INSIDER
Meta lays off staff at WhatsApp and Instagram to align with 'strategic goals'
Read full article: Meta lays off staff at WhatsApp and Instagram to align with 'strategic goals'Meta says it has laid off some employees, including staff at WhatsApp And Instagram, to realign its resources with its “strategic goals.”.
Iranian hackers targeted WhatsApp accounts of staffers in Biden, Trump administrations, Meta says
Read full article: Iranian hackers targeted WhatsApp accounts of staffers in Biden, Trump administrations, Meta saysThe same Iranian hacking group believed to have targeted both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns have tried to go after the WhatsApp accounts of staffers in the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Latino voters are coveted by both major parties. They also are a target for election misinformation
Read full article: Latino voters are coveted by both major parties. They also are a target for election misinformationExperts expect a surge of misinformation targeting Spanish-speaking voters with a high-stakes presidential election in the fall as candidates vie for support from the rapidly growing number of Latino voters.
17-year-old girl tried to take her own life after mother found out ex-JSO officer was contacting her: warrant
Read full article: 17-year-old girl tried to take her own life after mother found out ex-JSO officer was contacting her: warrantNews4JAX is learning more details about the sex crime investigation involving a 17-year-old girl that led to the arrest of a 34-year-old now former officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads logins restored after widespread outage
Read full article: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads logins restored after widespread outageA technical issue had caused widespread login issues for more than an hour across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms on Tuesday.
Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads logins restored after widespread outage
Read full article: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads logins restored after widespread outageUsers reported being locked out of their Facebook accounts and feeds on the platform as well as Threads and Instagram were not refreshing. WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, appeared unaffected.
In rural Zimbabwe, a group of grandmothers counters alleged election intimidation, bias on WhatsApp
Read full article: In rural Zimbabwe, a group of grandmothers counters alleged election intimidation, bias on WhatsAppAhead of national elections next week, some people in Zimbabwe's rural areas say they are facing intimidation from supporters of the long-ruling ZANU-PF party and a biased state-run media that restricts their options.
Migrants in Mexico fall victim to rampant scams on their way to the US
Read full article: Migrants in Mexico fall victim to rampant scams on their way to the USSocial media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok serve as a vehicle for deception, misinformation and scams aimed at migrants seeking a better life for them and their families in the United States.
UK government refuses to hand over Boris Johnson's unredacted messages to coronavirus inquiry
Read full article: UK government refuses to hand over Boris Johnson's unredacted messages to coronavirus inquiryThe British government is resisting an order to hand over a sheaf of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s personal messages to the country’s COVID-19 pandemic inquiry.
Report: Croatian officials shared information on migrants
Read full article: Report: Croatian officials shared information on migrantsAn independent investigative group has accused Croatian officials and police of using a clandestine WhatsApp group to share sensitive information about migrants trying to enter the country.
Ireland's WhatsApp penalty highlights EU privacy turmoil
Read full article: Ireland's WhatsApp penalty highlights EU privacy turmoilIreland has fined WhatsApp for breaching strict European Union privacy rules by forcing users to consent to allow their personal data to be used to provide “service improvements and security.”.
WhatsApp says service back after outage disrupts messages
Read full article: WhatsApp says service back after outage disrupts messagesWhatsApp said service on the popular chat app has been restored following a brief outage that left people around the world complaining that they couldn’t send or receive messages.
WhatsApp faces EU consumer complaint over privacy update
Read full article: WhatsApp faces EU consumer complaint over privacy updateFacebook’s WhatsApp faces a complaint from European Union consumer groups who say the chat service has been unfairly pressuring users to accept a new privacy update, in a breach of the bloc’s regulations.
German watchdog bans Facebook from processing WhatsApp data
Read full article: German watchdog bans Facebook from processing WhatsApp dataA German privacy regulator banned Facebook on Tuesday from gathering data on WhatsApp users, citing an update to its privacy policy that breaches stringent European data protection rules by allowing access to a lot more information on the chat app’s users.
WhatsApp growth slumps as rivals Signal, Telegram rise
Read full article: WhatsApp growth slumps as rivals Signal, Telegram riseFILE - This Friday, March 10, 2017, file photo shows the WhatsApp communications app on a smartphone, in New York. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)OAKLAND, Calif. – Encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram are seeing huge upticks in downloads from Apple and Google’s app stores. Mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower said Wednesday that Signal saw 17.8 million app downloads on Apple and Google during the week of Jan. 5 to Jan. 12. WhatsApp, meanwhile, saw downloads shrink to 10.6 million, down from 12.7 million the week before. In that same period Telegram has seen about 755.2 million installations and WhatsApp a whopping 5.6 billion — almost eight times as many as Telegram.
Cybersecurity expert explains why encrypted messaging apps might not offer as much protection as you think
Read full article: Cybersecurity expert explains why encrypted messaging apps might not offer as much protection as you thinkBoth Signal and Telegram offer encryption services. The idea behind using an app with encryption capabilities is to keep prying eyes and ears from seeing and hearing your conversations. “If you don’t properly vet the people you’re sending your message to, then you’re defeating the point of encryption,” Hamer said. A Sensor Tower representative told Business Insider that “Signal saw approximately 7.5 million installs globally from across the App Store and Google Play” from Wednesday to Sunday. CNBC reports that “Telegram saw 5.6 million downloads globally” during the same time frame, according to Apptopia.
Q&A: What's next for Facebook in the antitrust case?
Read full article: Q&A: What's next for Facebook in the antitrust case?Whatever happens, experts expect a long-drawn out battle that Facebook is prepared to defend vigorously — and with enormous resources. Facebook insists that its services provide useful benefits for users and that complaints about its power are misguided. Justice Department prosecutors are pursuing a separate antitrust case against Google, one that mirrors its case against Microsoft 20 years ago. Facebook doesn't operate the three companies as separate businesses and has been integrating functions of Instagram and WhatsApp with its main platform. While some original Instagram users deride the additions, others have come to appreciate them — and might miss them if they were to disappear.
US antitrust siege of tech widens with lawsuits vs Facebook
Read full article: US antitrust siege of tech widens with lawsuits vs FacebookThe antitrust lawsuits were announced by the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Regulators filed landmark antitrust lawsuits Wednesday against Facebook, the second major government offensive this year against once seemingly untouchable tech behemoths. Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple have come under scrutiny from Congress, federal regulators, state attorneys general and European authorities. “The government now wants a do-over, sending a chilling warning to American business that no sale is ever final,” Facebook general counsel Jennifer Newstead said in a statement. Antitrust skeptics point to newer social media services such as TikTok and Snapchat as rivals that could “overtake” older platforms like Facebook.
US govt, states sue Facebook for ‘predatory’ conduct
Read full article: US govt, states sue Facebook for ‘predatory’ conductFederal regulators and a group of states launched a landmark antitrust offensive against Facebook, accusing the social network of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors. Amazon and Apple also have been under investigation in Congress and by federal authorities for alleged anticompetitive conduct. Facebook called the government actions “revisionist history” that punishes successful businesses and noted that the FTC cleared the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions years ago. James alleged Facebook had a practice of opening its site to third-party app developers, then abruptly cutting off developers that it saw as a threat. Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram, bolstering the social network's business a month before its stock went public.
Facebook Pay unites payments on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp
Read full article: Facebook Pay unites payments on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsAppThe company said Tuesday that it is consolidating its payment processing for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp into one brand called Facebook Pay. Consolidating payment processing for all Facebook's major platforms into one unit may only make it even more complicated to unravel the company's various properties. Facebook Pay will handle payments across all Facebook's properties and will start rolling out this week on Facebook and Messenger in the US. Facebook has been processing payments since 2007, but doing it via a single brand is new. The logo alternates between blue for Facebook, green for WhatsApp and purple, red and orange for Instagram.
Family member's audio messages reveal heartbreak of Mexico massacre
Read full article: Family member's audio messages reveal heartbreak of Mexico massacre"Dear God, everybody Pray!," one family member in Mexico at the time, Kendra Lee Miller, said in a group chat among cousins. "Guys, Aunt Dawna and Christina are dead," Kendra Lee Miller said in a group chat. Kendra Lee Miller urged in the audio messages. Some of the community, including Kendra Lee Miller, say they are baptized and active members of the mainstream LDS church. She declined to release the audio of family members for privacy reasons.
WhatsApp bug let hackers use GIFs to take over phones
Read full article: WhatsApp bug let hackers use GIFs to take over phonesJustin Sullivan/Getty Images(CNN) - WhatsApp has fixed a security bug that allowed hackers to take over the messaging app with a malicious GIF. To update WhatsApp, iPhone users should open the App Store and select updates. Select "WhatsApp" and press update. Select "My apps & games" from the menu, then select WhatsApp and tap the Update button. In May, a vulnerability was discovered that let hackers call a person on WhatsApp and place malicious code on their phone in order to see their personal information.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg outlines plan to fight online extremism
Read full article: Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg outlines plan to fight online extremismSome of Silicon Valley's biggest companies announced Monday that they're revamping an organization they established to fight online extremism in order to allow it to work more extensively with outside parties. MENLO PARK, Calif. - Some of Silicon Valley's biggest companies announced Monday that they're revamping an organization they established to fight online extremism in order to allow it to work more extensively with outside parties. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, spoke alongside Arden. Asked what Facebook could do about the spread of footage like that from the New Zealand attack on WhatsApp, Sandberg said it had used information from Facebook and Instagram to take action against some WhatsApp users. Amazon, LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, will join the consortium of companies supporting the organization, GIFCT said Monday.
Social media a vital tool in search for loved ones in Bahamas
Read full article: Social media a vital tool in search for loved ones in Bahamas"If anyone has direct contact with the persons in Hope Town please message me," read a recent comment on one Facebook group, Dorian People Search Bahamas. Eventually, frustrated with authorities and a slow trickle of information, Bootle, her sister and cousin started a WhatsApp chat group. At first, there were about 40 people in the group, Bootle said. Bootle and others would then share that information in the WhatsApp group, sending it out to an even wider audience. She wanted to provide a 'human connection'Pritchard-Ansell, who lives on the island of New Providence with her husband and 10-month-old daughter, has expanded her efforts beyond the Facebook group Bahamas People Search.
Facebook, Instagram resolve issues worldwide
Read full article: Facebook, Instagram resolve issues worldwideFacebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter had all experienced various issues. But a Facebook spokesperson said Wednesday evening that its problems were fixed. Facebook-owned Instagram said its issues were also fixed. Twitter, meanwhile, tweeted via its support account that it was "almost at 100% resolved. Issues on Facebook and Twitter were happening in pockets worldwide, according to Down Detector, which tracks issues and outages on a variety of sites.