The Board has upheld Facebook’s decision on January 7, 2021, to restrict then-President Donald Trump’s access to posting content on his Facebook page and Instagram account.

However, it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension. Facebook’s normal penalties include removing the violating content, imposing a time-bound period of suspension, or permanently disabling the page and account.

The Board insists that Facebook review this matter to determine and justify a proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of its platform. Facebook must complete its review of this matter within six months of the date of this decision. The Board also made policy recommendations for Facebook to implement in developing clear, necessary, and proportionate policies that promote public safety and respect freedom of expression.

About the case

Elections are a crucial part of democracy. On January 6, 2021, during the counting of the 2020 electoral votes, a mob forcibly entered the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. This violence threatened the constitutional process. Five people died and many more were injured during the violence. During these events, then-President Donald Trump posted two pieces of content.

At 4:21 pm Eastern Standard Time, as the riot continued, Mr. Trump posted a video on Facebook and Instagram:

I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt. It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.

At 5:41 pm Eastern Standard Time, Facebook removed this post for violating its Community Standard on Dangerous Individuals and Organizations.

At 6:07 pm Eastern Standard Time, as police were securing the Capitol, Mr. Trump posted a written statement on Facebook:

These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love in peace. Remember this day forever!

At 6:15 pm Eastern Standard Time, Facebook removed this post for violating its Community Standard on Dangerous Individuals and Organizations. It also blocked Mr. Trump from posting on Facebook or Instagram for 24 hours.

On January 7, after further reviewing Mr. Trump’s posts, his recent communications off Facebook, and additional information about the severity of the violence at the Capitol, Facebook extended the block “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

On January 20, with the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Mr. Trump ceased to be the president of the United States.

On January 21, Facebook announced it had referred this case to the Board. Facebook asked whether it correctly decided on January 7 to prohibit Mr. Trump’s access to posting content on Facebook and Instagram for an indefinite amount of time. The company also requested recommendations about suspensions when the user is a political leader.

In addition to the two posts on January 6, Facebook previously found five violations of its Community Standards in organic content posted on the Donald J. Trump Facebook page, three of which were within the last year. While the five violating posts were removed, no account-level sanctions were applied.

Key findings

The Board found that the two posts by Mr. Trump on January 6 severely violated Facebook’s Community Standards and Instagram’s Community Guidelines. “We love you. You’re very special” in the first post and “great patriots” and “remember this day forever” in the second post violated Facebook’s rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence.

The Board found that, in maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, Mr. Trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible. At the time of Mr. Trump’s posts, there was a clear, immediate risk of harm and his words of support for those involved in the riots legitimized their violent actions. As president, Mr. Trump had a high level of influence. The reach of his posts was large, with 35 million followers on Facebook and 24 million on Instagram.

Given the seriousness of the violations and the ongoing risk of violence, Facebook was justified in suspending Mr. Trump’s accounts on January 6 and extending that suspension on January 7.

However, it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose an ‘indefinite’ suspension.

It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored.

In applying this penalty, Facebook did not follow a clear, published procedure. ‘Indefinite’ suspensions are not described in the company’s content policies. Facebook’s normal penalties include removing the violating content, imposing a time-bound period of suspension, or permanently disabling the page and account.

It is Facebook’s role to create necessary and proportionate penalties that respond to severe violations of its content policies. The Board’s role is to ensure that Facebook’s rules and processes are consistent with its content policies, its values and its human rights commitments.

In applying a vague, standardless penalty and then referring this case to the Board to resolve, Facebook seeks to avoid its responsibilities. The Board declines Facebook’s request and insists that Facebook apply and justify a defined penalty.

The Oversight Board’s decision

The Oversight Board has upheld Facebook’s decision to suspend Mr. Trump’s access to post content on Facebook and Instagram on January 7, 2021. However, as Facebook suspended Mr. Trump’s accounts ‘indefinitely,’ the company must reassess this penalty.

Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed on January 7 and decide the appropriate penalty. This penalty must be based on the gravity of the violation and the prospect of future harm. It must also be consistent with Facebook’s rules for severe violations, which must, in turn, be clear, necessary and proportionate.

If Facebook decides to restore Mr. Trump’s accounts, the company should apply its rules to that decision, including any changes made in response to the Board’s policy recommendations below. In this scenario, Facebook must address any further violations promptly and in accordance with its established content policies.

A minority of the Board emphasized that Facebook should take steps to prevent the repetition of adverse human rights impacts and ensure that users who seek reinstatement after suspension recognize their wrongdoing and commit to observing the rules in the future.

When it referred this case to the Board, Facebook specifically requested “observations or recommendations from the Board about suspensions when the user is a political leader.”

In a policy advisory statement, the Board made a number of recommendations to guide Facebook’s policies in regard to serious risks of harm posed by political leaders and other influential figures.

The Board stated that it is not always useful to draw a firm distinction between political leaders and other influential users, recognizing that other users with large audiences can also contribute to serious risks of harm.

While the same rules should apply to all users, context matters when assessing the probability and imminence of harm. When posts by influential users pose a high probability of imminent harm, Facebook should act quickly to enforce its rules. Although Facebook explained that it did not apply its ‘newsworthiness’ allowance in this case, the Board called on Facebook to address widespread confusion about how decisions relating to influential users are made. The Board stressed that considerations of newsworthiness should not take priority when urgent action is needed to prevent significant harm.

Facebook should publicly explain the rules that it uses when it imposes account-level sanctions against influential users. These rules should ensure that when Facebook imposes a time-limited suspension on the account of an influential user to reduce the risk of significant harm, it will assess whether the risk has receded before the suspension ends. If Facebook identifies that the user poses a serious risk of inciting imminent violence, discrimination or other lawless action at that time, another time-bound suspension should be imposed when such measures are necessary to protect public safety and proportionate to the risk.

The Board noted that heads of state and other high officials of government can have a greater power to cause harm than other people. If a head of state or high government official has repeatedly posted messages that pose a risk of harm under international human rights norms, Facebook should suspend the account for a period sufficient to protect against imminent harm. Suspension periods should be long enough to deter misconduct and may, in appropriate cases, include account or page deletion.

In other recommendations, the Board proposed that Facebook:

• Rapidly escalate content containing political speech from highly influential users to specialized staff who are familiar with the linguistic and political context. These staff should be insulated from political and economic interference, as well as undue influence.
• Dedicate adequate resourcing and expertise to assess risks of harm from influential accounts globally.
• Produce more information to help users understand and evaluate the process and criteria for applying the newsworthiness allowance, including how it applies to influential accounts. The company should also clearly explain the rationale, standards and processes of the cross check review, and report on the relative error rates of determinations made through cross check compared with ordinary enforcement procedures.
• Undertake a comprehensive review of Facebook’s potential contribution to the narrative of electoral fraud and the exacerbated tensions that culminated in the violence in the United States on January 6. This should be an open reflection on the design and policy choices that Facebook has made that may allow its platform to be abused.
• Make clear in its corporate human rights policy how it collects, preserves and, where appropriate, shares information to assist in investigation and potential prosecution of grave violations of international criminal, human rights and humanitarian law.
• Explain its strikes and penalties process for restricting profiles, pages, groups and accounts in Facebook’s Community Standards and Instagram’s Community Guidelines.
• Include the number of profile, page, and account restrictions in its transparency reporting, with information broken down by region and country.
• Provide users with accessible information on how many violations, strikes and penalties have been assessed against them, and the consequences that will follow future violations.
• Develop and publish a policy that governs Facebook’s response to crises or novel situations where its regular processes would not prevent or avoid imminent harm. This guidance should set appropriate parameters for such actions, including a requirement to review its decision within a fixed time.

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"Our goal with News Feed is to show people the stories most relevant to them, so we rank stories so what's most important to each person shows up highest in their News Feeds," said Facebook in a blog post on Friday.

According to Jie Xu, Research Scientist, Akos Lada, Data Scientist and Vibhi Kant, Product Manager at News Feed, when Facebook rank and make improvements to News Feed, it rely on a set of core values.

"These values -- which we've been using for years -- guide our thinking and help us keep the central experience of News Feed intact as it evolves," they wrote.

To better understand how the social media giant can show people the most informative stories to them, it talks to people and ask them how it can improve what they see when they check Facebook.

"With the new update, we are creating a new ranking signal to predict what is most informative to you, so those stories appear higher in your feed," Facebook said.

"First, we look at the stories that people tell us they find informative. People from our Feed Quality Programme look at each story in their feed and rank it on a scale of one to five - one being 'really not informative' and five being 'really informative'," it added.

The stories people rate as informative and really informative help create a new prediction about how informative Facebook thinks hey will find each story.

"We then combine this signal with how relevant the story might be to you personally a" taking into account things like your relationship with the person or publisher that posted, or what you choose to click on, comment on or share a" to best predict stories that you might personally find informative," the post read.

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New York, Aug 12 (IANS) Even though we spend a lot of our time following people or chatting with them on social media sites such as Facebook, such virtual interactions are unlikely to take the place of real face-to-face conversations any time soon, new research has reassured.

We still value face-to-face time with close friends for the purpose of talking and using social media does not make people feel connected as much as real social interactions does, the study said.

"All of this worry that we're seeking out more and more social interaction on Facebook is not true. Most interactions are face to face, and most of what we consider social interaction is face to face," said Jeffrey Hall, Associate Professor at University of Kansas.

"People feel a sense of relatedness when they're interacting face to face, but using social media does not make them feel connected," Hall noted.

According to Hall, social media is more like old-fashioned people-watching. "Liking" something is similar to a head nod. It's not social interaction, but it is acknowledging you are sharing space with someone else.

"Keeping tabs on other people sharing our social spaces is normal and part of what it means to be human," Hall said.

In his current paper published in the journal New Media & Society, Hall details three studies.

The first demonstrates that when using social media, most of us are engaged in passive behaviours that we do not consider social interaction, like browsing others' profiles and reading news articles.

Chatting and commenting -- things that we would even consider social interaction -- are but 3.5 per cent of our time on social media, the study showed.

The second diary study demonstrates that most of what we consider social interaction with people in our close circle of friends happens face to face. When interaction with these close others is through social media, it is not something passive like browsing or "liking" but rather using chat or instant message functions.

The third study showed that people reported 98 per cent of their social interactions took some other way than through social media.

All three studies, Hall said, circle around the idea that we still value face-to-face time with close friends for the purpose of talking.

"If we want to have a conversation, we're not using social media to do it," he said.

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New York, May 25 (IANS)

Scheduled to open this fall, the private school in East Palo Alto in Silicon Valley is unable to get construction permits, the Guardian reported on Tuesday, citing city officials.

The authorities said the water crisis has delayed approvals for numerous projects, including the primary school, "due to the lack of water".

"We cannot entitle projects until we can prove there is a water supply available for them," East Palo Alto assistant city manager Sean Charpentier was quoted as saying.

The school project stems from Chan's passion to alleviate the effects of poverty on children. A former elementary science teacher, Chan hopes to take a holistic approach to address health and other issues that hamper children's well-being and learning from a young age, www.mercurynews.com had reported earlier.

Although it was unclear how the water crisis in East Palo Alto may impede the construction of the school, a spokesperson for the school said it would open in a temporary space in the fall. "We look forward to continuing to work with the city on permits for a permanent location," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

The primary school was announced in October last year will enroll students pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It also aims to integrate a range of healthcare services, including mental health and prenatal care, into the facilities.

The couple recently announced to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares -- or $45 billion -- in their lifetime to charity causes.

Declaring the "Chan Zuckerberg Initiative" in December last year as they welcomed their first girl child Maxima Chan Zuckerberg or "Max", the couple said the foundation would initially focus on "personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities."

"As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation," they posted in a 2,200-word letter to their new-born daughter on Facebook.

"We will give 99 percent of our Facebook shares during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others," the couple wrote.

Facebook currently has over 1.65 billion monthly active users.

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Sanit Mahathavorn, acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said the arrests followed a complaint that a woman and her boyfriend were selling guns and ammunition on Facebook, The Bangkok Post reported.

A police investigation led to the arrest of the couple Damrong Ounruen and Pitcha-orn Phaetyanont, both 21, in Krathumrai area of Nong Chok district.

Police seized 38 items from them -- including handguns and more than 200 rounds of .38 and 9mm bullets.

Damrong turned himself in and said the seized items belonged to him. He admitted that he had sold bullets and weapons on Facebook and delivered them by parcel service since the last three months.

The couple face charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

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New York, Feb 26 (IANS) The social media giant Facebook on Friday launched Canvas -- a new full-screen, immersive mobile ad experience that loads nearly instantaneously when someone taps on a news feed ad -- for advertisers across the world.

The new feature allows advertisers to use a mix of video, still images, text and call-to-action buttons to build beautiful and effective brand and product experiences on mobile, the company announced in a blog post on Friday.

"We made the creative community a priority when we designed and built Canvas. It's a product that represents our commitment to creative craft and delivering the best mobile experience for businesses and people,” said Chris Jones, head of creative technology, Facebook Creative Shop.

Canvas uses the same technology that makes photos and videos load quickly on Facebook, so it loads as much as 10 times faster than the standard mobile web.

“We're committed to building great mobile experiences for people and doing so also opens up new creative possibilities for advertisers. We've invested in engaging experiences like video and the carousel format to empower advertisers with more creative space to share their brand and products on mobile,” read the blog post.

Any advertiser can start building a Canvas as it is easy to build with no code or software required.

Canvas is designed with input from the creative community at every step and is designed to help businesses tell stories and show products on mobile devices in a beautiful way.

“It helps advertisers achieve any objective by giving businesses a fully customizable digital space on which to build multimedia stories,” the post added.

The feature works on both Android and iOS platforms.

Within a Canvas, people enjoy moving through digital stories easily.

They can swipe through a carousel of images, tilt to view panoramic images and zoom in to view images in detail, making the Canvas experience immersive and engaging.

Facebook launches Canvas to bring life into mobile ads

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New York, Feb 26 (IANS) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has issued a stern internal memo to employees not to ruin the "Black Lives Matter" movement by defacing Facebook's signature wall that serves as a dry-erase message board at the company's headquarters in California.

The signature wall at the company's Menlo Park headquarters has turned into a graffiti war where employees are crossing out "Black Lives Matter" on the wall and writing "All Lives Matter" instead, said Gizmodo in a report.

The "Black Lives Matter" movement is being observed against the racial profiling and police brutality experienced by the African-American community in the US.

"I was already disappointed by this disrespectful behaviour before, but after my communication I consider this malicious as well," Zuckerberg said in the memo.

"We’ve never had rules around what people can write on our walls. We expect everybody to treat each other with respect," he added.

"Black Lives Matter" is an international movement, originating in the African-American community in the US that campaigns against violence towards black people.

The movement began in 2013 with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of police official George Zimmerman in the shooting case of African-American teen Trayvon Martin.

I hope and encourage people to participate in Black@town hall on March 3-4 to educate themselves about what the "Black Lives Matter" movement is all about, Zuckerberg said.

According to him, there are specific issues affecting the black community in the US, coming from a history of oppression and racism.

"Black lives matter" does not mean other lives do not -- it is simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve.

"Regardless of content or location, crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one person's speech is more important than another's. Facebook should be a service and a community where everyone is treated with respect," the 31-year-old Facebook founder wrote.

"This has been a deeply hurtful and tiresome experience for the black community and really the entire Facebook community, and we are now investigating the current incidents," he noted.

"Black Lives Matter" spread further following the death of two African Americans -- Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York City 2014.

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New York, Feb 25 (IANS)

Now with "Reactions", hold down the "Like" button on mobile or hover over the "Like" button on desktop to convey five new emoticons -- Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry.

The social networking giant has launched a new feature called "Reactions" -- an extension of the "Like" button to give you more ways to share your reaction to a post in a quick and easy way.

For years, Facebook users have been asking for a "dislike" button but Facebook has instead given them six playful emoji buttons.

“We have been testing 'Reactions' in a few markets since last year and have received positive feedback so far. We are now excited to offer it to everyone who uses Facebook around the world,” Sammi Krug, product manager at Facebook, said in a blog post on Wednesday.

“We will continue learning and listening to feedback to make sure we have a set of reactions that will be useful for everyone,” Krug added.

“We understand that this is a big change, and want to be thoughtful about rolling this out. For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most,” Krug posted.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said in the past that “like” is not an appropriate reaction to a status update or news story about tragedy.

“We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer,” he added.

Now convey love, haha, wow on Facebook posts

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New York, Feb 24 (IANS)

The project is an engineering-focused initiative that is bringing operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators and other technology companies together, the company said in a post on Wednesday.

“Every day, more people and more devices around the world are coming online, and it’s becoming easier to share data-intensive experiences like video and virtual reality. Scaling traditional telecom infrastructure to meet this global data challenge is not moving as fast as people need it to,” wrote Jay Parikh, global head of engineering and infrastructure at Facebook.

“We know there isn’t a single solution for this, and no one company can tackle the problem alone. Driving a faster pace of innovation in telecom infrastructure is necessary to meet these new technology challenges and to unlock new opportunities for everyone in the ecosystem,” Parikh said.

To kick-start this work, TIP members such as Facebook, Intel, and Nokia have pledged to contribute an initial suite of reference designs while other members such as operators Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom will help define and deploy the technology as it fits their needs.

TIP members will work together to contribute designs in three areas - access, backhaul, and core and management -- applying the Open Compute Project models of openness and disaggregation as methods of spurring innovation.

“In what is a traditionally closed system, component pieces will be unbundled, affording operators more flexibility in building networks. This will result in significant gains in cost and operational efficiency for both rural and urban deployments,” Parikh further wrote.

As the effort progresses, TIP members will work together to accelerate development of technologies like 5G that will pave the way for better connectivity and richer services.

Facebook, in collaboration with Globe, recently launched a pilot deployment based on TIP principles to connect a small village in the Philippines that previously did not have cellular coverage.

“Testing new technologies and approaches and sharing what we learn with the rest of the industry will enable operators to adopt new models with full confidence that they will be sustainable,” said the social media giant.

Working to enable operators and the broader telecom industry to be more flexible, innovative, and efficient is important for expanding connectivity.

“For Facebook, TIP is a new investment that ties into our other connectivity efforts already under way through Internet.org” in various parts of the world, Parikh added.

Facebook launches Telecom Infra Project to meet global data challenge

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By Nishant Arora

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Can spending excessive time on Facebook or other social media be as dangerous as addiction to cocaine or gambling?

Well, yes, if researchers from California State University-Fullerton are to be believed.

They say social media obsession may lead to something akin to classical addiction. Such use triggers two key parts of the brain associated with rewards: The amygdala which is the integrative place for emotions, behaviour and motivation and the striatum -- part of the forebrain and a critical component of the reward system.

The findings, recently published in the journal Psychological Reports: Disability and Trauma showed that social media-related "addictions" share some neural features with substance and gambling addictions.

Since the meteoric rise of the internet usage and emergence of various social media platforms, many young Indians have been left socially isolated and lonely.

It's time for a reality check in our backyard.

Take Krishnan (name changed), a 15-year-old social media addict in the capital, who recently visited Dr. Sameer Malhotra, director, mental health and behavioural sciences at Max Healthcare.

Hooked on to Facebook for nearly 16 hours a day, he had developed an obsessive personality profile and was neglecting priorities of life, including education.

"I have been seeing many youngsters who are in the grip of social media addiction. In the case of Krishnan, I treated him through both counselling and medication which helped channelise his energy in positive work," Dr. Malhotra told IANS.

"Facebook addiction is similar to cocaine addiction to a certain level as there are certain neuro-chemicals like dopamine which operate across brain reward pathways and are responsible for maintaining addictive behaviour," he said.

According to Dr. Malhotra, teenagers with Facebook addiction-like symptoms may "have a hyperactive amygdala-striatal system, which makes this 'addiction' similar to many other addictions."

For Dr. Samir Parikh, director at department of mental health and behavioural Science, Fortis Healthcare, excessive use of social media is a common trend today and such preoccupation leads to an interference in one's social, occupational as well as other areas of functioning.

"Yes, it could be considered similar to drug addiction to a certain level though it is not exactly the same. The difference is more in terms of the physiological manifestations involved in the influence of a substance," Dr. Parikh told IANS.

Addiction is defined as repetitive habit pattern that increases the risk of diseases or associated personal and social problems. It is a subjective experience of "loss of control".

Addiction connotes dependence because there are common neurochemical and neuroanatomical pathways found among all addictions -- whether it is substance, gambling, sex, eating, internet use or Facebook obsession.

"They all display similar patterns of behaviour like inability to abstain, impairment in behaviour control, craving, diminished recognition of significant behaviourial problems, interpersonal issues and a dysfunctional emotional response," says Dr. Birendra Yadav, psychology clinical operations at telehealth venture-Poccare, Healthenablr.

Experts say Facebook addiction can lead to impulse-control disorders, especially among adolescents where it has led to high prevalence of depression, aggressive behaviour and psychiatric symptoms.

The social media has also been found to have affected lifestyles, resulting in irregular dietary habits, decreased physical activity, short duration of sleep and increased use of alcohol and tobacco.

Is it true that getting out of Facebook addiction is easier than that of substance abuse?

"This is subjective and depends on the context, personality and state of mind of the individual concerned and you need to build the will power of the person through both counselling and medication," Dr. Malhotra says.

"Overcoming any kind of addiction is possible with adequate professional interventions," Dr. Parikh said.

The bottom line: use social media, but do not let it take over your life. Investing time in "real" relationships rather than in the cyberworld can lead to improved mental health, say experts.

(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)

Beware, Facebook or social media addiction can trigger cocaine-like high

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New York, Feb 23 (IANS) Affordable data plans and rising global incomes saw nearly 3.2 billion people going online from desktop to smartphones and ipads in the year 2015 -- Up from three billion in 2014 -- Facebook's latest report on global internet access has revealed.

Over the past 10 years, connectivity increased by approximately 200 to 300 million people per year.

"While this is positive news in terms of growth, it also means that globally, 4.1 billion people were still not internet users in 2015," noted the report titled "State of Connectivity 2015".

Facebook elucidated four key barriers to internet access -- availability of required infrastructure, affordability, that is the cost of access relative to income, relevance, that is a reason for access and readiness, meaning the capacity to access, including skills, awareness and cultural acceptance.

"In order to address the barriers to connectivity, corporations, governments, NGOs and non-profits need to work together to continue gathering more accurate data on the state of global connectivity, and develop global standards for collecting, reporting, and distributing this data," the report advised.

The data collected would give a greater understanding of how populations are dispersed, so governments and others can prioritise investments in infrastructure, from transportation to healthcare and education.

Population distribution data will also help guide Facebook's Connectivity Lab.

It will help identify the types of projects to prioritise and support target developments.

More people going online with data affordability, rising incomes: Facebook

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New York, Feb 23 (IANS) The social networking giant Facebook is the undisputed leader in mobile advertising and the top marketing option for app developers, a new report has revealed.

AppsFlyer -- an Israel-based mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform -- tracked 2.5 billion app installs from October 2015 to January 2016.

It found that Facebook led app installs across metrics including geographic region, app user retention and gaming versus non-gaming apps, marketingdive.com reported.

"A consistent placing in the global top five media sources for retention, coupled with its unrivaled scale, place the social giant number one in the power rankings for every category and region among platforms included in the study," the report declared.

According to another study done by eMarketer - a US-based digital marketing, media and commerce research company -- mobile app install ads were expected to reach $3 billion last year, accounting for more than 10 percent of mobile ad budgets with an 80 percent year-over-year increase in spending.

Last year, Chris Cunningham, global head of mobile and brand partnerships at apps data and analytics company IronSource, said that the app-install ecosystem is responsible for growing that space for Facebook, Google and every other company and gaming companies and lifestyle apps are driving mobile budgets.

Mobile accounts for 80 percent of the social network's advertising revenue per its latest earnings report, up from 69 percent year-over-year.

Facebook top choice for app advertising: Study

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New York, Feb 22 (IANS) Social media giant Facebook has announced to bring 360 video to Samsung's Gear VR - the Virtual Reality (VR) headset launched in India recently.

“Today, we are taking an important step toward improving 360 video in VR: Our powerful dynamic streaming technology for 360 video is coming to Gear VR. Gear VR combines the leading VR software, built by Facebook's Oculus team, with world-class mobile hardware, built by Samsung,” a Facebook blog read on Sunday.

Facebook said that they have been developing new technology that will make video in virtual reality work even better.

“360 video on Facebook is the first step - it allows you to look around and feel like you are present while watching a video, whether it is surfing in Tahiti or exploring the surface of Mars,” the blog further read.

Instead of the entire 360 video in high resolution, theses videos show only the pixels that actually a user is looking at in the highest quality.

To make this work, dozens of variants for every 360 video are made. Each video is tailored to a specific viewing angle and then as a user watches the video, the viewing angle is adjusted rapidly depending on which variant the user is looking at.

“By doing this, we've quadrupled the resolution quality of 360 streaming video in VR by reducing the amount of required network bandwidth by 4x - so videos look clearer and play faster,” the blog noted.

The video will be out in the next few weeks.

Virtual reality is already something people can touch and feel with the Samsung Gear VR.

More than 200 games and apps are already available for the platform in the Oculus store, and people have already watched more than a million hours of video in Gear VR.

See your world differently with Facebook's 360 video

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New York, Feb 22 (IANS) In its bid to further explore immersive new virtual reality (VR) experiences that will help people connect and share, Facebook has created a social VR team focused entirely on exploring the future of social interaction in VR.

This team will explore how people can connect and share using today’s VR technology, as well as long-term possibilites as VR evolves into an increasingly important computing platform.

The team members will work closely with US-based virtual reality technology company Oculus and other teams at Facebook to build the foundation for tomorrow’s social VR experiences on all platforms.

“We have already helped people connect in a wide variety of ways on mobile devices - ranging from Facebook and Instagram to Messenger and WhatsApp - and now we want to apply that same approach to the new medium of VR,” the social networking giant said in a blog post.

“In the future, VR will enable even more types of connection - like the ability for friends who live in different parts of the world to spend time together and feel like they’re really there with each other,” it added.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks that “VR is the next platform.”

“Pretty soon we’re going to live in a world where everyone has the powet to share and experience whole scenes as if you’re right there’,” said Zuckerberg while speaking at the “Samsung MWC 2016” event in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday.

Although the work in VR is still in an early stage and there are a lot of hardware and software challenges that Facebook still needs to solve.

“But we’re encouraged by our progress to date and we’re excited to continue building VR technology that gives people new ways to connect and share,” the company said.

Addressing a gathering at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco recently, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said that turning virtual reality into a business is part of the firm's 10-year plan rather than an immediate action item.

Echoing her comments, Facebook's chief financial officer David Wehner said there is much that can be "accomplished with virtual reality" but it is still "very early days".

"It will take time to develop the ecosystem," Wehner added.

Facebook inserts 'social' in its virtual reality dreams

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London, Feb 21 (IANS) A new mobile app has been launched to allow people know who "unfriended" them on the popular social networking website Facebook since their last login, a media report said.

The app -- entitled Who Deleted Me -- takes stock of a user's current friends list, but cannot provide backdated information, mirror.co.uk reported on Saturday.

The app tells users how many and which friends are missing or deactivated since their last Facebook login.

When you first login, the app takes stock of your current friends list and every time you return it compares the latest version to the saved one.

It then informs you who your missing friends are and whether they have deactivated their account, or simply deleted you.

It also enables you to keep track of who you have deleted.

Find out who 'unfriended' you on Facebook

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New York, Feb 21 (IANS) Micro-blogging website Twitter has more active users in Japan than Facebook, which is much larger globally, according to a media report.

The Wall Street Journal on Saturday cited an announcement by Twitter relating to its user-numbers for a country outside the US, and saying it had 35 million monthly active users in the world's third-largest economy as of the end of last year.

Facebook, on the other hand, had 25 million monthly active users in Japan as of the end of 2015, a company spokesperson said.

Twitter provided the number of its users in Japan after the company's quarterly earnings fuelled investors’ concerns that the micro-blogging site's user growth has stalled.

Twitter last week said 320 million users signed into the platform at least once a month in the fourth quarter, the same as in the previous three months.

Facebook, by comparison, had 1.59 billion monthly active users as of the end of last year, up 3 percent from the previous three months.

In Japan, “we’ve seen more than a five-fold growth in usage in a really short time,” said Shailesh Rao, Twitter’s vice president of Asia-Pacific, Latin America and emerging markets. He said the firm had fewer than 7 million users in Japan in 2011.

Rao said people have been joining the platform consistently after widespread adoption of the service as a means to receive news after a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the country five years ago.

However, user growth has slowed globally since Twitter went public in 2013.

Rao declined to say whether Japan is the only country in the world where Twitter has more users than Facebook.

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New York, Feb 19 (IANS) A leaked document from Facebook has revealed that the social networking giant may launch ads within Messenger in the second quarter of 2016.

The document, obtained by the tech website Tech Crunch, read: "Businesses will be able to send ads as messages to people who previously initiated a chat thread with that company. To prepare, the document recommends that businesses get consumers to start message threads with them now so they'll be able to send them ads when the feature launches."

The document also notes that Facebook has quietly launched a URL short link fb.com/msg/. However, it does not open and says Page does not exist.

"We do not comment on rumour or speculation. That said, our aim with Messenger is to create a high quality, engaging experience for 800 million people around the world, and that includes ensuring people do not experience unwanted messages of any type," the website quoted Facebook as saying.

Facebook is not going to let brands send ad messages to just anyone or even people who have liked their Pages but to only those who have voluntarily chatted with businesses.

On Wednesday, micro-blogging website Twitter said it is bringing video support to Direct Messages to iOS and Android smartphones.

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New York, Feb 19 (IANS) A day after Google's Indian-American chief executive Sundar Pichai supported arch rival Apple to fight a court order to help the FBI break into the iPhone 5c used by California shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, social media giant Facebook and micro-blogging website Twitter also came out in the company's support.

"We will continue to fight aggressively against requirements for companies to weaken the security of their systems," Facebook posted on Friday.

"We condemn terrorism and have total solidarity with victims of terror. Those who seek to praise, promote, or plan terrorist acts have no place on our services. We also appreciate the difficult and essential work of law enforcement to keep people safe," the Facebook statement added.

Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted: "We stand with @tim_cook and Apple (and thank him for his leadership)!".

Farook and his Pakistani-origin wife, Tashfeen Malik, gunned down 14 people at a social services agency in December last year in San Bernardino, California, before being killed in a shootout with police.

Pichai on Wedenesday directed followers to read Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook's open letter, arguing that helping the FBI try to get into the phone used by Farook would sabotage the security of "tens of millions of American citizens."

WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum and technology giant Microsoft also voiced their support for Apple CEO Tim Cook on Facebook on Thursday.

"Technology companies should not be required to build in backdoors to the technologies that keep their users' information secure," a statement from Microsoft said.

Some of the US lawmakers and Republican front-runner Donald Trump consider Apple's staunch refusal as a serious roadblock in the fight against domestic terrorism.

According to tech website The Verge, "The case, which Apple may fight all the way up to the Supreme Court, is the most significant battle yet in the ongoing encryption debate."

With support from New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said that "Apple and Google are acting like teenagers saying 'nobody can tell me what to do and the situation has become, ladies and gentlemen, the wild west of technology. And Apple and Google are their own sheriffs," the report added.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook said the court order sought and obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is investigating the December 2015 attack, would pose a serious threat to data security.

"The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers," Cook said in a message on the company's website.

FBI Director James Comey said last week that investigators still have not been able to get at the information on Farook's iPhone 5c.

The post Facebook, Twitter back Apple over cracking shooter’s iPhone appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York, Feb 18 (IANS)

The announcement is expected to come during Facebook's "F8 Conference" in San Francisco on April 12.

"To date, we have been working with a few hundred publishers around the world to build an incredibly fast and immersive reading experience for people on Facebook," Josh Roberts, product manager (Facebook) said in a statement.

Facebook is making improvements according to the feedback it is getting and is building the tools to open up Instant Articles more broadly, he added.

Instant Articles was built to solve a specific problem -- slow loading times on the mobile web created a problematic experience for people reading news on their phones.

With Instant Articles, publishers the world over can have full control over the look of their stories as well as data and ads.

They will have the ability to bring their own direct-sold ads and keep 100 percent of the revenue, and track data on the ads served through their existing ad measurement systems or they can monetise their content through the Facebook Audience Network.

"This is a problem that impacts publishers of all sizes, especially those with audiences where low connectivity. With that in mind, our goal was to open up Instant Articles to all publishers and we are excited to be able to do in a way that makes it fast and easy for all publishers to reach their audiences on Facebook," Roberts noted.

Additionally, the publishers can use their existing web-based analytics systems to track article traffic or use third-party providers.

"They can do all this while accessing a rich suite of multimedia tools to create dynamic, interactive stories, that will load quickly everywhere on Facebook, regardless of where in the world their readers are," the Facebook official noted.

Publishers can also join by building a system based on the tools they already use. The company has invited the interested publishers to review the documentation and prepare for open availability in April.

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London, Feb 17 (IANS) After blocking the official Facebook page of comic magazine Viz that publishes a parody of issues with frequently risque language and humour for hours, the social media giant has reinstated it on Wednesday.

"We're back. They wouldn't tell us what we did, but we promise not to do it again, whatever it was," Viz posted the update on its Facebook page.

The frequently foul-mouthed comic Viz had its brand page blocked by Facebook on Tuesday, The Guardian reported.

"Your Page is currently not visible on Facebook. It looks like the content posted on your Page doesn't follow the Facebook Terms and Community Standards, so your Page was unpublished. These Terms and Standards help ensure Facebook remains a welcoming, respectful environment," Facebook wrote to the page administrators.

Ian Westwood, group managing director at Dennis Publishing that publishes the comic magazine Viz, said that Facebook did not say what content violated its rules.

"The question is what is, and isn't acceptable to Facebook," he said, adding, "We have had that Facebook page for five years. We have had correspondence with them before about stuff they have not liked and we have taken it down," Westwood was quoted as saying.

"This time they have just blocked the page and won't tell us what we've violated. We can appeal, but we don't know what we would be appealing about, we put up a significant number of posts from the print brand to social media each day," he added.

Westwood said that the Viz team thought that in the first instance the best response was to alert its 146,000 followers on Twitter to explain why the Facebook page was down.

“We were thinking how best to respond to it,” he said.

The Viz page has 451,807 "likes" on Facebook.

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Ottawa, Feb 16 (IANS) A Canadian woman found her long-lost brother after posting a message on social media website, Facebook on New Year's Eve, the media reported on Tuesday.

Matthew Handford, who tracked down his sister, Shylow Wilson, after reading the post on Facebook in which 25-year-old Wilson said she was looking for her biological brother named Matthew who was given up for adoption by their mother after he was born at Calgary's Grace Hospital in February 1987, Xinhua news agency reported.

"I was a little skeptical, but now that I've met him, I know it's for sure him, and I'm really happy about that," said Wilson. It was a "good Family Day miracle" right there, she said.

Her younger brother Handford also turned to Facebook last December to look for his three siblings. All he had was their names on a piece of paper his adoptive mother gave him, based on some research she did back in 1996.

Handford contacted a lady named Wanda Levasseur on Facebook, since she had the same last name as his mother, Marilyn Levasseur who died after a battle with alcoholism.

He did not hear back until last Thursday, when Wanda showed him Wilson's post. Handford reached out to Wilson on Facebook and then by phone, before flying from Toronto in east Canada to Calgary to meet his sister on Saturday.

"I was adopted at four days old, so it's the only family I know. To find out I've got an extended family now, it's a great feeling," Handford said.

Handford said he would definitely stay in touch with his sister. "It took this long to get together, so (we've) got a lot of time to make up," he added.

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Paris, Feb 14 (IANS) Social media giant Facebook would be tried in France for blocking a French teacher's account after he posted an image of a nude painting, a media report said.

A Paris appeals court threw out Facebook's appeal after the social media giant argued that only the US courts had jurisdiction to hear cases against it. The court also backed a March 2015 ruling which said Facebook's clause forcing all users to agree that any litigation must be based in California, where the site is based, was abusive', The Local reported on Saturday.

Facebook was sued by a teacher whose account was blocked after he posted a 19th-century painting by Gustave Courbet, "The Origin of the World", depicting a woman's genitalia.

The teacher filed a complaint against the social media giant, saying the site could not differentiate between pornography and art.

Noteworthy, Facebook closed its legal arm "Facebook France" in May 2012, meaning complaints have to be filed in the US.

On the basis of this, in a hearing on January 22, Facebook's lawyer argued that the site did not fall under French jurisdiction as users have to sign a clause agreeing that only a California court can rule in disputes relating to the firm.

However, the teacher's lawyer Stephane Cottineau said, "It is hugely significant because this decision creates jurisprudence not just for Facebook but for other social media networks who use their being headquartered abroad, mainly in the United States, to attempt to evade French law."

"They might be multi-nationals but the court ruling means they are not outside French law. If they set up in France and contract workers here, then French law must be applied to them," Cottineau added.

The French court will now decide whether or not the teacher's freedom of expression was violated when Facebook blocked his account.

The post Facebook to Face Trial in France over Nude Painting appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS) A day after Facebook India managing director Kirthiga Reddy said she will be relocating to the US in the next six to 12 months, a spokesperson of the social networking site on Saturday dissociated her from the controversial Free Basics services effort in the country.

"As she had planned for some time, Kirthiga Reddy is moving back to the US to work with the teams in headquarters. We are extremely proud of the work she has done to grow our global sales business in India. During her time in India, Kirthiga was not involved in our Free Basic services efforts,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

Facebook had cut off its Free Basics service for India on Feb 11, three days after the country's telecom watchdog said no to discriminatory pricing of data content.

Reddy cited personal reasons for her relocation to the US.

“When my family relocated to India, we knew that we would move back to the US some day. It’s a bittersweet moment to share that the return timeframe is coming up in the next 6-12 months. Our two daughters start high school and middle school this coming year- which serves as a natural transition point to make this move back,” she said in her Facebook post on Friday.

She said it will be business as-usual for her back in the US. “What am I going to be doing? It will be business as usual over the next 6-12 months. I am working closely with William Easton (managing director of emerging markets, APAC) and Dan Neary (vice president of Asia Pacific) as we search for my successor in India. I have also begun to explore new opportunities at Facebook back at Menlo Park.”

Expressing excitement about the Facebook business in India, Reddy said: “Over the last six years, starting as the first employee for Facebook in India, I have had the privilege to be part of our amazing growth journey -- from our operations in Hyderabad to being a business partner for our clients as they build their brands and grow their business in this mobile-first world.”

Talking about the time she's in India, Reddy said: "So let’s make sure we make the overdue coffee catchups happen! I’m grateful to have two countries to call "home," have had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and look forward to the next one, and have the opportunity to partner with each of you,” she added.

The post Facebook Dissociates Outgoing India MD from Free Basics Controversy appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York, Feb 13 (IANS) Facebook has offered ad credits worth up to $1,000 to users who helped the social media giant counter terrorist propaganda by posting anti-extremist and positive messages on its website, a media report said.

In an attempt to discredit extremist content with posts from its users, Facebook began combating terrorist propaganda online with its own form of "counter speech", Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) recently, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg expressed her support for campaigns that counter propaganda from terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS) with messages of tolerance and hope.

Sandberg also pointed to a case in which a Facebook page for a neo-Nazi group was flooded with "likes" and positive messages.

According to the journal, the social network has also collaborated with the US State Department to develop messaging from college students.

Together with the State Department, Facebook launched competitions in 45 college classes around the world. Those who participated in the competition were provided a budget of $2,000 and $200 in ad credits.

Last year, Facebook allowed former members of extremist groups to create fake accounts and engage with current members. The experiment delivered encouraging results.

The post Facebook Gives Ad Credits to Users Who Counter Terror Propaganda appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York, Feb 12 (IANS) Social media giant Facebook has launched multiple account support for Android users and confirmed the return of SMS support in Messenger.

"Millions of people share phones with their family and friends. Until now, there has not been an easy way for people to access their individual Messenger accounts from shared devices. To address this, we have launched a feature on Android to enable multiple people to log in and use Messenger from a single phone," an official statement from Facebook read.

With this feature, the users can manage multiple accounts without having to constantly log in and out on the same device. To use this feature, a user needs to open his/her account settings in Messenger and add users.

Facebook is also trying "to create new ways for people to communicate seamlessly with everyone" by bringing back SMS integration in Messenger .

"Right now, we are testing the ability for people to easily bring all their conversations - from SMS and Messenger - to one place. It's a really simple way to get, see and respond to all your SMS messages in just one app," Facebook confirmed to the technology website The Verge.

However, Facebook declined to say how many people are able to take advantage of SMS in Messenger. They said the The test is only for a small number of Android users in the US.

Facebook Messenger used to have SMS integration, but the feature was removed in November 2013 because "just didn't take off".

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New York, Feb 11 (IANS)

Patent records obtained by The Verge show that the social media giant is developing the millimeter wave technology -- a networking technology that is theoretically capable of data speeds faster than most home connections and is 40 times faster than 4G.

Sanjai Kohli, a Facebook employee, filed one patent recently that describes a "Next Generation Data Network" that would connect computers using millimeter-wave radio links deployed as a mesh network.

Another patent granted to Kohli describes the "Next Generation Network" in more detail as a type of centralised, cloud-based routing system.

"The system dynamically adjusts route and frequency channel assignments, transmit power, modulation, coding, and symbol rate to maximise network capacity and probability of packet delivery, rather than trying to maximise the capacity of any one link," the patent read.

Facebook confirmed to The Verge about the millimeter-wave research. "This work is part of the Connectivity Lab which supports the mission of Internet.org a" to connect the four billion people who don't have Internet access," a Facebook representative was quoted as saying.

The Connectivity Lab is reportedly working on several such projects, including systems that would provide connections through satellites or drone-mounted lasers.

The news also gives credibility to the announcement that Starry -- a wireless internet company -- made about its foray into the gigabit mesh network technology in January this year.

Both mesh and millimeter-wave technology are central ideas in Starry's scheme of things too.

The post Facebook Developing Novel Technology for Better Internet.Org Access appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) Facebook had cut off its Free Basics service for India three days after the country's telecom watchdog said no to the discriminatory pricing of data content.

"Free Basics is no longer available to people in India," a Facebook spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement to IANS. No further comment was offered.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its February 8 order had disallowed service providers from offering or charging discriminatory tariffs for data services purely on the basis of content.

Free Basics, for which Facebook had tied up with Reliance Communications, is an app that promises free access to the Internet for a host of basic services on topics like news, health, travel, sports, jobs and communication.

As the watchdog was examining the issue of Net neutrality, Reliance Communications had kept the free basic service offering on hold.

"As directed by the TRAI, the commercial launch of Freebasics has been kept in abeyance till they consider all details and convey a specific approval," a Reliance Communications spokesperson had said in a statement December.

Reacting to the TRAI order, Facebook said it was "disappointed with the outcome" but will continue its "efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the Internet".

Later, however, the developments after the watchdog order took a curious turn.

On Thursday, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had to disown a controversial statement from his colleague that Free Basics was like colonialism, alluding that the same was good for Indians.

"Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?" Facebook board member Marc Andreessen had tweeted that was later withdrawn with an apology.

"I want to respond to Marc Andreessen's comments about India yesterday. I found the comments deeply upsetting, and they do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

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New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday introduced new features for video ads on its website, including automated captioning for sound-off videos and other updates to help advertisers better use its platform.

"Creatively, the mobile video draws on the craft skills and experience we have developed as an industry building for film, TV and the traditional web and compresses them into a new form designed to immediately connect with an audience," Mark D'Arcy, chief creative officer, creative shop of Facebook, said in a statement.

The new tool generates captions for video ads and delivers them to the advertiser within the ad creation tool to review, edit and save to their video ad.

The other updates include reporting and buying options for video ads.

Advertisers will now be able to see the percentage of people who have viewed their videos with sound globally.

In a research, Facebook found that when feed-based mobile video ads play loudly when people aren't expecting it, 80 percent react negatively towards the platform and the advertiser.

By including captions, advertisers can increase video view time by an average of 12 percent, the findings showed.

"Numerous studies and campaigns have made it clear that capturing people's attention at the very beginning of a video is the most effective way to advertise in a mobile feed environment," Matt Idema, vice president, monetization product marketing at Facebook, said.

"Video advertisers that tailor their creative with visuals that get people to stop scrolling and watch will drive the best business results on Facebook," Idema added.

The post Facebook Announces Auto Captioning, Video Updates for Ads appeared first on Social News XYZ.

From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Feb 11 (PTI) Facebook founder and head Mark Zuckerberg has distanced himself from the comments made by Marc Andreessen about India, saying the remarks were "deeply upsetting" and did not represent the company's thinking.

"I want to respond to Marc Andreessen's comments about India yesterday. I found the comments deeply upsetting, and they do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook posting yesterday afternoon.

His comments came after Andreessen made a objectionable tweet after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ruled against Facebook's free but restricted internet programme.

"Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?" Andreessen tweeted, immediately evoking a sharp reaction from Indians.

Andreessen quickly deleted the tweet and apologized through a series of tweets yesterday.

"Last night on Twitter, I made an ill-informed and ill-advised comment about Indian politics and economics. To be clear, I am 100 per cent opposed to colonialism, and 100 per cent in favor of independence and freedom, in any country, including India," he said later in a series of tweets.

"I am a huge admirer of the nation of India and the Indian people, who have been nothing but kind and generous to me for many years. I apologize for any offense my comment caused, and withdraw it in full and without reservation. I will leave all future commentary on all of these topics to people with more knowledge and experience than me," Andreessen said.

As the controversy refused to die down, Zuckerberg on tried to distance himself from the comments made by his board member.

"India has been personally important to me and Facebook.

Early on in my thinking about our mission, I traveled to India and was inspired by the humanity, spirit and values of the people. It solidified my understanding that when all people have the power to share their experiences, the entire world will make progress," Zuckerberg wrote.

Facebook stands for helping to connect people and giving them voice to shape their own future, he said.

"But to shape the future we need to understand the past.

As our community in India has grown, I've gained a deeper appreciation for the need to understand India's history and culture," Zuckerberg said.

"I've been inspired by how much progress India has made in building a strong nation and the largest democracy in the world, and I look forward to strengthening my connection to the country," Zuckerberg wrote.

The post Andreessen’s Comments About India Deeply Upsetting: Zuckerberg appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York, Feb 10 (IANS) These are still early days for the virtual reality (VR) technology’s adoption and the VR ecosystem will take time to develop globally, social media giant Facebook's top executives have predicted.

Addressing a gathering at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said that turning virtual reality into a business is part of the firm's 10-year plan rather than an immediate action item.

"Her comments could be aimed at muting investor enthusiasm for the new sci-fi technology in the short term," said a Fortune report.

Echoing her comments, Facebook's chief financial officer David Wehner said there is much that can be “accomplished with virtual reality” but it is still “very early days”.

“It will take time to develop the ecosystem,” Wehner added.

According to the world's leading information technology research company Gartner Inc, the head-mounted displays (HMDs) are an emerging market and in 2016, the VR market will progress toward mainstream adoption for consumers and enterprise use.

"New virtual reality HMDs for consumers, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR, and Microsoft HoloLens are expected to be available along with video games and entertainment content as well as business applications critical for their success," Brian Blau, research director at Gartner said in company’s report recently.

Facebook has been credited with taking an early bet on virtual reality by acquiring startup Oculus VR for $2 billion in early 2014.

The company is expected to start shipping its Oculus VR headsets in March as Oculus has already started taking orders for its $599 consumer-focused headsets.

South Korean electronic giant Samsung has also launched Gear VR -- its flagship virtual reality (VR) headset for Indian consumers in January for Rs.8,200.

Sandberg said that in the fourth quarter, Facebook saw a 51.7 percent jump in revenue to $5.84 billion. The mobile ads accounted for 80 percent of total ad revenue.

The post Virtual Reality Will Take Time to Develop: Facebook appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York/New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS) A tweet by Facebook board member Marc Andreessen implying that Facebook’s Free Basics is the same as colonialism created a storm on Twitter on Wednesday, with many Indians lashing out against him on Facebook as well as on Twitter.

Andreessen wrote on Twitter: “Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?”

Although the tweet was subsequently deleted, the comment -- made after India's telecom watchdog the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said no to discriminatory pricing of data content -- led to several Indians storming the social networking sites with angry reactions.

“Now @facebook board director @pmarca suggests being colonized was good for India and we should’ve let Fb do so:)”, posted prominent Indian investor Mahesh Murthy.

“…wow, claims along the lines of “colonialism would be good for us”. Like East India Company?” wrote a Twitter user with the handle @raveeshbhalla.

Andreessen, who co-founded Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, immediately retreated his tweet. “I hereby withdraw from all future discussions of Indian economics or politics. Carry on…” and then,“For the record, I am opposed to colonialism in any country,” he tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Kirthiga Reddy, MD, Facebook India, who was attending a seminar organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India in New Delhi, refused to comment on Free Basics.

On Monday, TRAI said in a much-awaited regulatory order that "No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.”

"No service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered or charged to the consumer on the basis of content," the watchdog added.

Reacting to the TRAI order, Facebook said it was "disappointed with the outcome", but will continue its "efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the Internet".

“While I am disappointed with the decision, I want to personally communicate that we are committed to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world. Internet.org has many initiatives, and we will keep working until everyone has access to the internet,” its CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Facebook.

Ironically, Facebook's Internet.org was launched a year back in India, which was later named Free Basics.

According to Zuckerberg, their work with Internet.org around the world has already improved many people's lives as more than 19 million people in 38 countries have been connected through Facebook's different programmes.

Facebook Member's Offensive Tweet Creates Online Storm, Indians Furious

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London, Feb 10 (IANS) In another setback to Facebook in Europe, the French data protection authority has ordered the social networking giant to stop sending user data to the US and comply with the European data protection law.

According to a report in technology website Tech Crunch, Facebook has been given three months to make the changes deemed necessary by the data protection authority CNIL and failing to do so will incur heavy fines.

Specifically, the data protection agency is unhappy that Facebook collects the browsing activity of internet users who do not have a Facebook account.

The company does not inform Internet users that it sets a cookie on their terminal when they visit a Facebook public page (page of a public event or of a friend). This cookie transmits to Facebook information relating to third-party websites offering Facebook plug-ins (e.g. Like button) that are visited by Internet users, the CNIL notice read.

According to the notice, Facebook collects user data concerning sexual orientation, religious and political views without the explicit consent of account holders. Nor does it inform users on the sign up form with regard to their rights and the processing of their personal data.

Facebook is also accused of using the now illegal Safe Harbor data transfer mechanism - a longstanding trans-Atlantic data transfer agreement that was invalidated by the European Court of Justice last year, the report added.

According to a Facebook spokesperson, We are confident that we comply with European Data Protection law and look forward to engaging with the CNIL to respond to their concerns.

According to CNIL, it has made its notice against Facebook public due to the seriousness of the violations and the number of individuals concerned by the Facebook service.

Facebook has more than 30 million users in France.

The social networking giant is facing several privacy-related probes in Europe.

In November, a Belgian court ordered the company to stop using cookies to track the web activity of its users.

As well as investigations by the French and Belgian authorities, Facebook is also being probed by Spanish, Dutch and German (Hamburg) data protection authorities.

The post Now, France Asks Facebook to Stop Sending User Data to US appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York, Feb 9 (IANS) A day after India's telecom watchdog said no to Facebook's Free Basics, the social networking giant's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg conveyed his disappointment in a post but reiterated his commitment to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India.

In a move seen as an endorsement of net neutrality and a setback to offerings such as Facebook's Free Basics and Airtel Zero, India's telecom watchdog on Monday said no to the discriminatory pricing of data content.

India's telecom regulator decided to restrict programmes that provide free access to data. This restricts one of Internet.org's initiatives, Free Basics, as well as programmes by other organizations that provide free access to data, the 31-year-old billionaire posted on Tuesday.

While I am disappointed with the decision, I want to personally communicate that we are committed to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world. Internet.org has many initiatives, and we will keep working until everyone has access to the internet, Zuckerberg added.

Everyone in the world should have access to the internet.

That's why we launched Internet.org with so many different initiatives -- including extending networks through solar-powered planes, satellites and lasers, providing free data access through Free Basics, reducing data use through apps, and empowering local entrepreneurs through Express Wi-Fi, he wrote.

Ironically, Facebook's Internet.org was launched a year back in India, which was later named Free Basics.

According to Zuckerberg, their work with Internet.org around the world has already improved many people's lives as more than 19 million people in 38 countries have been connected with Facebook's different programmes.

Connecting India is an important goal we won't give up on because more than a billion people in India don't have access to the internet, he posted.

We know that connecting them can help lift people out of poverty, create millions of jobs and spread education opportunities. We care about these people, and that's why we're so committed to connecting them, the Facebook CEO added.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. That mission continues, and so does our commitment to India, he concluded.

The post Disappointed but Won’t Give Up on Connecting India: Zuckerberg appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York, Feb 5 (IANS) Long spells of bad night sleep do not only put you at the risk of developing day-long tiredness, crankiness or distraction but also lead to compulsive Facebook checking too, find researchers.

The team from University of California-Irvine demonstrated that lack of sleep - in addition to affecting busy college students' moods and productivity - leads to more frequent online activities such as browsing Facebook.

When you get less sleep, you're more prone to distraction. If you're being distracted, what do you do? You go to Facebook. It's lightweight, it's easy, and you're tired, said lead researcher and informatics professor Gloria Mark.

She and her colleagues collected data from 76 undergraduates - 34 males and 42 females - for seven days.

The study controlled for students' gender, age and course load and relied on sensors to objectively gauge their behaviour, activities and stress levels.

Students' computers and smartphones were equipped with logging software and time stamps recorded when participants switched from one application window to another and when they spoke on the phone or texted.

They were asked to fill out a sleep survey each morning and an end-of-day survey at night.

The findings show a direct connection among chronic lack of sleep, worsening mood and greater reliance on Facebook browsing.

Mark also found that the less sleep people have, the more frequently their attention shifts among different computer screens, suggesting heightened distractibility.

Sleep deprivation can cause workplace mishaps and make drivers fall asleep at the wheel.

Experts in the field of human-computer interaction want to know how sleep loss impacts people so they can design better technologies and products.

There have been lots of studies on how information technology affects sleep. We did the opposite: We looked at how sleep duration influences IT usage," said Mark, who will present the findings at a leading computer-human interaction conference in May.

The post Beware! Less Sleep Puts You at Risk Of Compulsive Facebook Use appeared first on Social News XYZ.

New York, Feb 5 (IANS) The Facebook app that enables your conversations with your friends on the popular social network has now made it simple to play chess from a computer or a smartphone.

To play chess on the Facebook Messenger, all you need to do is enter "@fbchess play" to begin playing a game with the person you're chatting with, cnet.com reported on Wednesday.

To move your pieces, you'll need to be familiar with the commands used to refer both the pieces and locations on the board. Entering a command such as "@fbchess Pd3" would move a pawn to the corresponding location.

A cheat sheet of piece names was provided by BetaNews: K is for the king, Q for queen, B for bishop, N for knight, R for rook and P is for the pawn.

If you get stuck you can always enter "@fbchess help" in the conversation's text field. A list of commands and instructions will then show up.

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