Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook and Twitter both added tags denoting false or manipulated content to a video reposted by President Donald Trump of his Democrat rival Joe Biden. The edited video, which appeared to show Biden endorsing the president, was marked “partly false” by Facebook and “manipulated …
Read More »EU threatens tougher rules on hate speech after Facebook meeting
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | A top EU official for digital policy warned Monday that big tech companies could face tougher rules and penalties in Europe if they failed to adequately curb hate speech and disinformation. European Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton remarks followed talks with Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, who was …
Read More »Facebook’s Zuckerberg wants ‘new framework’ for digital tax
Paris, France | AFP | Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday backed moves by the OECD group of free-market economies to reform the way online giants are taxed worldwide, even if that means companies like his own paying more to national governments. “We also want tax reform and I’m …
Read More »Will Facebook Dating swipe online lovebirds out of digital nest?
Paris, France | AFP | All’s fair in electronic love and dating – or is it? The battle for hearts and minds of couples seeking their perfect match online has taken a new turn. If you’re a flirty mobile warrior Tindering on the brink or Bumbling from one swipe to the …
Read More »Facebook-owned WhatsApp hits 2 billion users mark
San Francisco, United States | AFP | The Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp said Wednesday it now has more than two billion users around the world, as it reaffirmed its stand on the need for strong encryption to protect privacy. WhatsApp, acquired by Facebook in 2014, has grown into one of …
Read More »Facebook says AI getting better at spying unwanted content
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook on Wednesday said that its software is getting more skilled at spying banned content at the social network, then working with humans to quickly remove terrorist videos and more. “While we err on the side of free expression, we generally draw the line …
Read More »Documents show Facebook controlling competitors with user data: report
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Leaked documents from a civil suit against Facebook show how the social network aimed to employ user data as a tool for bargaining and to manipulate competitors, NBC News reported on Wednesday. Some 7,000 pages of documents reveal how Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and …
Read More »Twitter to ban political ads worldwide on its platform
Washington, United States | AFP | Twitter will stop accepting political advertising globally on its platform, the company said, responding to growing concerns over misinformation from politicians on social media. Chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted that while internet advertising “is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings …
Read More »Facebook takes more heat for enabling political falsehoods
Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook came under fresh criticism Tuesday for its hands-off approach to political speech, as a group of employees and US lawmakers called on the social network to apply fact-checking for politicians spreading misinformation. A letter from Facebook employees urged the company to crack down on …
Read More »Facebook researchers use maths for better translations
Paris, France | AFP | Designers of machine translation tools still mostly rely on dictionaries to make a foreign language understandable. But now there is a new way: numbers. Facebook researchers say rendering words into figures and exploiting mathematical similarities between languages is a promising avenue — even if a universal …
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