases named Instagram Subscriptions with prices between $0.99 (roughly Rs. 73) and $4.99 (roughly Rs. 360) in the US. It is live in App Store India as well, with a price plan of Rs. 89 per month. The new subscription details are displayed along with Instagram Badges.

The first Instagram Subscriptions in-app purchase was added to Instagram’s US App Store listing on November 1 at the price point of $4.99, the TechCrunch report adds, quoting analytic firm Sensor Tower. The $0.99 in-app purchase was added on November 3, it added.

Few users also suggested via Twitter that the new subscription plans have been listed in the UK App Store as well. However, Instagram has not yet officially announced the rollout of these in-app purchases yet. The move may allow influencers and content creators on the photo-sharing app to sell access to exclusive material.

Twitter introduced a similar feature earlier this year called Super Follows which would allow creators to generate monthly revenue by sharing subscriber-only content with their followers. In February this year, the company had outlined plans, and in September it was introduced for iOS users in the US and Canada in the first phase. Under the plan, creators can set a monthly subscription of $2.99 (roughly Rs. 220), $4.99 (roughly Rs. 360), or $9.99 (roughly Rs. 730) per month.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations.
More

Poco M4 Pro 5G With 90Hz Display, MediaTek Dimensity 810 SoC Launched: Price, Specifications

Related Stories

The post Instagram Testing Subscriptions Feature to Help Creators Generate Monthly Revenue appeared first on Technology News.