The World Opinion

Tag: meta

  • Why Meta-Owned WhatsApp Bans More Than 8.5 Million Accounts In India In September?; Know Reason

    Whatsapp Bans Indian Accounts: In a significant move, Meta-owned WhatsApp has imposed bans on numerous accounts in India, aiming to enhance user safety and combat the misuse of its platform. This action comes amid rising concerns over privacy and security, prompting the messaging giant to take a firm stand against abusive practices.

    To avoid such malicious actions, the instant messaging platform banned more than 8.5 million “bad” accounts in India in September for violating its policies. Between September 1 and September 30, the company banned 8,584,000 accounts, of which 1,658,000 were proactively banned before any reports from users, according to the social media platform’s monthly compliance report under the new IT Rules 2021.

    The popular mobile messaging platform, which has more than 600 million users in India, received 8,161 grievances from the country, and the records “actioned” were 97. The term “actioned” refers to complaints where WhatsApp took remedial action.

    WhatsApp also received two orders from the Grievance Appellate Committee in the country and complied with both, according to its monthly compliance report.

    “We will continue with transparency to our work and include information about our efforts in future reports,” said the company. It employs a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts.

    “We enable users to block contacts and to report problematic content and contacts to us from inside the app. We pay close attention to user feedback and engage with specialists in stemming misinformation, promoting cybersecurity, and preserving election integrity,” said WhatsApp.

    The abuse detection operates at three stages of an account’s lifestyle: at registration, during messaging, and in response to negative feedback, which we receive in the form of user reports and blocks.

    A team of analysts augments these systems to evaluate edge cases and help improve our effectiveness over time. Between August 1, 2024 and August 31, 2024, 8,458,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned, 1,661,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users.

    It also received 10,707 grievances from the country in August, and the records “actioned” were 93. (With IANS Inputs)

  • WhatsApp Rolls Out Status Likes, Private Mentions, And Resharing: Here’s How It Works |

    New Delhi: WhatsApp, the popular Meta-owned messaging platform has introduced a set of features of status updates which makes it easier for users to interact. You can now like someone’s status, reshare a status you’ve been mentioned in and even tag or mention others privately in your own updates. These changes aim to give users more ways to connect through status updates.

    People may sometimes miss important status updates, according to WhatsApp. To help with this, the platform encourages users to privately mention those closest to them. This is to ensure they see the update and can easily reshare with their own audience.

    As stated in WhatApp’s blog post, “Make sure those closest to you see your status, and let them reshare it easily with their audience, by privately mentioning them.” When someone is mentioned in a status update, they’ll be notified privately and the mention will not appear on the status itself.

    How can you like a status on WhatsApp?

    Status likes on WhatsApp are simple and quick to use. You can like someone’s status with just a single tap and the same goes for liking updates from your contacts. It’s an easy way to show appreciation for someone’s status without having to send a message.

    Are WhatsApp status likes visible to everyone?

    No, status likes on WhatsApp are completely private. Only the person whose status you liked will be able to see the like in their list of viewers, ensuring your engagement stays personal.

    These features are already available on Instagram stories and now being introduced to WhatsApp by meta. The rollout has begun and it will be available for users widely soon. WhatsApp also mentioned, “We’ll be bringing more features to Status and the Updates tab over the next few months to make it easier to stay closest to those who matter most.”

  • How To Share Instagram Reels On WhatsApp; Follow THESE Simple Steps |

    Instagram Reels On WhatsApp: WhatsApp, an instant messaging platform, is utilized by billions of individuals across the globe. As Meta owns two widely used platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp. Over the past few years, WhatsApp has adopted several features from Instagram. The WhatsApp Status functionality draws inspiration from Instagram Stories, and the Channels feature resembles Instagram Channels.

    WhatsApp enables users to make voice and video calls, as well as share a variety of media with their contacts. Meanwhile, Instagram also allows users to share photos and videos along with calling and video calling features.

    Notably, Instagram offers a distinctive feature called Reels, which is not available on WhatsApp. Currently, there are no signs that Meta plans to introduce Reels to WhatsApp. You want to enjoy Instagram Reels without switching apps? You’re in luck! Now, you can easily watch Instagram Reels directly on WhatsApp, combining two of your favorite platforms for a seamless experience. However, this access is limited to a small selection of Reels, in contrast to the endless scrolling available on Instagram. In this article, we’ll tell you step-by-step how to share and view Instagram Reels within WhatsApp, making content sharing more fun and convenient.

    How To Share Instagram Reels On WhatsApp

    Step 1: Ensure that the WhatsApp application on your Android phone or iPhone is updated to the latest version to access all new features.

    Step 2: Locate the Meta AI icon on the WhatsApp home screen, which is easily identifiable by an animated blue-pink circle positioned above the chat list.

    Step 3: Tap on the Meta AI icon, and the Meta AI chatbot interface will appear on your screen, providing a familiar chat environment.

    Step 4: In the text input box at the bottom, enter a prompt like “Show me Instagram reels” to interact with the chatbot.

    Step 5: After sending your prompt, WhatsApp will quickly respond by displaying a selection of Reels within the chat interface for you to browse.

    Step 6: Tap on any of the displayed Reels to view them directly within the WhatsApp app, allowing for a seamless viewing experience.

    Moreover, if a user wants to view Reels from a specific Instagram page or creator, they can mention the name in their text prompt to access the latest and most popular Reels from that account.

  • Meta Bans Russian State Media Outlets Over Foreign ‘Interference’ |

    New York: Social media giant Meta announced that it has banned Russian state media broadcaster RT and other Kremlin-controlled networks over the alleged “foreign interference activity.”

    Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has alleged that the outlets were involved in deceptive influence operations and tried to avoid detection. Announcing the move in a statement on Monday, a Meta spokesperson stated, “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity. “

    The ban will be implemented in the upcoming days across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. The social media giant has been shrinking the influence of the Russian state-controlled media across its platforms since 2022.

    Before the ban, RT had 7.2 million Facebook followers and 1 million Instagram followers. This action is in response to recent allegations by the US that Russian media, especially RT, has been participating in covert activities to influence worldwide viewers.

    Earlier this month, two RT workers were charged by US authorities with money laundering. They are accused of planning to engage an American company to create material with the intention of impacting the 2024 US presidential election.

    On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on several countries to treat the Russian state broadcaster RT in the same manner as “covert intelligence operations.”

    The coordinator for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, James Rubin, restated these worries, labeling RT as a channel where “propaganda, disinformation, and lies are spread to millions, if not billions, of people around the globe.”

    RT has derided the actions of the US, accusing it of trying to impede the broadcaster from operating as a journalistic organisation. Meanwhile, Russia has not yet commented on the ban.

  • Meta Blocks Iran-Linked Hackers On WhatsApp Targeting US Officials |

    California: Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp has said that its security teams had blocked a small cluster of accounts on the WhatsApp messaging platform, who were posing as support agents for tech companies.

    The WhatsApp accounts were linked to a group of hackers affiliated with Iran and the same group has also attempted email phishing attacks targeting people connected with US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former US President Donald Trump along with political and diplomatic officials among others. , Meta said in a statement on August 23.

    Meta said it has not seen evidence the targeted WhatsApp accounts were successfully compromised, but said it has shared information with law enforcement and other tech companies.

    Earlier, the US formally accused Iran of attempting to undermine the US presidential elections. In a joint statement on August 19, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the federal cybersecurity agency CISA said, “Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome.”

    “We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns,” the statement read.

    The US presidential polls are scheduled for this November with a face-off between US Vice President Kamala Harris who is the Democratic candidate with former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump. Meta in its statement on August 23 said that the recent “malicious activity” originated in Iran and attempted to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and the UK.

    It said that the hackers on WhatsApp pretended to be technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The tech company said that a small cluster of “likely social engineering activity” on WhatsApp was blocked by its security teams after investigating user reports.

    They attempted to trick targets into revealing sensitive information, such as account passwords, the company said, adding that it identified the campaign after some of the targets reported suspicious messages to WhatsApp.

    Meta said that its investigation linked the hacking attempts to APT42 (also known as UNC788 and Mint Sandstorm), an Iranian threat actor known for its persistent adversarial campaigns using basic phishing tactics across the internet to steal credentials to people’s online accounts.

    The US company said that they had previously shared threat research related to the group targeting people in West Asia, including Saudi military, dissidents and human rights activists from Israel and Iran, politicians in the US, and Iran-focused academics, activists and journalists around the world.

  • Meta Expands AI Chatbot Capabilities With Support For 7 New Languages, Including Hindi; Unveils Llama 3.1 Model |

    New Delhi: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has introduced a major upgrade for the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Meta AI, across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads.

    This AI chatbot is now available in seven new languages, including Hindi and Hindi-Romanized Script (or Hinglish). Users can also interact with Meta AI in new languages, including French, German, Hindi, Hindi-Romanized Script, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, with more to come.

    The company took this step a month after Meta rolled out its AI chatbot in India, escalating the AI ​​chatbot race with rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot.

    Meta AI, first introduced in September 2023 as part of the social networking giant’s big push into generative AI, is currently available in 22 countries.

    “Meta AI is on track to reach our goal of becoming the most used AI assistant by the end of this year. There are hundreds of millions of people using it already, and we keep making it smarter and freely available in more countries,” Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a video clip on Instagram on July 23.


    Furthermore, the Facebook parent company Meta is introducing new creative tools that enable people to create AI-generated images of themselves in any place, era, or style of their interest.

    The company is also launching a new “Edit with AI” button next month that will allow users to further fine-tune the AI-generated images. Meta AI’s upgrade has expanded new creative editing capabilities. You can easily add or remove objects, change them, and edit them — adjusting just what you want while keeping the rest of the image as it was.

    New Llama 3.1 Launch

    A significant expansion of its Meta AI capabilities coincides with the social networking giant releasing Llama 3.1. It is the latest version of its open-source large language model, three months after the release of Llama 3.

    The new model will be available on all major clouds, including AWS, Azure, Google, Oracle, and more. The new Llama 3.1 model will be available in three variants: a larger model with 405 billion parameters, along with updated versions of the existing 8 billion and 70 billion models.

  • Meta purged over 17 million pieces of bad content on FB, Insta in India in April |

    New Delhi: Meta said that it took down over 11.6 million pieces of bad content across 13 policies for Facebook and more than 5.4 million pieces of objectionable content across 12 policies for Instagram in India in April. In April, Facebook received 17,124 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism and said that it provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 9,977 cases.

    These include pre-established channels to report content for specific violations, self-remediation flows where they can download their data, avenues to address account hacked issues, etc, Meta said in its monthly report in compliance with the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. (Also Read: Lava Yuva 5G Smartphone Launched With 5000mAh Battery For Under Rs 10,000; Check Specs And Availability)

    “Of the other 7,147 reports where specialised review was needed, we analysed content as per our policies and took action on 4,303 complaints in total. The remaining 2,844 grievances were reviewed but may not have been actioned,” Meta added. (Also Read: SpaceX Will Enable Anyone To Travel To Moon, Mars: Elon Musk)

    On Instagram, the company received 12,924 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism. “Of these, we provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 5,941 cases,” it said. Of the other 6,983 reports where specialised review was needed, Meta analysed content and took action on 3,206 complaints in total. The remaining 3,777 reports were reviewed but may not have been actioned.

    Under the new IT Rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports. “We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) we take action for going against our standards. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning,” said Meta.

  • CEO Elon Musk Accuses WhatsApp, Claims Meta App Breaches Private User Data Every Night |

    New Delhi: Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has criticised Meta-owned WhatsApp for allegedly exporting users’ data every night. An X (formerly Twitter) user posted that WhatsApp exports user data nightly, which is “analysed and used for targeted advertising, making users the product, not the customer”.

    However, the Meta or WhatsApp are yet to comment on Musk’s allegation. Musk replied, “WhatsApp exports your user data every night”. “Some people still think it is secure,” said the tech billionaire.

    WhatsApp exports your user data every night.

    Some people still think it is secure. https://t.co/LxDs7t7HSv

    — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2024

    Computer programmer and video game developer, John Carmack, responded to Musk, saying is there any evidence that the content of messages is ever scanned or transmitted? “I assume usage patterns and routing metadata is collected, and if you invoke a bot in a conversation you are obviously opening it up, but I am still under the impression that the message contents are secure by default,” Carmack posted on X.

    Is there any evidence that the content of messages is ever scanned or transmitted? I assume usage patterns and routing metadata is collected, and if you invoke a bot in a conversation you are obviously opening it up, but I am still under the impression that the message contents… — John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) May 25, 2024

    The X owner has attacked Mark Zuckerberg-run Meta Platform in the past too. Earlier this month, the billionaire claimed that Meta is super greedy at taking credit for advertisers who run campaigns on its platform.

    The rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg is well known. They were apparently set for a “cage fight’ some time back – dubbed as the fight of the century. However, the showdown between the tech leaders never happened.

  • Indian Techie Laid Off By Tesla Now Earns Rs 4 Crore At Meta; Shares Resume Tips

    In an interview, he mentioned that he has applied to Meta in 2021 after hearing about the company’s “crazy” salary packages.

  • Elon Musk Gets Richer Than Mark Zuckerberg As Meta CEO Suffers $18 Billion Loss

    Earlier this month, the two billionaires switched positions when it was reported that Tesla’s car sales had declined in the three months through March.