Social Media

The European Commission pressed Facebook on Monday over whether EU citizens’ data were among those improperly harvested by a British political consultancy, after the US regulator said it was investigating the firm’s privacy practices. That piled yet more pressure on a firm that has lost more than $100 billion (roughly Rs. 6.5 lakh crores) in market value in the last 10 days. Facebook shares fell ... Read More »

A panel of Senate lawmakers aims to grill the top executives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter next month, the latest indication that the controversysurrounding Facebook’s data privacy practices now threatens to envelop the whole of Silicon Valley. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa, on Monday scheduled an April 10 hearing on the “future of data privacy and social media” – and the ... Read More »

Germany’s justice minister on Monday said Facebookshould face “stricter” oversight and be more transparent with its users, as the tech giant struggles to contain the fallout from a huge data privacy scandal. Speaking after a meeting with European Facebook executives in Berlin, Justice Minister Katarina Barley said the firm’s assurances that it had already cracked down on the misuse of personal data ... Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS Several accounts were popular with hundreds of thousands of followers They were suspended for stealing tweets or mass-retweeting tweets Tweetdecking is an explicit violation of Twitter’s spam policy Continuing its tirade against the “tweetdeckers”, Twitter has suspended several popular accounts known for stealing tweets or mass-retweeting tweets into manufactured virality. According to Buzzfeed, accounts, including @Dory, @GirlPosts, @SoDamnTrue, Girl Code/@reiatabie, Common ... Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS Facebook is getting deeper into the professional sports streaming game Games will be available to users in the US on Facebook Watch Recorded broadcasts will also be available globally Facebook is getting deeper into the professional sports streaming game, partnering with Major League Baseball to air 25 weekday afternoon games in an exclusive deal. The games will be available to ... Read More »

Germany’s incoming minister with responsibility for digital policy says she will push social media giants to make users’ information feeds more diverse and timely to avoid creating “echo chambers” for the like-minded. Companies such as Facebook have come under pressure from regulators around the world as evidence has emerged of how the recirculation of a particular selection of news and views on ... Read More »

Facebook has started opening up its Community Help feature — part of the Safety Check system — to businesses and other organisations so that that they can provide critical information and services for people to get the help they need in a crisis. The Community Help feature was added to Facebook’s Safety Check system a year ago to let people find ... Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS The statement was made at Goldman Sachs Internet & Technology conference The redesign has taken flak from millions of users till now Spiegel claims the decision will take sometime to get adapted to Snapchat has dug itself in even deeper into controversy after CEO Evan Spiegel announced that the infamous redesign of the social media app would not be rolled back, and ... Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS Twitter for Mac has been pulled from Mac App Store The app will no longer be supported in 30 days The move echoes similar steps on the Windows platform Twitter had some news for its Mac users ahead of the weekend – it is killing off its Mac app. The Twitter app for Mac is no longer available for download. The social ... Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS Amazon and Flipkart are both holding big sales WhatsApp for business has been launched in some regions OnePlus confirmed up to 40,000 users were affected by a credit card leak Welcome back to our weekly news roundup. This was a week of news about deals, as both Flipkart and Amazon are running sales. It’s lining up to be a good time for deal-hunters, ... Read More »