by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : In an incredible feat, Microsoft, Facebook and the telecom infrastructure company Telxius have laid a 6,598 km cable across the Atlantic Ocean that is capable of transmitting 160 terabits of data per second.
The companies announced the completion of the highest capacity subsea cable ‘Marea’ (tide) that delivers 16 million times faster Internet than an average home web connection, Microsoft wrote in a blog post.
Microsoft claims that the superfast Internet speed delivered by Marea can stream 71 million HD videos simultaneously.
“Marea comes at a critical time. Submarine cables in the Atlantic already carry 55 per cent more data than trans-Pacific routes and 40 per cent more data than between the US and Latin America. There is no question that the demand for data flows across the Atlantic will continue to increase,” said Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, in a blog post.
For most of the route, the cable — made up of eight pairs of fibre optic cables enclosed by copper — lays on the ocean floor. Some parts are buried to protect from shipping traffic, usually in areas closer to the shore, the company said.
The cable that lies 17,000 feet below the ocean surface and extends between Virginia Beach in the US and the city of Bilbao in Spain, would be operational by early 2018.
Microsoft said the project was completed nearly three times faster than usual, in under two years.
Google has also invested in two cables that run from the US to Japan, covering South America and several Asian countries.
With the Marea cable, Facebook and Microsoft’s investment gives them more control over the vast amounts of data they need to move quickly around the world, the report said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Investing, Markets, Media, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : Facebook is ready to shell out a whopping $1 billion to become a major hub for videos, a media report said on Saturday.
The social media giant is willing to spend as much as $1 billion to cultivate original shows for its platform, according to people familiar with the matter. The figure, which could fluctuate based on the success of Facebook’s’ programming, covers potential spending through 2018, The Wall Street Journal report said.
The figure is less than what the company’s digital rivals such as Netflix invested. Netflix spent $6 billion in 2017 and Amazon shelled out $4.5 billion.
The company has improved its strategy for video content, including cutting deals for digital TV shows.
Earlier this month, Facebook rolled out “Watch” service — a redesigned video platform for creators and publishers — for every US citizen who uses the social media platform.
Facebook is offering a range of different options for discovering video content, including programmes and sections like “Today’s Spotlight”, “New This Week”, “Popular Now”, “What Friends Are Watching”, “Most Talked About”, “Suggested For You”, and a special “10 Minutes Or More” spot for long-form videos.
For now, Facebook is primarily highlighting reality shows, which partners are producing en masse since they are cheap, don’t require set scripts and can be watched piecemeal, the report said.
The social media giant debuted with Business Insider’s lifestyle shows — “The Great Cheese Hunt” and “It’s Cool, But Does It Really Work?”.
News and issues publisher Attn premiered “We Need to Talk” and “Health Hacks” starring Jessica Alba last week.
Meanwhile, food video giant Tastemade debuted with four shows, including “Safe Deposit”, “Struggle Meals”, “Food to Die For” and “Kitchen Little”.
In an apparent bid to take on Google-owned YouTube, Facebook rolled out “Watch” last month.
The social media giant last year launched “Video” tab in the US which offered a predictable place to find videos on Facebook.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology, World
San Francisco : An internal investigation at Facebook has revealed that fake Russian accounts bought nearly $100,000 of political ads during the 2016 US election campaign.
The ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights, the social networking giant said on Thursday.
“There have been a lot of questions since the 2016 US election about Russian interference in the electoral process,” said Alex Stamos, Chief Security Officer at Facebook, in a blog post.
“In reviewing the ad buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies,” he posted.
The Facebook analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia.
“We don’t allow inauthentic accounts on Facebook, and as a result, we have since shut down the accounts and Pages we identified that were still active,” Stamos said.
The vast majority of ads run by these accounts didn’t specifically refer to the US presidential election, voting or a particular candidate.
“The behaviour displayed by these accounts to amplify divisive messages was consistent with the techniques mentioned in the white paper we released in April about information operations,” the Facebook executive noted.
Facebook has shared its findings with the US authorities investigating these issues.
The company is also exploring several new improvements to its systems for keeping inauthentic accounts and activity off its platform.
“For example, we are looking at how we can apply the techniques we developed for detecting fake accounts to better detect inauthentic Pages and the ads they may run,” the post said.
Facebook is also experimenting with changes to help it more efficiently detect and stop inauthentic accounts at the time they are being created.
It has applied machine learning to help limit spam and reduce the posts people see that link to low-quality web pages.
Facebook has also reduced stories from sources that consistently post clickbait headlines that withhold and exaggerate information.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Markets, Technology
San Francisco : After several tech giants, including Google and Facebook, supported Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plan to roll back Obama-era net neutrality rules, Apple called on the US communications regulatory agency to keep “strong, enforceable open internet protections”.
“An open internet ensures that hundreds of millions of consumers get the experience they want, over the broadband connections they choose, to use the devices they love, which have become an integral part of their lives,” Cynthia Hogan, Apple’s Vice President of Public Policy, said in a letter to the agency.
The FCC, led by its Chairman Ajit Pai, voted in May to start the formal process of unwinding the 2015 rules. Those rules treat regulation of internet more like that of a public utility such as water or electricity and prohibit broadband providers such as Verizon and Comcast from creating a tiered system of access, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.
Under the current net neutrality rules, it is illegal for companies to offer a high-speed lane to corporations able to pay more or to effectively slow a rival service.
The FCC’s proposal asks whether the agency should eliminate the rule banning Internet service providers from creating fast lanes (or slow lanes) that could favour one service over another, which critics say could allow them to pick winners and losers online.
Pai has said the regulations stifle corporate innovation and investment and are not necessary to guaranteeing an “open internet”.
However, Apple argued that paid fast lines should not replace “content-neutral transmission of internet traffic,”.
The tech giant has also called for increased competition and transparency in the broadband market.
“We work hard to build great products, and what consumers do with those tools is up to them – not Apple, and not broadband providers. Apple therefore believes that the Federal Communications Commission should retain strong, enforceable open internet protections,” the letter said.
Apple said the current rules reflect open internet principles and that those principles “should form the foundation of any net neutrality framework going forward”.
“Simply put, the internet is too important to consumers and too essential to innovation to be left unprotected and uncertain,” the company said in the letter.
Cloud major Oracle had voiced support for Pai’s plan to roll back its net neutrality rules.
Oracle wrote a letter to the FCC and played up its “perspective as a Silicon Valley technology company”, hammering the debate over the rules as a “highly political hyperbolic battle”, that is “removed from technical, economic, and consumer reality”.
Other companies — like AT&T and Verizon — that support Pai’s plan have made an argument that the rules stifled investment in the telecommunications sector, specifically in broadband infrastructure.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology, World
San Francisco : Two days after Apple started accepting donations for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, Facebook has announced that it would raise, from the users on the platform, funds to the tune of $1 million for the cause.
To contribute funds to Harvey recovery efforts on the platform, users can follow the message on top of their News Feed urging them to donate or they can donate directly through the centre for Disaster Philanthropy’s Facebook page, Tech Crunch reported on Tuesday.
In June, Facebook announced that its Safety Check feature — a tool for users to mark themselves as “safe” during emergencies and natural disasters — would integrate support for crisis-specific fundraising.
On Monday, Apple announced that it has partnered with the American Red Cross to accept donations through the iTunes Store for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted: “Prayers for Texas and all those affected by #HurricaneHarvey. Join us in the relief effort by donating: http://apple.co/2xmVm50.”
Users can donate money in $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $200 denominations and Apple will transfer all the money to the Red Cross.
Harvey first made landfall in Rockport, located northeast of Corpus Christi, at 10 p.m. on Friday as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 215 kmph.
—IANS
