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US lawmakers unleashed a torrent of criticism against social media top executives Thursday, blaming the companies for amplifying false content and calls to violence, while promising new regulations to stem rampant online disinformation. The video hearing attended remotely by top executives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter got off to a stormy start as lawmakers accused

Instagram Stories will soon get a new option to save unfinished stories as drafts. This feature will allow users to come back to their draft stories and complete them later if they wish to do so. While Instagram says that this feature is a work in progress, screenshots of how this feature may look have

Facebook is building a service for people who are transitioning from prison back into society, part of an apparent effort within the company to create more products for marginalised communities. A promotion for new software called The Re-Entry App was shared at the top of some users’ Instagram feeds on Wednesday. The notification, proposing help

Facebook said on Wednesday it had blocked a group of hackers in China who used the platform to target Uighurs living abroad with links to malware that would infect their devices and enable surveillance. The social media company said the hackers, known as Earth Empusa or Evil Eye in the security industry, targeted activists, journalists, and

The US Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal by Facebook that would have derailed a $15-billion (roughly Rs. 1,08,590 crore) lawsuit over whether it illegally tracked users about a decade ago. The nation’s top court issued an order denying a request by the leading social network to review a California federal court’s decision to

The developer of the conservative social network Parler is alleging he was defamed and improperly ousted by a prominent Republican Party benefactor, two men who replaced him at the company and a political commentator known for his support for former President Donald Trump. John Matze said in a lawsuit he was fired for trying to

Facebook on Tuesday said its once grand annual gathering of software developers will be a one-day, online event this June, potentially lacking an appearance by top executive Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg has long been a star attraction at F8 gatherings, opening the events with keynote presentations to discuss the tech giant’s creations, goals, and vision. Facebook

US President Joe Biden on Monday named a prominent advocate of breaking up Big Tech firms to a key regulatory post, in a move suggesting an aggressive posture on antitrust enforcement. The White House said it was submitting the nomination of Lina Khan, an associate professor of law at Columbia University’s law school, to the

Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners said they had invested a combined $150 million (roughly Rs. 1,090 crores) in Telegram. Mubadala invested $75 million (roughly Rs. 540 crore) in five-year, pre-initial public offering (IPO) bonds of Telegram, while Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners invested a further $75 million (roughly Rs. 540 crore).

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet as an NFT for just over $2.9 million (roughly Rs. 20 crore). The tweet is in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). The tweet is in the form of a NFT – a kind of unique digital asset that has exploded in popularity so far in

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new voice messages playback speed feature to enable users to fast-forward long audio messages. The company is working on bringing three speed levels — 1x, 1.5x, and 2x. WhatsApp is also reportedly working on public testing of multi-device support for iOS users. WhatsApp Web Beta screenshots have surfaced online

Facebook said on Monday that it took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December last year, and that it had over 35,000 people working on tackling misinformation on its platform. The social media giant said that it also removed more than 12 million pieces of content about COVID-19 and vaccines that global health

Donald Trump plans to return to social media soon, using “his own platform” after being banned from Twitter and other outlets, a former advisor said Sunday. “I do think that we’re going to see president Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months,” Jason Miller told Fox News. “It’s going to

Twitter has started rolling out a feature to watch YouTube videos from directly in the timeline, without having to switch apps. This feature is being tested on iOS for now and it will spare you from jumping to different apps for viewing content. If a user shares a YouTube link in his tweet, the video

Political reform, racism, transgender rights — the audio app Clubhouse has unleashed unbridled debates about topics deemed dangerously sensitive in Saudi Arabia, but surveillance fears have spooked users in the authoritarian state. Banned by the censors in China, the invitation-only app is gaining traction in parts of the Gulf, sparking bold conversations in countries known

Twitter could be working on an “undo tweet” feature specifically for its paid subscribers to let them recall their tweets that have a typo or some other error. The new development could be the company’s response to the much-demanded edit option that it has not provided on the microblogging network so far. It could also

Twitter said on Thursday it will seek public input on when and how it should ban world leaders, saying it was reviewing policy and considering whether the leaders should be held to the same rules as other users. Social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook have been under scrutiny for the way they handle accounts

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger — all Facebook services seem to be experiencing outages around the world. Many users have been posting on Twitter about not being able to log into any of the Facebook services, and Gadgets 360 staff also found that we can’t send messages on WhatsApp, or open the other sites. According

In January, just weeks after Twitter permanently banned former President Donald Trump following the storming of the US Capitol, the social media company started asking US users to help identify and fact-check misleading tweets in a new pilot programme. But Birdwatch, which has about 2,000 participants and is currently cordoned off in its own section of the

Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor on Tuesday gave Twitter a one-month ultimatum to remove “banned” content, threatening to consider blocking the social media platform within the country if it does not comply. Last week Roskomnadzor started disrupting Twitter’s services in Russia, saying the US platform failed to comply with its requests to delete content related to

Facebook said on Wednesday it is starting to remove the recommendations it gives global users for political and social issue Facebook groups, a move it has billed as turning down tension on the site. The company also announced in a blog post changes aimed at reducing the reach of groups that break site rules, including

Nearly a decade ago, South by Southwest was known as a launchpad for Internet phenomena: The annual tech and arts festival was where Twitter broke out and where masses of 20-somethings made group messaging apps a thing. In the spring of 2012, the king of the conference was Highlight. Paul Davison, then 32, had released

The Florida teenager accused of being behind the hack of celebrity Twitter accounts last year has pleaded guilty in the state’s 13th Judicial Circuit Court in Tampa and agreed to serve three years in juvenile prison. Those whose accounts were hacked included US President Joe Biden, who was then a presidential candidate; former president Barack

France’s data privacy watchdog said Wednesday that it had opened an investigation into Clubhouse, the US audio chat app that has become a social media hit. The inquiry will seek to determine if European data protection rules apply to the US company, the CNIL said in a statement, adding that it could take punitive measures

Video-sharing platform TikTok may launch a group messaging feature this year, people with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters, putting the Chinese-owned app in more direct competition with social media rivals such as Facebook. Group messaging is part of owner ByteDance’s plan to develop TikTok into more of a “social interactions app”, one of the

Oman blocked US audio app Clubhouse on Sunday because it did not have the right permit, authorities said, but some activists described the move as a further erosion of freedom of expression in the Gulf state. The government did not respond immediately to a request for comment, but the telecoms regulator told WAF news website

Twitter announced that it is planning to enable two-factor authentication to secure users’ accounts by only using security keys to log in. Currently, a user can only log in to Twitter using their security but will need to have a third party two-factor authentication to be set up as a backup. Twitter has only announced

Zoom Escaper offers fun ways of escaping a meeting on the platform by playing sound effects of choppy connection, baby crying, and more. Created by artist Sam Lavigne, the Web widget lets you choose from a wide variety of sound effects (read: excuses) that will help you escape a meeting without raising suspicion among other

Facebook, which has been criticised by lawmakers and researchers for allowing vaccine misinformation to spread on its platforms, said on Monday it has started adding labels to posts that discuss the safety of the COVID-19 shots and will soon label all posts about the vaccines. Facebook said in a blog post it is also launching

Twitter on Monday announced a series of initiatives that it says focuses on encouraging informed healthy conversations between candidates, political parties, citizens, media, and society. The initiatives include an information search prompt with the Election Commission of India and state election commissions to make it easier for users to find credible information about candidate lists, voting dates, polling