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Facebook comes with new rules ahead of 2020 US election fears

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The social media giant, Facebook tightens the rules ahead of the next US presidential election, reports BBC.

The company has introduced new political advertising rules, in a bid to halt exploitation in the US elections.

Now, for the political advertisers, to obtain a “confirmed organisation” label, they have to verify their identity.

This is marked as an attempt, to stop creating misleading or inaccurate ads to influence voters.

These new rules of Facebook will also be applicable to Instagram, which is a property of Facebook.

The political parties are using the ‘paid-for’ Facebook ads, as a tool for their campaigns to target voters.

A recent survey revealed that, over $70m (£57.3m) had been spent on Facebook ads by the 2016 Trump campaign, during the election period.

Political advertisers has been required in the US by the social media giant put a “paid for” disclaimer on their ads since 2018, but the changes have not completely stamped out improper use.

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Facebook asked to close down the groups that seeks fake Amazon reviews

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The tech giant Facebook is facing a problem in closing down the groups on its site where fake Amazon reviews are sold, claims ‘Which?’ the consumer group.

Facebook, in June was urged by CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) to tackle sale of fake reviews.

Certain uncovered active groups are recruiting people to write fake testimonies, claims Which?.

The social media giant claimed that the reported groups are being removed. They said that investigations are still going on regarding this issue.

CMA, previously had found some evidence that there is a thriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews. CMA reportedly said that during the period of November 2018 to June 2019, they had found about 26 Facebook groups in total, where people offered to write fake reviews or businesses recruited people to write fake and misleading reviews on popular shopping and review sites.

Which? said that for the investigations regarding this issue, it joined 10 separate Facebook groups looking for recruits.

In a short period of 30 days, the recruiters added more than 55,000 posts to the groups that offered free products to people who wrote highly-rated reviews on Amazon, said Which?.

Natalie Hitchins, the head of products at Which? said, “It is deeply concerning that [Facebook] continues to leave customers exposed to poor quality or unsafe products boosted by misleading and disingenuous reviews”.

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Libra – The cryptocurrency of Facebook attacked at Senate hearing

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Facebook’s cryptocurrency – Libra will let you buy things or send money to people with nearly zero fees, has come under further attack at a US hearing.

The politicians said that the company is “delusional” and non-trusted. They said that they do not trust Facebook to operate a global cryptocurrency.

Facebook executive David Marcus has been questioned by the Senate Banking Committee over FB’s intention to launch its Libra digital currency.

Senator Sherrod Brown said that the company had showed “through scandal after scandal that it doesn’t deserve our trust”.

Facebook executive David Marcus at the Senate Banking Committee hearing

Before launching a new business model, the tech giant had been advised to clean up its house. Last moth, the company had announced its plan to launch a digital currency, probably by next year.

But, initially, the company had to get the Washington lawmakers on its side. But, several criticisms came soon after the company had revealed its plan to launch Libra, even from President, Donald Trump.

Trump’s last week tweet said that he is not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.

Facebook said that Libra won’t be an investment vehicle and that the company and its partners have no plans to act like a central bank.

Former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in an interview that, “We don’t actually have a regulatory framework that sufficiently addresses the cash market for digital assets that aren’t securities, like bitcoin. We don’t have a comprehensive way of looking at it”.

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Did Facebook ‘ripped off’ the logo of Current ?

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After the announcement of its Cryptocurrency Libra, Facebook is being accused of stealing the logo from online bank – Current. The Fintech CEO claims that Facebook has ‘ripped off’ his bank start-up’s logo for Libra.

According to CEO Stuart Sopp, Facebook has used the same San Francisco-based design firm for its cryptocurrency. The logos are almost looking similar at the first view.

Sopp told media, “This is a funny way to try and create trust in a new global financial system – by ripping off another fintech firm”. The same San Francisco-based design firm named ‘Character’ had previously created the logo of Current in 2016.

“Facebook has all the money and resources in the world. If they truly wanted to make banking more inclusive and fair, they should’ve come up with their own ideas and branding, like we have”, said Sopp in an interview with cnbc.

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Libra – Facebook’s cryptocurrency

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The tech giant Facebook has announced the details of its cryptocurrency, Libra. This feature allows you to buy things or transfer money with nearly zero fees.

Libra cannot be actually termed as a product of Facebook alone. It is supported by the Geneva, Switzerland-based Libra Association, a non-profit organization with a long list of founding members who will jointly make decisions over Libra.

Apart from Facebook, the list has Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Stripe, eBay, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Coinbase, Xapo, Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Banking.

Libra is a stable coin. It is a special type of cryptocurrency that remains fairly stable compared to the value of another fairly stable real-world asset, such as the U.S. dollar.

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Mark Zuckerberg reveals changes in response to criticism

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had revealed some changes to the portfolio of FB’s social platforms. The changes includes Instagram and WhatsApp also.

Facebook had been facing criticisms over the leakage of user’s privacy issues. The new designs and features for its apps are providing a direct solution for this widespread privacy criticisms.

Zuckerberg said that the company is aiming to make the users privacy concerns on top priority. The Facebook boss also acknowledged that there was much to do to rebuild trust.

Zuckerberg, in a speech said that Facebook’s new features focus on privacy as “a major shift” in how the company is run.

“The future is private. I know we don’t have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly”, said Mark Zuckerberg.

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Facebook beats Q1 2019 profit estimates, sets aside $3 billion for privacy penalty

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On Wednesday, Facebook Inc blew past Wall Street profit estimates in the first quarter and set aside $3 billion to cover a settlement with the US regulators calming investors who had worried about the outcome of a months-long federal probe, reports Reuters.

In after-hours trade, shares of Facebook jumped more than 10 percent to $200.50 . A large part of the ground lost last year was regained by Facebook. They had set the settlement accrual at $3 billion but said could rise as high as $5 billion. This had cut the company’s net income in the first quarter to $2.43 billion, or 85 cents per share.

According to IBES data from Refinitiv, if the charges are excluded, Facebook would have earned $1.89 a share, up from $1.69 in the year-ago quarter and easily beating analysts’ average estimate of $1.63 per share.

The senior analyst at financial markets platform Investing.com, Haris Anwar said, “This is a strong report suggesting that advertisers still see value in Facebook’s platform, as they did before the controversies and scandals erupted”.

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europe times european daily trending world news Facebook to ban contents of white nationalism and separatism
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Facebook to ban contents of white nationalism and separatism

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The social media giant Facebook has decided to block contents that “praise, support and represents white nationalism and separatism” on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook has also decided to identify and block the contents materials from terrorist groups. They are improving on the ability to identify these groups. It is also reported that the Facebook users searching for offending terms will be directed to a charity which combats far-right extremism.

In a statement, the company said, “It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services”.

There occurred an awkward situation in the social media platforms with the incident of New Zealand mosque attacks, when the terrorist had live streamed the terrific shooting.

Some white nationalist content were previously allowed by Facebook which it did not view as racist. This includes permission for users to call for the creation of white ethno-states.

The company said in a statement that they were thinking about broader concepts of nationalism and separatism, like American pride.

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europe times european daily trending world news Mark Zuckerberg outlines 'privacy-focused' plans for Facebook
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Mark Zuckerberg outlines ‘privacy-focused’ plans for Facebook

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The Facebook’s master Mark Zuckerberg said that secure, private messaging services will be having more chances to become popular than open platforms.

Zuckerberg, on Wednesday announced that Facebook plans to rebuild its services around several privacy-focused principles: “private interactions,” “encryption,” “reducing permanence,” “safety,” “interoperability” and “secure data storage.” He outlined his vision to transform Facebook into a “privacy-focused platform.” in his blog.

“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won’t stick around forever. This is the future I hope we will help bring about.”


“We plan to build this the way we’ve developed WhatsApp: focus on the most fundamental and private use case — messaging — make it as secure as possible, and then build more ways for people to interact on top of that, including calls, video chats, groups, stories, businesses, payments, commerce, and ultimately a platform for many other kinds of private services.” said Zuckerberg.

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British MPs unhappy with the way Facebook addresses fake news

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From the latest developments, it remains clear that the British parliamentarians are not happy with the way the world’s most popular social media platform, Facebook, addresses the sensitive issue of fake news.

A parliament committee, which has conducted an inquiry into the subject of the proliferation of fake news through the social media platforms such as Facebook, has observed that the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has failed to address the issue of fake news. It has found out that the social media platform has been several times used to destruct the democratic framework of the country by its rivals, primarily its external rivals.

The committee has demanded that the government should impose stricter regulation over the social media platforms such as Facebook. Anyway, the committee has not specifically prescribed how the social media platforms should be regulated.

The Facebook administration has asserted that the company would welcome all kinds of meaningful discussions and deliberations.

In the recent history, many countries have come forward against the proliferation of fake news through the social media platforms, such as Facebook.

Earlier, it was alleged that the social media platform was extensively misused by Russians to help the Republics gain a edge over the democrats during the US presidential race, in which the Republicans crushed the Democrats, paving way for the induction of Donald Trump as the President of the US –in other words, the, so called, Accidental President of the US.

Vignesh. S. G
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