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Two US senators plan to introduce legislation this week aimed at letting the government “ban or prohibit” foreign technology products such as Chinese-owned TikTok, Senator Mark Warner said on Sunday. Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said TikTok would be “one of the potentials” for review under the bill. The Democratic senator made the

Snapchat is kicking dozens of children in Britain off its platform each month compared with tens of thousands blocked by rival TikTok, according to internal data the companies shared with Britain’s media regulator Ofcom and which Reuters has seen. Social media platforms such as Meta‘s Instagram, ByteDance‘s TikTok, and Snap‘s Snapchat require users to be

Meta on Friday said it will modify the company’s criticised special handling of posts by celebrities, politicians and other big audience Instagram or Facebook users, taking steps to avoid business interests swaying decisions. The tech giant promised to implement in full or in part most of the 32 changes to its “cross-check” programme recommended by

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a Companion Mode for Android tablets which enables users to link their WhatsApp account to an Android tablet and a secondary phone simultaneously. Now, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform is reportedly testing a new split view feature for select beta testers using the app on their Android tablets. The split

TikTok said on Wednesday it is developing a tool that will allow parents to prevent their teens from viewing content containing certain words or hashtags on the short-form video app, as the embattled company looks to shore up its public image. TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, is facing renewed scrutiny worldwide over its

Meta unveiled its high-end virtual and mixed reality headset Quest Pro in October last year. Now, the Facebook parent seems to be investing heavily towards its metaverse plans with a flurry of AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) products. Meta is reportedly gearing up to release its first pair of smart glasses with a

Canada on Monday announced a ban on Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from government-issued devices, saying it presents an “unacceptable” level of risk to privacy and security, adding to the growing rift between the two countries. The move underscores the growing lobby against TikTok, owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, over concerns of its proximity to

WhatsApp rolled out the disappearing messages feature in December 2021, allowing messages in a chat to automatically delete after a set period of time. In January 2023, it was reported that the Meta-owned instant messaging platform is working on another feature that will let users save messages in a disappearing chat. As per a new

Meta Platforms introduced a research tool for building artificial intelligence-based chatbots and other products, seeking to create a buzz for its own technology in a field lately focused on internet rivals Google and Microsoft. The tool, LLaMA, is Meta‘s latest entry in the realm of large language models, which “have shown a lot of promise in

The Federal Trade Commission voted to withdraw an antitrust complaint challenging Meta Platforms’s purchase of virtual-reality startup Within Unlimited, officially closing the agency’s case. The FTC sued to block the deal last year, filing twin complaints in federal court and its in-house court. Following a December trial in a San Jose federal court, US District

The European Union’s two biggest policy-making institutions have banned TikTok from staff phones for cybersecurity reasons, marking growing concerns about the Chinese short video-sharing app and its users’ data. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, is under scrutiny from governments and regulators because of concerns that China’s government could use its app to

WhatsApp has been working on introducing new features and improving existing features on its instant messaging platform. As per a new report, the Meta-owned instant messaging service is planning on introducing a dedicated newsletter section. The latest development has reportedly been spotted on a WhatsApp Beta version of Android. WhatsApp for Android Beta 2.23.5.3 reportedly

WhatsApp is arguably the world’s most popular messaging service, and the Meta-owned messaging service also offers a version of the app for businesses that supports basic automated responses. On the other hand, ChatGPT, the wildly popular chatbot from San Francisco startup OpenAI has seen users cross the 100 million mark in record time. While there

Three months ago, Elon Musk announced an $11 (roughly Rs. 910) monthly subscription service to give Twitter users a blue verification check mark. On Sunday, Meta Platforms announced largely the same thing: a $15 (roughly Rs. 1,240) subscription service for users to get a blue verified badge, so long as they provide a government-issued ID. Meta Chief

Facebook, the social network that was supposed to stay free “always,” and its stablemate Instagram launched on Sunday a paid subscription service, as the advertising-based business model that has long dominated the internet falters. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook-parent Meta, announced on Sunday the launch of Meta Verified, a service starting at $11.99 (roughly Rs.

WhatsApp for iOS is receiving an update that will allow iPhone owners to multitask on their phone while on a video call. Unlike the Android version of the app, which has supported multi-tasking while on video calls for ages, WhatsApp for iOS would pause a user’s video stream when the app was minimised or the user

Twitter has announced that it will soon stop supporting SMS based two-factor authentication (2FA) for users that are not subscribed to Twitter Blue. Users will have up to March 20 to disable text-based login authentication codes on their accounts, according to the microblogging service. This means that several users who rely on receiving SMS codes

Instagram, the social media platform owned by Meta Platforms, is rolling out a broadcast chat feature called Channels, the company’s boss Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday. “I’m starting a channel to share news and updates on all the products and tech we’re building at Meta,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “It will be the

WhatsApp has announced three new features and improvements to its app on Android. These include document captions, longer group subjects and descriptions, the option to share up to 100 media files. These features are now available to all users who download the latest version of WhatsApp for Android from the Google Play Store. The social

Elon Musk had Twitter engineers working late on Sunday to alter his social network’s algorithm and prioritize his tweets, resulting in a glut of them in users’ feeds on Monday, according to a report by Platformer. The billionaire Twitter owner was said to be unhappy with the number of views of his Super Bowl tweet. As

Meta Platforms said on Monday Chief Business Officer Marne Levine was leaving the owner of Facebook after a 13-year stint. Fifty-two-year-old Levine, appointed as the company’s first chief business officer in 2021, has served in various other executive positions at the social media company, including chief operating officer of Instagram. The company said it expanded

WhatsApp has begun rolling out the ability to share a higher number of image files at one time in a chat, to some beta testers. The Meta-owned messaging service has also been spotted working on an update to enable high-quality image sharing over chats, or photos to retain their original quality. The firm was previously

Twitter failed to provide a full report to the European Union on its efforts to combat online disinformation, drawing a rebuke Thursday from top officials of the 27-nation bloc. The company signed up to the EU’s voluntary 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation last year — before billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought the social media

It’s hard to feel sorry for Silicon Valley tech workers. From high salaries and generous stock options to nap pods and unlimited time off, they’re among the most privileged class of employees in the world. Conversely, there’s no denying that these pampered staffers engineered a technology revolution that’s brought untold economic and social value to

The surgeon general is the “nation’s doctor” in the United States. They are tasked with giving Americans the “best scientific information” about their health. Late last month, the current US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, warned 13 is too young to join social media. He said it poses a risk to young people’s “self-worth and their

Elon Musk’s Twitter lagged behind Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok in the fight against disinformation in the last six months, the European Commission said on Thursday and urged Twitter to step up its efforts. The companies on Thursday presented progress reports on compliance with a beefed-up European Union (EU) code of practice on disinformation

Meta Platforms is asking many of its managers and directors to transition to individual contributor jobs or leave the company as it tries to become more efficient, according to people familiar with the matter. The process is known internally as a “flattening,” the people said. Higher-level managers are sharing the directive with their subordinates in

Twitter Support has revealed that the latest version of the application for iOS and Android smartphones now remembers which “tab” the user last selected. After closing and reopening the app, Twitter will always display the last used tab first. Twitter rolled out the same functionality for its Web platform earlier in January. Twitter CEO Elon

Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday said that the past three months have been “extremely tough” as he “had to save Twitter from bankruptcy” while also fulfilling his duties in Tesla and SpaceX. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Musk said that the microblogging site continues to have challenges.  Elon Musk tweeted, “Last

Twitter will start sharing revenue from advertisements with some of its content creators, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday. Effective Friday, revenue from ads that appear on a creator’s reply threads, will be shared. The user must be a subscriber of Blue Verified, Musk said. Musk, however, did not give details about the portion