Category: Social Media

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Trump considering Musk for White House advisory role  

Musk met with former president at Mar-a-Lago following Trump’s triumphs on Super Tuesday, which solidified his status as the presumed Republican nominee, as reported by the Wall Street Journal…reports Asian Lite News

Donald Trump is considering appointing Tesla CEO Elon Musk for the role of an advisor to him in the White House, as the 2024 Presidential elections draw close, New York Post reported on Thursday, citing The Wall Street Journal.

Although Trump has not finalised the specifics, the two have been in discussions over how Musk may provide “formal input” on matters like the border, the economy, and stopping voting fraud.

The third-richest man in the world, Musk, and Trump have just begun to warm up to one another. Citing the WSJ report, the New York Post reported that the two speak on the phone “several times a month.”

Musk and billionaire investor Nelson Peltz have also discussed with Trump the campaign Musk started in November to persuade corporate executives not to back President Biden, the report stated.

The creator of Space X and the owner of the social media platform X, has publicly opposed Biden and previously stated he would not provide money to any candidate.

However, the millionaire, who was born in South Africa, has presented himself as mainly autonomous. In 2002, Musk obtained US citizenship.

Musk met with former president at Mar-a-Lago following Trump’s triumphs on Super Tuesday, which solidified his status as the presumed Republican nominee, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

In a cryptic post in March on the US Presidential elections, Musk had said that he has no plans to donate money to either candidate for US President.

In a post on X, the multibillionaire wrote, “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.”

In the past, Musk has contributed to both Republicans and Democrats, much like many other business titans.

He has not heavily invested in a presidential campaign, in contrast to other American billionaires, and over the years, he has divided his contributions roughly equally between Republicans and Democrats, according to the New York Times.

Trump and Biden will be facing off in the presidential elections scheduled for November this year.

While Biden is facing the challenge some of domestic issues and his foreign policy — particularly the conflict in Ukraine and Gaza; Trump is under the hassle of multiple criminal cases.

ALSO READ-Trump’s Texas tour nets millions in donations

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-Top News Social Media USA

US presses TikTok, Meta and X to crack down on antisemitic posts

Elon Musk.(photo:IANS/Twitter)

Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and X did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment…reports Asian Lite News

The Biden administration is urging big technology companies to ramp up efforts to curb antisemitic content on their platforms, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Representatives from companies including Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and X met on Thursday with US special envoy Deborah Lipstadt to monitor and combat antisemitism.

Lipstadt requested that each company designate a policy team member to address the issue and conduct training for key personal to identify antisemitism and publicly report trends in anti-Jewish content.

“We welcomed this convening and were pleased to come together to share facts about the ongoing steps TikTok takes on this important issue and to continue to learn from experts in the room,” a TikTok spokesperson said.

Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and X did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Countries around the world have seen a rise in antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel and subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military.

The companies have not yet agreed to voluntary moves, but the administration is hopeful they will act soon, Lipstadt told Bloomberg News.

The administration is also requesting staff training in order to help identify more implicit antisemitic messages on online platforms and to differentiate between criticism of the Israeli government and hatred directed at Jews, Lipstadt added.

Meanwhile, Meta Oversight Board announced on Tuesday that it is reviewing three cases, including one involving a user accusing Israel of committing “genocide” and another concerning a Facebook comment in Arabic.

Meta, which submitted the cases as part of its review system aimed at creating a policy on criminal allegations based on nationality, said it removed the posts for breaching its Hate Speech Community Standards.

The first case involves a user’s reply on Threads, featuring a video that includes accusations of “genocide” and claims that “Israelis are criminals.”

The other two cases involve a December speech in which a user called all Russians and Americans “criminals” and a recent post in which a user stated that “all Indians are rapists.”

An Oversight Board spokesperson told Arab News: “Tensions in the region, and increasingly around the world, are dominating the discussion online.

“It’s vitally important that when looking at these issues, Meta gets the balance right and works to protect safety, without unduly limiting the ability of people to speak out about the abuses they see or the frustration they experience.”

The spokesperson added that while the board cannot review every appeal, it selects those of critical importance to public discourse “to help Meta better navigate these critical questions at a crucial time.”

Meta said the three posts were removed after human review for “targeting people with criminal allegations based on nationality.”

Despite its decision, Meta referred the cases to the Oversight Board to address the challenge of handling criminal allegations directed at people based on their nationality, as they might be interpreted as attacks on a nation’s policies.

ALSO READ-Musk launches Starlink service in Indonesia

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Fake US election-related accounts proliferating on X, study says

Analysts from Israeli tech company Cyabra found that 15 percent of X accounts praising former President Donald Trump and criticizing President Joe Biden are fake.

Fake accounts posting about the US presidential election are proliferating on the social media platform X, according to a social media analysis company’s report shared with Reuters exclusively ahead of its release on Friday.

Analysts from Israeli tech company Cyabra, which uses a subset of artificial intelligence called machine learning to identify fake accounts, found that 15 percent of X accounts praising former President Donald Trump and criticizing President Joe Biden are fake. The report also found that 7 percent of accounts praising Biden, a Democrat, and criticizing Trump, a Republican, are fake.

Cyabra’s study is based on a review of posts on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, over two months beginning March 1. The review included analyzing popular hashtags and determining sentiment in terms of whether posts are positive, negative or neutral.

The analysis shows that newly detected fake accounts had increased up to tenfold during March and April.

The report cites 12,391 inauthentic pro-Trump profiles out of 94,363 total and 803 inauthentic pro-Biden profiles out of 10,065 total.

A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment about the fake accounts, nor did representatives from the White House and Trump campaign.

X and other social media platforms have been under greater scrutiny since 2016, when Russia interfered in the US presidential election in an attempt to boost Trump’s candidacy and harm his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Election officials and online misinformation experts are again watching for misleading narratives ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

The fake accounts praising Trump this cycle are part of a coordinated campaign to sway public opinion and influence online discussions, Cyabra said. The report did not identify the individuals or groups behind the campaign.

Cyabra said it made that determination based on evidence including the use of identical hashtags and the fact that fake accounts published posts and comments at the same time. The report found that the fake pro-Trump accounts pushed two main messages: “Vote for Trump” and “Biden is the worst president the US has ever had.”

“The level of coordination suggests that there is a nefarious objective and that there is a whole operation in order to change people’s opinion,” said Cyabra’s vice president, Rafi Mendelsohn.

The fake accounts backing Biden are not part of a coordinated campaign, the report said, as the hallmarks of a coordinated campaign — such as fake accounts posting at the same time — were not identified.

X, which was publicly held until its 2022 takeover by billionaire Elon Musk, has long downplayed the use of fake accounts on its platform. Twitter said in May 2022 that fewer than 5 percent of its daily active users were “false or spam” based on an internal review of accounts. At the time, Cyabra had estimated that 13.7 percent of Twitter profiles were inauthentic.

In an X post on April 4, Musk wrote that a “system purge of bots and trolls” was under way and that the company “will be tracing the people responsible and bringing the full force of the law to bear upon them.” In October the company tested its “Not a Bot” program in New Zealand and the Philippines to combat bots and spammers.

ALSO READ: Trump’s Texas tour nets millions in donations

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Social Media Technology USA

X to Pause Ad Sharing For Creators Using Bots to Earn More

Elon Musk.(photo:IANS/Twitter)

Elon Musk also reiterated that people are spamming the X platform to earn more ad money, as the social media platform cracks down on bots.

Elon Musk on Saturday threatened that advertisement revenue sharing will be paused for some creators “pending investigation into use of bots to spam likes, replies and direct messages (DMs).”

He also reiterated that people are spamming the X platform to earn more ad money, as the social media platform cracks down on bots.

In a post, the tech billionaire said that the point of creator payouts is to incentivise high-quality content on X.

“In some cases, we are seeing the opposite, where people are spamming the system to generate ad money. That is obviously not ok,” the X owner commented.

Musk said ad revenue sharing will be paused for such creators.

A follower reacted, saying “The goal could be to maximise legitimate, quality, accurate, informative and entertaining content.”

X pays creators on a regular basis as it struggles to tackle a surge of spam and porn bots on its platform.

According to Musk, people running huge bot operations are reducing the content quality to a great extent.

The ban on fake engagement refers to those who use bots to artificially inflate their engagement.

The social media platform started the exercise to remove bots earlier this month.

ALSO READ: Elon Musk Delays India Visit

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Social Media Tech Lite USA

WhatsApp services restored after global outage

Those attempting to access the app or its web version were met with an error message indicating the service was unavailable…reports Asian Lite News

WhatsApp and Instagram, both owned by Meta, have been restored after experiencing a worldwide outage.

WhatsApp and Instagram experienced a widespread outage on Wednesday around 11:45 pm, affecting numerous users worldwide.

Those attempting to access the app or its web version were met with an error message indicating the service was unavailable.

“We know some people are experiencing issues right now, we’re working on getting things back to 100% for everyone as quickly as possible,” said WhatsApp in a post on X.

Downdetector, a website monitoring service, recorded a surge in reports of WhatsApp and Instagram having problems during this time.

This is for the second time in 2024 that the Meta-owned platforms have faced an outage.

In March, Instagram, Facebook and Threads were down for several users, who complained of being logged out of their accounts. Some users mentioned being automatically logged out without the ability to log back in, and those utilising two-factor authentication faced difficulties receiving codes to finalise their log-ins. This problem had affected both the application and the website. (ANI)

ALSO READ-EC Directs Centre to Halt Viksit Bharat Messages on WhatsApp

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Social Media

Threads reaches more than 130 mn monthly users

Threads had a record-breaking launch, reaching 100 million registered users within its first five days last July. But the interest faded over time…reports Asian Lite News

Instagram Threads has reached 130 million monthly active users, up 30 million from the last quarter, the company has announced.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call that Threads is “growing steadily”.

“I’ll note that Threads now has more people actively using it today than it did during its initial launch peak. So that one’s I think on track to be a major success.,” he told analysts.

Threads had a record-breaking launch, reaching 100 million registered users within its first five days last July. But the interest faded over time.

Meta’s family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, were used by 3.19 billion people daily in the fourth quarter, up from the 3.14 billion.

The Family monthly active people figure was 3.98 billion as of December 31, 2023, an increase of 6 per cent year-over-year.

Meta saw $40.1 billion in revenue in the quarter ending December 31. Net income was $14.02 billion. Revenue for the full-year 2023 was $134.90 billion.

“We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow,” said Zuckerberg. “We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse.”

Headcount was 67,317 as of December 31, 2023, a decrease of 22 per cent year-over-year.

ALSO READ-Meta faces new EU complaint over ‘pay for privacy’ consent

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Meta purged over 26mn bad pieces of content in India in Dec

On Instagram, the company received 19,750 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism…reports Asian Lite News

Meta said that it took down over 19.8 million pieces of content across 13 policies for Facebook and over 6.2 million pieces of content across 12 policies for Instagram in India in December 2023.

Between December 1-31, Facebook received 44,332 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism, and said that it provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 33,072 cases.

These include pre-established channels to report content for specific violations, self-remediation flows where they can download their data, avenues to address account hacked issues, etc, Meta said in its monthly report in compliance with the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

“Of the other 11,260 reports where specialised review was needed, we reviewed content as per our policies, and took action on 6,578 reports in total. The remaining 4,682 reports were reviewed but may not have been actioned,” Meta added.

On Instagram, the company received 19,750 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism.

“Of these, we provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 9,555 cases,” it said.

Of the other 10,195 reports where specialised review was needed, Meta reviewed content and took action on 6,028 reports in total. The remaining 4,167 reports were reviewed but may not have been actioned. Under the new IT Rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports.

“We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) we take action on for going against our standards. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning,” said Meta.

In the month of November, Meta took down over 18.3 million pieces of content across 13 policies for Facebook and over 4.7 million pieces of content across 12 policies for Instagram.

ALSO READ-Meta to let EU users unlink other social media accounts

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-Top News EU News Social Media

Meta to let EU users unlink other social media accounts

The changes mean that users in the EU will be able to use Meta’s services without their information being shared between them…reports Asian Lite News

To comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union (EU), Meta on Monday announced that the users will be able to unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts as well as other services.

The Mark Zuckerberg-run company said that it is offering more choices to people using Instagram and Facebook in the EU, European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland about how they can use its services and features, as the DMA enters into force in March.

The changes mean that users in the EU will be able to use Meta’s services without their information being shared between them.

People who have already chosen to connect their Instagram and Facebook accounts will be able to continue to connect their accounts so that their information will be used across their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

“They can also manage their Instagram and Facebook accounts separately so that their information is no longer used across accounts,” said Tim Lamb, Director, Competition and Regulatory, Meta.

People using Facebook Messenger can choose whether they wish to continue using Facebook Messenger with their Facebook account, or if they would prefer to create a stand-alone new Messenger account.

People who choose to create a new Messenger account without their Facebook information will be able to use Messenger’s core service offering such as private messaging and chat, voice and video calling, Lamb informed.

Those using Facebook Marketplace can choose between a Marketplace experience that uses their Facebook information or not.

“For people who choose to use their Facebook information for their Marketplace experience, the current Marketplace experience will remain. People who choose not to use their Facebook information for their Marketplace experience will still be able to browse listings and to buy and sell items,” the company informed.

Over the next few weeks, people will receive notifications that will inform them about their ability to choose whether they would like to share information between Meta services.

People who play games on Facebook can choose between a gaming experience that uses their Facebook information or an experience without their Facebook information.

“People in the EU, EEA and Switzerland also have the ability to use Instagram and Facebook for free with ads, or subscribe to stop seeing ads,” said the company.

If people subscribe to stop seeing ads, their information will not be used for ads. This choice rolled out in November last year.

The DMA Act seeks to promote contestability and fairness in digital markets. “We are committed to continue working hard to ensure that Meta’s products in the EU comply with the DMA and deliver value to people,” said the company.

ALSO READ-EU official visits Poland to discuss rule of law

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X fixes bug that labelled legit posts as ‘sensitive media’

Musk also said that an “X spam/scam bot accidentally flagged many legitimate accounts” which was being fixed by the company…reports Asian Lite News

Elon Musk-run X on Monday said it has fixed a bug that caused the platform to incorrectly label numerous posts as ‘Sensitive Media’.

According to the company, the vulnerability in its system flagged several genuine accounts.

“A bug in our system caused X to incorrectly label numerous posts as Sensitive Media,” the company posted.

“We’ve fixed the underlying issue and are now working to remove labels from impacted posts, it added.

Musk also said that an “X spam/scam bot accidentally flagged many legitimate accounts” which was being fixed by the company.

A follower reacted, saying that Musk can also fix the problem with the porn bots.

“Porn accounts should be flagged and there should be some kind of system where as a user, you can have in your settings to allow/not allow these flagged accounts to follow, repost or comment on a post,” the follower posted.

Another user commented: “Community Notes has also been hijacked. Fix that as well”.

Last October, the world’s richest man said that in order to tackle bots, new X users will need to pay $1 per year to post on the platform, although they can read other posts for free.

The company rolled out the test of this new programme in New Zealand and the Philippines, before it launches it globally.

X will require new users in New Zealand and the Philippines to pay $1 to create accounts. “Read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users,” Musk had posted. “This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform,” he added.

ALSO READ-EU Commissioner Warns Twitter over Dissemination of Illegal Content

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Social Media

Zuckerberg to depose in Texas ‘facial recognition’ lawsuit

The lawsuit alleges that Meta has violated state laws regarding the collection of biometric data and engaged in deceptive trade practices, the report noted…reports Asian Lite News

A US judge has ruled that Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg must participate in a deposition as part of an ongoing lawsuit in Texas concerning the company’s face recognition technology.

According to a ruling made by Justice Jeff Rambin on Tuesday, the state court has rejected Meta’s recent appeal “seeking relief from an order compelling the oral deposition” of Zuckerberg at an undisclosed date, reports CNBC.

In February 20222, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had filed the suit, saying that Meta has been “capturing and using the biometric data of millions of Texans without properly obtaining their informed consent to do so”.

He also held that Meta violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act by “failing to disclose information — including the fact that it collects biometric identifiers — with the intent to induce Facebook users in Texas into using Facebook, which such users would not have done had the information been disclosed”.

According to the latest ruling, the state of Texas has claimed that Zuckerberg possesses “unique personal knowledge of discoverable information” that is pertinent to its lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that Meta has violated state laws regarding the collection of biometric data and engaged in deceptive trade practices, the report noted.

In 2020, Meta settled a $650 million class action lawsuit in Illinois over similar violations to the state’s biometric privacy law.

In late 2021, the tech giant ceased its use of the technology.

Meanwhile, privacy rights advocacy group noyb has filed a new complaint against Meta, alleging that the social media platform unlawfully ignores the users’ right to easily withdraw consent and asks them to pay.

Since the beginning of November, Instagram and Facebook users who don’t want to be tracked have to pay a “privacy fee” of up to 251.88 euros per year.

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