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As former CEO of Hotstar, Ajit Mohan played a key role in the growth of the OTT platform. Presently, as Vice President and Managing Director Of Facebook India, he is ushering in a new vision for Facebook in India with strategic partnerships.  Before Hotstar, Ajit spent five years in Southeast Asia, with Arthur D. Little, a management consulting firm, and also worked in McKinsey & Company largely for media clients out of New York. In this episode of Prime Venture Partners Podcasts, Ajit Mohan shares his journey of building Hotstar from scratch, the challenges of understanding Indian consumer behaviour around streaming and more, with Amit Somani, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners.Ajit also throws light on Facebook’s partnership with Jio.A new leap with HotstarIn the conversation, Ajit revealed all about building Hotstar way back in 2014 backed by a massively successful and then-largest media house in India, Star. “Star had become the largest media company in India, with a pan India presence, there was presence in television, movies, and sports. So in many ways, the idea of building a challenger product in Hotstar, which was focused on a product first and not content first,” he says.“While we benefited from the massive content portfolio of the Star network, we had to build distribution from scratch,” Ajit says, adding, “Most media companies around the world had not embraced technology, or streaming as a core part of their strategy. So, having the wisdom and the courage to create an entity that in many ways could challenge the traditional business - that was innovation.”Additionally, the culture they maintained inside the company helped Hotstar grow. Ajit says the Hotstar team saw an opportunity to reinvent television rather than merely creating another business vertical for Star.“It is now a cliched thought that content is king. But we crafted a…

Facebook temporarily deleted Utah Business Revival’s group on the social media platform Saturday, according to Eric Moutsos, the group’s organizer. Utah Business Revival’s group page on Facebook disappeared Saturday morning, but it was restored later that evening, according to Moutsos. Moutsos said that Facebook did not provide him a reason why Utah Business Revival’s group was shut down. A request to Facebook for comment was not immediately returned Saturday afternoon. “It’s just extremely sad,” Moutsos said, because his group focused on holding events to “save small businesses” and have not advocated for violence or anything that would lead to their group being deleted. He added, “Is this really where we’re at in America, where they’re just going to start banning groups that have a different opinion than them?” In his personal Facebook post Saturday addressing the group being deleted, Moutsos referred to recent protests outside health officials' homes, stating that he has “always called for civility, including not going to the personal homes of those we disagree with.” A dozen people gathered Thursday outside the home of Dr. Angela Dunn, the state’s epidemiologist. Her address was posted on Facebook in a comment to a post by an anti-mask activist, and the post was later deleted. Another 30 people showed up to protest at the house of Dr. Joseph Miner, UDOH’s executive director, the UDOH spokesman said. Miner has been out of action for much of the pandemic, due to his own health problems; Jefferson Burton was appointed interim executive director in March, and Rich Saunders has been serving in that interim position since August. Moutsos told The Salt Lake Tribune on Saturday that he spoke out against those protests when he heard about them. “I’m not about intimidating people. I think protesting and rallying, that’s what makes America great. I…

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) - There’s an election controversy in Plattsburgh over a fake Facebook page that included an endorsement for a candidate for mayor.A letter sent out from the Plattsburgh City Democrats' official Facebook page Tuesday says they denounce the use of the “Plattsburgh City Democrats 2.0” page. Rachelle Armstrong, with the Plattsburgh City Democrats, said they were made aware of the group months ago, but this was the first concerning post they have seen. She said she called the board of elections but was told there was nothing to be done about it because it was a free speech issue.The Dems 2.0 page has since been deleted, but the page resembled the official page for the city Democratic party. It included a post endorsing the Republican candidate for mayor, Scott Beebie. “We felt that there was potential of misleading voters because of the similarity in the name and the fact that Mr. Beebie accepted the nomination without any qualifications,” Armstrong said.‘Beebie sent WCAX a statement on the endorsement: “I became aware via social media this group had chosen to endorse me for the office of Mayor for the City of Plattsburgh and I thanked them. That’s it, that’s all. At the behest of the heinous accusations from the City Democratic Party I took it upon myself to learn that City Dems 2.0 that are a group of disenfranchised democrats who had been expelled from commenting on the ‘official page.’ They found an audience with people who were feeling the same way for a variety of reasons.” Beebies’ post thanking the page is still on his official Facebook page.Ed Darrah created the 2.0 page. He said it started out as political satire after he was barred from commenting on the official Democratic page in June. “The mock endorsement of Beebie…

Human moderators at Facebook made the decision to temporarily limit distribution of the New York Post's Hunter Biden story on the platform, Facebook confirmed to Fox News.Internal documents obtained by the Guardian show that Facebook's fact-checking system uses both artificial intelligence (AI) and human fact-checkers to flag articles that may be subject to fact checks. In some cases, articles from popular websites like the Post may be manually referred to fact-checkers "with or without temporary demotion."Facebook fact-checkers manually added the New York Post article to its queue, and reduced distribution of the article for a short period while reviewing its contents, the Guardian reported, citing the documents. "We can do this on escalation and based on whether the content is eligible for fact-checking, related to an issue of importance, and has an external signal of falsity," the documents read, according to the outlet. A man is silhouetted against a video screen with a Facebook logo. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic  A Facebook spokesperson told Fox News that Facebook has "been on heightened alert because of FBI intelligence about the potential for hack-and-leak operations meant to spread misinformation." "Based on that risk, and in line with our existing policies and procedures, we made the decision to temporarily limit the content’s distribution while our fact-checkers had a chance to review it," the spokesperson said.When fact-checkers did not rate the story, Facebook "lifted the demotion."ADONIS HOFFMAN: BIG TECH SENATE HEARING WINNERS AND LOSERSThe Post on Oct. 14 published emails recovered from a laptop purportedly belonging to 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son, Hunter. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani shared the contents of the laptop with the outlet. Facebook Policy Communications Director Andy Stone tweeted on Oct. 14 that the Post article was "eligible to be fact-checked by Facebook's third-party fact-checking partners" and that Facebook was "reducing its distribution" in the meantime.Documents also show that Facebook keeps a list of…

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech at a local ... theater in Wilmington, Delaware on September 27, 2020. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP) (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images With only five days until election day, Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign slammed Facebook Thursday evening for pausing thousands of its ads amid new a policy from the platform that limits new political advertising leading up to Nov. 3. “For more than a year, our campaign has engaged with Facebook in good faith to both better understand their shifting policies around elections and to push for equal and measurable enforcement of those rules,” Biden’s digital director Rob Flaherty said in a statement. “Once again, just five days before Election Day, they have failed to meet the moment.” Flaherty went on to suggest Facebook, a home for conservative media, may be unduly favoring President Trump, an allegation the company denied in a blog post published on Thursday. In a response to criticism that politicians could use Facebook to sway elections and distribute misinformation, the company said in September it wouldn’t accept new political ads after Oct. 26 and would pause all ads for a time after polls close. But as the deadline drew near, Facebook says Democrats and Republicans alike were confused about the new guidelines. “We provided the same instructions to everyone, and found advertisers across the political spectrum and both Presidential campaigns were confused by our guidance and had ads paused as a result. We have worked throughout this election to maintain a neutral playing field and that remains true in the face of these problems,” Facebook said in its blog post. Flaherty estimated that Biden had lost $500,000 in potential fundraising from the Facebook ad freeze.…

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. social media giant Facebook Inc. reported on Thursday its financial results for the third quarter of 2020, with net income growing 29 percent to 7.85 U.S. billion dollars for the quarter ending on Sept. 30, compared with 6.09 billion dollars in the corresponding period last year. Facebook's quarterly revenue grew to 21.47 billion dollars, up 22 percent year-over-year from 17.65 billion dollars, with advertising revenue rising 22 percent to 21.22 billion dollars, compared with 17.38 billion dollars in the same period last year. Facebook said that its daily active users were 1.82 billion on average for September 2020, an increase of 12 percent year-over-year, while its monthly active users were 2.74 billion as of Sept. 30, 2020, also up 12 percent year-on-year. Facebook is also the owner of two popular social media apps WhatsApp and Instagram. The company's headcount was 56,653 as of Sept. 30, 2020, an increase of 32 percent year-over-year. Its cash and cash equivalents, as well as marketable securities were 55.62 billion dollars as of Sept. 30, 2020. "We had a strong quarter as people and businesses continue to rely on our services to stay connected and create economic opportunity during these tough times," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, adding that the company will continue to make significant investments in its products and hiring. The company expects its fourth quarter 2020 year-over-year advertising revenue growth rate to be higher than the reported third quarter 2020 rate, driven by continued strong advertiser demand during the holiday season. 2020 total expenses are estimated to be in the range of 53-54 billion dollars, narrowed from a prior range of 52-55 billion dollars, according to the company. Enditem

Its ads include calls for voters to fill out online polls, which request personal information like cellphone numbers, employment status and addresses. But some of the group’s communications, including text messages to people who have signed up for its members’ list, also include criticisms of how the Trump administration and Congress have handled the pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 Americans. "Many people near you ... have already called on President Trump to quit the word games and get this done," read a text sent on Oct. 13. "The Senate's spending all its time on hearings, doing absolutely nothing on more stimulus or pandemic unemployment." WorkMoney founder CJ Grimes, a 13-year veteran of the Service Employees International Union, said in an interview with POLITICO last month that her group is nonpolitical. She said she had targeted most of her Facebook spending in six battleground states because that was the best tactic to get politicians’ attention. “We had to start somewhere,” said Grimes, whose former employer is one of the country’s largest labor unions. “Swing state people are the only people that Washington is listening to.” Grimes served as SEIU’s digital program director until 2017 and, subsequently, as a senior official of Fight for $15, the union-backed campaign for higher minimum wages, according to her LinkedIn profile and separate corporate filings. Corporate records and social media records also show that WorkMoney has employed liberal-leaning consultants and other vendors involved in SEIU’s previous digital campaigns, which collected people’s social media information to target them for political activism. Grimes said WorkMoney is not affiliated with the SEIU. The union likewise told POLITICO that it was not involved with the group. Like many nonprofit groups that spend money promoting social and political causes, WorkMoney is registered under Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax…

by: Alexandra Limon Posted: Oct 28, 2020 / 03:00 PM MDT / Updated: Oct 28, 2020 / 03:00 PM MDT WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — With just days to go until Election Day, senators grilled big tech CEOs about political fairness on their platforms. The CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google faced a panel of angry senators. Republicans like Sen. Cory Garner (R-CO) say the companies are biased against conservatives. “Mr. Dorsey, do you believe the Holocaust really happened, yes or no?” Garner asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. “Yes,” replied Dorsey. “It’s strange to me you flagged the tweets from the president but haven’t hidden the Ayatollah’s tweets on Holocaust denial or calls to wipe Israel off the map,” said Garner. “For misleading information, we’re focused on those three categories only,” said Dorsey. Twitter’s CEO said the platform only monitors misinformation related to the election, the pandemic and manipulated media. Facebook’s CEO said it’s difficult to please everyone. “Democrats often say we don’t remove enough content and Republicans say we remove too much,” said Mark Zuckerberg. Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said social media companies are giving in to Republicans’ bullying. “You have institutionally bent over backwards and over-compensated, you’ve hired Republican operatives, hosted private dinners with Republican leaders,” Schatz said. Zuckerberg said to stop the spread of misinformation in the days after the election, Facebook will flag content or candidates that try to declare victory before final election results are certified.

A driver appeared to be drinking beer on a Facebook Live video taken minutes before a wreck Sunday that killed three people near Jersey Village, authorities said. The driver, Camilo Morejon, 47, faces three counts of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and one count of intoxication assault with a vehicle. He is accused of causing the wreck at 7:53 a.m. in the 12200 block of FM529, leaving him hospitalized in critical condition and his three passengers dead on the scene. The driver of the other vehicle also was hospitalized in critical condition with a brain bleed and a broken left arm, according to court records. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Morejon was the driver seen in a Facebook Live video taking a sip of Corona beer before the crash. The video, which has a time stamp of 7:47 a.m. Sunday, was posted publicly to Morejon’s account. It was taken by a passenger who also appeared to be drinking beer. Morejon was behind the wheel of a 2012 Honda Accord traveling westbound on FM529 at a high rate of speed, according to court records. The driver of a Fort F-150 was traveling east on the same road. The driver of the pickup was turning into a gas station when the Honda slammed into the vehicle’s right side at about 90 mph, court records say. Investigators smelled alcohol on Morejon’s breath, and his blood-alcohol content was 0.168, more than twice the legal limit, records show. The deceased passengers have been identified as Leosveyka Gonzalez, Massel Rodriguez and Ricardo Rodriguez-Tamayo. Their relationship to Morejon is unclear. It’s also unclear where Morejon obtained the alcohol. Sean Teare, head of the Harris County District Attorney's Office Vehicular Crimes Division, said prosecutors were looking for which club he may have been drinking at prior…

by: Elizabeth White Posted: Oct 27, 2020 / 07:15 PM EDT / Updated: Oct 27, 2020 / 07:15 PM EDT TALLASSEE, Ala. (WRBL) – A bizarre story continues unfolding Tuesday morning as the Superintendent of the Tallassee School System confirms the school’s Facebook page has been taken over by an “unauthorized individual” who is now in custody on unrelated charges, according to Tallassee’s Police Chief. According to the Facebook profile sent to News 3, it appears late Monday night the name of the School’s Facebook Page was changed to RIP Tallassee Schools. The cover photo was changed to a graphic saying, “Get your (profanity) together,” and the page’s profile picture was changed to Thomas the Train with the word “Triggered” underneath it. The page also listed a porn site under the website link. Source: Facebook A post was pinned to the top of the page saying, “Guess who has an entire administration and technology team not even competent enough to use Facebook. I tried, but I’m tired.” A handful of parents commented they were concerned for their students and urged the page be deleted the page. Tallassee Police Chief Matt Higgins confirms the police department was notified, and the situation is being addressed. “The Tallassee Police department in cooperation with the Tallassee City school system Elmore county sheriff’s office investigated the threats and took necessary precautions at the school. The subject in question has been taken into custody on unrelated charges and the investigation is ongoing at this time,” said Chief Matt Higgins. News 3 does not have a name for the individual in custody. As of 9:30 AM on Tuesday, someone was still posting to the page with the latest post saying, “Apparently y’all enjoying this (profanity) Keep fronting everyone. Y’all love drama.” The post included a screenshot of…