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Hadiqa Kiani's ode to Kashmir, a song released in collaboration with Turkish artist Ali Tolga has been taken off by Youtube. The singer took to Instagram to share the unfortunate news, revealing that they will stand determined against the forced silencing. "Our tribute to Kashmir was removed from YouTube a few hours ago," she posted. "There seems to be a systematic silencing taking place but we will not be silenced because our message is of love and peace." She also informed her followers that Kashmir Civitas, an international advocacy organisation devoted to the rights of the Kashmiris, was "actively working to re-upload the video." 'Daimi Bahar' featured visuals from both Turkey and Kashmir, including those of violence and protests that took place in the disputed territory.

Facebook's European headquarters in Dublin's Grand Canal district. Photo: PAThe European Union’s top court on Thursday found that a key framework used to transfer user data by technology giants to the US was invalid, ruling that it does not provide adequate privacy protection to EU citizens.The European Court of Justice nevertheless partially sided with Facebook (FB) by ruling in favour of key contracts used to transfer the data of the bloc’s citizens to other countries, even as it opened up the social media giant to further challenges and called into question their use for transfers to the US.The invalidation of the framework, known as the Privacy Shield, is a blow for the EU, which had hoped that the framework would afford EU citizens the protections outlined within the bloc’s charter of fundamental rights while still allowing data transfers to firms in the US.READ MORE: Apple wins appeal in top court against €13bn EU tax rulingThe core of the issue was on the contradiction between US law, which requires social media firms to hand over user data to national security agencies, and both the charter and the GDPR regulation, which give every EU citizen substantial data privacy rights.It covers about 5,000 US companies, including Facebook, Google (GOOG), and Twitter (TWTR), that handle the data of EU citizens.The European Court of Justice found that contracts known as standard contractual clauses — which are far more routinely used for data transfers than the Privacy Shield — were valid, however.But the court also outlined ways in which specific clauses could be struck down, ruling that such clauses are legal only if the data protections they promise can be assured under the laws of the countries where the data of EU citizens is sent. “Everyone is focusing on Facebook as a familiar household name, but in reality, this is…

Allu Arjun in Sarrainodu Tollywood super hit film Sarrainodu’s Hindi dubbed version has surpassed 300 million views on YouTube. It is reportedly the first Indian film to cross the 300 million mark on YouTube. The movie was a hit when it released in the theatres as well. The film stars T’town heartthrob Allu Arjun, Rakul Preet, Catherine Tresa and Aadhi Pinisetty. The movie originally released in 2016, and was helmed and written by Boyapati Srinu. Meanwhile, superstar Allu Arjun's fans showed their love for the film by tweeting and retweeting about it with the hashtag #Sarrainodu300MillionViews.  

Two days after the Cyber Crime Branch (CCB) of Tamil Nadu registered a case against Karuppar Koottam, a Tamil YouTube channel run by Periyarist-Dravidianist activists , police arrested M Senthil Vasan, one of the key members of the channel, on Wednesday evening.Surendra Natarajan, another prominent anchor of the channel, is said to have filed an anticipatory petition in Madras High Court to prevent his arrest.The police made the arrests based on complaints filed by RC Paul Kanakaraj, head of the state BJP Advocates’ division in Tamil Nadu, Vinoj P Selvam, BJP’s state youth wing leader, on behalf of BJP State vice president MN Raja.The complainants had sought immediate action against a video uploaded on the YouTube channel by Surendra Natarajan on Monday over vulgar remarks about Hindu deity Murugan and a prayer sung in his praise called ‘Kandha Sashti Kavacham’.The CCB registered a case under Sections 153, 153(A)(1)(a), 295(P), 505 (1)(b) and 505(2) of IPC on Monday.A video made by Karuppar Kootam (Black group/mob) ridiculing the holy Skanda Sashti Kavacham (a hymn to Lord Skanda, son of Lord Shiva, seeking his total protection) had left Tamil Hindus angry and upset.The Skanda Sashti Kavacham, made popular by siblings Soolamangalam Sisters Jayalakshmi and Rajalakshmi, is a hymn that resonates daily in the homes of Tamil Hindus. People recite the hymn seeking good health, fortune, and mental peace.The Karuppar Kootam has, in particular, ridiculed verses between 64 and 92. These verses seek from Lord Skanda protection of each part of the body from head to the toe.In one particular video, Karuppar Kootam, which enjoys the support of DMK-allied influential Periyarist ideologues like Suba Veerapandian, launched vulgar and misogynistic tirade against the devotional poetic verses seeking divine protection for organs of reproduction and excretion.Several Hindu groups have criticised the Karuppar Kootam video, saying it…

Read Article VideoMeet, a Made in India Video Conferencing Application, has announced the introduction of a new feature of Live Streaming webinars on Facebook and Youtube. This integration came as a result of a growing user base and feedback. The webinars once shared on social media platforms help the organizer garner higher views and shares.Dr. Ajay Data, Founder and CEO, Data Ingenious Global Ltd, the parent company for VideoMeet said, “Live Streaming is a popular and efficient tool for the promotion of webinars, and therefore it was integrated for our users. We are constantly improving our software. Our unique framework helps the user regulate their data consumption, unlike other virtual conferencing platforms.”VideoMeet has been progressing and serving lakhs of conference/webinar minutes every day. The organisation is based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, but plans to expand Pan India with priority touchpoints in four states — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal for uninterrupted video calling service to their users.VideoMeet was developed as an invitation to the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s Made in India Video Conferencing Challenge. The application was one of the top ten contenders and has received great appreciation from the officials. The competition by the Government of India was aimed to seek out an alternative to foreign applications.The platform promises full data security and complete privacy to every user with its end-to-end encryption. Some of the other unique features of the application are screen recording, screen share, music share, flip cameras, chat during video calls, etc. If you have an interesting article / experience / case study to share, please get in touch with us at Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now. Express Computer is one of India's most respected IT media brands and has been in publication for 24 years running. We cover…

Home >Companies >News >Facebook whitepaper says current privacy communication practices insufficient The whitepaper, authored by Erin Egan, vice president and chief privacy officer, Public Policy at Facebook, is part of the Privacy Matters series the social media company has been running (Bloomberg) 1 min read . Updated: 16 Jul 2020, 11:40 AM IST Prasid Banerjee The whitepaper though doesn’t talk about the changes the company is making, and is more of a thought experiment and makes suggestions about how companies can look at designing privacy policies in future NEW DELHI: Facebook on Thursday published a whitepaper calling for privacy policies that are clearer and easier to understand. The whitepaper, authored by Erin Egan, vice president and chief privacy officer, Public Policy at Facebook, is part of the Privacy Matters series the social media company has been running to explain changes it’s making to its privacy practices. The whitepaper though doesn’t talk about the changes the company is making, and is more of a thought experiment and makes suggestions about how companies can look at designing privacy policies in future. “In short, the current practices for informing people about how companies use their data, and the laws setting out transparency requirements, may be insufficient to provide meaningful notice to people," wrote Egan. The paper lays out three questions around how privacy communications are designed, including how organizations, regulators and stakeholders can work together to develop new ways for communicating about privacy, legal and regulatory support for designing “people-centered" practices and how regulators can hold organizations accountable. “Transparency efforts by organizations, as well as the policy frameworks that underlie them, must be built to anticipate and meet varying needs," the whitepaper said. “There are no easy answers, nor has anyone ‘solved’ the problem of how to design transparency to address these needs,"…

By V. Gnana 16 July 2020 In recent weeks, YouTube has censored several podcasts of Tamil-language WSWS articles uploaded to the Tamil WSWS Facebook page via YouTube. The administrators of the Tamil WSWS Facebook page challenged each of these acts of censorship, and each video has been made publicly available again, but after several days’ delay. Even though YouTube’s decision to re-post each video after censoring it makes clear that the Tamil WSWS is not violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines, this censorship is continuing. YouTube has repeatedly sent the following message to the YouTube channel posting podcasts of Tamil-language WSWS articles: “As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe which content we allow—and don’t allow—on YouTube. Your video was flagged to us for review. Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.” The censored podcasts warned of the dangers of a US-led war against China in the region, of mounting police violence or of military rule in the United States or in Sri Lanka. YouTube blocked Tamil versions of these articles for several days after they were flagged by unnamed users: June 16: Would-be führer Trump steps up coup plotting June 17: The protests against police murder: The way forward June 22: Police violence and class rule June 25: India and China remain on knife edge as war tensions continue July 2: Hands off the Sri Lankan Trotskyists—SEP demands military stops harassing its election candidates in Jaffna There should be no mistake about the political significance of censoring these articles. Thousands of workers and youth follow WSWS reports and statements in Tamil via social media. YouTube censorship aims to prevent the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) of Sri Lanka from alerting Tamil-speaking workers in Sri Lanka, India and around the world in a timely fashion…

Menarini Korea’s online advertisement of an athlete’s foot treatment depicting a pharmacist as a mere drug seller caused an instant backlash from pharmacists. The company immediately deleted the ad on YouTube, apologized to pharmacists, and promised to prevent a similar mistake. A YouTube advertisement of Fulcare Nail Lacquer, an athlete’s foot treatment by Menarini Korea, caused controversy among local pharmacists. (Menarini Korea) The Gangnam-gu Pharmaceutical Association, a branch group of the Seoul Pharmaceutical Association, released a statement on Wednesday to criticize Menarini Korea’s YouTube ad of Fulcare Nail Lacquer (ingredient: ciclopirox). In the online video ad, a pharmacist fails to understand a visitor’s explanation about the athlete’s foot symptoms and passes Fulcare Nail Lacquer to another consumer who asks for the product, without giving any advice. As the ad's content caused a stir in the pharmacists’ community, the Gangnam-gu Pharmaceutical Association officially requested Menarini Korea’s apology and discontinuation of the ad. “We, pharmacists, felt a sense of shame to see the ad of Fulcare where a consumer picked and purchased an over-the-counter drug without any advice from a pharmacist. The ad featured only two hands of the pharmacist as if the pharmacist was just a simple drug passer,” the association said in the statement. The pharmacists' image has been recently downgraded because they had to sell the government-regulated masks amid Covid-19, the group said. Under such circumstances, Menarini regarded pharmacists as mere drug distributors, it claimed, demanding the company take every measure to prevent a similar mishap. The association threatened that if the company does not take any measure, it would return all Fulcare products and start a campaign for correcting the ad. Pressured by the mounting criticism, Menarini Korea apologized to pharmacists in the afternoon of the same day. “This video ad hurt the feelings of pharmacists who spared…

AFTV has made the headlines once again after one of its regulars was removed for making a racist comment about Tottenham forward Heung-min Son. Claude Callegari, a pundit for the popular YouTube channel, could be heard saying ‘DVD’s going off’ when the South Korea international was withdrawn in stoppage time of Spurs’ 2-1 win over Arsenal in Sunday’s north London derby. AFTV AFTV is known for its over-the-top rants about Arsenal It’s the latest moment of controversy for Robbie Lyle’s AFTV, which has been no stranger to criticism in the past. Many within football, including Gunners right-back Hector Bellerin and Gary Neville, have taken issue with the platform over its content, which often includes angry rants and violence among supporters. Indeed, talkSPORT’s very own Simon Jordan once had it out with Lyle live on air after labelling AFTV ‘drivel’ and claiming ‘it thrives on toxicity, it’s a commercial venture and the guy makes a fortune’. Simon Jordan goes head-to-head with AFTV's Robbie Lyle is must-listen talkSPORT debate Arsenal have distanced themselves from the channel and made it abundantly clear it is not an official voice for the club. But despite all that, AFTV has become a cultural phenomenon, paving the way for a new form of punditry, whether that’s a good or bad thing. Its success and popularity is undeniable, with more than one million subscribers on YouTube, and many other supporter groups have followed suit. AFTV Claude was removed from the channel on Wednesday How did it start? Lyle, a former BBC reggae host, quit his job as a surveyor to launch AFTV in October 2012. The platform was designed to give a voice to real fans with real opinions amid a growing sense of frustration with the established group of television pundits. Its rise came about mainly…

Facebook Inc. (FB) has boosted production on its Oculus virtual reality (VR) headset to nearly double the amount compared to last year.According to a July 15 report from Nikkei Asian Review, the social media site has reacted to the uptick in COVID-19 cases throughout the world by calling for a production increase in the second half of 2020. This would be an increase of 50% compared to its entire produced amount for all of 2019.Nikkei’s source says that “the production forecast for the second half of this year could reach at least two million units, which is already around 1.5 times more than its total production output last year.”Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. Meanwhile, other tech companies have also introduced their VR versions with Sony (SNE) launching its PlayStation VR in 2015. Additionally, HTC, Samsung Electronics, and Huawei Technologies all introduced various types of headsets later using smartphones for VR screens. Despite the competition, Oculus has become the market leader claiming near 35% market share.On a Q1 earnings call, April 29, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that ad revenue grew 17% annually during the quarter, while its other revenue was “driven primarily by sales of Oculus products.” He stated that Oculus reached $297 million for the quarter which was up 80% from a year ago. According to Zuckerberg, videoconferencing tools could “accelerate some of the trends” in VR despite Oculus’ use being primarily for video games. In light of the pandemic, game console makers like Nintendo (NTDOY) have experienced increased demand for its portable Nintendo Switch device amidst supply constraints. With government lockdowns in Malaysia and the Philippines, a shortage resulted in parts that led to overall delays in production. Third-party sellers cashed-in on the moment by selling the game device for more than double the price on…