Social

Calling social media a “very powerful medium,” Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said that how to make it accountable is a “very valid question” and that an ecosystem is being created across the globe and in India for the same. Self-regulation is a first step in the direction of making social media accountable,

Britain is proposing a new law that will require social media companies to proactively tackle disinformation posted by foreign states such as Russia, the government said on Monday. The law would tackle fake accounts on platforms such as Meta‘s Facebook and Twitter that were set up on behalf of foreign states to influence elections or

Donald Trump’s social media company and some of its employees received subpoenas from both a federal grand jury and securities regulators, according to a public disclosure Friday, possibly delaying or even killing a deal promising a cash infusion needed to take on Twitter. Trump Media & Technology Group received subpoenas from a grand jury in

WhatsApp is found to be working on adding an option to let users hide their online status. This functionality would allow users to choose who can see when they are online on the instant messaging app. It is likely to be available in a future update. Separately, the Meta-owned company is reportedly updating the time

Chinese-owned social media site TikTok told US senators it was working on a final agreement with the Biden Administration that would “fully safeguard user data and US national security interests,” according to a letter seen Friday by Reuters. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew told senators in a letter dated Thursday that the short video

Instagram is reportedly testing a way to turn video posts into Reels. The Meta-owned social media platform is said to have mentioned has reportedly said that the change is currently being tested with a select number of users around the world and it is part of Instagram’s plan to simplify the videos on the application.

A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission has urged the chief executives of Apple and Alphabet’s Google to kick Chinese-owned TikTok out of its app stores. Brendan Carr, the FCC commissioner, said in a letter to the CEOs, dated June 24 and sent on FCC letterhead, that video-sharing app TikTok has collected vast troves

Spotify has announced a new in-app feature called the Supergrouper on June 28. The new feature will enable users to select a group of five artists that might not usually come together on-stage or in the recording studio. The music streaming platform will then create a playlist for the listeners based on your selections. Users

Reels APIs will be made available to a number of endpoints on the Instagram Platform for developers, according to a statement from Meta. The firm claims that after learning that Reels is a top priority from its developer community, it is providing the new Reels APIs. Reels’ assistance from Meta is now also available for

Social media personality Khaby Lame has achieved a new record of garnering 142.8 million followers on the short-form video hosting service, TikTok. Lame, has surged past popular TikTok video creator Charli D’Amelio who currently has 142.3 million followers, reported Variety. The 22-year-old’s video content includes reacting to absurd life-hack videos and recreating the video himself

Spain’s defence minister Margarita Robles warned on Friday of a possible cyberattack during the NATO summit in Madrid next week. Asked if Spain feared Russia could launch such an attack, Robles told journalists “the possibility of a cyberattack exists”, without mentioning the country by name. “There are many challenges and many threats,” she said, adding

A group of six Republican senators on Friday asked the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about an ongoing Biden administration national security review of social media platform TikTok. The US government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, in 2020 ordered Chinese

The UN called on countries to stop imposing internet shutdowns or disruptions, warning Thursday that they can have dire and even deadly consequences. In a fresh report, the UN rights office warned that “the dramatic real-life effects of shutdowns on the lives and human rights of millions of people are vastly underappreciated.” “Hospitals being unable

Shopify has launched new tools to help its merchants sell to other businesses and on Twitter, as the Canadian tech giant attempts to shore up sales to counter a post-pandemic slowdown in online shopping. More than a 100 new tools were unveiled on Wednesday, including ones to support its plans to push into business-to-business, for

Meta, Microsoft and other tech giants racing to build the emerging metaverse concept have formed a group to foster development of industry standards that would make the companies’ nascent digital worlds compatible with each other. Participants in the Metaverse Standards Forum include many of the biggest companies working in the space, from chip makers to

A Moscow court on Monday rejected an appeal brought by Meta Platforms after it was found guilty of “extremist activity” in Russia in March, the TASS news agency reported. Russia restricted access to Meta‘s flagship platforms Facebook and Instagram, as well as fellow social network Twitter, in the wake of Moscow sending tens of thousands

Snapchat is reportedly testing for its paid subscription called Snapchat+ internally, as confirmed by Snap spokesperson Liz Markman. The paid subscription from Snapchat is said to provide users an early access to features as well as other abilities announced on the app. As reported earlier, the one-month subscription for Snapchat+ is expected to cost EUR

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms is launching a digital clothing store where users can purchase designer outfits for their avatars, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday. Initial fashion brands participating in the store launch will be Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne, but Meta aims to make the store an open marketplace where developers can create and

WhatsApp is widely rolling out rolling out improved privacy controls to users. The features allow users granular control over their privacy settings, to specify who can see their last seen, about, and profile photo on the messaging app. They were spotted in development last year, after which Meta-owned messaging service began to roll out the

Snapchat is reportedly working on a subscription plan and it could give users access to multiple features including the ability to pin a conversation. With the rollout of Snapchat+, users may have to pay to access exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features on the social media platform. With the premium subscription, Snapchat users will get custom

YouTube is getting a new feature called Corrections that allows creators to fix errors or add updates to their already published videos. With the latest functionality, creators can edit the errors in the descriptions of their video and they will be able to provide a written correction based on the change. A corrections info card

WhatsApp users are finally getting the option to switch from an Android phone to an iPhone after much anticipation. The instant messaging app on Tuesday announced the new capability in beta. The update has enabled users to transfer their WhatsApp account information, profile photo, individual and group chats, chat history, media, and settings from an

WhatsApp Payments — the payment feature on the Meta-owned messaging service — recently introduced a new Rs. 105 cashback offer for select users in the country. The cashback offer is valid on a minimum transaction of Re. 1, and you can receive Rs. 35 up to three times, for a total of Rs. 105. The

Lawyers are investigating Meta Platforms’ outgoing operations chief Sheryl Sandberg’s use of company resources over several years, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Several employees have been interviewed in connection with the investigation by Facebook-parent Meta, the WSJ reported, adding that the probe has been underway since at least

Meta on Friday said that it is adding the ability to easily socialise in virtual reality with an update to its Quest 2 headsets in another step toward the metaverse. The tweak heading for the latest model Quest from Meta-owned Oculus will let wearers hop into virtual settings with friends, chief Mark Zuckerberg said in

WhatsApp has reportedly started rolling out a new feature that lets users add up to 512 members to a group chat. The feature was announced by Meta last month. The messaging platform is also bringing a host of new features including increasing the size limit of sharing files to up to 2GB and emoji reactions

Twitter suspended accounts of 9to5Mac and XDA Developers on Thursday due to not meeting its minimum age requirements. The suspension came into effect after the publishers changed the birth date in their accounts. It was lifted for the XDA Developers account hours after the restriction, though the account of 9to5Mac was not fully recovered at

Snapchat parent Snap has expanded its partnership with ShareChat’s Moj to integrate its AR Camera Kit within short-video app MX TakaTak. As a result of the new move, the MX TakaTak app will now offer the ability to access new camera experiences powered by Snapchat’s augmented reality (AR) technology. The integration will also help ShareChat

India on Monday reissued new rules on social media companies that it proposed then abruptly withdrew last week, making no changes but explaining that the law was needed because the companies had violated Indians’ constitutional rights. The country last week released a draft of changes to its IT law that would require companies to “respect

Elon Musk warned he may walk away from his $44 billion (roughly 3,41,800 crore) deal to acquire Twitter if the social media network fails to provide data on spam and fake accounts, the billionaire said in a letter to the company on Monday. The letter said Twitter was in a “clear material breach” of its obligations