Social

Facebook may not lift its ban on the Taliban even if the United States stops imposing sanctions on the group, which has rapidly taken control of Afghanistan, the social media company’s policy chief said on Wednesday. The US State Department does not list the Afghan Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization like it does the

WhatsApp is found to be testing a new option for its Disappearing Messages feature under which it would allow users to make messages in a particular chat auto-delete after 90 days. It could come alongside an option to automatically disappear messages after 24 hours that is also reportedly in the testing phase at this moment.

Amid the rapidly evolving security situation in Afghanistan, social media giant Twitter on Tuesday said that they will continue to enforce their rules on content concerning the war-torn country and review posts that glorifies violence and violate their regulations. Violence surged in Afghanistan after US and NATO troops began to withdraw in May. On Sunday,

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Wednesday that 43 apps, including Tencent’s WeChat, were found to have illegally transferred user data, and ordered their parent companies to make rectifications. The move comes as Chinese authorities tighten regulatory oversight on a range of industry, with a particular emphasis on privacy and data.

Twitter on Tuesday announced a new feature to allow users to flag content that could contain misinformation, a scourge that has only grown during the pandemic. “We’re testing a feature for you to report Tweets that seem misleading – as you see them,” the social network said from its safety and security account. We’re testing

The Chinese government has taken stakes in Chinese entities owned by tech companies ByteDance and Sina Weibo, corporate records showed, amid a widening regulatory crackdown on the industry. News of the stakes and the board seat was first reported by The Information on Monday. WangTouZhongWen (Beijing) Technology, which is owned by three Chinese state entities

Bluesky, an organisation funded by Twitter to build technology aimed at fundamentally changing how social media platforms operate, on Monday announced a leader for the project nearly two years after Twitter chief Jack Dorsey first announced it. Jay Graber, founder of a social events startup who has also worked as a cryptocurrency developer, will lead

Online dating app Tinder will soon be making its ID Verification option available to all users around the world. Tinder said on Monday that it will make its ID Verification feature available to all members around the world “in the coming quarters.” The feature which has already been live in Japan since 2019, will allow

Twitter’s India chief, Manish Maheshwari, will take up a new internal role in the United States, the company said on Friday, a move that comes after months of tussle between the US giant and the Indian government over compliance issues. Maheshwari will become Twitter’s senior director of revenue strategy and operations focused on new market

Some Indian media on Monday cheered a court order over the weekend which put on hold a part of new rules seeking to regulate content on digital news websites, calling the move significant for press freedom in India. The Bombay High Court put on hold the implementation of rules that digital news media would have

While people across the world now use Twitter, they also long for the days when updates from those they followed appeared in chronological order. When they knew exactly where to look and did not have to sift through hundreds of tweets. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, too, seems to be among those who preferred the old

The country’s apex child rights body NCPCR has summoned Facebook officials Tuesday for not responding to its notice flagging Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram post allegedly revealing the identity of a nine-year-old rape and murder victim. The latest NCPCR communication to Facebook, which owns the photo and video-sharing social networking platform Instagram, follows its notice

Snapchat this Independence Day has something special for its Indian users. The social media platform has brought its augmented reality (AR) feature ‘Landmarker’ to New Delhi’s India Gate. The feature will allow Snapchat users, aka Snapchatters, to superimpose augmented reality experiences on top of the historic monument. Alongside bringing Landmarker to India Gate, Snapchat has

There are plenty of places to turn for accurate information about COVID-19. Your physician. Local health departments. The US Centers for Disease Control. But not, perhaps, your local government’s public comment session. During a meeting of the St. Louis County Council earlier this month, opponents of a possible mask mandate made so many misleading comments

Facebook and a team of African and global telecoms companies will add four more countries to its world’s largest subsea cable project, widening the build project in Africa earlier than planned, they said in a joint statement on Monday. Internet connectivity will be expanded to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, Angola, and bring a new

American micro-blogging and social networking service Twitter has halted its account verification programme, saying that it needs to work on the application and review process that lets people into the blue check mark club. As per The Verge, this change, where Twitter will not be letting new people apply for verification, is coming after the

A week after temporarily suspending his account, Twitter restored Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s handle Saturday, but not before the principal opposition party accused it of bias. Gandhi’s account was temporarily suspended last week after he tweeted pictures of the family of a nine-year-old victim of alleged rape and murder in Northwest Delhi. Twitter deemed it

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new option that will allow users to view status updates of their contacts via their profile pictures. Currently, there is a separate tab inside the WhatsApp app where you can view status updates. The ability to view the status of a user is likely to be expanded to the

Zambia’s election commission will on Friday start announcing results of a tight presidential vote between top contenders President Edgar Lungu and main rival Hakainde Hichilema that was marred by restrictions on the Internet and violence in three regions. Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chief electoral officer Patrick Nshindano said the agency would start announcing results

Three Australian publishers of lifestyle content say Facebook used their articles on its just-launched news service after refusing to negotiate licensing deals, and that the country’s tough new Internet law has failed to protect them. Australia this year passed a law that pressured Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to sign deals with some of the country’s biggest