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IONIA, Mich. — After 15 months of lockdowns, many businesses that survived the pandemic have little time to waste in getting back to where they were before March 2020. So to help, the city of Grand Rapids partnered with Facebook recently in hosting a “Boost with Facebook” event, walking entrepreneurs through the most effective methods to reach potential customers.Russ Oakley is the owner or Metal Monkey, a metal sign company that started in the Spring of 2018 out of Ionia. He was invited to be part of the event, a free training for Grand Rapids small business owners. It taught Oakley and other business owners like him to determine who is most likely interested in his business and how to make his advertisement spending more efficient. “One of the cool things is Facebook has an algorithm that they set up. So it helps you to kind of track who's looking at your stuff. So basically, it helps people looking for metal art to find us,” Oakley explained to Fox 17.The 45 minute training aims to help entrepreneurs rebound quicker now that the economy is back open,  » Read More

A SERIES of sectarian, hate advertisements were approved by Facebook shortly before rioting in Northern Ireland, it has been claimed.The ads, including one showing a burnt out car that read 'Voting hasn't worked, take to the streets', were withdrawn before they ever appeared on the social media giant's platform.The issue has been highlighted by Global Witness, an international human rights organisation, which is calling for legislation to regulate the 'Big Tech' companies.The group said it had submitted the ads, containing "sectarian slurs that potentially encouraged violent protests", for approval to Facebook.A Global Witness spokesperson added: "None of the content was actually made public as we withdrew it once we had confirmed that it had been approved by the social media giant. We specified that these ads would be targeted at people that Facebook has profiled as having an interest in either Catholicism or Protestantism."In addition, we were able to demonstrate how this content could be narrowly targeted by postcode, specifically at those living either side of the main peace wall in west Belfast,  » Read More

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh’s virtual interaction with students, teachers and law enforcement officers on International Day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking attracted several unfavourable comments on his Facebook page. From complaining that the drug problem still thrives in the state, Facebook users also voiced grievances of government employees and highlighted a campaign for computer faculty in the state. Netizen Sachin Goel said, “Congress government recruited us in 2005, but till date no regular job benefits are giving by any government...but our education department reach at number 1 place on digital platform with the help of computer teachers.” Aman Deep Kaur said, “ Captain sahib kindly stop doing this drama of controlling drugs. We all are well aware of the level of drug consumption of drugs in Punjab. Stop this drama, stop doing this acting on virtual platforms. Shame on you, shame on your government.” Manu Rajvr wrote, “Youth is still dying of drugs, pay attention to them” Pranvi Arora posted, “justiceforcomputerfacultiespunjab. They are working from 2005,  » Read More

Facebook is accused of helping to 'brainwash' children as young as five with maths lessons that teach pupils to use 'correct' pronouns for 'non-binary' peopleThe social media giant is main sponsor of School Diversity WeekCampaign is endorsed by Gavin Williamson's Department for Education and adopted by hundreds of head teachersLesson packs for Key Stage 1 pupils aged five to seven tell children that people have a 'gender identity' that may not match their sex at birthBy Glen Owen for The Mail on Sunday Published: 18:42 EDT, 26 June 2021 | Updated: 20:24 EDT, 26 June 2021 Facebook has been accused of helping to 'brainwash' children as young as five with maths lessons that teach pupils to use the 'correct' pronouns for 'non-binary' people.The social media giant is the main sponsor of School Diversity Week, a campaign endorsed by Gavin Williamson's Department for Education and adopted by hundreds of head teachers.Lesson packs for Key Stage 1 pupils aged five to seven tell children that people have a 'gender identity' that may not match their sex at birth,  » Read More

Tech titans like Google and Facebook dominate the digital economy with vast troves of data gathered from consumers and businesses.But what if users could easily take that data — such as photos, friend lists, or customer reviews — and move them to a rival platform? Would that boost competition and curb the market power of America’s “Big Tech” giants?That’s the concept behind a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.), one of the lawmakers leading an ambitious antitrust effort in Congress. Earlier this week, the House Judiciary Committee advanced Scanlon’s bill and five others that target Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.The bills are the culmination of a 16-month congressional investigation that found the digital economy to be highly concentrated, with just a few firms controlling the markets for online search, social media, or advertising. The proposed laws would bar big tech companies from favoring their own products on their platforms, prevent them from buying businesses that are competitive threats, and increase filing fees for mergers to fund federal antitrust enforcement,  » Read More

Surfboard, not corporate board. But we're sure Zuck is working on that, too Uncanny Valley-dwelling Facebook founderbot Mark Zuckerberg has revealed pictures of a new surfboard he has had custom-made, resplendent with a cartoon picture of him surfing while wearing too much sunscreen. The image on the board, which may be the result of the Facebook CEO testing some experimental new self-deprecation circuits, celebrates an incident last year when he was photographed surfing in Hawaii wearing so much sunscreen that he resembled a cartoon mime. Anyways, here is Mark Zuckerberg on a surfboard with too much sunscreen on his face pic.twitter.com/U2FHFeOPSe — Louna⁷ is graduating (@FantaJinnie) July 30, 2020 The white-faced look subsequently became the subject of much amusement online and the inspiration for many memes, eliciting comparisons with The Joker, Robin Williams' character in the film Mrs Doubtfire and the Hi-Hats gang from The Warriors*. Zuck later claimed that the sunblock mask was an attempt to evade the paparazzi,  » Read More

By Citizen Staff | on June 24, 2021 By Morgan Howland, Special to the Citizen Facebook’s Sandston campus. (Courtesy Facebook) Henrico County established a cooperative agreement with Scout Development LLC, the developer of Facebook’s data center at the White Oak Technology Park, to permit the developer to install improvements and utilities within a 20-foot county utility easement in White Oak. The Henrico Board of Supervisors passed a resolution June 22 that authorizes the execution of a consent and agreement with Scout. Improvements to the site would include fiber installation as well as water and sewer installation, Director of Public Utilities Bentley Chan told the supervisors. Chan said the agreement would support mutually beneficial coordination between the Facebook campus and the county when maintenance is required at White Oak because of the scale of the respective parties’ facilities. Facebook, which opened the first phase of its data center in August 2020, is expected to build a 2.5-million square-foot facility sitting on 328 acres in White Oak over several years.  » Read More

June 24, 2021 Redwood City – The County of San Mateo continues to work to protect public health and safety in response to the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. The County of San Mateo’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) remains open to coordinate countywide response and communications in response to the situation. The EOC’s Joint Information Center will provide status reports every Thursday until further notice. Today’s report: COVID-19 Rent Relief California’s COVID-19 Rent Relief helps income-eligible households pay rent and utilities, both for past-due and future payments. Landlords may also be eligible for relief. Interested landlords and renters can check eligibility and apply at HousingIsKey.com or by calling 833-430-2122. Applicants may qualify regardless of immigration status and will not be required to show proof of citizenship. All application information is kept private and will not be shared. Need help with the application? You can find a list of local organizations that provide free assistance and information in English, Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog at https://www.smcgov.org/san-mateo-county-emergency-rental-assistance-program Facebook Live: Facts About Youth and the COVID-19 Vaccine Join local health and community leaders for a discussion in Spanish today (June 24,  » Read More

State Route 77 is open to the public. Please watch out for wildfire vehicles and equipment moving throughout the area as you drive along the highway.The Gila County Sheriff’s Office has issued new evacuation announcements this morning. See the status updates below for specific changes.Overnight, favorable weather conditions resulted in minimal fire growth, allowing for the conclusion of nightoperations. The southeast corner of the fire on Mescal Mountain continued to experience scattered heat pockets.Firefighters continued to monitor the fire and potential threats to communities and infrastructure.Today, firefighters will continue to patrol and monitor the fire for flare-ups, hot spots in the Ice House Canyon areaand along the southeast section of the fire adjacent to Mescal Mountain, and mop up along the U.S. Route 60corridor and State Route 77. Aircraft will patrol the fire in support of suppression efforts and conduct infraredmapping flights. The incident management team will host a community meeting on our Facebook page tonight at 6p.m.  » Read More

Fresno police and fire officials display recently confiscated illegal fireworks (GV Wire/Jahz Tello) Facebook posts selling illegal fireworks are among the latest challenges faced by Fresno officials trying to clamp down on nightly and noisy aerial displays roiling neighborhoods across the city. Police Chief Paco Balderrama says the social media posts are just one part of a network of illegal sales his department is up against. Numerous local Facebook Marketplace posts advertise game controllers for sale, while clearly showing boxes of illegal fireworks in their promotional images. (via Facebook) “We’ve also been conducting some undercover operations where we have found out that there is a lot of illegal firework sales here in Fresno and some of these sales occur through social media and through the dark web. So we have to be proactive,” Balderrama said. A recent Facebook Marketplace post with a headline advertising an Xbox controller shows pictures of the gaming device being held up in front of boxes of aerial explosives.  » Read More