by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Markets, Social Media
In a bid to avoid discrimination in ads related to housing, jobs and credits, Facebook has announced new changes where anyone who wants to run such ads will no longer be allowed to target by age, gender or zip code.
These changes are the result of settlement agreements with leading civil rights organisations and ongoing input from civil rights experts, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a blog post late Tuesday.
Last year, the US National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and other private parties, filed litigation against Facebook, saying it needs to build stronger protections against abuse.
“Our policies already prohibit advertisers from using our tools to discriminate. We’ve removed thousands of categories from targeting related to protected classes such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion. But we can do better,” said Sandberg.
Advertisers offering housing, employment and credit opportunities will now have a much smaller set of targeting categories to use in their campaigns overall.
Any detailed targeting option describing or appearing to relate to protected classes will also be unavailable.
“We’re building a tool so you can search for and view all current housing ads in the US targeted to different places across the country, regardless of whether the ads are shown to you,” said the Facebook COO.
–IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate Jobs, Employment, Markets, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology, World
San Francisco : Facebook will now incentivise its 36,000 employees on how they are contributing to social causes and helping the company tackle issues like spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platform.
Going beyond metrics like user growth and product quality to decide on employee bonuses, the social media giant will now see how the workers reflect the company’s updated priorities for 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a meeting at his headquarters on Tuesday, a day after Facebook celebrated its 15th anniversary.
“Previously, Facebook’s employee bonus formula was based on six factors, including user growth, increased sharing by users, and improvements in product quality. Now the company is adjusting its bonus calculations to better reflect its updated goals,” said a Fortune report.
Those updated goals include making progress on the social issues Facebook is facing, building services that improve people’s lives, supporting businesses and being more transparent about the role Facebook plays in the world.
“Over the past two years, we’ve fundamentally changed how we run Facebook. This particular change is designed to ensure that we are incentivising people to keep making progress on the major social issues facing the internet and our company,” the company said in a statement.
Zuckerberg in his New Year statement had said that his personal challenge for 2019 will be to “host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society — the opportunities, the challenges, the hopes, and the anxieties”.
“We’ve fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we’re investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect,” he said after Facebook on January 30 announced record revenue of $16.91 billion in the fourth quarter ending December 31.
Facebook now has a monthly active user base of 2.32 billion and daily active users base of 1.52 billion.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Finance, Markets, News, Online Marketing, Politics, Social Media, Technology
Himanta Biswa Sarma
Guwahati : The Assam Finance Department has decided to use social media platforms to inform and engage citizens on the state’s 2019-20 Budget, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a statement on Monday.
Sarma said that social media is an effective tool to engage the public and acquire feedback for the upcoming Budget which will be presented at the Assam Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
He said that the use of this dynamic medium, in addition to other traditional means, has been inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” and also “in keeping with our commitment to adhere to the principles of participatory governance”.
“The use of social media for seeking people’s participation and inputs in the Budget is also a first of its kind experiment in the country and has been very effective. We have reached out to more than 1.6 lakh people by posting 200 feeds on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in 11 days with a combined Followers base of over 3,200,” he added.
The state government’s budget app called “Assam Budget”, available both on Android and iOS, is also a unique initiative towards a ‘Digital India’, according to the Minister.
“We are planning to continue to engage citizens as well as gather critical information using the social media platforms. Among others, one of the key objectives of our social media campaign outreach strategy has been to create a bonding with our vibrant pool of youngsters and many other tech-savvy people of Assam,” Sarma added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, News, Social Media, Technology
New Delhi : Although Indian parents are aware that images of their children posted online could end up in the wrong hands, most of them are still sharing their kids’ images online often without any consent from them, a survey by global cyber security firm McAfee revealed on Tuesday.
The survey, titled “The Age of Consent,” found 40.5 per cent of parents in India (with Mumbai being the most active) post a photo or video of their child at least once a day on their social media accounts, with 36 per cent posting a picture of their child once a week.
Most parents identified the following concerns associated with sharing images online including paedophilia (16.5 per cent), stalking (32 per cent), kidnapping (43 per cent) and cyberbullying (23 per cent), but many (62 per cent) don’t even consider if their child would consent to their image being posted online.
“What’s even more alarming is that a whopping 76 per cent of parents say they are aware that the images of their children posted online could end up in the wrong hands,” the survey noted.
Mumbai (66.5 per cent) was followed by Delhi (61 per cent) and Bengaluru (55 per cent) where majority of parents believed they have the right to share images of their child online without consulting them first.
“The survey reveals parents are not giving enough consideration to what they post online and how it could harm their children. Posting kids’ information may compromise their personal information,” said Venkat Krishnapur, Vice-President of Engineering and Managing Director – McAfee.
Responsibility lies with parents to understand the implications of their social media habits/actions and the repercussions the child may face, he added.
The survey found parents from Mumbai to be most active with 48 per cent posting a picture of their child on social media at least once per day in comparison to other metros like Delhi (38.5 per cent) and Bengaluru (31 per cent).
More than half of the parents surveyed (67 per cent) admit that they have or would share a photo of their child in their school uniform despite the risk of giving away personal information thus paving the way for stalkers to get added details on their child’s whereabouts.
While 55 per cent of parents only share images of their child on private social media accounts, 42 per cent are still sharing images on public social media accounts.
“Parents from Bengaluru (59 per cent) exercise highest caution and post pictures of their children only from private social media accounts, closely followed by Mumbai (57 per cent) and Delhi (48.5 per cent),” the findings showed.
While it’s clear that parents are worried about physical risks to their children’s safety, results indicate less concern about the emotional risks.
Interestingly, it appears mothers consider the embarrassing side effect more than fathers, with 47 per cent mothers admitting that they would never post images their children would be embarrassed by, in comparison to 38 per cent of dads.
To reach this conclusion, McAfee commissioned market research firm OnePoll to conduct a survey of 1,000 parents of children aged 1 month to 16 years old across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
“Many social networks will tag a user’s location when a photo is uploaded. Parents should ensure this feature is turned off to avoid disclosing their location. This is especially important when posting photos away from home,” said McAfee.
Parents should only share photos and other social media posts with their intended audience, it added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, News, Politics
Patna : An FIR was filed by an Urdu daily journalist here after he was threatened with death for a social media post that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would seek votes in the 2019 general elections in the name of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a police official said on Friday.
Seemab Akhtar, who works at ‘Farooqui Tanzeem’ published from Patna, was repeatedly threatened by an unidentified man for his social media post in Hindi: “Dekh lena agle chunao mein Modi Atal ki tasveer lekar roenge, aur bolenge bhai-behno inke naam pe dedo vote unka sapna pura karna hai… (in the next elections, Modi will carry Atal’s picture and shed tears asking for votes to fulfil the former PM’s dream).
According to Akhtar, he received threat calls and was asked not to post anything against the Bharatiya Janata Party on the social media. “I was threatened with death if I continued to write against the BJP.”
Bajpatti police station incharge Kanchan Bhaskar said that an FIR had been filed.
Sanjay Kumar, a Professor at Motihari Central University in east Champaran district, was beaten up by a group of people last Friday for his comments on the social media that appeared to criticise Vajpayee. A seriously injured Kumar was first admitted in Patna hospital, but later shifted to AIIMS in Delhi.
—IANS
