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Facebook announced Thursday it has blocked Australians from viewing and sharing news on the platform because of proposed laws in the country to make digital giants pay for journalism. Australian publishers can continue to publish news content on Facebook, but links and posts can’t be viewed or shared by Australian audiences, the U.S.-based company said

Facebook was fined EUR 7 million (roughly Rs. 61 crore) by an Italian watchdog for not complying with a request by the regulator to correct improper commercial practices in the group’s treatment of user data. Facebook was not immediately available for comment. In November 2018, the antitrust body ruled that Facebook had not informed users

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was interested in tech billionaire Elon Musk’s proposal that the two men chat on the audio chat app Clubhouse. Musk, one of the world’s richest people, on Sunday tagged the Kremlin’s account on Twitter along with the invitation. In a separate tweet in Russian,

Social network Parler, which is popular with supporters of Donald Trump, announced Monday it had relaunched after being forced offline over incitements to violence on the platform. Parler, which calls itself “the free speech social network”, came under scrutiny following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.  Apple and Google pulled the network’s app

Accused by the Trump administration of being a front for the Chinese government, TikTok’s advertisement business looked bleak last July. Big brands backed off on spending even as TikTok executives offered refunds to advertisers in the event the hot social media platform were to be banned from operating in the United States. But after it

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Centre and WhatsApp to reply to a fresh plea alleging lower standards of privacy for Indians in comparison to European users saying it is the duty of the judiciary to protect citizens’ privacy. People have grave apprehensions that they will lose their privacy and it is our duty to protect

Facebook is among the largest social media platforms and it brings together people from different regions, ethnicities, and cultures. Facebook-owned Instagram also offers a platform for people from different backgrounds to connect and share their interests. Both platforms allow you to browse and share content in multiple languages be it on the app or in

One of the most popular features of WhatsApp is the ability to send stickers. If you have migrated to Signal have after WhatsApp’s privacy policy changes, you might have been taken aback by the sparsity of default sticker packs. So here’s a quick guide to downloading some extra stickers and even creating some of your

TikTok paret China’s ByteDance is said to be exploring the sale of the India operations of TikTok to rival unicorn Glance, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. The discussions, initiated by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, are private, early and complex, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Glance’s parent, mobile advertising technology firm InMobi,

The US audio-only social media app Clubhouse said it is reviewing its data protection practices after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users’ data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government. The app said in a response to the study, published by the research group at Stanford

Instagram on Wednesday banned Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, from repeatedly posting misinformation about vaccine safety and COVID-19. Kennedy Jr. has amassed a huge following on social media, where he frequently posts debunked or unproven claims about vaccines. He also uses his social media pages to post about

A company catering to women and led by women has made its 31-year-old female founder a billionaire. Shares of Bumble, the owner of the dating app where women make the first move, soared 67 percent in its trading debut to $72 (roughly Rs. 5,250) at 1:03pm in New York (11:33pm IST), valuing Chief Executive Officer Whitney Wolfe

The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Centre and Twitter India on a plea seeking a mechanism for regulating content and advertisements spreading hatred through fake news and instigative messages via bogus accounts. A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice to the Centre and

Twitter CEO and Co-Founder Jack Dorsey on Friday announced that he was giving BTC 500 (approximately Rs. 172 crores) along with American rapper Shawn Corey Carter — famously known as Jay-Z — to launch a new endowment called Btrust. It will be aimed at funding Bitcoin development, with initial focus in Africa and India, the

India’s technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday warned US social media firms to abide by the country’s laws, a day after a face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration and Twitter over content regulation. Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called out Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp by name and said

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said social-media services like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube need clearer laws and rules to govern whether controversial accounts, like former US President Donald Trump’s, have a place on their services, rather than being asked to make free-speech decisions themselves. “Unilateral action by individual companies in democracies like ours is

Twitter will not allow former president Donald Trump back on the platform even if he runs for office again, the company’s chief financial officer said Wednesday. “The way our policies work, when you’re removed from the platform, you’re removed from the platform, whether you’re a commentator, a CFO or a current or former public official,”

Canadian e-commerce company Shopify said on Tuesday it would expand its payment option, “Shop Pay,” to all users choosing to sell on Facebook and Instagram. The move marks the first time the feature will be available outside Shopify’s platform and will help the company tap into the rise of shopping through social media platforms during

Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, has become the talk of the town as it promotes Aatmanirbhar Bharat by offering a a Twitter-like experience, but in Indian languages. It is available as an app on both iOS and Android, and also has a webpage. Koo is the winner of the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat app challenge from

Twitter said on Tuesday it believes orders by the Indian government to take down accounts are inconsistent with local law and that for some accounts, it would not agree to an outright ban and would instead restrict access within India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has asked Twitter to take down more than 1,100 accounts

Twitter has started wider testing of Spaces, its Clubhouse-styled feature that brings audio chat rooms to users. The feature, which is powered by Periscope, was first announced in November and was initially rolled out for limited beta testing in December. The wider testing of Twitter Spaces comes amid the growing popularity of Clubhouse, the voice-based

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday tweeted about joining homegrown Twitter alternative Koo. The new development comes in the midst of a tussle between the government and Twitter over content censorship during the ongoing farmers’ protest in India. Launched in March last year, Koo is a Twitter-like microblogging experience in Indian languages. The app won

Facebook, Twitter, and Alphabet’s YouTube made smaller strides than their social media rivals including TikTok and Reddit at battling harmful content such as hate speech and misinformation during the second half of 2020, a study released on Monday showed. Advertising agency IPG Mediabrands released its “Media Responsibility Index,” examining how the top social media platforms

Twitter’s refusal to comply with an Indian government directive to block more than 250 accounts and posts has put the social media giant at the centre of a political firestorm in one of its key markets. Government officials, business people, and ordinary netizens are split over free speech and the US company’s compliance practices, in

WhatsApp is reportedly testing a feature that will allow users to mute a video before sending it to a contact. Simply dubbed as Mute videos, this feature is being rolled out to WhatsApp beta users who will likely need to be on the latest version of the beta – 2.21.3.13. Releasing a feature to the

Amid the ”Toolkit” controversy surrounding the ongoing farmers’ protest, the Central government has directed the microblogging platform Twitter to remove 1,178 Pakistani-Khalistani accounts spreading misinformation and provocative content on farmers agitation, sources said. According to sources, Twitter is yet to completely comply with orders. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday had said that there

Moving from one instant messenger to another is like shifting houses. It’s a total pain, a lot of times you lose things and you also have to start afresh. If you feel the same way, Telegram has a new feature — the ability to import chats from WhatsApp. The steps are very simple and here’s

Facebook provides its users a host of privacy options, including the ability to lock your profile. Locking a user’s profile shows only a limited view of the profile to people who are not on the friends list on Facebook. A locked profile will show photos and posts on the timeline, profile picture and cover photo,

Myanmar’s junta blocked Facebook in the name of ensuring stability on Thursday and activists said at least three people were arrested at a street protest against the coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi faces charges for illegally importing communications equipment after the army takeover on Monday that

Telegram was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide in January 2021, with 24 percent of the total downloads coming from India, according to the latest data from Sensor Tower. The messaging app was downloaded 63 million times last month (which means India saw around 15 million new Telegram users in January, going by the percentage