The Nation Newspaper

Tag: facebook

  • Facebook, VConnect version 2.0 to equip SMEs

    Facebook, VConnect version 2.0 to equip SMEs

    VConnect will work with Facebook to equip SMEs in the service sector with the know-how required to significantly increase revenues, acquire new customers, stay ahead of the competition and leverage both the VConnect and Facebook platforms for business growth.

    This free one-day event is scheduled to take place on the 8th of June, 2017 in Ikeja, Lagos for 100 SMEs across the sector.

    This event is part of Facebook’s Boost your Business initiative, a program designed to educate SMEs on how to use digital platforms for business growth.

    Naveen Luthra, Head of Growth and Monetization, VConnect says: “SMEs form the backbone of Nigeria and their growth would augur well for the Nigerian economy. Through this series of SME Conferences, we would like to equip business to get better ‘access to the market’, to get more customers.

    “We value the partnership with Facebook for this conference, to jointly empower SMEs through the digital medium.”

    Small business owners in attendance will go home with a wealth of knowledge and new set of skills to grow their business, exposure to opportunities often ignored by SMEs much to their detriment as well as new additions to their network of connections.

    The SME Conference 2.0 is an invite only event. To register, intending participants are required to send an email to business@vconnect.com or register here to get an invite.

  • Thugs batter journalist over Facebook post on Ebonyi gov

    Thugs batter journalist over Facebook post on Ebonyi gov

    •Another shot by gunmen

    AN Ebonyi based journalist has incurred the wrath of suspected political thugs in the state after posting a Facebook message critical of Governor Dave Umahi.
    Charles Otu of The Guardian was descended upon by the thugs on Friday, beating him to stupor.
    On the same day, the publisher of People’s Leader, Mr. Samuel Nwaeze was shot by gunmen at about 7.p.m. in front of his office at 2, Awolowo Street in Abakaliki.
    Otu said his attackers were sent to kill him over his Facebook post, in which he criticised the current administration in the state.
    Mr. Otu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), yesterday that the thugs accosted him at about 6.p.m. on Friday at Vanco Junction in Abakaliki and started beating him with clubs and other dangerous weapons.
    He said the beating attracted passers-by, “but the thugs threatened to shoot anybody that interfered.”
    He said he was later abducted and taken to the “Ebonyi Cabinet Office” where he was asked to write an undertaking never to write any story against the state government or be silenced permanently.
    He said the thugs later drove him to the Kpirikpiri Divisional Police Headquarters.
    “I was asked by the group to write a statement that I was rescued by the Ekubaraoha Youth Assembly from a mob that was attacking me.
    “The thugs who accosted me at the Vanco Junction arrived in a 16-seater Toyota bus with the inscription of Ekubaraoha Youth Assembly.
    “They accused me of being a threat to the state government and threatened to silence me unless I signed a written undertaken never to write anything against the state government.
    “I collapsed at the police station having lost consciousness due to the severe beating they gave me but I was revived at the emergency ward of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki,” Mr. Otu said.
    Otu has in his Facebook posting criticised the administration of the governor saying it has not lived up to its promises to the electorate.
    Also, recounting his own experience in the hands of gunmen, Nwaeze said: “I narrowly escaped death. I was lucky the assailants who came on a motorcycle missed the target; the story would have been a different one. I heard a bang and I felt sharp pains and blood gushing out from my back.”
    He added that he saw two men running with guns in their hands.
    “It was then that I realized that I had been attacked by drive-by shooters,” he said.
    He said he had reported the incident to the police.
    The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ebonyi Council, condemned the attacks.
    The chairperson of the union, Veronica Oshim, called on security agencies to rise to the challenge.
    She told NAN that journalists must be provided with safe and secure environment to inform and educate the public.

  • Eghagha: my students’ Facebook comments scared my abductors

    The Head of Department of English at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof Hope Eghagha, at the weekend, relived his ordeal in the hands of kidnappers.

    The university don spoke of how the comments and threats of his students on Facebook overwhelmed his abductors to release him.

    Prof Eghagha was abducted on September 30, 2012, while he was Delta State Commissioner for Education.

    He was returning from Warri to Asaba, the state capital, after a family visit.

    His abductors were said to have killed his police orderly on the spot.

    The academic spoke at the weekend in Lagos during a reunion dinner where he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by his former students at Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti (OSUA), where he taught from 1988 to 1994.

    He noted that of his 5,000 Facebook friends, 4,000 were his students.

    He said it was from the social media platform he monitored their progresses over the years.

    According to him, one of his students is a pilot.

    Prof Eghagha said: “I have monitored your progress through Facebook and your comments and prayers for me during my ordeal overwhelmed my kidnappers, who acknowledged that I have a lot of followers.”

    Clad in a white agbada, a pair of glasses and a black cap, the academic said he noted that the experience he passed through made him value the beauty of life, having been given a second opportunity to live after such near-death experience.

    He said the negative experience forced him into series of therapy, adding that he would document his experiences in a forthcoming book.

    Eghagha said: “They (abductors) intimidated me so much that I said my last prayers thrice. They told me my death hour was 10 o’clock. The room where they put me was always dark and I was blindfolded.”

  • EU fines Facebook 110m euros over misleading WhatsApp data

    EU fines Facebook 110m euros over misleading WhatsApp data

    European Union antitrust regulators on Thursday said they would fine Facebook 110 million euros (122.4 million dollars) for providing misleading information over its purchase of messaging service WhatsApp in 2014.

    Calling it a “proportionate and deterrent fine,” the European Commission, which acts as the EU’s competition watchdog, said Facebook had said it could not automatically match user accounts on its namesake platform and WhatsApp but two years later launched a service that did exactly that.

    “The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook’s statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users’ identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility,” the Commission said.

    The commission added that the fine would not reverse the Commission’s decision to clear the purchase of WhatsApp and was unrelated to separate investigations into data protection issues.

    Reuters reported on Wednesday that Facebook was set to be fined.

  • Facebook blocks pages with royal insults on Thai junta’s request

    Facebook blocks pages with royal insults on Thai junta’s request

    Facebook has blocked access in Thailand to 178 pages with “inappropriate” content, including some containing alleged insults against the royal family, upon the military government’s request, officials said on Thursday.

    Media Regulator National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) told newsmen that among 309 Facebook pages ordered shut down by a Thai criminal court, 178 of them have been blocked for local users of late.

    Recently, Thailand’s internet providers sent a request to Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s managing director in Thailand to block pages and posts deemed in violation of Thai law.

    The NBTC has threatened to take legal actions against Facebook in Thailand if the remaining 131 pages are not blocked by coming week.

    Thailand’s majesty law prohibits criticism of the royal family, with perpetrators facing up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.

    Facebook did not confirm the number of pages and posts blocked on the Thai government’s request, but said it is making certain content unavailable in the relevant country once it determines that the content violates local laws.

    According to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, Thailand’s criminal court has ordered the shutdown of nearly 7,000 “inappropriate” web pages since 2015.

    However, around 600 pages remain, with over half on Facebook that the ministry cannot block because they are encrypted.

    The junta has launched a crackdown on suspects since it came to power in a May 2014 coup.

    According to the International Federation for Human Rights, since then, the number has grown to 105.

    Most of the people detained were found to make comments or share posts deemed to insult or defame the monarchy on Facebook.

  • Facebook to play down links to websites with deceptive ads

    Facebook to play down links to websites with deceptive ads

    Facebook is planning to intensify its crackdown on so-called click bait websites, saying it will begin giving lower prominence to links that lead to pages full of deceptive or annoying advertisements.

    Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s vice president of ads and business platform, told newsmen that the downgrade of the links was expected to take effect beginning on Wednesday on News Feed, the home page of Facebook where people go to see posts from friends and family.

    “Facebook wanted to downplay links that people post to websites that have a disproportionate volume of ads relative to content.

    “It also wanted to downplay links that have deceptive or sexually suggestive ads along the lines of “5 Tips to be Amazing in Bed” or “1 Crazy Tip to Lose Weight Overnight!”

    “Links to websites with pop-up ads or full-screen ads also would be downplayed.’’

    According to him, people scrolling through its News Feed are often disappointed when they click on such links and do not find valuable information.

    “People don’t want to see this stuff, we’re just trying to figure out how to find it and rank it further down News Feed when possible,’’ Bosworth said.

    Facebook uses a computer algorithm to determine which posts people see first from friends and family, and it frequently refines the algorithm to keep up with spam or other concerns.

    The company said in August it was adjusting the algorithm to downplay news stories with click bait-style headlines, a style of headline that intentionally withholds information or misleads people to get them to click on them.

    In December, facing criticism that hoaxes and fake news stories spread too easily on Facebook in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8, the company made it easier for people to report those kinds of posts.

    Facebook, the world’s largest social media network with 1.9 billion monthly users, has enormous power with its algorithms to potentially drive traffic to media publishers or stymie it.

    The company said it reviewed hundreds of thousands of websites linked to from Facebook to identify those with little substance but lots of disruptive or shocking ads.

    Bosworth declined to name any websites Facebook wants to target.

    He said that only publishers of spam needed to worry about seeing less traffic, and other publishers could see their traffic go up.

    “This is a small number of the worst of the worst,’’ he said

  • Facebook to launch attack on TV

    Facebook has kicked its push for TV-like shows into high gear and is aiming to premiere its slate of programming in mid-June.

    Facebook plans to have about two dozen shows for this initial push and has greenlit multiple shows for production, according to people familiar with the discussions.

    The social network had been looking for shows in two distinct tiers: a marquee tier for a few longer, big-budget shows that would feel at home on TV, and a lower tier for shorter, less expensive shows of about five to 10 minutes that would refresh every 24 hours, multiple sources familiar with the plans told Business Insider.

    The new video initiative means Facebook would play a much more hands-on role in controlling the content that appears on its social network with nearly two billion members – and it comes as companies like Amazon, YouTube, and Snap are locked in an arms race to secure premium video programming.

    Facebook sees high-quality, scripted video as an important feature to retain users, particularly a younger demographic that is increasingly flocking to rival Snapchat, as well as a means to rake in brand advertising dollars traditionally reserved for traditional TV.

    Whether Facebook’s users will embrace such programming is unclear. The short video clips that autoplay in Facebook’s News Feed have been a success for most publishers, but there’s no guarantee that consumers will begin to think of Facebook as a destination for watching longer-form shows. Facebook declined to comment on this story.

    The effort to snag exclusive shows is being led by College Humor cofounder Ricky Van Veen, whom Facebook hired in December to be its global creative strategy chief.

    His small team has been meeting with production companies and hearing pitches for episodic shows five to 30 minutes long that would live in a revamped version of Facebook’s video tab.

    Multiple people mentioned Netflix’s “House of Cards” as a representation of the caliber of shows that have been pitched to Facebook for its higher tier, while another cited “Scandal” as an example. As for the lower tier, Facebook is looking for production budgets that fall somewhere between TV and digital shows, similar to the shows on Verizon’s go90 service, one person said.

    One show Facebook has greenlit is a virtual-reality dating show from Conde Nast Entertainment in which people go on first dates in VR before they meet in real life, according to one person who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

  • Facebook warns of fake news danger ahead of British election

    Facebook has launched a British newspaper advertising campaign to warn users of the dangers of fake news, in the latest drive by the social media giant to tackle malicious information ahead of a national election.

    Facebook has come under intense pressure to tackle the spread of false stories, which came to prominence during the U.S. presidential election in 2016 when many inaccurate posts were widely shared on it and other social media services.

    Ahead of the June 8 parliamentary election in Britain, it urged its users in the country to be skeptical of headlines that look unbelievable and to check other sources before sharing news that may not be credible.

    It said it would also delete bogus profiles and stop promoting posts that show signs of being implausible.

    “We have developed new ways to identify and remove fake accounts that might be spreading false news so that we get to the root of the problem,” said Simon Milner, Facebook’s director of policy for the UK.

    The effort builds on the company’s recently expanded campaigns to identify fake news and crack down on automated profile pages that post commercial or political spam.

    Facebook suspended 30,000 accounts in France ahead of the first round of its presidential election last month and uses outside fact-checkers in the country.

    It has also previously taken out full-page ads in German newspapers to educate readers on how to spot fake news.

    With the headline “Tips for spotting false news”, the adverts in Britain listed 10 ways to identify whether a story was genuine or not, including looking closely at a URL, investigating the source, looking for unusual formatting and considering the authenticity of the photo.

    Facebook said it had taken action against tens of thousands of fake accounts in Britain after identifying patterns of activity such as whether the same content is being repeatedly posted.

    “With these changes, we expect we will also reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts,” Facebook said.

    Social media sites including Twitter and YouTube are also facing pressure in Europe where governments are threatening new laws and fines unless the companies move more quickly to remove extremist content.

    Facebook has hired more staff to speed up the removal of videos showing murder, suicide and other violent acts.

  • Man broadcasts baby daughter’s murder live on Facebook

    Man broadcasts baby daughter’s murder live on Facebook

    A Thai man, Wuttisan Wongtalay filmed himself killing his 11-month-old daughter in two video clips posted on Facebook before committing suicide, police officer in charge of the case, Jullaus Suvannin said on Tuesday.

    People could access the videos of the child’s murder on her father’s Facebook page for roughly 24 hours, until they were taken down around 5 p.m. in Bangkok on Tuesday.

    “This is an appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the victim.

    “There is absolutely no place for content of this kind on Facebook and it has now been removed,” a Singapore-based Facebook spokesman said in an email to Reuters.

    Facebook said it was reviewing how it monitored violent footage and other objectionable material after a posting of the fatal shooting of a man in Cleveland, Ohio was visible for two hours before being taken down.

    The harrowing footage from Thailand showed Wongtalay tying a rope to his daughter Natalie’s neck before dropping the child from the rooftop of a deserted building in the seaside town of Phuket.

    “Wuttisan’s suicide was not broadcast but his lifeless body was found beside his daughter.

    “He was having paranoia about his wife leaving him and not loving him,” Jullaus told Reuters.

    Wuttisan’s wife, Jiranuch Triratana told Reuters that she had lived with him for over a year.

    At first, the relationship had gone well, she said but then he grew violent and sometimes hit her five-year-old son from a previous husband.

    She said that she feared that something was wrong on Tuesday when she found he had left home with Natalie, whose nickname was Beta.

    She set out to look for them.

    “I was afraid he would hurt our daughter even though he loved her,” she told Reuters by phone from the funeral.

    Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy said it contacted Facebook on Tuesday afternoon about removing the videos, after receiving a police request.

    “We contacted Facebook today and Facebook removed the videos,” ministry spokesman Somsak Khaosuwan said.

    He said that the government would take no action against the company.

    “We will not be able to press charges against Facebook, because Facebook is the service provider and they acted according to their protocol when we sent our request.

    “They cooperated very well.”

    After the company faced a backlash for showing the video of the Cleveland killing, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would do all it could to prevent such content in the future. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Facebook developing keyboardless typing directly from human brain

    Facebook developing keyboardless typing directly from human brain

    Facebook is working to create a data input method that doesn’t rely on a keyboard, but instead allows the user to type directly from the brain, the company said at its two-day developers conference in San Jose, California.

    “In a few years’  time we expect to demonstrate a real-time silent speech system capable of delivering 100 words per minute,” or about five-times faster than a person can type with a Smartphone, said vice president of engineering Regina Dugan on the second day of the conference.

    Dugan also heads Facebook’s hardware research unit known as Building eight, which has more than 60 scientists and engineers working on the new keyboardless typing method.

    The input method could, for example, allow users to send a text message or email to a friend without taking out a Smartphone to type.

    Dugan also tried to calm consumers at the conference, saying the California-based social media giant isn’t interested in detecting a person’s thoughts, but only what the person intends to type.

    “We’re not talking about decoding your random thoughts. That might be more than any of us care to know,” she said.

    Dugan referred to research at Stanford University, which has allowed a paralysed woman to type at about eight words per minute directly from her brain.

    But the current method requires invasive surgery in which an array of electrodes is implanted to receive data where the brain would normally control the person’s motor functions.

    “That simply won’t scale,” Dugan said, referring the surgery process.

    “So we’ll need new non-invasive sensors.”

    Facebook is considering wearables such as caps that can read data through the human skull.

    While the company may need years to produce a mass-scale device, any advances in the research have potential to be a huge breakthrough in human communications, Dugan said.

    “Even something as simple as a yes-no brain click would fundamentally change our capability.”