Thursday, December 19

Tag: Russia

U.S. Senators Hammer Facebook For Power Over Elections
1Nov By reutersNo Comments
USA

U.S. Senators Hammer Facebook For Power Over Elections

U.S. senators on Tuesday pressed Facebook Inc’s chief lawyer on why the company did not catch 2016 election ads bought using Russian rubles, why its investigation of them took so long and how much it knows about its 5 million advertisers. Democrats and Republicans at the Senate crime subcommittee hearing fired questions for much of two hours at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch, who said that in retrospect the company should have done more. “In hindsight, we should have had a broader lens. There are signals we missed,” Stretch said under questioning from Democratic Senator Al Franken about how the company missed political ads bought with Russian money. Stretch called the Russia-based ads “reprehensible” for their political divisiveness. The hearing marked the first time tech exec...
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Russian Groups Made 43 Hrs Of YouTube Video During U.S. Elections
31Oct By RishabhNo Comments
USA

Russian Groups Made 43 Hrs Of YouTube Video During U.S. Elections

Google has recently revealed reports about Kremlin-linked groups spending around $4,700 on advertising platforms, during the 2016 U.S. elections. These ads were although not targeted to any specific group of users or no evidence of targeting by geography were found. It was also revealed by Google, that its YouTube, which strictly prohibit things like ​hate ​speech, ​violent ​or ​graphic ​content; found 18 channels closely associated with this campaign that made videos, which were in English-language, public, with the political content in them. There ​were ​1,108 ​such ​videos ​uploaded, ​representing- ​43 ​hours ​of ​content ​and ​totaling ​309,000 U.S. ​views ​from ​June ​2015 ​to ​November ​2016. The report also said that these “videos ​were ​not ​targeted ​to ​the ​U.S.” and th...
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Facebook Says 126M Americans May Have Seen Russia-Linked Political Posts
31Oct By reutersNo Comments
USA

Facebook Says 126M Americans May Have Seen Russia-Linked Political Posts

Facebook Inc said on Monday that Russia-based operatives published about 80,000 posts on the social network over a two-year period in an effort to sway U.S. politics and that about 126 million Americans may have seen the posts during that time. Facebook’s latest data on the Russia-linked posts - possibly reaching around half of the U.S. population of voting age - far exceeds the company’s previous disclosures. It was included in written testimony provided to U.S. lawmakers, and seen by Reuters, ahead of key hearings with social media and technology companies about Russian meddling in elections on Capitol Hill this week. Twitter Inc separately has found 2,752 accounts linked to Russian operatives, a source familiar with the company’s written testimony said. That estimate is up from a ...
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Global Press Freedom Hit The All Time Low: Report
30Oct By RishabhNo Comments
ANALYSIS, INSPIRATIONAL

Global Press Freedom Hit The All Time Low: Report

Global press freedom has recently declined to its all time low ever in 13 years in 2016 amid unprecedented threats to journalists and media outlets in major democracies. As per the research done by Freedomhouse.org only 13 percent of the world's population enjoys a Free press. Not to forget the far-reaching attacks on news media in a democratic society by Donald Trump, first as a candidate and now as the President of  United States.Borrowing a term popularized by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Trump has labeled the news media as “enemies of the people”. Yet, U.S. remains as one of the most press-friendly countries in the world, in comparison to the countries like North Korea, Turkmenistan, Iran, Syria who are designated as Not-free in the Freedom of press 2017.  While the pr...
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Google Uncovered Russia-Backed Ads on YouTube, Gmail : Source
10Oct By reutersNo Comments
USA

Google Uncovered Russia-Backed Ads on YouTube, Gmail : Source

Google has discovered Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads on its YouTube, Gmail and Google Search products in an effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a person briefed on the company’s probe told Reuters on Monday. The ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-affiliated entity that bought ads on Facebook Inc, but may indicate a broader Russian online disinformation effort, according to the source, who was not authorized to discuss details of the confidential investigation by Alphabet Inc’s Google. Microsoft Corp said separately on Monday that it was looking at whether Russians bought U.S. election ads on its Bing search engine or other Microsoft-owned products and platforms. A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment further. ...
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Russian Central Bank to Ban Websites Offering Cryptocurrencies
10Oct By reutersNo Comments
News

Russian Central Bank to Ban Websites Offering Cryptocurrencies

Russia will block access to websites of exchanges that offer crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Russian Central Bank First Deputy Governor Sergei Shvetsov said on Tuesday. He called them “dubious”. Russian financial authorities initially treated any sort of money issued by non-state approved institutions as illegal, saying they could be used to launder money. Later the authorities accepted the globally booming market of crypto-currencies but want to either control the turnover or to limit access to the market “We cannot stand apart. We cannot give direct and easy access to such dubious instruments for retail (investors),” Shvetsov said, referring to households. Speaking at a conference on financial market derivatives, Shvetsov said the central bank sees rising interest in crypto...
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BRICS Countries Online Sale Surpassed $876 Bn In 2016 : Report
2Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments
CHINA

BRICS Countries Online Sale Surpassed $876 Bn In 2016 : Report

The online retail sales of BRICS(Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries led by China and India surpassed $876 billion in 2016, in a recent report shared by China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, today. The report was released ahead of the BRICS summit in Xiamen next week by the Ali Research Institute which is affiliated to Alibaba. (more…)
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Vivo Becomes Official Sponsor of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup
1Jun By AdityaNo Comments
CHINA

Vivo Becomes Official Sponsor of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup

BEIJING - Football is one of the most fascinating sports, and the FIFA World Cup, as one of the top sporting competitions in the world, always captures the attention of global audiences. The global smartphone brand Vivo announced its agreement with International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to sponsor the FIFA World Cup for six years, covering two tournament cycles. This means Vivo will become the official sponsor of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Consecutive Sponsorship of Two FIFA World Cups As the official smartphone brand to sponsor the FIFA World Cup, Vivo will consecutively sponsor the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017, 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia, FIFA Confederations Cup 2021, and 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Through the tremendous global influence, this si...
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Russia Blocks Chinese Social Media App WeChat
6May By PriyankaNo Comments
CHINA, News

Russia Blocks Chinese Social Media App WeChat

Russias telecoms watchdog has blocked Chinas popular messaging app WeChat for failing to fulfil the countrys Internet regulations. Watchdog Roskomnadzor has listed WeChat, developed by Tencent Technology, on the register of prohibited websites, South China Morning Post reported today. "Tencent is aware of the move and communicating with Russian authorities over the matter," a brief statement from the Shenzhen-based company said. Russia requires Internet service providers to register with related government bodies, but Tencent ?had a different understanding? on this issue, the company said. Access to the app was restricted on the basis of Article 15.4 of the law on information, information technologies and information security, according to Roskomnadzor, officially known as the ...
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India, Russia to Set Up $1 Billion Business Fund
18Mar By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments
News

India, Russia to Set Up $1 Billion Business Fund

India and Russia are setting up a USD 1 billion fund to promote mutual investments in infrastructure and technology projects, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said. Both the countries would contribute USD 500 million to the fund, Sitharaman said while addressing India-Russia Business Forum at the ongoing International Engineering Sourcing Show (IESS) here yesterday. While the Russian funds would be channeled through Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Indian contribution will be accrued from National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. Sitharaman elaborated upon other measures being taken by Russia and India to scale up their economic engagement and to boost bilateral trade and investment. As part of these initiatives, the India Russia CEO Forum will hol...
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