President Donald Trump’s demand that the U.S. government get a cut from a potential Microsoft purchase of TikTok is the latest unprecedented scenario in an unprecedented situation. Microsoft is in talks to buy parts of TikTok, a forced sale after Trump threatened to ban the Chinese-owned video app, which claims …
Read More »Facebook puts global block on Brazil’s Bolsonaro supporters
Facebook said on Saturday it has put a global block on certain accounts controlled by supporters of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro implicated in a fake news inquiry, a day after it was fined for not complying with a Supreme Court judge’s order to do so. A spokesperson for Facebook said …
Read More »Trump says he will ban TikTok in US within 24 hours
US President Donald Trump has vowed to prohibit the Chinese-owned video sharing platform TikTok in the United States, saying that he might do this via an executive order the next day, amid allegations of IP theft by Beijing. “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United …
Read More »Twitter limits Donald Trump Jr’s account over COVID-19 video
Twitter Inc said on Tuesday it had reined in access to Donald Trump Jr’s account for 12 hours because a tweet he had posted violated the social media site’s misinformation policy on COVID-19. The eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump had posted a video on Monday of doctors talking …
Read More »EU court invalidates data-sharing pact with US
The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows big tech companies to transfer data to the United States is invalid and that national regulators need to take tougher action to protect the privacy of users’ data. The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will complicate the transfer …
Read More »Twitter silences some top accounts after internal systems hacked
Twitter said hackers accessed its internal systems to hijack some of the platform’s top voices including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former U.S. President Barack Obama, and billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency. Twitter said employees with access to its internal …
Read More »Facebook bans accounts linked to Roger Stone, Proud Boys & Brazil’s Bolsonaro in fight against ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’
Facebook has banned dozens of pages allegedly linked to ex-Trump adviser and Republican operative Roger Stone, as well as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in its relentless battle against political ‘misinformation networks’. The 100-account network said to be linked to Stone, a Florida resident, was discovered in the course of an …
Read More »Trump, Biden war for primacy on social media platforms
On an average day, President Donald Trump sends about 14 posts to the 28 million Facebook followers of his campaign account. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, delivers about half that many posts to an audience of just 2 million. The numbers are similarly skewed in other spheres of the social …
Read More »Facebook groups pivot to attacks on Black Lives Matter
A loose network of Facebook groups that took root across the country in April to organize protests over coronavirus stay-at-home orders has become a hub of misinformation and conspiracy theories that have pivoted to a variety of new targets. Their latest: Black Lives Matter and the nationwide protests of racial …
Read More »Twitter removes image tweet by Trump over NYT copyright complaint
Twitter Inc has taken down an image tweeted by the U.S. President Donald Trump from its platform, after receiving a copyright complaint from the New York Times. The original tweet by Trump issued on June 30, showed a meme that read “In reality, they’re not after me they’re after you …
Read More »Opinion: Could a boycott kill Facebook?
Boycotts can be extremely effective – as Facebook is finding out. In the late 18th century, the abolitionist movement encouraged British people to stay away from goods produced by slaves. It worked. Around 300,000 stopped buying sugar – increasing the pressure to abolish slavery. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign …
Read More »Pepsi joining Facebook ad boycott, Fox Business News reports
PepsiCo Inc will stop advertising on Facebook Inc, Fox Business News reported here on Sunday, citing sources. The halt on advertising will run through July and August, the report said. Sources described the move as a “global boycott” on placing Facebook ads, the report said. PepsiCo did not immediately respond …
Read More »Mark Zuckerberg has $7 billion wiped off his fortune as Coca-Cola halts all social media advertising for 30 days
A boycott of Facebook by major advertisers is hammering the social media giant’s stock price and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s personal fortune. Zuckerberg’s net wealth is down by $7.21 billion as of Saturday, while Facebook’s share price dropped more than 8% at the close of Friday trading, as the ad …
Read More »Facebook fires employee who protested inaction on Trump posts
Facebook Inc fired an employee who had criticized Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s decision not to take action against inflammatory posts by U.S. President Donald Trump this month, citing his tweet challenging a colleague’s silence on the issue. Brandon Dail, a user interface engineer in Seattle, wrote on Twitter that he …
Read More »Twitter removes more than 32,000 accounts linked to China, Russia and Turkey
Twitter Inc. removed tens of thousands of accounts engaged in propaganda that were linked to Russia, China, and Turkey. In a Thursday blog post, the social media company disclosed that it had removed 32,242 accounts for violating its policy against manipulating the service. Twitter described the accounts as “state-linked information …
Read More »Snapchat to stop promoting Trump after controversial posts
Snapchat will no longer promote President Donald Trump’s account on its platform in the wake of his controversial comments on ongoing protests across the US, the company announced Wednesday. Trump’s account is regularly spotlighted in Snapchat’s “Discover” feature, which also highlights content from celebrities and news organizations. “We are not …
Read More »Facebook’s Zuckerberg faces employee backlash over Trump protest comments
Facebook employees critical of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision not to act on President Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments about U.S. protests went public on Twitter, praising the rival social media company for acting, and rebuking their own employer. Many tech workers at companies – including Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google, and …
Read More »Trump Signs Executive Order About Section 230
US President Trump on Thursday, May 28, signed an executive order targetting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that provides tech companies from being held liable for third-party content shared on their sites. You can read the executive order here and below: By the authority vested …
Read More »Facebook and Twitter clash over fact-checking as Trump threats intensify
For years, Twitter and Facebook have enjoyed a healthy rivalry: They’ve competed for acquisitions, talent, and advertising dollars, and sometimes gone so far as to copy each others’ features in the never-ending pursuit to grow their audiences. But the clash between the two tech companies appeared to take on new …
Read More »Trump rages at Twitter and threatens to close social media platforms
Donald Trump has threatened to close down social media platforms that do not support his agenda, a day after Twitter posted a fact-checking notice on one of his tweets. Social media firms suppressed conservative points of view, the president claimed without providing any evidence, before saying his administration would “strongly …
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