A new malware was spotted by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab, targeting Facebook users. According to the researchers’ new report, there have been 10,000 victims in two days.

The malware has two stages: firstly, an unsuspecting victim gets a message from a Facebook friend, saying they had mentioned them in a comment. But when the victim clicks to see the comment, they instead download a bunch of malware, including a Chrome add-on which can take over the victim’s Facebook account, once they log back in.

Continue reading →

Continuing its control of the internet, China has announced that news outlets may not use social media as a source of news -- at least not without official approval.

The Cyberspace Administration of China says that the move is part of a campaign to prevent the spread of rumors and fake stories, but most people will see it as the government continuing to flex its online muscles.

Continue reading →

Katy Perry is one of my favorite pop artists. Why? Longevity. Many such singers have very short shelf lives. Having just one hit song is rarified air, but Perry keeps them coming. Her long string of hits is quite remarkable, actually.

Not only is she wildly popular with music sales and YouTube views, but social media too. You see, Katy Perry is the first ever person to achieve 90 million Twitter followers. In other words, her Tweets can reach more people than the entire population of the UK!

Continue reading →

Facebook has responded to complaints from Israel's Minister of Internal Security saying that it does remove abusive content from the site. On Saturday, Israeli cabinet minister Gilad Erdan referred to Facebook as a 'monster' adding that it "does not cooperate" with requests from the police.

Tensions between Palestine and Israel have seen an increase in posts inciting violence and terrorism. While Erdan accuses Facebook of failing to step in as well as "set[ting] a very high bar for removing inciteful content", the social network says it work closely with numerous countries, including Israel, to stem the flow of hate speech.

Continue reading →

Facebook has announced a new tool that aims to break down language barriers. Previously available for Pages on the social network, the multilingual composer is set to make its way to individuals' accounts as well.

Previously anyone who wanted to post bi-, tri- or multilingual status updates would have to either type out each language as a separate post, or post a lengthy status featuring multiple translations. The latest change means that you can write in, say, French, and only friends and followers with their language set to French will see it.

Continue reading →

Facebook has won an appeal against a court ruling that said the social network could not store data about people who did not have an account. It had been ruled that Facebook could not gather data about non-users in Belgium; Facebook responded by blocking access to those without an account.

Back in 2015, Facebook was told to stop this blocking or face hefty daily fines. Facebook felt that the ruling was unfair and appealed. In a new ruling today, the Brussels Court of Appeal said: "Belgian courts don't have international jurisdiction over Facebook Ireland, where the data concerning Europe is processed".

Continue reading →

Earlier today, Facebook announced the latest tweak to newsfeeds. Having denied being politically bias towards Brexit, or having a liberal leaning, Facebook continues to face question and criticism about how its news feeds and trending topics are formulated.

As well as updating the way newsfeeds are populated, Facebook today revealed just how it choses what appears in your newsfeeds. This isn’t a case of full transparency, but it is an interesting insight nonetheless.

Continue reading →

When it's not messing around with privacy settings and manipulating trending topics, there's nothing Facebook seems to like more than to tinker with timelines. Today the social network announces the latest changes to your newsfeed -- now you should see more posts from your friends and family.

The problem we currently face, Facebook says, is that there is "far too much information for any one person to consume". This is where algorithms come into play, meddling with timelines and newsfeeds in ways that never please everyone. The latest change promises that content from "the friends you care about" will appear "higher up in your News Feed".

Continue reading →

Facebook is all about sharing and consuming, and today the social network launches two new extensions for the Chrome browser that make it easy to do both. The Share to Facebook and Save to Facebook extensions do very much what you would expect, encouraging not only sharing, but also the use of Facebook as a bookmarking tool for articles you want to read later.

As well as these two extensions, Facebook is also rolling out redesigned Social Plugin buttons. The Like button that you see adorning so many websites is getting a modern makeover, losing the iconic Facebook 'f' logo, and gaining an emoji-lover-friendly thumbs up icon instead.

Continue reading →

I tend to look back fondly at the technology that has left a mark on me throughout the years. Memorable trips down memory lane involve things that have been a part of my digital lifestyle for many, many years. Google+ is one of them. As a longtime member, I should be reminiscing now as today the social network turns five. But, for some reason, the only thing that I can think about is knowing from the get go that it would never be the next big thing. It looks like I was onto something.

Google+ is one of the largest social networks, but if you are an active user like me you are probably wondering what all those other members are up to because few of them seem to share new things these days. As time goes by, it feels like Google+ is shrinking to a small crowd of enthusiasts. Few people seem to care about it lately, and I am slowly joining the ranks of those who can't be bothered anymore.

Continue reading →

Have you ever wondered if someone on LinkedIn is not really who they say they are? I’m not being paranoid here, this is a legitimate question.

If your answer is "No", you’re not alone. A vast majority of people never wonder if there are fake accounts requesting to connect on the professional social network, and almost a quarter accept requests from people they don’t really know.

Continue reading →

Somewhat out of the blue, Facebook has decided to change the way it displays certain information on your profile. Not content with showing your current place of work -- whether this is real, or some clever pun you've engineered -- it now also shows your employment history.

This is not a direct change to privacy settings as it does not make public anything that had been previously set to be private. It does, however, broadcast your previous places of work to people looking at your profile. You might not like this. You might want to do something about it.

Continue reading →

Facebook and privacy are not words usually associated with one another, and it seems this holds true even for the man at the top. Only recently we learned that Mark Zuckerberg uses terrible passwords, making it easy to hack his accounts, but now it turns out he's also quite paranoid.

As Instagram popped champagne corks for reaching the milestone of half a billion users, Zuckerberg posted a celebratory picture. Eagle-eyed people soon pointed out that both the mic and camera of his laptop were taped over.

Continue reading →

While Twitter is primarily a text-based social network, more recently there has been an increased importance placed on images and videos. Just as tweets are limited to a certain number of characters, videos have -- until today -- been limited to 30 seconds in length. Now Twitter is embracing video in a big way, and today increases the maximum length to 140 seconds -- continuing the love affair with the number 140.

The company says that the number of video posted to Twitter has increased by 50 percent since the beginning of the year. This is an astonishing increase in just six months, and it makes the video-related changes all the more understandable. Vine users will also be able to take advantage of longer videos, but there's something of a catch.

Continue reading →

Today Twitter launches a companion app designed for anyone who wants to analyse their tweet activity. Pulling out all the buzzwords, Twitter says it "provides real-time data and insights, allowing you to quickly understand, engage, and grow your audiences".

This is not just about gaining more followers, it's about making more meaningful connections, and trying out different marketing ideas. Twitter already provides fairly detailed analytics on its website, but here things are presented in a more accessible way. It also provides a more detailed breakdown of audience demographics for better targeting.

Continue reading →