Game of Thrones actress Faye Marsay is bullied into quitting social media
The latest high-profile victim of online abuse is actress Faye Marsay, famous for her portrayal of the Waif in Game of Thrones. After finding herself on the receiving end of hate and harassment, she has announced that she is to quit Facebook.
Marsay's decision comes after guidelines were unveiled to help determine whether criminal proceedings should be brought against individuals engaging in online hate crimes.
Workplace by Facebook exits beta, bringing social networking to the enterprise
You may not have heard of Workplace by Facebook, and that could be for one of two reasons. Firstly, it used to be known as Facebook at Work but, more importantly, it has been in closed beta for nearly two years.
Today, Facebook announces that Workplace is now available all over the world, giving enterprise users a way to stay connected with co-workers. Promising "the best of Facebook plus new features", Workplace can be used by any company or organization that feels a personalized, internal social network with messaging capabilities could be beneficial.
Facebook's new Events app helps you discover what's going on near you
If you're a keen Facebook user, you may well have accepted invites to events advertised on the social network. To help make your life a little easier, Facebook has now launched a new, dedicated app called simply Events from Facebook to more easily find out what's going on nearby.
More than this, the app can pull in information from your existing calendar so you can see all of your events and appointments in one place to avoid double-booking yourself. It's iOS-only for the time being, but an Android version of the app is in the pipeline.
Everyone now has access to Facebook's Secret Conversations, so take control of your privacy
Facebook has been testing its privacy-focused Secret Conversations feature with a select, and then wider, group of users for a little while now. Today the end-to-end encrypted messaging system rolls out to everyone. If you're concerned about your privacy (firstly, why are you using Facebook?), it's your duty to use it.
Secret Conversations remains an opt-in feature, and once enabled it means that only the sender and recipient are able to see messages -- there is no scope for interception by Facebook or any other third party. There's also an important self-destructing messaging option, but there's one glaring problem.
Yahoo secretly scanned emails for the NSA and FBI -- Apple, Google and Microsoft did not
Yahoo has been having something of a rough time of late, and things are not getting any easier. It has emerged that the company created a custom tool to search customers' emails for specific terms as directed by the NSA and FBI.
Reuters shares the story of two former Yahoo employees who say the company complied with a government directive to search through all incoming emails. In response to the revelations, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all denied engaging in similar activity.
Microsoft's bot platform has 45,000 developers -- more than Facebook's, less than Google's
Facebook, Google and Microsoft are currently locked in a battle over which bot platform will have more developers, and currently it's Google that's winning -- but it's not that simple.
Just before releasing its chat app Allo, Google acquired API.ai, a bot-building platform through which developers can make bots for various platforms. API.ai is currently being used by 60,000 developers, according to VentureBeat, putting Google at the top of the pack. Considering that it has just only acquired the start-up, it’s easy to argue that the company didn’t really do much to hit that milestone.
WhatsApp copies SnapChat and allows you to add emoji to photos... and more
Until concerns were raised about data sharing with Facebook to help deliver targeted ads, WhatsApp was seen as the messaging tool of choice for those concerned about privacy. As well as offering encrypted messaging, WhatsApp has always been one of the more stripped back messaging apps out there -- but no more.
Bowing to pressure to fit in with the crowd and offer the same features as the likes of SnapChat, WhatsApp is adding photo and video editing and enhancement tools. The ability to add emoji to photos, or draw and write on images are just two new options that are rolling out now.
Facebook Marketplace takes on eBay and Craigslist
Today, Facebook launches a new way to buy and sell goods online -- Facebook Marketplace. While the service may not win any prizes for the originality of its name, it provides a more efficient and effective way to find things that are for sale near you than currently exists on the social network.
To start with, Facebook Marketplace will be available to mobile app users on iOS and Android, but it will also come to Facebook on the desktop eventually. Facebook is taking a very hands-off approach to buying and selling, and is not getting involved in the murkier aspects of transactions such as payments or handling feedback.
Facebook launches Messenger Lite to reduce data usage
Facebook may have the rather lofty goal of wanting to "empower people all over the world to stay connected", but for most people the social network is just about chatting. Facebook Messenger has proved massively popular, and to cater for people with slower internet connection, the company now has Facebook Lite.
As you would probably guess from the Lite tag, this is a slightly cut-down version of the messaging tool but it still offers all of the core features. As well as helping out those with slow internet connections, it's an app that will appeal to people with more basic Android smartphones.
Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft create Partnership on AI -- no sign of Apple
Five of the biggest names in the world of technology have joined forces to create the Partnership on AI. The aim of the group is to increase public awareness of artificial intelligence, conduct research, and promote best practice guidelines.
Comprising Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft -- although, interestingly, not Apple -- the group says that it does not intend to lobby government or government bodies. Instead, the aim is to promote AI so that it can be used to "help humanity address important global challenges such as climate change, food, inequality, health, and education".
Germany bans Facebook from collecting WhatsApp users' data
Germany has decided to ban WhatsApp and Facebook from sharing user data with one another as consumers did not agree to the data sharing deal between the two companies.
Last month, it was announced that WhatsApp would begin sharing the data it collected from its users to Facebook. The social network would then use that data to help it better serve ads and generate more information from the people using the popular messaging app.
How to send secret messages in Facebook
There are lots of different messaging apps available, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google’s latest offering, Allo. Which you use will likely depend on what apps your friends prefer, but privacy might also be a big factor. Google Allo, for example, is a bit of a privacy nightmare, unless you use the Incognito mode.
You probably don’t want Facebook snooping on your private conversations, so may have steered clear of Messenger previously, but the good news is the social network now lets you send private messages to friends which can only be read on the device of the person you're communicating with -- and not by Facebook itself.
Facebook massively miscalculated video viewing figures for two years
The social networking giant has managed to attract the ire of advertisers after it revealed that it overestimated video viewing figures for two years. A flaw in the tool used to measure the number of views meant that figures relating to video viewing times were inflated by between 60 and 80 percent.
Just how long people spend watching videos is important information for advertisers, but Facebook managed to miscalculate average viewing times by ignoring views lasting under three seconds. With so much of Facebook's incoming revenue derived from advertising, and the importance the company places on video, the snafu is an embarrassing one that advertisers will take some time to forget.
Outlook.com gains sharing support for Google Drive and Facebook
Microsoft is continuing to add new features and functionality to Outlook.com.
In addition to the integrated OneDrive support, the software giant added Box and Dropbox sharing to its webmail service earlier in the year, and today it makes sharing even more useful with the addition of support for Google Drive and Facebook.
Critics lambast Mark Zuckerberg after Facebook censors iconic image of Vietnam war for nudity [Update -- Facebook backs down]
The photograph taken by Nick Ut showing Kim Phúc (sometimes referred to a 'napalm girl') fleeing a napalm attack is one of the most iconic images of the Vietnam war. It's a picture that's seared into the memory of anyone who has seen it, and the Pulitzer prize-winning photograph is often held up as an anti-war image.
But Facebook sees things differently. The company saw fit to censor the image by deleting a post by a Norwegian writer who used the photo. The writer, Tom Egeland, was also suspended from the site. Facebook stands accused of abusing its position as "the world's most powerful editor" in a scathing attack by the editor-in-chief and CEO of Norway's largest newspaper, Aftenposten. Today Espen Egil Hansen uses a front page editorial to launch a blistering diatribe against Mark Zuckerberg.
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