by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
San Francisco : Dismissing US President Donald Trump’s claim that Facebook was hostile against him like The New York Times and The Washington Post, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Trump’s allegations were baseless.
Trump tweeted late Wednesday: “Facebook was always anti-Trump. The Networks were always anti-Trump hence, Fake News, @nytimes (apologised) and @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?”
Zuckerberg responded: “Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like”.
According to Zuckerberg, the facts suggest the greatest role Facebook played in the 2016 US election was different from what most were saying.
“More people had a voice in this election than ever before. There were billions of interactions discussing the issues that may have never happened offline. Every topic was discussed, not just what the media covered,” he posted.
Facebook is facing intense fake news scrutiny after disclosing the details about the presence of Russian political ads worth $100,000 on its platform during the presidential election.
“This was the first US election where the internet was a primary way candidates communicated. Every candidate had a Facebook page to communicate directly with tens of millions of followers every day.
“Campaigns spent hundreds of millions advertising online to get their messages out even further. That’s 1000x more than any problematic ads we’ve found,” he added.
After an extensive legal and policy review, the social media giant announced that it would share 3,000 Russian ads with Congressional investigators.
Congressional leaders have sent a letter to Facebook, Google and Twitter, requesting them to provide information on whether Russia purchased any advertisements on their platforms.
Facebook earlier handed over the details to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating claims of alleged Russian meddling in the election, included copies of the ads and details about the accounts that bought them and the targeting criteria they used.
Facebook, Twitter and Google have also been summoned to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
According to Zuckerberg: “After the US election, I made a comment that I thought the idea misinformation on Facebook changed the outcome of the election was a crazy idea.
“Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an issue to be dismissive. But the data we have has always shown that our broader impact — from giving people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping millions of people vote — played a far bigger role in this election,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Startup Basics
Prime Minister,Narendra Modi with the Facebook Chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at Facebook HQ, in San Jose, California
San Jose:(IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday had a glimpse into the future of his latest per project of promoting and fostering entrepreneurship when he visited the “India-US Startup Konnect 2015” exposition here that is showcasing India’s strengths in the startup ecosystem through the displays of some 40 companies.
“It is a great pleasure to be here. For me, this is a special event because the idea of startups is close to my heart. When I shifted to Delhi last year, I thought of my government as a start up,” Modi told the packed gathering at what is considered the Mecca of tech innovation.
Hosted by Nasscom in partnership with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad’s (IIM-A) Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), the day-long event on the margins of Modi’s visit to the Silicon Valley highlights Indian innovation through the eyes of 30 startups.
The prime minister was again ready with his quotable quotes. “I often say that if there is a strong wind, some shut the window, but others put a windmill or launch sail in the sea,” he said.
“The course of human history and progress has been shaped by imagination, inspiration, invention and innovation.”
The prime minister said the idea of a start-up was as ancient as the world itself, with each economic era defined by the disruption of the previous one with the evolution of new ideas and products.
“Start-ups have always been engines of progress. The mega corporations of today were start-ups of yesterday.”
Modi also launched year the “Bharat Fund” that will provide seed funding to Indian entrepreneurs who will go after projects that can promote better health, usher in new socially-helpful technologies, look at new and renewable sources of energy and push farm-sector development.
Explaining the idea of Startup Konnect, Nasscom top brass here said the intention was a single platform for funding, mentoring, and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit for as many as 10,000 start-ups — who will get to meet some experts and advisors in the field to adapt idea into a successful business venture.
“A girl child in a remote Indian village dreams of her own projects when she sees start-ups of today,”said Modi.
“The potential of youth and innovation can ignite partnership between India and US and give new content to our strategic partnership.”
The prime minister also witnessed the signing of seven pacts between Indian-US entities to strengthen the Start-up Konnect
Earlier, Reid Garrett Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and a entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author, said the key success of Silicon Valley ad the global tech and entrepreneurship hub was not start-ups, but scale-ups.
“What the prime minister is doing in terms of ‘Digital India’ is great leadership,” he said.
