Facebook

(CNN)An incident involving a football fan's mobile phone and Cristiano Ronaldo after Manchester United's 1-0 Premier League defeat at Everton on Saturday has prompted a police investigation and an apology from the Portuguese international soccer star.In a video circulated on social media, the 37-year-old Portuguese forward is recorded limping off the pitch at Goodison Park before appearing to bend down and strike a mobile phone out of a young supporter's hands.A statement issued by Merseyside Police said that they were liaising with both clubs regarding "reports of an assault" after the match."As players were leaving the pitch at 2.30pm it was reported that a boy was assaulted by one of the away team as they left the pitch," the statement read."Inquiries are underway and officers are currently working with Everton Football Club to review CCTV footage and are carrying out extensive witness enquiries to establish if an offense has taken place."An update on the incident will be issued shortly,  » Read More

A Hampton Republican Party official accused of racist Facebook posts has been formally removed from his position as chair of the city’s Electoral Board after the Hampton Circuit Court signed off on his resignation.While David Dietrich resigned from the Hampton Electoral Board over the weekend, the order, signed Monday by Chief Judge Michael Gaten, formally relieves Dietrich of his “powers, rights, responsibilities and obligations” as a board member.In a statement to The Virginian-Pilot, Rebecca Winn, vice-chair of the board, said “our democracy is under attack.”“That attack may look like an actual physical assault on our U.S. Capitol building or, in this case, like the appointment of a white supremacist and nationalist to conduct and oversee our elections,” Winn said.All cities and counties in Virginia have a three-member electoral board whose duties include: appointing the general registrar, training election officers, preparing ballots, conducting the election and certifying election results, according to the city’s website.“To ensure our success as a country, I urge both Congress and our Virginia legislature to pass laws like the Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act which would better support and protect the people carrying out the work of democracy,” Winn said.  » Read More

Facebook has become the tool most frequently used to deceive the elderly, according to experts who warned the elderly and their families during a seminar.National Statistics Bureau data on seniors’ internet usage show that they are most often deceived while browsing Facebook pages, said Jaruwan Sriphakdee, director of the Older Persons’ Rights Protection and Assistance Division of the Older Persons Department.According to the data, 44 per cent of seniors have been deceived by Facebook posts, 31.25 per cent by Line chats and 5.25 per cent by Instagram posts, said Jaruwan, speaking at a recent online seminar organised by the Thailand Consumers Council (TCC) to alert the elderly and their families to the dangers of fraud on social media. She did not elaborate on the number of seniors surveyed or the timeframe involved. Jaruwan explained that the elderly tend to be deceived more on Facebook than other social media platforms because older people use the portal to keep abreast of current events, meet friends and shop.  » Read More

‘I’ve come to realize that Facebook is not a media company. It’s a Doomsday Machine,” Atlantic magazine executive editor Adrienne LaFrancewrote in 2020. “No single machine should be able to control the fate of the world’s population,” she observed, quoting nuclear strategist Herman Kahn: “Automating the extinction of all life on Earth would be immoral.” Last week the magazine featured a piece by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, recently added to the masthead as a contributing writer. “I’ve said this over and over, that, really, this is like when 140,000 people died instantly in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The same thing has happened in our information ecosystem, but it is silent and it is insidious. . . . An atom bomb has exploded in our information ecosystem.”  » Read More

LAS VEGAS — The University of Iowa rowing team opened its first day of action at the Pac-12 Invite on Saturday at Lake Las Vegas. The Hawkeyes kicked off races with the varsity four in its Saturday grouping of No. 8 Washington, Clemson, and Washington State. Iowa’s 1V4 crew placed third, coming in almost five seconds ahead of Washington State. Iowa’s 1V8 crew also placed third, coming in 2.84 seconds before Clemson. The 2V8 crew placed fourth with 6:54.63, respectively. QUOTING JEFF GARBUTT “Competing today was a great opportunity for us to learn and see the level of speed across the nation. Going against some of the top teams in the country gave each boat a chance to recognize what they are doing well, and what they can improve upon. All boats learned throughout the day, and we are looking forward to another chance to perform better tomorrow.” UP NEXT The Hawkeyes will compete alongside its second day group of No. 4 Stanford, UCLA, and Clemson for Sunday’s final day of the Pac-12 Invite on April 10.  » Read More

Shatakshi Sharma is the Co-founder of Global Governance Initiative, a practical MBA and MPP program. Shatakshi has previously worked in the consulting sector at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and is passionate about creating innovative communities for students. Why did you start Global Governance Initiative? As a 24-year-old young professional working for the Indian government, I realized my privilege of frequently being in rooms where public policy was being shaped. That’s when I also noticed that I was often the only woman — and the only person under the age of 30 — present where critical policies on economic and social wellbeing were being formed. “That lack of representation really hit me”. I also realized that a lot of youngsters would want to trade places with me in the sense that they too would want to be in a position to work in nudging public policies. That’s when Naman (GGI Cofounder) and I decided to “create a globally inclusive world for youth and women by rebuilding the 20th-century through practical business and policy education” through our real world application based MPP and MBA Programs How does Global Governance Initiative ensure the world is better equipped to handle crises like the current…

There’s a group on Facebook where members share everything from videos of their children playing piano to messages of encouragement like “You got this, you matter, you are loved, you are awesome.”Others share devastating news so they feel less alone. One mother asks for help with her 25-year-old daughter who lost two babies and feels suicidal. A father shares his story of reuniting with his young son after three years. A fan suggests the book "In Their Shoes: Navigating Non-binary Life" by writer, speaker and model Jamie Windust and says "As a member of the LGBTQ+ community it was just that bit more necessary for me to read and understand the struggles they and so many others work through each and every day." All the responses are positive, featuring an outpouring of congratulations, love, advice and/or mental health resources.  This isn’t a typical group on Facebook; it’s the fan community “ALL IS LOVE: AF GANG” for the British rock band IDLES, who are appearing April 15 and 22 at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.  » Read More

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that the 30-member U.S.-led alliance would "warmly welcome" Finland should the Nordic country apply for membership in light of Russia's war in Ukraine.Finland Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Thursday that the country, which shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, would soon clarify the next steps on the possibility that it will apply for NATO membership.Local media outlets have shown Finnish support for NATO membership hitting a record high following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.Speaking to CNBC's Hadley Gamble on Friday, NATO's Stoltenberg said Finland's move to consider joining the NATO military alliance was a "direct result" of Russia's invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24."The message from NATO and from me is that it is for Finland to decide," Stoltenberg said."We will respect the decision regardless of what the conclusion will be, but if Finland decides to apply for membership, I am confident that NATO allies will warmly welcome them — and we can quite quickly make the decision to have them as a member of the allies," he added.  » Read More

Enlarge / Ukrainian soldiers sit on an armored military vehicle in Sievierodonetsk on April 7, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Facebook today reported an increase in attacks on accounts run by Ukraine military personnel. In some cases, attackers took over accounts and posted "videos calling on the Army to surrender," but Facebook said it blocked sharing of the videos. Specifically, Facebook owner Meta's Q1 2022 Adversarial Threat Report said it has "seen a further spike in compromise attempts aimed at members of the Ukrainian military by Ghostwriter," a hacking campaign that "typically targets people through email compromise and then uses that to gain access to their social media accounts across the Internet." Ghostwriter has been linked to the Belarusian government. "Since our last public update , this group has attempted to hack into the Facebook accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military personnel," Meta wrote today. Ghostwriter successfully hacked into the accounts in "a handful of cases" in which "they posted videos calling on the Army to surrender as if these posts were coming from the legitimate account owners.  » Read More

Meta has drawn up plans to introduce virtual coins, tokens and lending services to its apps, as Facebook’s parent company pursues its finance ambitions despite the collapse of a project to launch a cryptocurrency. The company, led by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, is seeking alternative revenue streams and new features that can attract and retain users, as popularity falls for its main social networking products such as Facebook and Instagram - a trend that threatens its $118 billion (€108 billion)-a-year ad-based business model. Facebook’s financial arm, Meta Financial Technologies, has been exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse, which employees internally have dubbed “Zuck Bucks”, according to several people familiar with the efforts. This is unlikely to be a cryptocurrency based on the blockchain, some of the people said. Instead, Meta is leaning towards introducing in-app tokens that would be centrally controlled by the company, similar to those used in gaming apps such as the robux currency in popular children’s game Roblox.  » Read More