Monday, December 23

Tag: twitter

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...
Read More
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 ...
Read More
Tech Firms Must Do More On Extremism: World Economic Forum
30Oct By reutersNo Comments
News

Tech Firms Must Do More On Extremism: World Economic Forum

U.S. tech firms such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc should be more aggressive in tackling extremism and political misinformation if they want to avoid government action, a report from the World Economic Forum said on Monday. The study from the Swiss nonprofit organization adds to a chorus of calls for Silicon Valley to stem the spread of violent material from Islamic State militants and the use of their services by alleged Russian propagandists. Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet Inc’s Google will go under the microscope of U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday when their general counsels will testify before three U.S. congressional committees on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The report from the World Economic Forum’s human rights council warn...
Read More
Twitter Overstated Its Monthly Users Figures For 3 Years
27Oct By PriyankaNo Comments
USA

Twitter Overstated Its Monthly Users Figures For 3 Years

Twitter said on Thursday that it overstated its monthly user numbers since 2014 after accidentally including third-party application's data in its count. The revelation came when the company reported that its net loss had slowed in the third quarter and that the number of daily active users had risen by 14 per cent. The disclosure, however, could further damage Twitter's reputation as the company criticizes Russia's role in its efforts to interfere in the presidential election and complains about what critics have called scattershot efforts to prevent abuse and harassment on its platform, and skepticism among some investors, who are concerned that global growth in users is falling. At least initially investors were not particularly worried about the excessive number of users. Twit...
Read More
Twitter Bans Ads From Two Russian Media Outlets, Cites Election Meddling
27Oct By reutersNo Comments
News

Twitter Bans Ads From Two Russian Media Outlets, Cites Election Meddling

Twitter Inc on Thursday accused Russian media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election and banned them from buying ads on its network, after criticism the social network had not done enough to deter international meddling. RT and Sputnik condemned the decision, saying Twitter had encouraged ad spending with its sales tactics, while Russia’s foreign ministry said the ban was due to U.S. government pressure and that it planned to retaliate. San Francisco-based Twitter said in an unsigned statement on its website that election meddling is “not something we want” on the social network. It cited a report this year from U.S. intelligence agencies and said it had also done its own investigations of RT and Sputnik. “We did not come to this decision ligh...
Read More
25Oct By reutersNo Comments
USA

Twitter To Label Election Ads After U.S. Regulatory Threat

Twitter Inc said on Tuesday it would add labels to election-related advertisements and say who is behind each of them, after a threat of regulation from the United States over the lack of disclosure for political spending on social media. Twitter, acting a month after Facebook Inc launched a similar overhaul of political ads, said in a blog post it would start a website so people could see identities of buyers, targeting demographics and total ad spend by election advertisers. Silicon Valley social media firms and the political ads that run on their websites have generally been free of the disclaimers and other regulatory demands that U.S. authorities impose on television, radio and satellite services. Calls for that to change have grown, however, after Twitter, Facebook and Alpha...
Read More
How China is Blocking the World’s Most Popular Websites
21Oct By RishabhNo Comments
ANALYSIS

How China is Blocking the World’s Most Popular Websites

You might be visiting China and already know that you cannot access your Facebook account and post pictures of your tour, but there are a lot more popular websites that are blocked in China. An army of Chinese government blocks and filters some of the most popular websites in the world. Besides the world's most popular American-video sharing website YouTube and Alphabet Inc's Google, even Twitter and Instagram are blocked in China. This operation of filter is world's biggest operation of online censorship aka The Great Firewall of China. China has 731 million internet users which have really tight restrictions around them. During the Communist party in October, China cramped up its online crackdown, blocking American service- Whatsapp and pornographic websites like hdtubemovies in...
Read More
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. ...
Read More
Las Vegas Shooting marks the Saddest Day on Twitter: Report
4Oct By RishabhNo Comments
ANALYSIS

Las Vegas Shooting marks the Saddest Day on Twitter: Report

The world was shook at the mass shooting that happened in Las Vegas on October 2, 2017. This resulted in 59 deaths and more than 500 people injured, and was recorded as the 'Saddest Day' on Twitter, according to Hedonometer, a tool that measures global emotions on social media. Have a look at its report: The barometer, which measures the happiness of millions of Twitter users based on their posts, showed an average happiness level of 5.77 on Monday when the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history occurred at a country music festival in Las Vegas.     Michelle & I are praying for the victims in Las Vegas. Our thoughts are with their families & everyone enduring another senseless tragedy. — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 2, 2017   ...
Read More
Does Twitter Really Reflect The World’s Emotion?
8Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments
ANALYSIS

Does Twitter Really Reflect The World’s Emotion?

Twitter is an unreliable witness to the world's emotions, and assuming that the micro-blogging site accurately reflects real life may be risky, scientists say. With over 300 million monthly active users around the globe sharing their thoughts in 140 characters or less, studies based on Twitter data are "particularly alluring" to researchers and the media, said sociology expert Eric Jensen, from the University of Warwick in the UK. However, he cautions against this "big data gold rush," pointing out that there is no evidence that social media content shared on Twitter is a truthful reflection of how its users feel. Twitter users have developed their own unique cultural behaviour, conversations and identities, which shape the ways in which they present their views online. Social ...
Read More
New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Says The Company Has To Change
31Aug By AnkitaNo Comments
News

New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Says The Company Has To Change

Cab aggregator Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi addressed employees on Wednesday and said that the company has to change its culture and may go for an initial public offering (IPO) in 18-36 months. 48 year-old, Khosrowshahi has been leading his travel-booking platform Expedia Inc. for 12 years and recently joined Uber as its CEO and was seen on Wednesday in Uber's San Francisco headquarters with his new badge.   #mynewbadge. I checked it and it works! Does @karaswisher have one of these? pic.twitter.com/SfXDjWeJYP — dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) August 30, 2017   His plans include rebuilding Uber’s culture and growing market share as well as possibly conducting an IPO in 18 to 36 months, according to people who attended the meeting. It is common for venture capital...
Read More