Category: Social Media

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-Top News India News Social Media

Twitter, Facebook likely to be blocked in India

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Sources said the failure of social media companies to make these appointments in three months has not gone down well with the government..reports Aarti Tikoo Singh

The deadline to comply with the new legal rules meant for big social media platforms, which were issued by the government three months ago, is ending on Tuesday, threatening the operations of the likes of Twitter in India.

According to top official sources, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and others, which were required to abide by the rules notified in the gazette of India on February 25 under Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021, have failed to comply on many accounts till date.

The government’s rules will come into effect from May 26.

“If social media companies do not obey the rules, they may lose their status and protections as intermediaries and may become liable for criminal action as per the existing laws of India,” top official sources said.

Except one Indian social media company, Koo, sources said that none of the top social media intermediaries have appointed a resident grievance officer, a chief compliance officer and a nodal contact person yet.

Sources said the failure of social media companies to make these appointments in three months has not gone down well with the government.

ALSO READ: Trump blasts Facebook for continued ban

With arbitrary suspensions of accounts and inaction over abuses and bigotry on social media platforms, users in India have been persistently complaining against tech giants like Twitter, Facebook and others.

In the latest alleged Congress toolkit controversy, Delhi Police visited Twitter India’s local offices in the National Capital Region on Monday after Twitter had marked one of the tweets of BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as “manipulated media”.

Twitter’s presumptive judgement has triggered widespread outrage among Indian users across the country.

Sources said the social media platforms which were required to furnish monthly reports as to how many grievances were filed and settled, have failed to do so. Some of the platforms, sources said, have sought more time of up to six months for furnishing compliance.

For some platforms, sources said, the standard reply has been that they will await instructions from their company headquarters in the US, who in turn on their own will have an “expert assessment” to take a view.

The US-based social media platforms have grown huge, thanks to their massive user base and profitable revenues in democracies like India. However, none of the platforms have shown any inclination to comply with India’s domestic laws. Instead, social media platforms have refused to be transparent about their fact-checking mechanism and their criteria to label tweets.

ALSO READ: Facebook urged to scrap ‘Insta for kids’

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-Top News China Social Media

How China exploits social media to amplify its propaganda?

Oxford researchers examined every tweet and Facebook post produced by Chinese diplomats and ten of the largest state-controlled media outlets between June 2020 and February 2021, reports Rahul Kumar

China is using social media giants like Twitter and Facebook to broadcast State propaganda to global audiences, which is further amplified by fake Twitter accounts. This was revealed by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) in a seven-month-long investigation of social media accounts held by Chinese State-run media and Chinese diplomats.

A global audit by the OII and the Associated Press says that Chinese diplomats and State media outlets are highly active on Twitter and Facebook but only 14 per cent of diplomat accounts on Twitter are labelled as State-run media by the micro-blogging site.

Marcel Schliebs, doctoral candidate and lead author of the paper at the OII, University of Oxford, said: “We find that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is increasingly seeking to use its diplomats to amplify the outward-facing propaganda dissemination of state-backed media outlets. Our analysis shows PRC diplomats are represented in at least 126 countries with active Twitter or Facebook accounts.”

The Chinese government is exploiting those very social media networks to influence foreign public opinion which it has banned for its own public. The study points out that “nearly half of all PRC diplomat retweets are from the 1% of most active amplifiers.”

For their study, the Oxford researchers examined every tweet and Facebook post produced by Chinese diplomats and ten of the largest state-controlled media outlets between June 2020 and February 2021.

ALSO READ: China, Pakistan mark 70 years of bilateral ties

Chinese diplomats and State-backed media accounts have been highly active on Twitter. Between June 2020 and February 2021, 189 diplomatic accounts tweeted 201,382 times and got nearly seven million likes, 1.3 million retweets and attracted a million comments. Interestingly, a large number of these retweets came from accounts that Twitter had suspended for violating its rules.

The researchers also found that despite the Twitter and Facebook policy of labelling official accounts to enhance transparency and accountability, only one in eight (14 per cent) of Chinese diplomatic accounts on Twitter were labelled clearly as government accounts.

Quoting another similar research, The Epoch Times says that two Twitter accounts — those belonging to Liu Xiaoming, the former Chinese ambassador to the UK, and the Chinese Embassy in London, were scrutinised carefully. This research found that from June 2020 to January 2021, a coordinated network of 62 accounts was dedicated to amplifying messages from the two accounts.

Of the 62 accounts, 60 were eventually suspended by Twitter, with 29 of them for the reason of platform manipulation. The remaining two were deleted by their own users. The researchers say that these 62 accounts seemed to generate little interest from genuine users, but may have contributed to the amplification of official Chinese content “by manipulating platform algorithms”, says The Epoch Times.

The research says that the Chinese government has an overwhelming presence on social media networks. The researchers found 176 Twitter and Facebook accounts representing Chinese State-controlled media outlets in English and other languages. These accounts posted over 700,000 times, with posts receiving a mammoth 355 million likes with over 27 million comments and re-shares.

However, nearly half of all Chinese official accounts are retweeted by the top 1 per cent most active accounts. These highly active accounts engage with PRC diplomats at a very high rate, often retweeting them thousands of times within just a few months.

Talking about the significance of the research, Professor Philip N. Howard, Senior Author of the study said: “By uncovering the scale and reach of the PRC’s public diplomacy campaign, we can better understand how policy makers and social media firms should react to an increasingly assertive PRC propaganda strategy.”

(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

ALSO READ: US, China engaging in N-arms race

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Social Media Tech Lite World News

Facebook urged to scrap ‘Insta for kids’

The “Instagram for Kids” app will allow children under the age of 13 to begin using the popular photo-sharing app…reports Asian Lite News

A coalition of 44 US attorneys general signed a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging Facebook not to launch “Instagram for Kids”, citing mental health and privacy concerns.

The “Instagram for Kids” app will allow children under the age of 13 to begin using the popular photo-sharing app. However, the attorneys general urge Facebook to abandon its plans to launch this new platform.

The letter lists reasons and cites research to show that Facebook should not go forth with its plans to develop and market a kid-friendly version of the Instagram app, reports GSMArena.

Facebook. (File Photo: IANS)
ALSO READ:Mns spent by Facebook for CEO security

Among the reasons listed in the letter are — Facebook’s poor history of protecting childrena’s privacy and data on the platform, research showing that social media can be harmful to children on physical and psychological levels, children do not have a fully-developed understanding of privacy and can easily be targeted by anonymous predators.

In the release published by the coalition head Attorney General Maura Healey, she cited Zuckerberg’s dismissal of the idea that social media is harmful to children.

The release points out there is much strong evidence and research that contradicts Zuckerberg’s denial.

Currently, children under 13 are not allowed to have an Instagram account unless it is explicitly written in the profilea¿s description that the account is being managed by a parent or guardian.

ALSO READ: Trump blasts Facebook for continued ban

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Interview Social Media

‘Curly Tales’ of food and travel

The pandemic allowed me to relook at my business. Even though Curly Tales is in the travel space, travel can never be replaced with an online experience… Kamiya Jani speaks with Puja Gupta.

Becoming a blogger is a common thing in modern times. Her videos often pop up on our Facebook feeds and give major travel goals. Mother of one, Kamiya Jani quit her full-time job as an anchor to follow her passion for travelling and exploring the world.

What started as a personal blog ‘Curly Tales’, is one of the most popular online platform that shares recommendations for food and travel.

In a conversation with us, Jani talks about her journey, her venture, apart from her views on the present scenario of the travel industry. Excerpts:

When did you begin your journey as a content curator, and how has your journey been till now?

Even though I started this journey by writing blogs and articles, I realised that not too many platforms were making videos around this. That is when I forayed into videos, which were very well received by everyone who watched them. The journey has been full of excitement, starting with just me and my passion for food and travel. I now have an amazing team of 25-30 people.

What started as a food and travel platform where I would make 1-minute videos on topics of interest — from street food, unique servings in restaurants, we have surely come a long way. We are now well placed to host celebrity interviews, wherein I invite renowned personalities for a brunch. They then discuss their journey, their passion for travel, and their food experience, through a very candid and free-flowing conversation. This concept became pretty unique, and was well received by the audiences.

What was your inspiration to start your journey in this field?

I was working as a business news anchor at a renowned business news channel, and I had been a journalist for the past 10 years, before Curly Tales. Although I enjoyed that stint entirely, I used to feel pretty confined in the space. While on the job, I strongly felt that I wanted to enjoy myself exploring the world.

When I switched, I was already a mom of a three-year-old daughter. I wanted to pursue my dreams with a simple thought — if not now, then when. I wanted to follow my passion for travelling on a personal level. Initially, I just started documenting my experiences and publishing on Facebook, where I found a community of like-minded people that could relate to my content. Additionally, a lot of women started looking up to me, by telling me that despite being married and a mother I still pursued my passion. This only gave me more motivation and drive to continue my journey, document it and publish it, and engage the community with my recommendations and their suggestions.

The whole journey from content has taken a shift to commerce. We are not just recommending but also selling some of these experiences now. Recently, we experienced a staycation package for a five-star hotel, and over 500 people bought that experience through Curly Tales on Facebook after watching our video on it. In all, our journey started from a passion, moved to content creation, to curation and it is now in the stage of commerce, where the transactions are happening based on recommendations through Facebook.

Given that you are also a part of Facebook’s ongoing ‘More Together’ campaign which focuses on the power of connections, how do you relate to it?

The power of connections is all about working together. The connection has been with my team who has helped me build the foundation of Curly Tales and the connection with the followers, who have been following us since we started with 300-400 followers. Moreover, some of those followers have now turned into our clients. I feel all this personifies the power of connections– something that has happened through Facebook. This has brought me even closer to the essence of Facebook’s More Together campaign.

The pandemic-induced disruption in the travel space forced people and travelers to become homebound. How did you cope up with the situation?

The pandemic allowed me to relook at my business. Even though Curly Tales is in the travel space, travel can never be replaced with an online experience. We did some virtual tours but the joy of travelling outdoors can never be replaced by anything else. We were positive that we will be back. The pandemic also allowed us to relook at our content strategy and position ourselves the way we wanted to. During the pandemic, we got an opportunity to focus on written content, and use instant articles on Facebook as travelling guides for people who needed to be reunited with their families. Through this process, we became a catalyst and a mediator of informing people as to how they can travel during tough times.

Share some insights into what went in the travel community during the last few months. Are you excited as travel opens up slowly?

We definitely saw a lull period which started from March-end and went out till September-October, up until domestic flights started. Even when flight operations started, it was not much for leisure, and rather about emergency travel, where people were looking to reunite with their family members. Once travel started, the market bounced back due to the pent-up demand of people wanting to travel. The demand was clearly at its peak and there was a ‘revenge travel’, that we saw, where people were wanting to get out of their homes and explore, even if it meant to get away on road trips.

I do think that domestic tourism is growing and has caught up already. This is also why we have started our new show “I love my India”, where we discover hidden gems in India and where Indians can actually find international experiences right here in the home country.

What were some of the challenges that you faced, when you shifted to this from your job? How did you overcome them?

I gave myself a time limit of one year, thinking that I will boomerang into my job. But as fate had it, there was no looking back. The biggest challenge for me in this journey has been to find people with whom I can share my passion. A shared vision fueled by mutual passion leads to the meaningful content of relevance and keeps the team motivated. I feel blessed to have an amazing team that meets these requisites, and have been instrumental in taking Curly Tales to where it is today.

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Read More-Covid-19: Social Media Battling Vaccine Uncertainty

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-Top News Social Media USA

Amazon Prime hits 200Mn users

Bezos said that Amazon has created $1.6 trillion of wealth for share owners…reports Asian Lite News.

Another pride for Jeff Bezos that Amazon Prime has reached a user base of 200 million, according to the outgoing CEO, which is an increase of over 50 million during the pandemic only.

In his final annual letter to Amazon’s shareholders on Thursday, Bezos who will be replaced by former AWS head Andy Jassy as Amazon CEO this year, said that customers have connected more than 100 million smart home devices to Alexa.

“Last year, we hired 500,000 employees and now directly employ 1.3 million people around the world. We have more than 200 million Prime members worldwide. More than 1.9 million small and medium-sized businesses sell in our store, and they make up close to 60 per cent of our retail sales,” Bezos informed.

“Customers have connected more than 100 million smart home devices to Alexa. Amazon Web Services serves millions of customers and ended 2020 with a $50 billion annualised run rate,” he added.

Bezos said that Amazon has created $1.6 trillion of wealth for share owners.

On the Cloud services vertical, Bezos said that across AWS’s entire 2020 revenue of $45 billion, “that 30 per cent would imply customer value creation of $19 billion (what would have cost them $64 billion on their own cost $45 billion from AWS).

“To be conservative here (and remembering we’re really only trying to get ballpark estimates), I’ll say it’s the same and call AWS customer value creation $38 billion in 2020. Adding AWS and consumer together gives us total customer value creation in 2020 of $164 billion,” he noted.

According to him, this value creation is not a zero-sum game.

“It is not just moving money from one pocket to another. Draw the box big around all of society, and you’ll find that invention is the root of all real value creation. And value created is best thought of as a metric for innovation,” Bezos stressed.

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Read More-Sam Mendes Asks Netflix,Amazone To Help Theatres

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-Top News Social Media

‘Facebook job ads biased against women’

Researchers at University of Southern California found that Facebook’s ad delivery system biased against women…reports Asian Lite News

The ad delivery system of Facebook is biased towards women, showing them different job listings than it shows to men, a new study has revealed.

Researchers at University of Southern California found that Facebook’s ad delivery system discriminates against women, reports The Verge.

The team of researchers bought ads on Facebook for delivery driver job listings that had similar qualification requirements but for different companies.

The findings showed that Facebook targeted the Instacart delivery job to more women and the Domino’s delivery job to more men.

According to the researchers, Instacart has more female drivers but Domino’s has more male drivers.

“Facebook’s ad delivery can result in skew of job ad delivery by gender beyond what can be legally justified by possible differences in qualifications,” the researchers wrote, “thus strengthening the previously raised arguments that Facebook’s ad delivery algorithms may be in violation of anti-discrimination laws.”

Facebook. (File Photo: IANS)
Also read:Gender inequalities on art of writing

In a similar experiment on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, the researchers found that the professional networking platform showed the Domino’s listing to as many women as it showed the Instacart ad.

A Facbeek spokesperson said in a sttaement that their system takes into account “many signals to try and serve people ads they will be most interested in, but we understand the concerns raised in the report”.

“We’ve taken meaningful steps to address issues of discrimination in ads and have teams working on ads fairness today. We’re continuing to work closely with the civil rights community, regulators, and academics on these important matters,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

This is not the first time Facebook has faced allegations over gender bias in its algorithms.

In 2017, a joint investigation by US-based non-profit organisation ProPublica and The New York Times found companies like Verizon, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook place recruitment ads limited to particular age groups.

Another ProPublica probe found that Facebook allowed housing advertisers to target audiences by race and exclude minorities, raising questions about whether the company is in compliance with federal fair housing rules that prohibit such discrimination.

Facebook, however, called it a “technical failure”.

Also read:61 lakh Indians hit by Facebook data leak

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Asia News Social Media

Pakistan: Hub of fake narratives

Fake news has always remained a favourite tool for propaganda, and it has become even more lethal in the age of social media…reports Asian Lite News

Pakistan has been running anti-India propaganda using Pakistani social media accounts which are the new tools for propagating fake narratives.

According to the Disinfo Lab reports, Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, Islamophobia in India, Galwan valley clash, Farmers’ Protest of India are some of the incidents where Pakistan has made Anti-India fake narratives.

The report revealed that the Pakistan decided to set up a full-scale fake news industry by way of SAUSMF . SAUSMF website was hosted by Pak Cabinet Minister and close aid of PM Imran Khan – Jahangir Tareen on his server.

Disinfo Lab

It is easy to spread disinformation through twitter because of its facility to change the username(name and username).

The major findings of report, which uncovered main members of this nexus included Aftab Afridi, Awas Javed Satti, Asim Khan who has direct links with Pakistan army, team Imran Khan and Pak businessman Jahangir Khan Tareen, who was the man behind Imran Khan’s electoral victory.

Also read:Social media war between B’desh and Pakistan

Last year, security and intelligence agencies in India have identified and traced more than 5,000 Pakistan-based social media handles actively spreading fake and false propaganda on Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. Some of them are using “deep fake videos” of protests to incite communal violence in the country.

Social media(IANS)

“Some of prominent Pakistan personalities are also sharing the information through their private handles. These handles are very active for the last 48 hours,” said a source in the security establishment.

Sources said that even Arif Alvi, the President of Pakistan, is tweeting curated deep fakes. He tweeted: “Of the many messages coming from India, I am just tweeting this message. The girl is crying at police brutal violence inside a mosque at Delhi’s Jamia Millia. Prime Minister Modi’s fascist Hindutva government is at war with Muslims.”

The agencies said that Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi commands a troll brigade.

Pakistan social media handlers also tweeted fake news about casualty of a girl student in Jamia Millia during protests on Sunday.

To find out more about Disinfo Lab report, visit:https://thedisinfolab.org/the-anatomy-of-pakistans-5th…/

Also read:Biden backs talks between India and Pakistan

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Social Media Technology

Covid-19: Social Media Battling Vaccine Uncertainty

One in three adults in the UK intend to use social media and personal messaging to encourage people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, while almost one in 10 intend to discourage people from getting vaccinated using the same platforms, finds a new research.

The study, by Loughborough University researchers, is based on an October 2020 survey of 5,114 UK adults that explored how people’s attitudes and their consumption of Covid-19 news links to their intention to use social media and personal messaging apps to encourage or discourage vaccination.

Around 57 per cent were undecided on if or how they will endorse the vaccines online, revealed the study to be published in the journal Social Media and Society.

“Vaccine hesitancy is a longstanding problem, but it has assumed great urgency due to the pandemic. We know that people’s media diets provide them with the information they share online, and we know online endorsement can make a difference to people’s attitudes and decisions,” said Andrew Chadwick, a Professor at the varsity.

A man wearing a face mask walks past a rapid test for COVID-19 point in Rome, Italy, Jan. 27, 2021. (Xinhua/Cheng Tingting)

“Our findings suggest that when people gain a broad perspective, from a range of different media and information sources, they gather evidence and are more likely to positively endorse vaccination online. This is good news for collective public health,” Chadwick added.

The team identified ‘media diets’ for getting news and information about Covid-19 among the UK public. It was then linked to vaccine hesitancy and two key attitudes: conspiracy mentality — the hostile distrust of public authorities based on false belief that secret organisations influence political decisions — and the news finds me perception — where people give low priority to active monitoring of news and rely more on their online networks of friends for information.

The findings showed a clear link between vaccine hesitancy and the intention to use social media and personal messaging apps to discourage others from getting vaccinated.

“Avoiding news and having a ‘news-finds-me’ attitude is perhaps most troubling, because this combination of factors links with the online discouragement of others from taking the vaccine,” Chadwick said.

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Categories
-Top News Social Media USA

61 lakh Indians hit by Facebook data leak

Facebook. (File Photo: IANS)
About a fifth of the social networking platform’s 2.6 billion user base leaked, reports Asian Lite News.

A hacker has posted the phone numbers and sensitive account details of nearly 533 million (53.3 crore) Facebook users — about a fifth of the social networking platform’s entire user base — including over 61 lakh Indian users which has been dumped on a public cybercrime forum.

The leaked data includes Facebook ID numbers, profile names, email addresses, location information, gender details, job data, and other details.

“All 533,000,000 Facebook records were just leaked for free. This means that if you have a Facebook account, it is extremely likely the phone number used for the account was leaked,” tweeted Alon Gal, CTO of security firm Hudson Rock.

“I have yet to see Facebook acknowledging this absolute negligence of your data,” he added.

Facebook has confirmed the leak to The Record.

“This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019. We found and fixed this issue in August 2019,” a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report late on Saturday.

With the data now entering the public domain, there is a real danger that this information can be widely used by cybercriminals for email or SMS spam, robocalls, extortion attempts, threats and harassment, etc.

The data is reportedly broken up into download packages by country.

As Cambridge Analytics still haunts nearly 87 million users, including over 5 lakh users from India, this has come as the biggest ever leak of a social media platform that has billions of users.

In January this year, reports first surfaced that the phone numbers of 533 million users were currently being sold via a bot on encrypted messaging platform Telegram, which came from a Facebook vulnerability that was patched by the social network in 2019.

According to a report in Motherboard, the person selling the database full of Facebook users’ phone numbers ($20 per number) lets customers lookup those numbers by using an automated Telegram bot.

Gal had then said: “It is very worrying to see a database of that size being sold in cybercrime communities, it harms our privacy severely and will certainly be used for smishing (the fraudulent practice of sending text messages) and other fraudulent activities by bad actors.”

However, this time, the Facebook data leak has been published with more details.

This is not the first time that Facebook has been caught foot in mouth over a data leak. In 2019, data of 419 million Facebook and 49 million Instagram users was exposed in databases online. In the same year, it had faced another data breach leaving data of 267 million users exposed. Before that, there was the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal, which was perhaps the first time Mark Zuckerberg’s company had come under the radar for its data collection practices.

Facebook. (File Photo: IANS)

According to a Facebook spokesperson, the bug was only accessible for a short period of time during a small test.

The database, which was first leaked in 2019, was initially being sold on instant messaging platform Telegram for a fee of $20 per search. Facebook had then said that it had patched the vulnerability that has caused the leak. But, in June 2020, and, then in January 2021, the same database was leaked again. The vulnerability was the same: it allowed users to search for a person’s number.

Also Read-Facebook limits Myanmar military content as misinformation spreads

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-Top News India News Social Media

‘Spreading fake news will not be allowed ‘

The Centre on Thursday categorically said in the Rajya Sabha that action will be taken against Social Media platforms if fake news and violence is spread through it.

“There is freedom of speech but Article 19A says that this is subject to reasonable restrictions,” said Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

“We respect social media a lot, it has empowered common people. Social media has a big role in the Digital India programme. However, if social media are misused to spread fake news and violence, then action will be taken on the misuse of social media in India whether Twitter or else,” said Prasad.

He said all the social media platforms will have to adhere to the constitution of India. The Indian constitution allows criticism of the government and the Prime Minister, but spreading fake news will not be allowed, he said.

Prasad said, “We have flagged certain issues to Twitter and social media has to take into consideration of the Indian Laws if they want to do business in the country.

Social Media (Photo: pixabay)

“Different parameters can’t be allowed for different countries. It can’t be different for the Capitol Hill incident and some other parameters and for the Red Fort incident.”

The Indian government on Wednesday expressed displeasure over Twitter’s delayed compliance on its order to remove “provocative” tweets amid the ongoing farmers’ protests.

IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney expressed Centre’s displeasure to Twitter’s management.

An official statement issued late Wednesday night said the Secretary told Monique Meche, Vice President, Global Public Policy and Jim Baker, Deputy General Counsel and Vice President Legal of Twitter that delayed compliance to lawfully passed orders are “meaningless”.

“Lawfully passed orders are binding on any business entity. They must be obeyed immediately. If they are executed days later, it becomes meaningless,” Sawhney was quoted as saying in the statement.

The official expressed his deep disappointment to Twitter leadership about the manner in which Twitter has unwillingly, grudgingly and with great delay complied with the substantial parts of the order, the statement said.

He also told Twitter that in India its Constitution and laws are supreme.

Also Read-Global Covid-19 cases cross 107.3 mn