Facebook, Twitter highlight security steps for users in Ukraine

Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc has set up a special operations center to monitor the conflict in Ukraine, and it launched a feature so users in the country can lock their social media profiles for security, a company official said in Twitter posts on Thursday.

Twitter Inc on Wednesday posted tips on how users can secure their accounts against hacking, make sure their tweets are private and deactivate their accounts. The company tweeted the safety tips in English, Russian and Ukrainian.

Both social media platforms are often used by political activists and researchers to disseminate information during times of crisis. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday also raised concerns about the spread of disinformation about the conflict on social media.

With one click, users in Ukraine can lock their profile to prevent users who are not their friends from downloading or sharing their profile picture, or seeing posts on their timeline, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of security policy, said on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Twitter also shared information on how users can deactivate their accounts.

As the conflict in Ukraine escalated on Thursday, social media users took to platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter to post videos of evacuation lines, helicopters in the sky and anti-war protests in Russia.

On short-form video app TikTok, the hashtags "Russia" and "Ukraine" had 37.2 billion and 8.5 billion views, respectively.

-reuters

Facebook announces 10,000 EU jobs to build 'metaverse'

PARIS, France - Facebook on Monday announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build the "metaverse", a virtual reality version of the internet that the tech giant sees as the future.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice in Silicon Valley hype around the idea of the metaverse, which would blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one.

technology might, for example, allow someone to don virtual reality glasses that make it feel as if they're face-to-face with a friend -- when in fact they are thousands of miles apart and connected via the internet. 

"The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities. And Europeans will be shaping it right from the start," Facebook said in a blog post. 

"Today, we are announcing a plan to create 10,000 new high skilled jobs within the European Union (EU) over the next five years."

The European hires will include "highly specialised engineers", but the company otherwise gave few details of its plans for the new metaverse team. 

"The EU has a number of advantages that make it a great place for tech companies to invest -- a large consumer market, first class universities and, crucially, top quality talent," the blog post said. 

DISTRACTION FROM BAD NEWS?

The announcement comes as Facebook grapples with the fallout of a damaging scandal, major outages of its services, and rising calls for regulation to curb its vast influence. 

The company has faced a storm of criticism over the past month after former employee Frances Haugen leaked internal studies showing Facebook knew its sites could be harmful to young people's mental health.

The Washington Post last month suggested that Facebook's interest in the metaverse is "part of a broader push to rehabilitate the company's reputation with policymakers and reposition Facebook to shape the regulation of next-wave Internet technologies".

But Zuckerberg also appears to be a genuine evangelist for the advent of the metaverse era, predicting in July that Facebook will transition from "primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company" over the next five years. 

Facebook bought Oculus, a company that makes virtual reality headsets, for $2 billion in 2014 and has since been developing Horizon, a digital world where people can interact using VR technology. 

In August it unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a feature where co-workers wearing VR headsets can hold meetings in a virtual room where they all appear as cartoonish 3D versions of themselves. 

BLURRING THE LINES

Metaverse enthusiasts point out that the internet is already starting to blur the lines between virtual experiences and "real" ones. 

Stars such as pop diva Ariana Grande and the rapper Travis Scott have performed for huge audiences, watching at home, via the hit video game Fortnite. 

In Decentraland, another online platform widely seen as a forerunner to the metaverse, you can already get a job as a croupier in its virtual casino. 

"No one company will own and operate the metaverse. Like the internet, its key feature will be its openness and interoperability," Facebook said in its blog post. 

It is not the only company pouring millions into developing the technology that could turn a fully-fledged version of the metaverse into reality. 

Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, announced earlier this year that it had raised $1 billion in new funding, with some of that money set to support its vision of the metaverse.

Agence France-Presse

Massive outage hits Google services worldwide

Paris, France — A massive outage knocked Google services, including Gmail and video sharing platform YouTube, offline across much of the globe Monday.

Within minutes, social media sites were awash with hashtags including #googledown and #YouTubeDOWN as hundreds of millions of internet users tried vainly to connect to the US search engine.

Google indicated the outage had affected all of its services for the “majority” of users.

Agence France-Presse

Google launches ‘journalism relief fund,’ following Facebook

Google said Wednesday it will launch an emergency fund to help local news outlets struggling to maintain operations in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The internet giant gave no specific figure for its fund, but said it would offer grants ranging from the “low thousands of dollars” for the smallest operations to “low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms.”


The move comes with the media sector facing deep cutbacks resulting from the global consumer lockdown, an intense economic slump and a retrenchment in advertising revenues that many news outlets depend on.

“Local news is a vital resource for keeping people and communities connected in the best of times,” Google News vice president Richard Gingras said in a statement. “Today, it plays an even greater function in reporting on local lockdowns or shelter at home orders, school and park closures, and data about how COVID-19 is affecting daily life.”

Gingras said the fund will open to outlets “producing original news for local communities during this time of crisis,” with applications due by April 29.

“At the end of the process, we’ll announce who has received funding and how publishers are spending the money,” he said. “We believe it is important to do what we can to alleviate the financial pressures on newsrooms, and will continue to look at other ways to help with more to announce soon.”


The New York Times has estimated that news outlets have cut 28,000 jobs as a result of the health crisis and subsequent economic impact. Other outlets have furloughed journalists or announced pay cuts.

Facebook on March 30 said it was donating $100 million to support news organizations globally hurting from the coronavirus pandemic. This includes $25 million in grants and ramped up ad spending by the social media giant.

In recent months Facebook and Google have stepped up efforts to help news organizations, following criticism that their dominance of online advertising has made it difficult for media to profit from digital operations.

Agence France-Presse 

Google building self-check website for coronavirus

United States President Donald Trump announced Friday that internet giant Alphabet is creating a website where people will be able to check whether they have symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

Verily Life Sciences, once a project in a Google X lab devoted to “moonshot” projects and now its own health business unit, is testing a “tool to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing,” Google confirmed on Twitter.

Statement from Verily: "We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing. Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.

Google Communications (@Google_Comms) March 13, 2020

“Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time,” the tweet said, referring to San Francisco and surrounding communities.

Trump thanked Google while declaring a state of national emergency due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic.


Google is helping to develop a website “to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location,” Trump said.

Google has a large team of engineers devoted to the project, and has made significant progress, according to Trump.

“Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus and help all Americans impacted by this,” Trump said.

“Again, we don’t want everybody taking this test. It is totally unnecessary. And this will pass.”


A launch date for the website should be known by late Sunday, according to Vice President Mike Pence.

“You can go to the website, type in your symptoms and be given direction whether or not a test is indicated,” Pence said.

The website will then direct users to locations where they can obtain drive-through testing, he said.

San Francisco has begun setting up temporary, drive-through coronavirus testing locations.

Agence France-Presse

In a first, three surgeries conducted using robots and 5G

BEIJING — Robots guided by doctors in a remote location through 5G wireless technology successfully completed major portions of three simultaneous orthopedic surgeries on Tuesday.

The whole process, monitored by specialists at a hospital in Beijing, was the first time three remote procedures were conducted at the same time.


The surgeries took place in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province; Karamay, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region; and Tianjin. Live images were transmitted to a team at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital as the robots executed their preset programming commands.

At 9:30 am, Tian Wei, head of the hospital in Beijing and team leader, issued the command for the surgical robots to begin their work.

The robots have been designed to carry out many of the tasks, but others must still be done by humans, such as implanting devices within bones.

The operations on Tuesday were all completed at around 1 pm.


“The combination of 5G technology with surgical robots is a huge technological advance that will help us share our skills with more patients in distant regions,” Tian said. “People across society can now have access to top medical resources. In the future, using robots and 5G will be common. The medical community will be smarter.”

Jiang Wenxue, head of orthopedics at Tianjin First Central Hospital, where one of the surgeries took place, said 5G technology provided clarity and continuity of images－videos and still photos－as well as stability, reliability and safety, which helped the doctors in Beijing monitor progress and communicate with their counterparts in remote operating rooms.

“With the network, we can perform surgery regardless of the distance,” Jiang said.

The Tianjin subsidiary of the State Grid Group has been promoting the integration of the electrical grid and 5G technology and has developed plans to ensure that power is not interrupted during surgeries.

Xiang Huangmei, vice-president of China Telecom’s Beijing branch, said the bandwidth of 5G is 10 times greater than 4G, which provides tremendous speed advantages.


“The high speed of 5G has resolved the time-lag problem and brought about dramatic progress in remote surgeries,” she said.

In June, Jishuitan Hospital performed 5G-assisted remote robotic surgery on a patient in Yantai, Shandong province, monitored by doctors in Beijing. China Telecom provided network support.

Luo Jun, secretary-general of the International Health Industry Forum, a Beijing-based think tank, said the use of advanced technologies such as 5G, 3D printing and artificial intelligence is an unstoppable trend in China’s medical sector.

“The risks of surgery are highly controllable, and the medical teams always have emergency plans for power or network failures,” he said.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Huawei to build US$800 million plant in Brazil

BEIJING — Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will invest $800 million to build a factory in Brazil, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone market, by 2022 as part of broader efforts to beef up its presence in foreign markets to offset the fallout of global economic uncertainty.

The factory will be located in the south-eastern state of Sao Paulo, its Governor Joao Doria said on a trip to Shanghai, where he met with Huawei executives.


Doria noted that Huawei is ramping up efforts to build the plant as Brazil is expected to hold its 5G spectrum auction next March. Industry insiders predicted the auction would be the largest in the world so far.

The Chinese tech giant disclosed in a statement the possibility of producing smartphones at the new plant. “Depending on the performance of the smartphone operation in the local market, Huawei will consider building a plant in Sao Paulo in the near future,” it said.

Sources who wished to remain anonymous told China Daily that Huawei is also likely to produce telecom equipment related to 5G in the plant, including 5G smartphone and base stations.

Huawei has been operating in the South American country for over two decades. In May, it launched its P30 Pro and P30 Lite models with high-resolution cameras in the country.


Brazil is a country with fast-growing information and technology businesses and also a potential big market for tech firms.

Brazilian software association ABES forecast a 10.5 percent increase in IT spending in the country this year, even higher than the 9.8 percent growth in 2018.

“Due to high barriers to entry, Brazil’s smartphone market is very consolidated,” Parv Sharma, research analyst from market consultancy Counterpoint, said earlier in a report.

“However, this landscape will be challenged by Huawei which is planning to re-enter the market by partnering with Brazilian consumer electronics manufacturer in latter part of 2018,” Sharma said.

Although Huawei is facing some bottlenecks in the foreign market amid the current global trade uncertainties, the company has gained support from many countries, including Brazil.


In June, Brazil’s Vice-President Hamilton Mourao said that Huawei will not be banned from operating a 5G mobile telecoms network in the country.

In an interview with valour Economico, Brazil’s largest financial newspaper, Mourao said the idea of banning Huawei is not being considered by the nation’s government. “No, not here, not in our government… We are a country in need of being more digitally integrated,” he said.

source: technology.inquirer.net

British PM approves Huawei role in 5G network–report

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May has given the go-ahead for China’s Huawei to help build a 5G network, shrugging off security warnings from senior ministers and Washington, the Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

The country’s National Security Council, which is chaired by May, agreed Tuesday to allow the Chinese technology giant limited access to build “noncore” infrastructure such as antennas, the report said.

The decision was made despite concerns raised over May’s approach by Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt.

Downing Street declined to comment on the newspaper report.

The United States has banned Huawei’s 5G technology from its territory and has urged allies in the so-called Five Eyes intelligence sharing collective — which also includes Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand — to follow suit.

Huawei is the leading manufacturer of equipment for next-generation 5G mobile networks with almost instantaneous data transfer that will become the nervous system of Europe’s economy, in strategic sectors like energy, transport, banking and health care.

However, the technology titan faces pushback in some Western markets over fears Beijing could spy on communications and gain access to critical infrastructure.

Last month, Britain identified “significant technological issues” in Huawei’s engineering processes that pose “new risks” for the nation’s telecommunications, according to a government report.


source: technology.inquirer.net

Singapore’s ‘fake news’ laws upset tech giants

SINGAPORE — Tech giants have reacted with horror after Singapore proposed laws against “fake news” allowing authorities to order the removal of content and impose hefty fines, in what critics say is an assault on free speech.

The government unveiled a bill last week containing tough measures, including powers for ministers to order social media sites like Facebook to put warnings next to posts authorities believe to be false and in extreme cases take them down.


If an action is deemed malicious and damaging to Singapore’s interests, companies could be hit with fines of up to Sg$1 million ($740,000). Individuals could face jail terms of up to 10 years.

Authorities in the tightly-controlled country — long criticized for restricting civil liberties — insist the measures are necessary to stop the circulation of falsehoods which could sow divisions in the multi-ethnic city-state.

But press freedom groups condemned the proposals, saying they could stifle online discussion, as did tech companies which have big investments in the ultra-modern city.

“As the most far-reaching legislation of its kind to date, this level of overreach poses significant risks to freedom of expression and speech,” said the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry association whose members include Facebook, Google and Twitter.

AIC: As the most far-reaching legislation of its kind to date, this level of overreach poses significant risks to freedom of expression and speech, and could have severe ramifications both in Singapore and around the world.#Singapore https://t.co/rUhN4XeOFf

— Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) (@asia_aic) April 2, 2019

Simon Milner, Facebook’s vice president of public policy in Asia-Pacific, said the social media giant was concerned about potentially being compelled to remove content.

“Giving people a place to express themselves freely and safely is important to us and we have a responsibility to handle any government request to remove alleged misinformation carefully and thoughtfully,” he said in a statement.

The internet is a relatively free space in Singapore and there are some local alternative news sites, which are typically more critical of the authorities than the traditional, pro-government newspapers and TV.

Singapore is among several countries pushing legislation to fight fake news, and the government stressed ordering “corrections” to be placed alongside falsehoods would be the primary response, rather than jail or fines.

A government decision can also be appealed to the courts.

‘Courts will decide’

K. Shanmugam, law and home affairs minister, said in a Facebook post that “the proposed law targets false statements of fact — not opinions, not criticisms.


“Ultimately, disagreement over truth and falsity will be decided by the courts”.

Google, Facebook and Twitter have their Asia headquarters in Singapore, a city of 5.6 million which is popular with expats as it is developed, safe and efficient.

But there were already signs of tensions with tech companies as the government prepared to unveil the laws. During parliamentary hearings last year about tackling online falsehoods, Google and Facebook urged the government not to introduce new laws.


In November, Facebook refused a request to remove an article linking Singapore to a financial scandal in Malaysia which the government said was untrue — prompting the law ministry to say the firm “cannot be relied upon to filter falsehoods”.

Critics say one of the most worrying aspects of the new legislation is that it is up to authorities to decide what is false and what is not.

While authorities insist decisions can be appealed, Kirsten Han, the Singapore-based editor of regional news site New Naratif, said most people do not have the resources or will to fight the government.

“Even if you are convinced that your Facebook post is in the right, how many average Singaporeans would appeal to the minister, and then spend thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer and file an application in the court?” she told AFP.

Human Rights Watch has described the bill as “sweepingly broad” while critics note Singapore already has tough laws against sedition, defamation and disturbing racial harmony, that can be used to police the web.

But it is not yet clear how the legislation — which is likely to pass easily through the ruling party-dominated parliament — will be used in practice, and some believe authorities will wield it cautiously.

“I think that the government will be very careful in their implementation of the law,” said Professor Ang Peng Hwa, from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Singapore.

“I think, in general, there’s a very high level of trust in the government and its institutions by foreign entities, and so I don’t see them… being too trigger-happy about the implementation of this bill.”


source: technology.inquirer.net

Google at 20 years has over 2,000 Doodles

Anyone who uses the Google search engine has undoubtedly come across a Google Doodle at some point. These surprising and often amusing alterations to the logo on the Google homepage are often deployed to mark anniversaries or special events.

The Google Doodle concept is almost as old as Google itself. The search engine’s google.com domain was registered in September 1997 and, less than a year later, just days before the company was officially incorporated, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin modified the site’s logo as a way of telling users they were out of office at the Burning Man Festival. More than 2,000 Doodles have since followed.


Google put its first international Doodle online July 14, 2000, to celebrate France’s Bastille Day. More and more Doodles followed, marking events such as the 226th birthday of the ornithologist and naturalist, John James Audubon or to celebrate the ice cream sundae.


Over the years, Google Doodles have become more sophisticated, with animations (like for Halloween 2000), interactive games (e.g., the 30th anniversary of PAC-MAN) and videos (e.g., 122nd birthday of Charlie Chaplin). In 2018, Google even released its first virtual reality Doodle, celebrating George Méliès.

Browse the Google Doodle archive through this link. JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

LOOK: Google turns 20, and here’s the garage where it all began

September 2018 sees Google celebrate its 20th anniversary.

To mark the milestone, we look back at the early days of one of tech’s biggest success stories with a selection of pictures from the firm’s beginnings.


Like many an American start-up story, the history of Google begins in a humble garage.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched their company in September 1998, they set up office in the garage of Susan Wojcicki’s house in Menlo Park, California.

They stayed there until the firm moved to Mountain View one year later.

Susan Wojcicki is now the CEO of YouTube. JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook suspends hundreds of apps over data concerns

SAN FRANCISCO, US — Facebook on Wednesday said it has suspended more than 400 of thousands of applications it has investigated to determine whether people’s personal information was being improperly shared.

Applications were suspended “due to concerns around the developers who built them or how the information people chose to share with the app may have been used,” vice president of product partnerships Ime Archibong said in a blog post.

Apps put on hold at the social network were being scrutinized more closely, according to Archibong.

The app unit launched in March by Facebook stemmed from the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal.

Facebook admitted that up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked by Cambridge Analytica, which was working for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Archibong said that a myPersonality app was banned by the social network for not agreeing to an audit and “because it’s clear that they shared information with researchers as well as companies with only limited protections in place.”

Facebook planned to notify the approximately four million members of the social network who shared information with myPersonality, which was active mostly prior to 2012, according to Archibong.

Facebook has modified app data sharing policies since the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

“We will continue to investigate apps and make the changes needed to our platform to ensure that we are doing all we can to protect people’s information,” Archibong said.

Britain’s data regulator said last month that it will fine Facebook half a million pounds for failing to protect user data, as part of its investigation into whether personal information was misused ahead of the Brexit referendum.

The Information Commissioner’s Office began investigating the social media giant earlier this year due to the Cambridge Analytica data mishandling.


Cambridge Analytica has denied accusations and has filed for bankruptcy in the United States and Britain.

Silicon Valley-based Facebook last month acknowledged it faces multiple inquiries from regulators about the Cambridge Analytica user data scandal.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the European Parliament in May and said the social media giant is taking steps to prevent such a breach from happening again.

Zuckerberg was grilled about the breach in US Congress in April.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Washington expands lawsuit against Comcast over service plan

SEATTLE — The state of Washington announced Thursday that it is expanding a lawsuit against cable and internet provider Comcast and accusing the company of discarding recorded customer service calls that the attorney general claims is evidence of the company’s alleged deceptive sales practices.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said investigators uncovered more illegal conduct by Comcast as the investigation developed, particularly as the state sought recorded customer service calls.

Philadelphia-based Comcast said it strongly disagrees with Ferguson’s new claims and said his assertions were based on flawed methodology and assumptions. The company said it will continue to vigorously defend itself in court.

“The Service Protection Plan gives those consumers who choose to purchase it great value by covering virtually all service charges over 99% of the time,” Marianne Bichsel, vice president of external affairs for Comcast’s Washington Region, said in a statement.

The initial lawsuit filed in 2016 claimed Comcast profited from the misleading service protection plan and that Comcast committed more than 1.8 million violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act by charging improper service call fees and using improper credit screening practices.

Ferguson said Thursday that Comcast initially refused a request for access to recorded customer service calls as too burdensome, which launched a court fight. The company eventually turned over a limited sample of those calls but had already routinely deleted tens of thousands of recordings, saying it was not under any obligation to preserve them. Ferguson’s office disagrees.

Ferguson claims now that the company knowingly destroyed evidence as the investigation was underway, though Comcast called that a mischaracterization of the company’s standard handling of agent call records.

The state said it has analyzed 150 calls so far from the thousands that it will review that were made between Washington state customers and Comcast customer service representatives.

In a statement, Comcast said “as confirmed by the court, any accusation that Comcast deleted calls because of this investigation is just plain wrong. In fact, we gave the AG over 4,500 call recordings and they have only listened to 150 of them.”
The state said it found cases of the company charging customers for service protection plans even if they refused them, or would mislead them about the cost. Half of the time, Comcast employees did not discuss the plans with customers but charged them for the plans anyway, Ferguson said.
“We’ve now uncovered evidence that many Washingtonians are paying for it without their consent,” Ferguson said.
Comcast called the case an overreach and said customers receive email confirmation when they sign up for the service.

The state said more than 500,000 people in Washington have paid for the plan, totaling $73 million between 2011 and 2015. It costs $5.99 a month and is promoted as a way to avoid being charged for technician visits to homes to fix issues covered by the plan.

Ferguson is seeking full restitution for customers who unknowingly paid for the plan or felt deceived about the cost or service. The state is also asking for “significant” civil penalties against Comcast but did not specify an amount.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook moves to help users know if they got tricked by Russian propaganda during 2016 US polls

A software tool would be released by end 2017 that would allow users to know if they were taken in by so-called Russian propaganda during the last presidential campaign in the United States, as Facebook bids to help people tell if they liked or followed posts considered part of a Russian effort to meddle with the 2016 US election.

The software tool would let users see whether they engaged with Facebook pages or Instagram accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) between January 2015 and the August before the presidential election in 2016.

The IRA is seen as a Russian resource for spreading propaganda online.

“It is important that people understand how foreign actors tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US election,” the leading online social network said in a blog post.

The creation of the new tool comes in the face of Congressional pressure on Facebook and other internet giants to let users know if they were exposed to Russian propaganda prior to the election.

Google, Facebook, and other tech firms joined global news organizations earlier this month in an initiative aimed at identifying “trustworthy” news sources, in the latest effort to combat online misinformation.

Microsoft and Twitter also agreed to participate in the “Trust Project” with some 75 news organizations to tag news stories which meet standards for ethics and transparency.

Google, Twitter and Facebook have come under fire for allowing the spread of bogus news – some of which was directed by Russia – ahead of the 2016 US election and in other countries.

During a quarterly earnings call with analysts this month, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg addressed criticism over allowing disinformation and manipulation during the US presidential election, just hours after the company’s top lawyer faced a grilling at a Washington congressional hearing.

“Our community continues to grow and our business is doing well,” Zuckerberg said.

“But none of that matters if our services are used in ways that don’t bring people closer together. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”

Facebook told Congress that the apparent political meddling included use of its image-sharing application Instagram.

Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told a hearing that Instagram posts by suspect Russian accounts were seen by some 20 million Americans last year.

The data on Instagram is on top of the estimated 126 million Americans exposed to Facebook posts from Russian entities seeking to create divisions during the election campaign.

“I’ve expressed how upset I am that the Russians tried to use our tools to sow mistrust,” Zuckerberg said earlier this month.

“What they did is wrong and we are not going to stand for it.”            /kga

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook partners with fact-checkers to eradicate fake news

True to its promise of laying down a concrete scheme to fight bogus news stories online, Facebook has teamed up with several fact-checkers in the United States to get the job done.

On Thursday, (Friday in Manila) the tech-giant revealed that they will be providing access to professionals from ABC News, FactCheck.org, the Associated Press, Snopes and Politifact to scour and verify each content on its platform.

As per reports from TheNextWeb, the truth-seekers will be given a Facebook-designed tool which evaluates stories that appear inaccurate or seem to come from dubious origins. Stories that have been previously flagged as fake by users will be submitted for review by fact-checkers.

“We believe in giving people a voice and that we cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves, so we’re approaching this problem carefully,” Facebook’s vice president of product for news feed, Adam Mosseri, was quoted as saying in the report.

“We’ve focused our efforts on the worst of the worst, on the clear hoaxes spread by spammers for their own gain, and on engaging both our community and third party organizations,” the executive added.

Upon inspection, misleading content will be tagged with a ‘disputed’ label, which will also feature a link to a corresponding article explaining why it’s false.

These posts will not be taken down and still appear on News Feeds, but readers will receive a forewarning before sharing it.

In addition to bringing in a third-party for fact-checking, Facebook is also marking down stories that are shared at a significantly lower rate, which could reportedly indicate its authenticity.

The company has also taken a bold stand against spammers that pass themselves as legit news sources, by cutting down  spoof domains and banning sites that consistently spread false information.

“It’s important to us that the stories you see on Facebook are authentic and meaningful,” Mosseri disclosed.

“We’re excited about this progress, but we know there’s more to be done. We’re going to keep working on this problem for as long as it takes to get it right.” Khristian Ibarrola

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook tests new feature for finding Wi-Fi

Mobile data service is not cheap, which is why a Wi-Fi connection is still preferred whenever possible. Because of this, Facebook has started to test a new feature that will help users find nearby Wi-Fi hotspots.

One of the early clues to this was when Facebook started asking Pages to list Wi-Fi locations in the physical address, The Next Web reported.

With the aggressive push for video, it makes sense that Facebook would help users find a strong and stable connection to share and consume more content for its Live feature.

So far, trials for this new “Find Wi-Fi” feature is limited to some iOS device users, but there may be some tests being run on a few Android apps.  Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

Social media erupt with ‘Pen Pineapple Apple Pen’ memes, parodies

“Pen Pineapple Apple Pen,” or “PPAP,” a Japanese song brandished by many as an infectiously viral “ringtone,” has not only “brainwashed” Japanese social media but also other Asian online users.

The frenzy track was performed by Piko-Taro, a fictional character brainstormed by comedian-DJ Kosaka Daimaou, whose real name is Kazuhiko Kosaka. Although the comic clip went live on the video-sharing site for a month, it was only felicitously celebrated by social media when it was posted by several Facebook pages in the past few days.

Clad in yellow garments and an animal print scarf, Piko-Taro was likened to Borsalino Kizaru, the swanky marine admiral in the smash-hit anime series “One Piece.”

The music video, uploaded on Piko-Taro’s YouTube account, has amassed 6.6 million views while a similar clip posted on 9GAG’s Facebook page has garnered 54.6 million views as of Wednesday.

Several Asian social media pages enhanced their creative skills by making memes of the Japanese sensational hit.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Germany eyes free wi-fi in public spaces, finally

BERLIN, Germany — Try looking for a free wi-fi connection in the cafe down the street in Germany and, more likely than not, there isn’t one.

Forget about looking for open connections in parks or at key monuments. They just don’t exist.

In an age when almost everyone carries a smartphone, the absence of such free hotspots can appear to be an aberration in a country that is known for its technological prowess.

But a new government deal may change all that, as it aims to tackle the root of the problem — by exonerating the connection’s provider of fraudulent usage by others.

The snag has been Germany’s tough rules to crack down on online piracy, with high fines for illegally downloading music and films.

No one wants to run the risk of exposing their wi-fi connection to possible misuse, a fear that has turned Germany into a hotspot desert.

A 2014 study by Eco, a federation of Internet professionals, found that there are only two open hotspots for every 100,000 residents in Germany, compared to 10 in Sweden and 29 in Britain.

For many, that is a stumbling block in the development of the Internet, an obstacle Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government wants to mow down.

But seeking an agreement took months of tough negotiations.

“A late but important step,” said Justice Minister Heiko Maas on Twitter.

‘Liberation’

According to the agreement reached this week within Merkel’s left-right ‘grand coalition’ government, the law will be amended so that “wi-fi providers would be considered like access providers” — that is to say, they are waived from all responsibility of users, and “will not be subject to any required checks”.

That is valid for anyone who offers their wi-fi access to others for free — be it a restaurant owner who allows clients to connect online or the friendly guy who gives his neighbor the password to get on his Internet access.

Only 39 percent of Internet users in Germany go online using wi-fi outside of their homes, according to a survey in 2015 by Bitkom, the German high-technology federation.

Plans by the government to amend the rule “will facilitate things for both operators and users,” said Bernhard Rohleder, who heads Bitkom.

For the federation Eco, it spells the end of the “great wall” to the development of hotspots in Germany, while hotels describe the move as an act of liberation.

But not all are happy.

The music industry federation fears that it could hurt creators and artists, and warned that it has “opened the doors and windows to illegal usage”.

A draft law prepared in September by Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel had required users to confirm that they are not doing anything illegal online, as well as for access providers to secure the network with passwords.

But that was deemed too restrictive, leading to the current agreement which scraps these conditions.

The proposal is due to be examined by cabinet before it is put to parliament, it is therefore not expected to come in force before the autumn.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Inventor of modern email, Ray Tomlinson, dies

Raymond Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email and selector of the “@” symbol, has died.

Raytheon Co., his employer, on Sunday confirmed his death; the details were not immediately available.

Email existed in a limited capacity before Tomlinson in that electronic messages could be shared amid multiple people within a limited framework. But until his invention in 1971 of the first network person-to-person email, there was no way to send something to a specific person at a specific address.

The first email was sent on the ARPANET system, a computer network that was created for the U.S. government that is considered a precursor to the Internet. Tomlinson also contributed to its development.

At the time, few people had personal computers. The popularity of personal email wouldn’t take off until years later but has become an integral part of modern life.

“It wasn’t an assignment at all, he was just fooling around; he was looking for something to do with ARPANET,” Raytheon spokeswoman Joyce Kuzman said of his creation of network email.

Tomlinson once said in a company interview that he created email “mostly because it seemed like a neat idea.” The first email was sent between two machines that were side-by-side, according to that interview.

He said the test messages were “entirely forgettable and I have, therefore, forgotten them.” But when he was satisfied that the program seemed to work, he announced it via his own invention by sending a message to co-workers explaining how to use it.

Tomlinson chose the “@” symbol to connect the username with the destination address and it has now become a cultural icon.

Why that symbol?

Kuzman said Tomlinson was looking at the keyboard and needed something that would not otherwise be part of the address and that seemed to be a logical solution.

“It is a symbol that probably would have gone away if not for email,” she said.

MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design added the symbol into its collection in 2010, with credits to Tomlinson.

Tomlinson held electrical engineering degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tomlinson was an inductee to the Internet Hall of Fame and recipient of numerous awards and accolades but was described as humble and modest.

“People just loved to work with him,” Kuzman said. “He was so patient and generous with his time … He was just a really nice, down-to-earth, good guy.”

Tomlinson was hired by Bolt Beranek and Newman, known as BBN, in 1967. It was later acquired by Raytheon Co., where he still worked at the time of his death, as a principal scientist.

He lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where he raised miniature sheep. Attempts to contact his family were unsuccessful.

While more general email protocols were later developed and adopted, Tomlinson’s contributions were never forgotten.

“He was pretty philosophical about it all,” Kuzman said. “And was surprisingly not addicted to email.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook ramps paid leave time for new dads

SAN FRANCISCO, United States—With Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg about to become a dad, the social network boosted the amount of time fathers can take off to bond with their new babies.

Beginning with the new year, dads working full-time for Facebook anywhere in the world will have the option of taking four months’ paid leave.

All new dads working for Facebook outside the US currently get a minimum of four weeks’ paternity leave, with more time offered in locations where required by local law, according to Facebook.

Same-sex partners who are not primary caregivers for babies get the same paid leave time as dads, the social network said.

The change, effective January 1, essentially raises parental leave time for dads and non-custodial same-sex partners from four weeks to four months.

The change puts paternity leave outside the US on par with maternity leave at Facebook workplaces around the world, and extends the benefit to same-sex couples.

“In reviewing our parental leave policies, we have decided to make this change because it’s the right thing to do for our people and their families,” human resources boss Lori Matloff Goler said in a post on her Facebook page.

“This expanded benefit primarily affects new fathers and people in same-sex relationships outside the US.”

The paid time off can be taken any time during the year after a baby is born and includes adopted babies.

Maternity leave offered to Facebook employees around the world is already four months, and the benefit was available to both moms and dads in the United States.

Baby bonus

Facebook also gives a $4,000 bonus for parents to help meet the needs of new babies.

Zuckerberg, who heads the company, announced last week that he will take two months’ paternity leave after his wife gives birth to their first child.


“This is a very personal decision, and I’ve decided to take two months of paternity leave when our daughter arrives,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page.

“Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families.”

California-based Facebook gives US employees the option of taking as long as four months paid maternity or paternity leave, letting them divide the time as they wish over the course of a year.

Zuckerberg and his doctor wife, Priscilla, revealed in July that they were expecting their first child, a girl, after a series of miscarriages.

Leading streaming music service Spotify last week announced that all full-time employees will have the option to take as long as six months’ parental leave at full pay during the first three years after having children.

Internet giants ramping leave time for parents could put pressure on other firms to do the same to attract talent in a competitive industry.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net