Social

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday said that the government blocked 94 YouTube channels, 19 social media accounts and 747 uniform resource locators (URLs) during 2021-22 for spreading fake news. Responding to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister Thakur said that these actions have been taken under Section 69A of the Information Technology

Facebook has split the news feed in two on its app, a significant change that mimics the experience on its fiercest competitor, hugely-popular TikTok. One of the feeds unveiled Thursday is a chronological flow from the user’s connections and the other option includes algorithm-driven recommendations on anything that might interest them. The recommendations focus makes

Snapchat’s owner plans to “substantially” slow recruitment after bleak results Thursday wiped 25 percent off the stock price of the tech firm, which is facing difficulties on several fronts. Snap reported that its loss in the recently ended quarter nearly tripled to $422 million (roughly Rs. 3,371 crore) despite revenue increasing 13 percent under conditions

Instagram has announced new features that it says will offer content creators “new ways to collaborate and create”. As per these new features, new video posts that have a duration shorter than 15 minutes will be shared as reels. Additionally, the photo and video-sharing app will get more tools for Remix, Templates for Reels, which

Twitter reported disappointing second-quarter sales on Friday, another blow to a company that is already fighting a high-profile legal battle with Elon Musk over the fate of the social network. Revenue fell 1 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, its first annual decline since the middle of the pandemic in 2020. Sales totaled

Google is reportedly working on a sleep timer feature for the YouTube Music app on Android. The sleep timer was already available on Google Play Music. However, users were supposed to go to the main setting list to enable this feature. Hopefully, this won’t be the case when it comes to YouTube Music. The report

Zoom will soon expand its end-to-end encryption (E2EE) feature to Zoom Phone and the Breakout Rooms. The company said that this will help users to achieve seamless and secure communication over the video conferencing platform. With the expansion, users will soon have the option to upgrade to E2EE feature during Zoom Phone calls. This will

WhatsApp users on Android may soon get the option to hide their online status, as per a recent report. The feature is reportedly under development and not yet ready to be released to beta testers. The option to hide the online status was said to be in testing for iOS users about a month ago.

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms, Google-owner Alphabet and other companies that sell online ads lost about $80 billion (roughly Rs. 6,39,324 crore) in combined stock market value on Thursday after Snap posted poor quarterly results and warned of an uncertain outlook. Slammed by a weakening economy, increased competition from TikTok and recent privacy changes on iPhones, the

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it was not able “move an inch” in its investigation into WhatsApp’s privacy policy of 2021 on account of a court order granting time to Facebook and the instant messaging platform for filing replies in connection with the probe. The CCI told

Wall Street is bracing for the slowest global revenue growth in the history of the social media sector, as intensifying competition from TikTok and Apple in advertising threatens to compound economic troubles in the second quarter. The dour expectations come after a blowout in 2021, when social media ad sales in the United States grew

Koo on Wednesday said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government to open a development centre in the state. The multi-lingual social media platform envisions its presence in the region to grow in a significant manner as Hyderabad is an IT hub, boasting access to a robust technology ecosystem and

Instagram is adding a new map feature, which supposedly looks like a Google-inspired one, but with some modification. Instagram’s parent company Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a post on Instagram Stories to reveal the new searchable map on the platform. The post shows that the new feature will let users discover popular local businesses near

Amazon has started implementing the revamped user interface for the Prime Video app with the primary objective of making content discovery simpler for its consumers. According to an official statement by the company, Prime Video app will now host a simplified, more user-friendly main navigation menu for an easy access to movies, TV shows, sports,

Twitter showdown with Elon Musk over his $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,51,500 crore) takeover faces its first test on Tuesday, when a judge will weigh the company’s bid for a fast-tracked trial which it says it needs to ensure deal financing doesn’t come unravelled. The San Francisco-based company is seeking to resolve months of uncertainty

WhatsApp launched emoji reactions on the platform earlier in May that allowed users to express their feelings toward a message with six different emojis. Now, the messaging service is said to be working on quick reactions for status updates on its Android app. The move would counter the likes of Instagram and Facebook Messenger. The

Employees at a Miami investment firm had learned of a pending merger deal between former President Donald Trump’s social media company and a blank-check entity, long before it was announced, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing three people familiar with the discussions. Officials of the firm, Rocket One Capital, at the time talked

Britain’s competition regulator said on Monday it would carry out another review of Facebook owner Meta’s acquisition of Giphy after a tribunal quashed its original decision to block it. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year ordered Meta to sell animated images platform Giphy, which it acquired for a reported $400 million (nearly Rs.

Instagram is getting a payment feature that will allow users to buy from small businesses through direct messages, parent company Meta Platforms said on Monday. According to the blog post, users will be able to make purchases with a qualified small business on Instagram without leaving the chat. Earlier, users had to exit the post,

Thousands of users of Meta’s Instagram on Thursday reported issues with the photo-sharing application, according to Downdetector.com. Nearly 24,000 users of Instagram were impacted by 5 pm ET (2:30am IST on Friday), according to outage-tracking website Downdetector, which collates status reports from a number of sources in the United States. Reports on Downdetector fell over