Tag: Internet

South Korea failing to tackle widespread digital sex crimes: HRW

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean authorities are failing to properly tackle the country’s widespread digital sex crimes against women, which have a devastating impact on victims, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said Wednesday. South Korea is the world’s 12th largest economy and a leading technological power, but remains a male-dominated society with a poor record on women’s rights. Digital sex crimes, or the sharing of intimate pictures or video without permission, […]

UK competition watchdog probes Facebook use of ad data

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Friday it has opened an investigation into Facebook’s use of advertiser data s the EU announced a similar probe into the social media giant. “We intend to thoroughly investigate Facebook’s use of data to assess whether its business practices are giving it an unfair advantage in the online dating and classified ad sectors,” Andrea Coscelli, head of the Competition and Markets Authority, said in a statement. […]

Zoom earnings strong at close of pandemic-plagued year

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — The Zoom video conferencing platform on Monday reported a strong finish to its fiscal year as revenue and use soared due to the pandemic. The quarterly earnings report came with a forecast by the company that it will grow some 40 percent in the current year despite the likelihood that vaccines will make remote work and school less of a necessity. Zoom video conferences have become a centerpiece of […]

Facebook restores news for Australian users after media bargaining deal

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Facebook on Friday restored access to news for its Australian users after reaching agreement with the government on a landmark law requiring it and other tech firms to pay for journalistic content. The Facebook pages of Australian news outlets were able to update from early Friday morning for the first time in a week, since the social media slapped a ban on news content being seen Down Under in a dispute […]

Facebook blocked in Myanmar as UN chief says coup must fail

  YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s generals ordered internet providers to restrict access to Facebook Thursday, as UN chief Antonio Guterres said the world must rally to ensure the military coup fails. The Southeast Asian nation was plunged back into direct military rule on Monday as de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders were detained in a series of dawn raids, ending the country’s brief experiment with democracy. The coup sparked […]

World’s longest internet shutdown ends in parts of Myanmar

  YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — The world’s longest internet shutdown — affecting more than a million people for 19 months in one of Myanmar’s ethnic conflict zones — has come to an end, according to a mobile operator based in the region. The internet in parts of Myanmar’s troubled northern states of Rakhine and Chin was suspended in June 2019 following “emergency” orders issued by the telecoms department under Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government. […]

Spotify losses triple in 2020 despite more subscribers

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — Swedish music streaming giant Spotify on Wednesday reported a tripled net loss in 2020, citing increased operating expenses, even as the number of paying subscribers continued to increase. At the end of 2020, the number of monthly active users was 345 million, a 27-percent increase compared with a year earlier. Paying subscribers, the main source of revenue for the streaming service, stood at 155 million, a 24-percent increase. Spotify, which is […]

Social media giants mishandled Trump: Wikipedia founder

  by Callum PATON Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Twitter and Facebook repeatedly mishandled Donald Trump as he pushed baseless claims, including his assertion that US presidential election he lost was rigged, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told AFP. The two social media giants indefinitely suspended Trump after his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, an attack on the seat of democracy that on Wednesday led to Trump’s second impeachment. Wales […]

YouTube suspends Trump channel for week over violence fears

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Google-owned YouTube on Tuesday temporarily suspended President Donald Trump’s channel and removed a video for violating its policy against inciting violence, joining other social media platforms in banning his accounts after last week’s Capitol riot. Trump’s access to the social media platforms he has used as a megaphone during his presidency has been largely cut off since a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington DC […]

Twitter cracks down on false posts about Covid vaccines

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Twitter said on Wednesday that it would crack down on false posts about Covid-19 vaccines beginning next week, following in the footsteps of Facebook and YouTube. The social media platform already targets posts containing false information on how the virus spreads and the efficacy of public health measures such as mask-wearing. “We will prioritize the removal of the most harmful misleading information, and… begin to label tweets that contain […]

Massive outage hits Google services worldwide

  A massive outage knocked Google services including Gmail and video sharing platform YouTube offline across much of the globe Monday. Within minutes, social media sites were awash with hashtags including #googledown and YouTubeDOWN as hundreds of millions of internet users tried vainly to connect to the US search engine. Google indicated the outage had affected all of its services for the “majority” of users. The outage began at approximately 1150 GMT and by 1230 […]

Twitter flags ‘president-elect Biden’ posts as premature

  SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Twitter on Friday flagged as premature posts referring to Joe Biden as “president-elect,” as the vote count continued in the knife-edge US election with the Democrat leading Donald Trump in several key states. Tweets referring to the former vice president with the victor’s title and his running mate Kamala Harris as “vice president-elect” were tagged with messages saying counts were not yet final. “Official sources may not have […]