Social Media Apps
Pentagon orders purge of social sites to dump diversity mentions by March 5
Building lethality in the military may be the buzzword for the new Trump administration, but busywork and paperwork have become the reality at the Pentagon, as service members and civilian workers are facing a broad mandate to purge all of the department's social media sites and untangle confusing personnel reduction moves. On Wednesday, the department's top public affairs official signed and sent out a new memo requiring all the military services to spend countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news articles and videos to remove any mentions that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. If they can't do that by March 5, they have been ordered to temporarily remove from public display" all content published during the Biden administration's four years in office, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Associated Press. The new directive comes as the military services also are scrambling to identify probationary workers the administration has targeted f
88% parents favour forcing apps to shut child accounts with falsified age
A majority of parents surveyed favour a mandate for apps to shut down accounts of children opened by age misrepresentation or seek parental guidance for the continuation of the same, online survey firm LocalCircles said on Wednesday. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 mandates online platforms to verify the age of children and seek explicit parental consent before processing their data. The survey report said that some parents believe that many children have falsely represented their age when signing up on the platforms, and with no checks and balances existing on most platforms, they were able to sign up and use such platforms. "88 per cent of parents surveyed in favour of DPDP rules mandating that platforms (social media, OTT, online gaming, etc.) identify any minor accounts with age misrepresented and proactively either seek parental consent or shut such accounts," the survey said. Out of 21,760 parent respondents, only 4 per cent favoured continued usage of the ...
Women achievers to take over PM Modi's social media accounts on Women's Day
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that he will hand over his various social media accounts to women achievers in different fields to mark the International Women's Day on March 8. In his monthly Mann Ki Baat address, he said these successful women in different fields will speak about their work and experience on his social media accounts. "Let's us celebrate and respect the indomitable spirit of women," he said, lauding the increasing participation of women in different sectors. Modi had handed over his social media accounts to seven leading women in different fields on March 8 in 2020 in a similar gesture. With followers in tens of millions on X, YouTube and Instagram among other handles, Modi is one of the most followed global leaders on social media. The prime minister also renewed his appeal to people to take measures to deal with the growing problem of obesity, saying it is necessary for India to become a fit and healthy country. Citing research, he said one out of
Instagram brings music stickers, text translation, more to DMs: What's new
Instagram users can also pin up to three messages, including text, images and shared posts or reels to the top of any 1:1 or group chat
Swiss politician Meret Schneider threatened for urging social media ban
Green Party politician has spoken about the need to regulate social media and argued that Switzerland is lagging behind in doing so
DoT directs social media firms to act against content violating Telecom Act
DoT directs social media platforms to remove content enabling CLI spoofing, citing violations of the Telecommunications Act, 2023; compliance deadline set for February 28
Sebi seeks broader powers to curb unauthorised financial advice online
The request comes as the regulator has intensified investigations into market violations and clamped down on unregulated financial advice circulating on social media
Meta introduces Instagram for teenagers in India: Check safeguard details
In addition to Teen accounts, Meta is bringing an age verification feature to Instagram to ensure that young users do not misrepresent their age
TikTok to let US Android users download app via kits on its website
Apple and Google have not reinstated TikTok to their app stores since a US law took effect on January 19 requiring its Chinese owner ByteDance either to sell on national security grounds or face ban
Meta to pay $25 mn to settle Trump's 2021 lawsuit over account suspension
Trump filed lawsuits against Twitter, now known as X, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, as well as their chief executives in July 2021, alleging they unlawfully silence conservative viewpoints
Elon Musk writes to X employees, says company 'barely breaking even'
According to an internal email sent by Elon Musk to employees, X is 'barely breaking even,' citing stagnant user growth and underwhelming revenue
China's social media under fire over xenophobic content after stabbings
The algorithms used by Chinese platforms, which are optimised to maximise user engagement, contribute to the spread of controversial content, including hyper-nationalistic posts
Families sue TikTok in France, link teen suicides to harmful content
In the moment when her world shattered three years ago, Stephanie Mistre found her 15-year-old daughter, Marie, lifeless in the bedroom where she died by suicide. I went from light to darkness in a fraction of a second, Mistre said, describing the day in September 2021 that marked the start of her fight against TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app she blames for pushing her daughter toward despair. Delving into her daughter's phone after her death, Mistre discovered videos promoting suicide methods, tutorials and comments encouraging users to go beyond mere suicide attempts. She said TikTok's algorithm had repeatedly pushed such content to her daughter. It was brainwashing, said Mistre, who lives in Cassis, near Marseille, in the south of France. They normalized depression and self-harm, turning it into a twisted sense of belonging. Now Mistre and six other families are suing TikTok France, accusing the platform of failing to moderate harmful content and exposing children to ...
1 in 12 children globally subject to online sexual abuse: Lancet study
About one in every 12 children around the world were subjected to online sexual abuse in the past year, according to a study published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and China Agricultural University reviewed 123 studies conducted between 2010 and 2023, and found that one in eight children globally are affected by image-based sexual abuse on the internet. Roughly the same number were found to be subjected to 'online solicitation' -- being persuaded into sexual activity or exposure. "One in 12 children globally have been subjected to at least one form of online sexual exploitation or abuse in the past year," the authors wrote. However, in regions, including South Asia, where current evidence is either limited or non-existent, the team called for more research. "East Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, and South Asia are lacking prevalence data; these regions constitute a large percentage of the global populat
Instagram extends Reels duration, changes profile grid, introduces 'Edits'
Instagram now allows Reels of up to three minutes duration on the platform. The profile grid has been revised to display content in vertical format. Video editing app Edits is set to launch soon
'Community Notes' model on Meta platforms will not apply to paid ads
Aspects of the program remain subject to change, the report said, adding that brand and influencer organic posts might not be subject to Community Notes when they first go live
President Biden won't enforce ban on social media app TikTok, says official
President Joe Biden won't enforce a ban on the social media app TikTok that is set to take effect a day before he leaves office on Monday, a US official said Thursday, leaving its fate in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump. Congress last year, in a law signed by Biden, required that TikTok's China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by January 19, a day before the presidential inauguration. The official said the outgoing administration was leaving the implementation of the law and the potential enforcement of the ban to Trump. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal Biden administration thinking. Trump, who once called to ban the app, has since pledged to keep it available in the US, though his transition team has not said how they intend to accomplish that. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to attend Trump's inauguration and be granted a prime seating location on the dais as the president-elect's national security adviser
China gives a wary welcome to influx of 'TikTok refugees' on RedNote
The influx of more than 700,000 new users has been driven by a looming US ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns
Elon Musk's deconstruction of X might show what's in store for TikTok
The world's wealthiest man has long said he hopes to create an 'everything app,' and incorporating TikTok into X, formerly Twitter, would take him a step toward that goal
Meta to cut 5% of staff, focusing on performance-based terminations
Altogether, Meta expects its headcount to be down 10 per cent by the end of the current performance cycle. That total includes an additional 5 per cent attrition from last year
