Social Media Apps

Social media opened avenues to verify info, strengthened democracy: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said social media has strengthened democracy by opening up ways to verify information which earlier was available from a handful of sources with little alternatives. In an interaction with Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath, Modi said earlier there were very few persons who used to report on events and their version was considered as the truth. "You were trapped as there was no opportunity to seek verification. But, today you have an alternative to verify information on different platforms. Everything is available on your mobile phone," Modi said. "If you pay little attention, you can find out the truth. This is the reason that social media can strengthen democracy," he said. The prime minister said youngsters have the tendency to verify information on social media before believing anything as the truth. Modi said he was amazed to see the amount of interest the youngsters have shown in developments in the space sector. "Chandrayaan's success has created a

Meta to let some FB users view eBay listings as way to resolve EU charges

Meta said Wednesday that it will allow some Facebook users to view eBay listings on its Marketplace service, as it tries out a possible way to resolve European Union charges of anticompetitive behaviour that the bloc levelled last year. The social media company said it's launching a test that will let Facebook users in Germany, France and the US browse eBay listings directly on its Marketplace online classifieds service but complete the transaction on eBay. Meta is carrying out the trial after Brussels slapped the company in November with a penalty of nearly 800 million euros ($824 million) for what it called abusive practices involving Marketplace. European Union antitrust enforcers accused Meta of illegally shutting out competition by tying Marketplace to its social network and automatically exposing Facebook users to Marketplace whether or not they wanted it. They also accused Meta of gaining an unfair advantage through ad-related data. While we disagree with and continue to app

Meta's fact-checking reversal lets Mark Zuckerberg drop the charade

Zuckerberg said he would now work on issues of free speech with Trump, who, just four years ago, was considered too dangerous even to be a Meta user

'Digital timepass' is India's 'lying flat': How boredom became a business?

In smaller Indian cities and towns, where opportunities for advancement are few and dwindling, the nounis emerging as something of a social and cultural phenomenon

Cyber frauds: WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram are top targets of scammers

In the first three months of 2024, there were a total of 43,797 complaints of cyber fraud related to WhatsApp, 22,680 against Telegram, and 19,800 regarding Instagram

Telegram turns profitable for first time after paying down $2 billion debt

White-supremacist groups escalated efforts in the run-up to the US election to recruit new members over Telegram, where they've amplified racist conspiracies while posing as men-only fight clubs

Elon Musk owned X increases price of premium-plus plan to pay creators

X offers premium-plus subscribers ad-free browsing and features such as expanded access to the Grok AI chatbot and Radar, which offers real-time analytics on emerging trends through keyword tracking

Albania to shut down TikTok for a year over violence among children

Albania's prime minister said on Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children. Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok. Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking at a meeting with teachers and parents, said TikTok "would be fully closed for all.... There will be no TikTok in the Republic of Albania". Rama said the shutdown would begin sometime next year. It was not immediately clear if TikTok has a contact in Albania. TikTok, in an email response on Saturday to a request for comment, asked for "urgent clarity from the Albanian government" on the case of the stabbed teenager. The company said it had "found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident w

Apple hits out at Meta platforms' numerous interoperability requests

Under the European Union's landmark Digital Markets Act that took effect last year, Apple must allow rivals and app developers to inter-operate with its own services

Facebook, Instagram down for thousands of users, Downdetector shows

WhatsApp, Meta's messaging application, was also down for more than 12,000 users, according to Downdetector.com

Meta donates $1 mn to Trump's inaugural fund to build positive relation

Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, platforms that Trump used heavily during his first term until his accounts were suspended following the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol

Here's why older people are among the biggest users of social media

Facebook remains the most popular among this demographic, serving as a gateway to reconnect with family and long-lost friends

Instagram introduces 'trial reels' feature: What it is, how it works, more

Trial reels allow creators to experiment with content by sharing reels with non-followers first, said Instagram

TikTok's Canada unit seeks judicial review of govt's shutdown orders

Chinese-owned social media app requested the court set aside a government order requiring TikTok to wind-up its business in Canada, a filing dated Dec 5 showed

President-elect Trump wants Truth Social deal lawsuit to be put on hold

Trump has sought to have criminal cases against him thrown out in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling in July that former presidents are immune for some official actions taken while in office

Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in US

A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the US. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok's petition to overturn the law which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January and rebuffed the company's challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment. The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States, said the court's opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States. TikTok and ByteDance another plaintiff in the lawsuit are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whethe

Bluesky isn't new Twitter, its resemblance to old one is drawing users

Though media and popular attention has been focused on Bluesky, Threads, which has nearly 300 million users, saw even more new sign-ups in November than Bluesky's entire user base. Nevertheless, even

Australia banning social media for people under 16: All you need to know

It is an ambitious social experiment of our moment in history one that experts say could accomplish something that parents, schools and other governments have attempted with varying degrees of success: keeping kids off social media until they turn 16. Australia's new law, approved by its Parliament last week, is an attempt to swim against many tides of modern life formidable forces like technology, marketing, globalisation and, of course, the iron will of a teenager. And like efforts of the past to protect kids from things that parents believe they're not ready for, the nation's move is both ambitious and not exactly simple, particularly in a world where young people are often shaped, defined and judged by the online company they keep. The ban won't go into effect for another year. But how will Australia be able to enforce it? That's not clear, nor will it be easy. TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram have become so ingrained in young people's lives that going cold turkey will be ...

Pakistan govt to implement steps to stop terrorists from using social media

Pakistan government on Tuesday said it will take comprehensive steps to curb the activities of banned terrorist organisations from operating on social media platforms. During a meeting of the National Action Plan (NAP) Coordination Committee, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in collaboration with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the government will work to block the accounts of terrorist groups. Provinces are also expected to implement a cohesive strategy to prevent the usage of illegal SIM cards. Naqvi strongly condemned the recent terrorist incidents in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, calling them "deeply regrettable and condemnable". He said to counter terrorism, the professional capabilities of Counter Terrorism Forces (CTFs) in these regions will be enhanced through full cooperation. The minister said efforts to strengthen law enforcement agencies such as the police and the Frontier Constabulary would be prioritised to improve security. "To imp

Govt blocks record 28,000 URLs in 2024; Facebook, X face maximum takedowns

The Indian government blocked over 28,000 URLs in 2024 under IT Act's Section 69A, targeting pro-Khalistan content, hate speech, and threats to national security across major social media platforms