Tag Archives: Facebook

MNA Editorial Desk: The head of a UN investigative body on Myanmar said Facebook has not released evidence of “serious international crimes”, despite vowing to work with investigators looking into abuses in the country including against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar (IIMM), told Reuters the social media giant was holding material “highly relevant and probative of serious international crimes” but had not shared any during year-long talks. He declined to give details of the material the IIMM had asked for. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Myanmar ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook authorities on Sunday launched a third-party fact-checking programme in Bangladesh to reduce the spread of misinformation and improve the quality of the news people find online. Facebook will partner with BOOM, which has been certified by the Poynter Institute’s non-partisan International Fact Checking Network, UNB reported citing a press release from Facebook. BOOM will review and rate the accuracy of stories including photos and videos in Bangladesh on Facebook from Sunday, it said. Usually, when a third-party fact-checker rates a story as false, it will appear lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution. ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook has added a correction notice to a post that Singapore’s government said contained false information. It is the first time Facebook has issued such a notice under the city-state’s controversial “fake news” law. Singapore claimed the post, by fringe news site States Times Review (STR), contained “scurrilous accusations”. The note issued by the social media giant said it “is legally required to tell you that the Singapore government says this post has false information”. Facebook’s addition was embedded at the bottom of the original post, which was not altered. It was only visible to ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: The person who reportedly hacked the Facebook account of Biplob Chandra has been identified with the assistance of Facebook authorities. Quoting Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Public Relations Officer of the Home Ministry Sharif Mahmud told UNB on Thursday that the Facebook authorities on Wednesday confirmed the identity of the hacker. “Soon the person’s identity will be disclosed before the media. We’re trying to arrest the person shortly,” the Home Minister was quoted as saying. Four people were killed and more than 200 others were injured on Sunday in a clash between police and demonstrating locals ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook said on Thursday it had shut 216 social media pages, groups, and accounts in Myanmar, some tied to the army, to stymie efforts to “manipulate or corrupt public debate”. The company closed 89 Facebook accounts, 107 pages, 15 groups, and five Instagram accounts, some of which had hundreds of thousands of followers, it said in a blogpost. The social media giant has previously removed hundreds of accounts, including that of Myanmar’s army chief, after criticism it had failed to act on hate speech amid violence against Rohingya Muslims in the country. The people behind ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc said on Monday they had dismantled a state-backed social media campaign originating in mainland China that sought to undermine protests in Hong Kong. Twitter said it suspended 936 accounts and the operations appeared to be a coordinated state-backed effort originating in China. It said these accounts were just the most active portions of this campaign and that a “larger, spammy network” of approximately 200,000 accounts had been proactively suspended before they were substantially active. Facebook said it had removed accounts and pages from a small network after a tip from ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook Inc revealed plans on Tuesday to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra, the latest development in its effort to expand beyond social networking and move into e-commerce and global payments. Facebook has linked with 28 partners in a Geneva-based entity called the Libra Association, which will govern its new digital coin set to launch in the first half of 2020, according to marketing materials and interviews with executives. Facebook has also created a subsidiary called Calibra, which will offer digital wallets to save, send and spend Libras. Calibra will be connected to Facebook’s messaging platforms ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Sri Lanka is temporarily blocking some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, it said on Monday after attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in the worst unrest since Easter bombings by Islamist militants. Several dozen people threw stones at mosques and Muslim-owned stores and a man was beaten in the Christian-majority town of Chilaw on the west coast on Sunday in a dispute that started on Facebook, sources said. Authorities said they arrested the author of a Facebook post, identified as 38-year-old Abdul Hameed Mohamed Hasmar, whose online comment “1 day u will ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are negotiating a possible settlement that would require the company to create an independent privacy oversight committee and take other steps to safeguard users, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing a source. The steps would include appointing a federally-approved privacy official at the highest level of Facebook and creating a privacy oversight committee that may include Facebook board members, the report said. The potential agreement between the company and the FTC is in addition to the $3 billion Facebook said it would set aside last week to cover settlements ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook has deleted 712 accounts and 390 pages in India and Pakistan for “inauthentic behavior”, it said on Monday, many linked to India’s opposition Congress party days before a national election, and others related to Pakistan’s military. Facebook has come under increasing pressure around the world to ensure its social media platform is not abused for political purposes or to spread misinformation. The action against accounts with alleged links to Congress, the party led by the Gandhi family that has dominated Indian politics for much of its post-independence era, marks a bold move by Facebook. ...

MNA Business Desk: The government has decided to collect 15 per cent value added tax (VAT) from the advertisements on internet platforms like Facebook and YouTube. The authorities have not been collecting any tax from the Bangladeshi advertisers of the virtual world until now. The government moved recently to collect the taxes following a High Court order. The court on April 12 last year ordered the authorities to tax the transactions on Bangladeshi advertisements posted on Google, Facebook, YouTube and other similar websites. In a letter to the Bangladesh Bank on January 22, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) asked ...

MNA Feature Desk: Social media, one of the most popular attributes of modern technology, has reached almost everywhere of the country as well as the world. Mainly, it is used and lived by the young generations. Most of the social media users lie in the age group of 16-34. But along with widespread use of social media, many negative things are coming out as by-products and as future of this world and Bangladesh rests on the hands of the young generation, it is becoming a concern that we might have a lame and vulnerable future. Moreover, the moral, ethical and ...

MNA Tech Desk: Facebook has removed nine Facebook pages and six Facebook accounts for ‘engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ ahead of the national elections slated for 30 December this year. Facebook says, “Through our investigation, we discovered that these Pages were designed to look like independent news outlets and posted pro-government and anti-opposition content.” “Our investigation indicates that this activity is linked to individuals associated with the Bangladesh government,” Facebook added. The Facebook authorities warned that this kind of behaviour is not allowed on Facebook under their misrepresentation policy. “Because we don’t want people or organisations creating networks of accounts ...

MNA Tech Desk: Facebook on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its Messenger smartphone app in an effort to simplify the service for its 1.3 billion monthly global users. The social network began rolling out a redesigned version featuring three tabs instead of nine, saying it was “going back to its roots” seven years after the standalone app’s launch. “We build one feature after another; they’re piling up,” Messenger chief Stan Chudnovsky said of the service, which has grown from a simple messaging app to one that lets users make video calls, send money and more. The updated tabs allow users ...

MNA Tech Desk: Facebook revealed on Friday that up to 50 million accounts were breached by hackers, dealing a blow to the social network’s effort to convince users to trust it with their data. The social network is investigating the extent of harm done when hackers exploited a trio of software flaws to steal “access tokens,” the equivalent of digital keys that enable people to automatically log back into the social network. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said engineers discovered the breach on Tuesday, and patched it on Thursday night. “We don’t know if any accounts were actually misused,” Zuckerberg ...

MNA Tech Desk: Top Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc executives will defend their companies before US lawmakers on Wednesday, with Facebook insisting it takes election interference seriously and Twitter denying its operations are influenced by politics. But no executive from Alphabet Inc’s Google is expected to testify, after the company declined the Senate Intelligence Committee’s request to send one of its most senior executives, frustrating lawmakers, reported news agency. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, appearing alongside Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, will say that her company’s efforts to combat foreign influence efforts have improved since the 2016 US election, ...

MNA Science Tech Desk: Facebook said on Monday it was removing certain Myanmar military officials from the social media website and an Instagram account to prevent the spread of “hate and misinformation” after reviewing the content. “Specifically, we are banning 20 Burmese individuals and organizations from Facebook — including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the military’s Myawady television network,” Facebook said. “We’re removing a total of 18 Facebook accounts, one Instagram account and 52 Facebook Pages, followed by almost 12 million people,” Facebook said in a blog post. The world’s largest social media networking ...

MNA National Desk: Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) will give traffic updates on Facebook from today in a bid to inform Eid holidaymakers so that they can make their travel plans accordingly, reported news agency. Every four hours, RAB headquarters will give updates on their Facebook page on the overall situation and schedules of bus, train, launch and highways in the country, Benazir Ahmed, director general of RAB, said at a press briefing at RAB media centre at Karwan Bazar today. Apart from the headquarters, 14 RAB units will also give traffic updates on the highways of their respective zones every ...

MNA Tech Desk: Facebook has been “too slow” to address hate speech in Myanmar and is acting to remedy the problem, the company said in a statement on Thursday, reported news agency. The acknowledgement came a day after a Reuters investigation revealed how the company has struggled to address a wave of vitriolic posts about the minority Rohingya, targeted last year in what the United Nations has termed ethnic cleansing. More than 1,000 examples of hate speech about the Rohingya and other Muslims were still online as of last week, including posts comparing them to dogs and maggots. “The ethnic ...

MNA Tech Desk: Facebook has asked major US banks to share customer data to allow it to develop new services on the social network’s Messenger texting platform, reported news agency. Facebook had discussions with Chase, JPMorgan, Citibank, and Wells Fargo several months ago, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. The Silicon Valley-based social network also contacted US Bancorp, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. Facebook, which has faced intense criticism for sharing user data with many app developers, was interested in information including bank card transactions, checking account balances, and where purchases were ...

MNA Tech Desk: Facebook said it is offering a series of new formats for its online video platform including interactive game shows, quizzes and polls, reported news agency. The new formats will be available to those creating video content on the social network, which is searching for a niche to compete against rivals ranging from Netflix to Google-owned YouTube. One of the features from Facebook will allow interactivity, which could be used for live game shows or challenges which offer cash prizes. “We believe that watching video doesn’t have to be passive, and that many types of traditional entertainment formats ...

MNA Tech Desk: Many people are switching from Facebook to closed forums like WhatsApp to discuss daily news because of worries about privacy, fake stories and toxic debates, a survey said on Thursday. The latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that news consumption via Facebook is falling, particularly among the young, who prefer WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat. Facebook remains the most popular social network for news, with 36 per cent using it in the last week. But it has lost ground to other apps, especially WhatsApp, which has tripled in popularity as ...

MNA Entertainment Desk: British Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones will star in the dark comedy “Queen America,” the first major series produced by Facebook, which is seeking a foothold in the uber-competitive market for original content. The sultry 48-year-old actress, who took home an Oscar in 2003 for “Chicago,” confirmed her jump to the small screen-fittingly-in a Facebook post. The news was first reported by Hollywood industry outlet Deadline. “So excited about my next project!” wrote Zeta-Jones. “I think you’re going to love it!” “Queen America” takes a look at the cutthroat world of beauty pageants in America. Zeta-Jones stars as ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: After Facebook’s red warning labels to flag fake news backfired, the social networking giant is now literally sizing down the doubtful stories to prevent the triumph of falsehood on its platform. As part of its new strategy to combat fake news, Facebook wants its users to miss these stories at the time of scrolling their News Feed, while not withdrawing them altogether so as to walk a fine line “between censorship and sensibility”, according to a media report. When an article is verified as inaccurate by the social network’s third-party fact-checkers, Facebook will shrink the ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Facebook took action on 1.9 million pieces of content related to the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda in the first quarter of 2018, twice as much as the last quarter of 2017. The key part is that Facebook found the vast majority of this content on its own. “In Q1 2018, 99 per cent of the IS and Al Qaeda contents we took action on was not user reported,” Monika Bickert, vice president of Global Policy Management at Facebook, said in a blog post late on Monday. “Taking action” means that Facebook removed the ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the US congressional committee after the Cambridge Analytica scandal over alleged misuse of users’ personal data. He will testify before the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11, the panel said on Wednesday. Facebook has come under fire in recent weeks after it was revealed that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for US President Donald Trump’s campaign, gained access to the personal data of 50 million Facebook users. “This hearing will be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues ...

MNA Tech Desk: A scandal engulfing Facebook over the use of its data by political consultants widened on Tuesday when a whistleblower said Canadian company AggregateIQ had developed a programme to target Republican voters in the 2016 US election. Christopher Wylie, who previously revealed that consultancy Cambridge Analytica had accessed the data of 50 million Facebook users to build voter profiles on behalf of Donald Trump’s campaign, said AggregateIQ (AIQ) had built software called Ripon to profile voters. Wylie was giving evidence to a British parliamentary committee over the scandal, minutes after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declined to appear before ...