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Tuesday 22 February 2022 5:01 pm Facebook has announced that it will be expanding the availability of its Reels for iOS and Android to more than 150 countries, widening the reach of its copycat TikTok feature. The Reels feature was first introduced at the end of last year and the tech firm’s new strategy hopes to help creators earn money from their Reels through a direct monetisation option. The announcement comes at a time where Facebook fights for market share as more and more young users are turning to Snapchat and TikTok. The idea seems to be that the more appealing Facebook makes it for creators to create content, the more users the platform is likely to attract. The company said that it will be testing Facebook Reels Overlay Ads to all creators in the US, Canada and Mexico, as well as more countries in the coming weeks. “We’re starting with two formats: banner ads that appear as a semi-transparent overlay at the bottom of a Facebook Reel,  » Read More

When Meta accused Apple of costing the company ten billion dollars a few weeks back, Facebook had also shared some of its growth plans for the coming future. Part of its ten billion-dollar restructuring strategy, Zuckerberg stated, included initiating a "transition on our own services towards short form video like Reels.”According to a report by Engadget, this also includes a global launch of Facebook's own version of Reels, as Meta observed TikTok's viral success and shifts its focus on promoting similar content. Facebook had recently been trialling "Facebook Reels" with multiple users on the platform, as well as promoting cross-platform video sharing to garner wider interest in this type of content, and test the waters. Starting today, Reels is officially becoming its own standalone feature on Facebook, and is rolling out to at least 150 countries over the coming weeks.Zuckerberg made the announcement in a Facebook post earlier today: “Reels is already our fastest growing content format by far,  » Read More

Tonga Volcano Eruption: Tongans have struggled with makeshift satellite services.Sydney: Tonga was reconnected to the world on Tuesday following repairs to a submarine cable, officials said, a month after a volcanic eruption and tsunami cut communications to the remote Pacific island nation."People on the main island will have access almost immediately," Tonga Cable chief executive James Panuve told Reuters by telephone, after a repair ship handed over the restored cable on Tuesday afternoon.School chaplain Penisimani Akauola Tonga was among those getting back online for the first time since the disaster struck the tiny island nation in mid January."First post on Facebook since January 15th! So Blessed for the opportunity! Malo Tonga Cable & Tonga Government!" he wrote.Tongans have struggled with makeshift satellite services as the repairs to the cable were made.The repair ship Reliance took 20 days to replace a 92-kilometre (57-mile) section of the 827 km submarine fibre optice cable that connects Tonga to Fiji and other international networks.  » Read More

Home News (Image credit: Facebook ) It’s been about five months since Facebook rebranded its parent company into Meta and it has hardly been smooth sailing. Companies like Apple and Google have started to include privacy changes that are really cramping Meta’s business model of tracking as much of your personal data as possible to sell things back to you. Earlier this month the company had already dropped 30% of its stock market share value, and things are only looking worse for Meta.Apple and Google’s privacy measures that allow users to block Meta’s trackers are clearly crippling the company’s revenue, but these trackers were also already responsible for many users turning their back on the platform. Constantly bothered by random or creepily accurate advertising has put many off, but there are even more reasons for the popularity decline. Among younger demographics who prefer other platforms like TikTok, Facebook and other Meta platforms are barely able to get a word in. It’s often seen more as the place that one out of touch relative gets all their misinformation,  » Read More

Two complaints have been filed in the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaints by Whistleblower Aid: Report Topics Coronavirus | Climate Change | Facebook IANS  |  San Francisco  Last Updated at February 21, 2022 11:29 IST The nonprofit organisation that represents Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has filed two new complaints against Meta (formerly Facebook), accusing the social network of misleading investors about its efforts to tackle misinformation about climate change and Covid-19. The two complaints have been filed in the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaints by Whistleblower Aid, reports The Washington Post. The first complaint alleged the presence of readily available climate change misinformation on Facebook,  » Read More

Carl Icahn speaking at Delivering Alpha in New York on Sept. 13, 2016.David A. Grogan | CNBCBillionaire investor Carl Icahn has started a proxy fight with McDonald's over the fast food giant's treatment of pigs, pushing for two board seats at the global fast food giant.McDonald's said Sunday in a release that Icahn has nominated Leslie Samuelrich and Maisie Ganzler for election at the company's 2022 annual shareholder meeting."Mr. Icahn's stated focus in making this nomination relates to a narrow issue regarding the company's pork commitment, which the Humane Society U.S. has already introduced through a shareholder proposal," McDonald's said.Icahn, who helped define a new era of capitalism in the 1980s after taking over iconic companies including Trans World Airlines, has pushed McDonald's for better treatment of pigs in recent years, according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, he is said to have called for the end of an industry practice that uses crates to house pregnant pigs so they can't move.  » Read More

On the afternoon of November 2 last year, Gebremichael Teweldmedhin, a Tigrayan jeweller and father of nine, headed to work in Gonder, a city in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia where he had lived for more than three decades. When Gebremichael arrived in the city, he found a mob looting his nephew’s workshop. Gebremichael begged them to stop. Instead, they turned on him. One relative, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told the Bureau: “The looters took them, Gebremichael along with another 10 or 11 people who worked in that area – by vehicle. We tried to follow them but we were not able to get their whereabouts. “Then other people told us they were killed. They are buried in a mass grave.” Gebremichael was not political, his relative said. He was not educated, and did not engage with the hatred and misinformation that swamps Ethiopian social media. Yet his relative claimed online hate campaigns and calls for violence – particularly on Facebook – played a key role in not only his killing,  » Read More

Music group Heavy Young Heathens filed a lawsuit on Thursday against NBC, U.S. Figure Skating and figure skating pair Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, saying their copyright for the song "House of the Rising Sun" was violated when the pair used it for their short program earlier this week.The group, comprised of brothers Robert and Aron Marderosian, are known for their compositions in numerous television shows, movies, trailers, advertisements and video games, such as ESPN's "30 for 30," Adidas, "Deadpool" and "The Simpsons." One of their compositions, "House of the Rising Sun" is based on a traditional folk song, but their version of it "is a signature song of theirs throughout the world," as it has been famously used for the film "The Magnificent Seven" and Ford auto commercials.During the team figure skating event of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Knierim and Frazier used the composition for the short program portion of the event in which the United States won a silver medal for.Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier compete in the team figure skating pairs short program event during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Capital Indoor Stadium.  » Read More

Vancouver police are warning about a Facebook Marketplace scam that's claimed at least 50 victims and say they believe more people have been taken ...  » Read More

Have you ever had trouble placing a name with a face? Facebook has never had that problem, thanks to our willingness to upload photos and tag ourselves and our friends,Facebook and other companies have everything they need to combine our names and faces to be identified in photos and videos using facial recognition. Texas is the latest to file a class-action lawsuit against Meta (Facebook's parent company) for allegedly collecting biometric data using the facial recognition of its users. The suit is seeking $25,000 per violation. 3 years ago, Facebook settled a similar class-action lawsuit in Illinois.Most people don't think twice about uploading a selfie to just about any online site or app. Those free apps collect biometric data and some sell that information to other companies.Years ago, Facebook began using facial recognition, it says, to help its 3 billion users find photos of themselves. When a photo was posted, anyone that was recognized by their image,  » Read More