The Facebook and YouTube accounts of the previous president of the United States Donald Trump were recovered on Friday after they were disabled just after his followers’ attack on January 6, 2021, on Congress.
Ever since his supporters attacked the US Capitol since Congress was declaring Joe Biden’s triumph in the 2020 election for president, Trump’s YouTube was blocked for breaching its policy against incitement to violence.
Image Source: investing.com
Trump declared his entrance on the Facebook and Youtube platforms once again by posting “I’m Back” on Friday.
A clip on his page also depicted Trump’s election as president in opposition to Hillary Clinton in 2016. The display then tends to fade toward a ‘Trump 2024’ screen.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Trump could be seen saying in the video.
Source: indiatoday.in
“Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content,” YouTube said in a statement.
“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.”
Source: france24.com
Republican politicians slammed Trump’s removal from Facebook, whereas a community of congressional Democrats pressured parent company Meta to prolong the ban to maintain threatening and baseless electoral rejection material off from its platform.
In January, both Instagram and Facebook declared that Trump’s accounts would be reinstated with new guardrails.
Trump’s lawyer, Scott Gast, wrote to the corporation, which is centered in the Bay Area of California, asserting this had significantly altered and hindered political discussion.
Following the violent protest, the former president’s Twitter account was also banned and at that time it had 87 million followers, forcing him to interact via his site Truth Social, which seems to have very few than five million followers.
Elon Musk, the new acquirer of Twitter, restored Trump’s account last November, just days ever since Trump declared his second White House bid, although he has yet to tweet on the platform.
Meta’s decision was commended by the American Civil Liberties Union, one that has filed over 400 court actions in opposition to Trump.
“Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech,” executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
“Indeed, some of Trump’s most offensive social media posts ended up being critical evidence in lawsuits filed against him and his administration.”
I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person
A flaw in Meta’s latest centralized system for users to maintain their Facebook and Instagram account logins might have permitted cybercriminals to disable a user account’s two-factor authentication merely by knowing one‘s mobile number.
Image Source: technologistan.pk
Gtm Mänôz who is a Nepalese security researcher discovered that Meta did not impose a limit on how many attempts whenever a user inputs the two-factor code utilized to log into one‘s accounts on the latest Meta Accounts Center, which allows users to connect all of their Meta accounts, which include Instagram and Facebook accounts.
A hacker would access the centralized accounts center, enter the victim’s mobile number, connect that phone number to their own Fb or Instagram account, and afterward using brute force can guess the two-factor authentication code. This was the most important step since there was no constraint to how many tries somebody could make.
When the attacker correctly entered the code, the victim’s phone number was connected to the hacker’s Facebook account. A successful attack still would lead to Meta sending a notification to the victim stating that their two-factor authentication had been disabled because their phone number had been linked to a different account.
“Basically the highest impact here was revoking anyone’s SMS-based 2FA just knowing the phone number,” Mänôz told TechCrunch.
Source: techcrunch.com
Provided that the target no longer had two-factor activated, a hacker might possibly attempt to obtain the victim’s Facebook account simply by spoofing the password.
Last year, Mänôz discovered the flaw in the Meta Accounts Center & revealed the issue to the firm in mid-September. A few days back, Meta resolved the bug and provided 27,200 USD to Mänôz for disclosing it.
“If the phone number was fully confirmed and 2FA enabled in Facebook, then the 2FA will be turned off or disabled from victim’s account,” Mänôz wrote. “And, if the phone number was partially confirmed (that means only used for 2FA), it will revoke the 2FA, and also the phone number will be removed from [the] victim’s account.”
Source: darkreading.com
According to Meta spokesperson Gabby Curtis, the login system was still in the early stages of a limited public test at the time of the flaw. Curtis also stated that once the bug was revealed, Meta carried out an investigation and discovered no indications of mistreatment in the wild, as well as no sudden increase in the utilization of that particular function, indicating that nobody was misusing it.
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Meta Platforms is implementing “quiet layoffs” at Facebook to reduce its workforce as global constraints and declining ad expenditure pose severe issues for Big Tech corporations.
Image Source: madhyamam.com
According to a Business Insider report, Facebook executives are currently in the midst of carrying out “quiet layoffs” of underperforming employees, which might result in thousands of workers receiving pink slips. Executives around the firm were instructed by Facebook leadership to choose at least 15% of the employees in their teams to be classified as “needs support” through an internal review process. This targeted restructuring raises the possibility of removing 12,000 employees or 15% of Facebook’s staff.
The report said that the possible layoffs were made public last week through a post by a Meta employee on Blind. Blind is a popular app amongst tech employees that requires a valid workplace email account to use the portal anonymously.
In Facebook’s employee-review procedure, an employee “in need of support” is regarded as performing below the benchmark standards. Such employees are placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP), which typically results in layoffs.
Facebook employees made predictions on the work app Blind that anyone who fell into the 15% bracket would probably lose their jobs. If 15% of Facebook’s workforce were to be let go, 12,000 workers might lose their jobs.
As per Business Insider, In July 2022, Maher Saba, Facebook’s chief engineer, reportedly told its managers that they should identify team employees that “needs support”. However, they did not give a specific percentage.
During the weekly Q&A session, Zuckerberg told its employees:
“ I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now, but from what we’re seeing it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively.”
In May 2022, the company announced a recruiting freeze that has since been extended to all of Meta’s other departments and verticals. While this is going on, a few employees have been given 30 to 60 days to find a new position within the company or leave. Meta has a longtime policy of dismissing the employee when a job position is eliminated but an employee cannot locate a replacement within the firm.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pinned the blame on the economy and forewarned that the company would have to go through a downsizing or restructuring process. Zuckerberg said that all of Meta’s departments and subsidiary companies including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, would be experiencing budget cuts.
The CEO mentioned that Facebook had significant growth during the initial 18 years of its existence. However, according to Zuckerberg, recent quarters’ sales and revenue statistics have plateaued.
Meta’s move is in line with similar measures made by other major tech companies including Google, Apple, and Microsoft. To reduce costs while maintaining operating margins, some companies have stopped hiring new employees or started issuing pink slips to existing ones.
As per data collated by Crunchbase until late July, over 32,000 tech employees were laid off from their jobs in the USA.
After a surge in success that escalated during the pandemic, the tech sector has been experiencing a lull lately. Many tech giants are halting or ceasing hiring in the face of a more widespread global economic slowdown, interest rate hikes, and regulatory challenges.
Even
as it faces regulatory scrutiny in different parts of the world,
including India, Meta said on May 26 that it will be revising and
re-designing its privacy policy after four years to make it easier
for consumers to comprehend and provide more transparency about how
they utilize their information.
The new policy will take effect on July 26, 2022, and will apply to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other Meta products. WhatsApp, Workplace, Free Basics, Messenger Kids, and the use of Quest gadgets are not covered without a Facebook account because they have their own privacy policies.
“The last three years have brought a number of changes to the privacy landscape as a whole, including to peoples’ desire to better understand how their data is being used,” said the company.
Source: www.ndtv.com
Indeed,
this comes at a time when there is a global discussion about people’s
rights to privacy or the human right to privacy. The human right to
privacy refers to a person’s ability to choose when, how, and why
others, including businesses, handle their personal information.
Image source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
To
maintain dignity, safety, and confidence, privacy must be protected.
Individuals can select how their data is utilized and develop their
personalities freely without fear of data misuse. Its revising its
data policy for Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram to give consumers
greater control over how the business uses their data and the
material they publish.
Meta
will also outline more clearly how it processes the information it
collects from users under the updated privacy policy, including how
it processes location-related information such as internet protocol
addresses, check-in at locations, and other information such as
current city, according to the company. The social media titan claims
that the new privacy policy does not grant it greater access rights
to user data, but rather allows Meta more control over customizing
adverts based on consumer choices and sharing data, with all controls
in one place.
These expectations include the rights and obligations described in our Community Standards, for example when we may disable or terminate accounts that violate our Terms or Community Standards or others’ intellectual property rights or other laws,” the company said.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Despite
the fact that Meta has released the new policy and plans to implement
it by July 26, users in India will have the option of accepting the
terms and moving to the new regime or continuing to use Facebook,
Messenger, and Instagram under the terms of the old data policy,
according to the company.
“Our Privacy Policy is informative in most countries, so we’re publishing a prominent notice to alert people to the change, but they’re not invited to, say, click to consent to the modification to our Privacy Policy.”Users in India have the option of accepting or rejecting the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, with no effect on their access to our products,” said Meta.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Meta’s
stance on allowing Indians to opt out of Facebook’s, Messenger’s, and
Instagram’s new privacy policies is similar to what it did with
WhatsApp.
It changed its terms of service in late January of last year, stating that users who did not accept the terms by February 8 would be prohibited from utilizing some of the app’s fundamental features. Following user protests, the deadline was pushed back to May 15, and WhatsApp stated that individuals who had not accepted the revised conditions of the policy will be reminded on a regular basis.
WhatsApp’s
stance drew criticism from a number of countries around the world,
prompting the firm to backtrack and say that it would not impede
functionality for individuals who refused to accept the new terms,
nor would it send reminders to people who refused to accept the new
terms.
WhatsApp,
Workplace, Free Basics, Messenger Kids, and a few more services that
have their own privacy policies are not affected by the modifications
announced on Thursday.
I am a second-year student pursuing Liberal Arts from Nmims. I am a painter, I love reading and have a great interest in cooking. I am also a trained kickboxer. I’ve always had a passion for writing and hence in my free time, I work as a freelance writer.
We generate digital data every time we write an email, tap an Instagram ad, or swipe our credit cards. At the speed of a click, information travels around the world, becoming a kind of borderless money that sustains the digital economy. The flow of bits and bytes, which was mostly unregulated, fuelled the emergence of transnational mega-corporations such as Google and Amazon and transformed global communications, business, entertainment, and media. The era of open borderless data is coming to an end.
France, Austria, South Africa, and more than 50 other countries are stepping up attempts to regulate the digital data generated by their citizens, government agencies, and businesses. Governments are progressively defining laws and norms on how data may and cannot flow around the world, driven by security and privacy concerns, as well as commercial interests and authoritarian and nationalistic impulses. The best goal is to achieve “digital sovereignty” with borderless data.
Consider
the following:
The
Biden administration in Washington is circulating an early draught
of an executive order designed to prevent adversaries like China
from obtaining American data.
Judges
and lawmakers in the European Union are pressing for stronger
internet privacy regulations and artificial intelligence
restrictions to protect information generated within the 27-nation
union.
Indian
lawmakers are working on a plan that would limit the amount of data
that may leave the country of over 1.4 billion people.
According
to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the number
of laws, regulations, and government policies requiring digital
information to be maintained in a given country more than quadrupled
to 144 between 2017 and 2021.
While
countries like China have long walled off their digital ecosystems,
the imposition of more national regulations on information flows
signals a significant shift in the democratic world and affects how
the internet has operated since its commercialization in the 1990s.
The
implications for company operations, privacy, and how law enforcement
and intelligence organizations investigate crimes and carry out
surveillance activities are enormous. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google
have launched new services that allow businesses to retain records
and information inside a certain geographic area. Data migration has
also become a topic of geopolitical debate, with a new treaty for
information exchange across the Atlantic reached in principle in
March.
“Over the last decade, the amount of data has grown to the point where there is pressure to bring it under sovereign control,” said Federico Fabbrini, a professor of European law at Dublin City University who edited a book on the subject and argues that data is inherently more difficult to regulate than physical goods.
Source: indianexpress.com
The
new limits are unlikely to take down popular websites for most users.
However, depending on where they live, consumers may lose access to
some services or features. To avoid being sued under rules limiting
the use of biometric data, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, recently
announced that it will temporarily stop delivering augmented reality
filters in Texas and Illinois.
The fight over borderless data reflects deeper economic divisions around the world.
Image source: www.deccanherald.com
Data
localization: why and why not?
According
to Eduardo Ustaran, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells, a law company that
helps corporations comply with new data requirements, shifting
attitudes regarding digital information are “linked to a wider
trend toward economic nationalism.”
The
core concept of “digital sovereignty” is that digital waste
generated by a person, business, or government should be stored in
the country where it was generated, or at the very least treated in
line with government-set privacy and other regulations. Some
authorities prefer that information be held by a local company in
circumstances where it is more sensitive. the world economy
That’s
a significant change from today. The majority of files were formerly
saved locally on home computers and corporate mainframes. However, as
internet speeds and telecommunications infrastructure improved over
the last two decades, cloud computing services enabled someone in
Germany to save images on a Google server in California, or an
Italian company to host a website using Amazon Web Services in
Seattle.
JCP
prescription for Data Bill explained:
After
national security contractor Edward Snowden disclosed dozens of
documents detailing widespread US surveillance of digital
communications in 2013, it became a watershed moment
Concerns
grew in Europe that relying on American companies like Facebook made
Europeans vulnerable to surveillance by the US. This resulted in
protracted legal battles over online privacy and trans-Atlantic talks
to protect communications and other data sent to American companies.
The
aftershocks continue to be felt. While the US promotes a free,
unrestricted approach that allows data to flow freely across
democratic nations, China, along with Russia and others, has walled
off the internet and kept data within reach in order to monitor
populations and stifle dissent. Europe is creating a new route, with
carefully regulated markets and data privacy legislation.
Why
is the Personal Data Protection Bill harmful for businesses?
The tech industry has raised concerns as new laws have been implemented. The online economy, according to groups representing Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, is fuelled by the free flow of data. They claimed that if tech businesses were to keep everything locally, they wouldn’t be able to offer the same products and services all over the world. Nonetheless, countries took action. Customers of Google’s internet measuring software, Google Analytics, which is used by many websites to collect audience statistics, were cautioned this year not to use it because it could expose Europeans’ borderless data to American eavesdropping in France and Austria.
After
receiving criticism for giving the contract to an American company,
the French government canceled a partnership with Microsoft to handle
health-related data last year. Instead, officials promised to work
with local businesses. Businesses have adapted. Microsoft said it was
taking steps to make it easier for customers to preserve data inside
specific geographic areas.
Customers can choose where their borderless data is housed in Europe, according to Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud computing service.
In
the past year, Google Cloud has negotiated agreements with local tech
and telecom companies in France, Spain, and Germany, ensuring that
customers’ data is protected by a local company while using Google’s
services. Ksenia Duxfield-Karyakina, who manages Google Cloud’s
public policy efforts in Europe, stated, “We want to meet them
where they are.”
According
to Liam Maxwell, director of government transformation at Amazon Web
Services, the company would adjust to European rules, but clients
should be free to acquire cloud computing services based on their
needs, not where the technology provider is from.
More
fights over digital information loom, according to Max Schrems, an
Austrian privacy activist who won litigation against Facebook over
its data-sharing policies. He anticipated that the European Court of
Justice would strike down the US-EU data arrangement proposed by
Biden because it does not meet EU privacy rules.
“There was a time when data was completely unregulated, and people could do whatever they wanted,” Schrems explained. “Now we see that everyone is trying to govern it, but in various ways.” This is a global problem.”
I am a second-year student pursuing Liberal Arts from Nmims. I am a painter, I love reading and have a great interest in cooking. I am also a trained kickboxer. I’ve always had a passion for writing and hence in my free time, I work as a freelance writer.
Meta is most commonly known as Facebook Inc as it hasn’t been a year since the company was rebranded. It is one of the world’s largest technology companies apart from Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. By the end of 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced the change of the name to Meta as it also reflects the focus of the company to building the metaverse. Facebook Inc (now Meta) was founded in 2004, and it is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and many other subsidiaries. So, the company is mostly dominating the entire social media industry in most parts of the globe apart from countries where it is blocked.
About Meta
The brains behind founding Meta are Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Meta’s headquarters are located in Menlo Park, California, US and there are more than 70,000 employees working for the company from various parts of the world. Apart from billions of active users of social media, Meta earns a good portion of its revenue from advertisement postings. One of the early and largest acquisitions by Meta was in 2012 when it bought Instagram. Meta has also acquired companies like Giphy, Mapillary, Oculus, and owns a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms.
Image source: vox-cdn.com
History of Facebook
Facebook was launched during a time when the internet eventually became famous and it was coming closer to common people in terms of availability. A social media platform for chatting, posting pictures, etc sounded very new and thus exciting, especially for the younger population. In 2012, when Mark Zuckerberg decided to file an IPO, the Facebook platform was already receiving billions of likes and comments. After Facebook becomes public, Zuckerberg was to retain 22% ownership of the company and 57% of the voting shares. So, when Facebook became a public company it was valued at $104 billion. The IPO raised for Facebook was one of the largest in the history of the US economy.
But, a massive company like Facebook that had to increase the number of shares offered due to high public demand, caught everyone’s attention. So, the regulators from Wall Street decided to investigate if there has been any leaking of information to selected clients rather than the general public. There were several accusations leading to the filing of several lawsuits some retail investors losing millions over this fury. Facebook became a part of the S&P 500 index in 2013. In 2014, the company decided to change its motto to “Move fast with stable infrastructure” from “Move fast and break things.”
Acquisitions
Facebook has acquired several companies which the company calls “talent acquisitions”. After acquiring Instagram which was one of the first acquisitions of the company, it acquired Onavo, an Israeli company in 2013. In 2014, Facebook showed its interest in buying Whatsapp for $19 billion and later that year also acquired Oculus VR for $2.3 billion. Facebook wanted to create its own stable coin cryptocurrency hence it founded Libra Networks in 2019. Meta has also mentioned that Libra is backed up by companies like Visa, PayPal, Uber, and Mastercard. In 2019, Meta acquired the game developer Beat Games and then next year announced about the 10 percent (approximate) stake acquisition of Jio Platforms, digital media of Reliance Industries. In 2020, Meta also announced the acquisition of Giphy for $400 million.
About Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most famous tech entrepreneurs across the globe. He started writing software from an early age (when he was in middle school) and his dad also taught him basic programming. Zuckerberg went to Harvard and he was already famous as a programming prodigy. He started writing the code for a website early in 2004 and after one month he launched the website, “Thefacebook.” Eventually, he dropped out of college to carry on with his project. In 2017, he received an honorary degree from Harvard. Zuckerberg is currently the CEO of Meta Platforms.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more
