Social

Myanmar’s junta extended a social media blockade to Twitter and Instagram on Saturday in the face of a growing protest movement against the coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and halted a transition to democracy. Days after a temporary blockade on Facebook, authorities ordered internet providers to enforce the latest ban “until

Facebook faces a credibility crisis as it is used as a vector for misinformation and manipulation of the public around the world. It has been linked to violence in many parts of the world, and so on Thursday, the social network held a briefing to explain how it is trying to limit misinformation on its

Instagram may soon introduce a vertical feed for Stories, and the company has confirmed it’s working on a prototype after code for it was spotted. The vertical feed will require users to swipe up and down to browse through Instagram stories — instead of taps and horizontal swipes — similar to how the TikTok feed

Twitter India on Thursday removed two of the tweets by Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, citing a violation of the platform’s rules. The actor has been criticising protesting farmers over their agitations against the Centre’s three farm laws. When tried to access the two tweets, a message appears, reading, “This Tweet is no longer available because

Cryptocurrency Dogecoin surged more than 50 percent on Thursday after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted his support for it, two days after he said he was to take a break from Twitter “for a while”. Dogecoin jumped to $0.05798 (roughly Rs. 4) according to data on blockchain and cryptocurrency website Coindesk. Musk first tweeted “Doge”

Facebook turns 17 today, February 4, and is celebrating its annual milestone “Friends Day” with a custom animation wordmark that speaks of friendship and inclusion. The animation shows a woman wearing a headscarf and a young boy connecting via Facebook and exchanging messages, loaded with friendly emoji, to show the length and breadth of the

A fake version of WhatsApp for iPhone appears to have been made by Italian surveillance company Cy4Gate to target specific individuals, according to a report. It could have allowed hackers to gather information about targeted users by tricking them to install certain configuration files on their iPhone. The information that the hackers could obtain include

The Centre has issued a notice to Twitter to comply with its order to remove contents/accounts related to “farmer genocide”. Twitter may face penal action for not complying with government orders, according to the sources. Content with the ”ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide” hashtag was posted on Twitter which was designed to inflame passions and hatred and is factually

A surprise chat between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on new audio-based social network Clubhouse has helped propel the app to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations to the exclusive service. The interaction between the two entrepreneurs on the platform on Sunday came amid intense

Instagram is rolling out a new feature that will let users restore content they’ve deleted over the last 30 days. The Recently Deleted feature can be accessed through a Setting option in the app and applies to photos, videos, reels, and IGTV videos. Users can restore stories as well, but they will remain in the

ByteDance’s Chinese short video app Douyin has filed a complaint with a court in Beijing to sue Tencent Holdings for monopolistic behaviour and asked for CNY 90 million (roughly Rs. 101 crores) in compensation, ByteDance said on Tuesday. Tencent restricts users from sharing Douyin content on its instant messaging apps WeChat and QQ, which should

Offline messaging app Bridgefy said it was downloaded more than 600,000 times in a few hours in Myanmar, after the country’s military seized power on Monday and temporarily disrupted Internet traffic. The Mexico-based startup, which gained popularity during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2020, tweeted that it hoped people in Myanmar would find its app

Facebook on Monday said that pop-up messages on its iPhone and iPad apps will tout benefits of targeted advertisements ahead of a privacy move by Apple that could curb tracking. The tech giants have been clashing over a changes coming in Apple’s iOS operating software, which will include a tracking transparency feature that Facebook claims

The Supreme Court Monday asked instant messaging app WhatsApp to file response on a plea seeking a direction to the RBI and the NPCI to ensure that data collected on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms is not shared with their parent company or any other third party under any circumstances. A bench of Chief Justice

Twitter on Monday “withheld” multiple accounts on its social media platform including those linked with the ongoing farmers” protest at Delhi borders against the new contentious central farm laws. Among the accounts withheld are Kisan Ekta Morcha (@Kisanektamorcha) and BKU Ekta Urgahan (@Bkuektaugrahan), both having followers in thousands. Besides these, several other individual and organisational

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Australian lawmakers last week to discuss rules that would make internet giants pay news outlets for content but failed to persuade them to change policy, the country’s Treasurer said on Sunday. Zuckerberg “reached out to talk about the code and the impact on Facebook” and a constructive discussion followed last

The United Nations chief called Thursday for global rules to regulate powerful social media companies like Twitter and Facebook. Secretary-General António Guterres said he believes it shouldn’t be a company that has the power to decide whether, for example, then president Donald Trump’s Twitter account should be closed, as a questioner asked. Rather, he said,

Social media chatrooms are beginning to resemble the squawk boxes on old-fashioned trading floors, as a new generation of retail traders continues to gain influence over the stock market. While attention has focused on the Wallstreetbets Reddit page that helped send shares of GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings soaring, thousands of “amateur” investors have also

The European Commission has told Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft to continue monthly reports on their efforts to tackle fake news, especially on COVID-19, for another six months. Social media and online platforms have come under fire globally over the spread of fake news, leading to calls for regulators to force them to do more

Walmart plans to expand its advertising business, adding space for advertisements at its US stores and sharing its vast trove of shopper data with brands, the world’s largest retailer said on Thursday, looking to challenge rival Amazon as a media powerhouse. The efforts are key to Walmart’s aggressive plan to grow its advertising business by

Facebook said on Friday it would soon start developing “topic exclusion controls” on its platform to give advertisers greater ability to weed out certain types of content from appearing alongside their ads. This comes after companies including Coca-Cola and Starbucks boycotted Facebook in July for not doing enough to curb hate speech on its site

Social media services including Facebook and Reddit restrict discussions about weapons, drugs and other illegal activity, but their rules do not specifically mention another lucrative regulated good: stocks. Some people think they should. Users of a Reddit group, in which five million members exchange investment ideas, generated significant profits by gorging on shares of GameStop

Signal has added chat wallpapers to its Android and iOS app with update 5.3, adding to list of features that are similar to what WhatsApp offers. Chat wallpapers will allow Signal users to set individual backgrounds for their chats or use a default background for all chats. This feature was spotted in a beta version

Bitcoin jumped as much as 14 percent on Friday to a two-week high after Tesla chief Elon Musk tagged the cryptocurrency in his Twitter biography. Musk wrote simply “#bitcoin” in his biography on the social media site. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency was up 10.2 percent at $36,901 (roughly Rs. 26.9 lakhs) as of 10:05 GMT

Facebook is readying a lawsuit aimed at loosening Apple’s grip on the App Store that serves as an exclusive gateway onto iPhone models, a tech news outlet reported on Thursday. The leading social network is preparing an anti-trust civil suit accusing Apple of abusing its control of the App Store by requiring outside developers to

WhatsApp is adding another security layer for WhatsApp Web and desktop app linking and logging in. Before users link their WhatsApp accounts to their computer, they will be asked to authenticate using fingerprint or Face ID. This additional layer of security is aimed at preventing others from linking your WhatsApp account to the computer without

UK’s competition watchdog on Thursday launched its initial investigation into Facebook’s completed acquisition of GIF website Giphy, at a time when the social media network is under global regulatory scrutiny over antitrust concerns. The world’s largest social media company bought Giphy, a website for making and sharing animated images, or GIFs, in May last year

When Clubhouse, a private social app, debuted in March of last year, it was hard for most people to score an invitation. Over the summer, its limited rollout fueled intrigue and chatter, especially as big names in music, entertainment, and tech created accounts. Even Oprah made an appearance. On the app, users hosted off-the-cuff, informal

China said on Wednesday that the Indian government’s decision to keep a ban on 59 Chinese apps was a violation of the World Trade Organization’s fair rules of business and would hurt Chinese firms. The ban dates from last year when political tension between the neighbours rose over their disputed border. This month the Indian

Twitter on Wednesday suspended over 550 accounts from its platform in connection with the violence during the farmers’ tractor rally in the national capital on the 72nd Republic Day. A Twitter spokesperson told ANI that the platform has also labelled tweets which were found to be in violation of its “synthetic and manipulated media policy”.