Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said steps taken by the social media giant have helped protect the integrity of more than 200 different elections around the world, including in India, and have also played an important role in stopping abuse ahead of US elections.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump responded by saying: "FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since "deplatforming" your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account. Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution."
Maharashtra has witnessed 823 incidents of communal unrest since January this year, with demands for the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb and the spread of distorted facts on social media fomenting fresh trouble. Districts like Nandurbar, Pune (Rural), Ratnagiri, Sangli, Beed, and Satara have seen communal unrest in recent days due to right-wing organizations' demands for the demolition of the Mughal emperor's tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The state witnessed 4,836 Hindu-Muslim related communal crimes in 2024, with 170 incidents classified as cognisable and 3,106 as non-cognisable cases. The violence in Nagpur, triggered by protests demanding the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb, highlights the role of social media in spreading inflammatory content and instigating people. While the state has taken measures to curb the spread of misinformation, concerns remain over the impact on communities and the need for promoting peace and understanding.
Following the violence in Nagpur, Maharashtra's Cyber department has identified over 140 posts and videos on social media platforms that incite communal unrest. These posts, found on Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube, are being removed, and legal action is being taken against the individuals responsible. The department is also investigating the origins of the violence, which was triggered by rumors of a religious artifact being burnt during protests.
"Actioned" content refers to the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) where action has been taken for violation of standards. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning.
The scale of illegal gambling and betting in India is staggering, with 1.6 billion visits recorded between October and December 2024 across four analysed platforms -- Parimatch, Stake, 1xBet, and Battery Bet.
Social media giant Facebook has said that it has banned the Taliban and all content supporting it from its platforms as it considers the group to be a terrorist organisation, according to a media report.
While Facebook said on Tuesday it will publish an interim report on July 2 as mandated by the IT rules, Google will publish its transparency report as required under the new IT Rules in India.
'This is the first time there has been an attempt to use market forces to counter disinformation on social media,' notes Devangshu Datta.
The development comes amid reports that social media companies are being asked to remove posts that are critical of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The content eligible for review includes posts, status updates, photos, videos, comments, and shares.
Jyotispeethadheeswar Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, who was scheduled to participate in the "Gau Dhwaj" hoisting programme at the Ram temple in Shimla, boycotted the event and did not visit the shrine.
The move assumes significance as a series of reports recently citing internal documents showed "a struggle with misinformation, hate speech and celebrations of violence" in India - Facebook's biggest market with over 40 crore users.
As per the report released on Monday, the over 26.9 million content pieces actioned by Facebook during September included content related to spam (20.3 million), violent and graphic content (3.4 million), adult nudity and sexual activity (2.4 million), and hate speech (182,200).
The spokesperson added that the review showed that only the Facebook page was affected by the automated systems while the Instagram account remained unaffected.
The attack aimed to overthrow the democratically elected American government in order to replace it with a dictatorship fuelled by Nazi ideology, the Department of Justice said.
The content 'actioned' belonged to categories including bullying and harassment, violent and graphic content, adult nudity and sexual activity, child endangerment, dangerous organisations and individuals, and spam, among others.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed Facebook and Google to remove alleged derogatory material related to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sasikala Pushpa who claimed that her image was being tarnished by purported morphed photos and videos with a man on social media.
He said that fact-checkers are a reference point to fight against misinformation and rejected arguments that it will adversely impact "free speech".
The police took action after cyber patrolling revealed that 60 fake lottery apps, 25 fake Facebook profiles and 20 websites are connected to the scam, the SPMC release said.
'We take allegations of bias incredibly seriously, and want to make it clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in any form'
The Congress also alleged that Facebook was acting as an ally of the ruling BJP and pushing its agenda.
'The path beyond diesel is not going to be clear. It is really going to be dependent on applications.'
The Congress accused Facebook of interfering in India's democratic process and social harmony and being soft on members of the ruling BJP on applying its hate-speech rules.
Bangladesh's veteran opener Tamim Iqbal has announced his retirement from international cricket for the second time.
Earlier, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube removed a video of Trump in which he repeated unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him.
Facebook -- which counts India among its largest markets with over 300 million users -- has been in the eye of a storm after a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report alleged that the social media platform's content policies favoured the ruling party in India. The report had accused Facebook of ignoring posts containing hate speech by BJP MLA Raja Singh. Since then, the ruling BJP and Congress have been trading barbs over the social media giant's alleged political bias.
Meta-owned Facebook 'actioned' about 21.6 million content pieces across 13 violation categories in India during March, according to a monthly report by the social media giant.
Social media behemoth Facebook on Friday said the account of former United States President Donald Trump will remain suspended for two years, and post that period it will re-assess the ban.
Social media giant Facebook has named Spoorthi Priya as its grievance officer for India on its website.
Rajiv Gandhi, his son Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia Karan Singh, Naveen Patnaik besides celebrated authors like Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth studied at The Doon School.
The cartoon depicted men wearing skull caps hanging by the noose. It had a tricolour and a drawing depicting the scene of a bomb blast in the background, with "Satyamev Jayate" written on its top right corner.
The government has asked social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, to remove content and posts that were spreading misinformation and public panic around the pandemic, according to sources.
The comments assume significance as social media companies are facing the deadline of May 25 to comply with the new guidelines for digital platforms.
Joining the elite 2,800 rated chess players club will get Arjun invites for top chess tournaments as well as better appearance fees.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, had called representatives of Facebook to hear their views "on the subject of safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space," according to agenda of the meeting.
Facebook's parent company Meta announced on Tuesday it will fire another 10,000 people, implementing a second round of jobs cuts after it slashed 11,000 positions in November last year, to improve its financial performance in a "difficult environment". Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a post that overall "we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven't yet hired." The company has said that in its "Year of Efficiency", the company aims to make itself "a better technology company and to improve our financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long-term vision."
However, the social media giant hasn't responded to as yet.
Homegrown microblogging platform Koo said the new guidelines will help clarify the responsibilities of intermediaries.
The grand old party alleged that these namesake candidates are backed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Bharatiya Janata Party to confuse voters.
