Category: SOCIAL MEDIA

Fear of ‘brand damage’ means less than 5% of businesses report online attacks

Editor
emotion

Half of Irish companies have been victims of economic crime within the past two years — up from 34pc in 2016 and 26pc in 2010, according to a recent report from PwC on economic crime (stock image) Brand damage and embarrassment are among the reasons given for the under-reporting of cybercrime by Irish businesses to gardai. But, from a prevention and awareness level, it is important that this crime is reported, according to Michael Gubbins, Detective Superintendent and head of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau. It is estimated that…

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DStv Tanzania freezes local free to air channels off its list

olivia Craig
DStv

Multichoice Tanzania (DStv)has removed free-to-air (FTA) channels from its subscription list, barely a week after the country’s communications regulator warned it would suspend the pay TV licence. The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) had said it would suspend Multichoice licence for its continued carrying of free channels on its service despite holding a licence that barred it from doing so. “In exercising its powers, the authority hereby notifies the general public that it intends to suspend all the licenses issued to Multichoice Tanzania Ltd for failure to comply with the…

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Facebook-owned Instagram to allow users to apply for verification

fACEBOOK,INSTAGRAM,MESSANGER

Users will soon apply for verification on Instagram as the social media giant platform rolls out a number of new features aimed at increasing transparency and engagement. Instagram said it was rolling out the feature locally to clear the air around its verification process which had become the centrepiece of several conspiracy theories including paid-for blue badges and fake influencer accounts. “Our community asked us for more transparency around this issue, and with today’s announcement we’re sharing clear details about verification requirements and eligibility criteria,” Instagram’s strategic partner manager APAC,…

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Facebook entices content creators with new community-centered video platform

Dianne Jacobs
Telkom

Facebook announced several new live video features today that will allow creators to make their live streams more like games with polls and quizzes. The features are similar to those that creators on YouTube have had access to for months through the recent addition of the Community tab. These new features could entice established creators to migrate to Facebook’s video platform. Facebook says these features will reinvent traditional entertainment formats as more “community-centric,” and it noted a trend in more collaborative video consumption that relies on audience participation. YouTube integrated polling…

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Instagram’s Video Hub Dubbed IGTV Set to Launch Tomorrow

Dianne Jacobs

The Instagram longer-form video hub that’s launching tomorrow is called IGTV and it will be part of the Explore tab, according to multiple sources. Instagram  has spent the week meeting with online content creators to encourage them to prepare videos closer to 10-minute YouTube vlogs than the 1-minute maximum videos the app allows today. Instagram is focusing its efforts around web celebrities that made their name on mobile rather than more traditional, old-school publishers and TV studios that might come off too polished and processed. The idea is to let these creators,  who have a knack for this…

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Twitter prioritizes breaking news in an app redesign

Dianne Jacobs

Online news and social networking service, Twitter, announced  that it is changing up its service in favour of major events to make it easier for people to access the latest breaking news. This shift in focus sets the service apart from other social media networks such as Facebook who have opted to focus less on live events and news and more on the personal lives and interests of its user base. In terms of what they’re changing, the  app will now feature a “happening now” module to highlight all kinds…

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Facebook’s new AI research is a real eye-opener

Dianne Jacobs

There are plenty of ways to manipulate photos to make you look better, remove red eye or lens flare, and so on. But so far the blink has proven a tenacious opponent of good snapshots. That may change with research from Facebook that replaces closed eyes with open ones in a remarkably convincing manner. It’s far from the only example of intelligent “in-painting,” as the technique is called when a program fills in a space with what it thinks belongs there. Adobe in particular has made good use of it with its…

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Children exposed to horror film ads on YouTube

Dianne Jacobs

Children were left distressed after seeing ads for a horror film on YouTube, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed. Three parents contacted the ASA after their children saw ads for Insidious: The Last Key – rated 15 in the UK. One ad for the film was shown before videos of songs from Frozen, instructions for building a Lego fire station and a clip from the cartoon PJ Masks. The ASA has upheld the complaints. In a second ad, the ASA said a young woman was seen “lying on a…

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Facebook may now ban bad businesses from advertising

Dianne Jacobs
Facebook gaming

Facebook will now let you file a complaint about businesses you’ve had a problem with if you bought something after clicking on one of their ads. If enough people complain about a business, it could lead to Facebook banning the company from running ads. The new policy is rolling out globally starting today, and it’s meant to help Facebook fight back against another type of advertising abuse on its platform. Facebook says it’s trying to combat “bad shopping experiences,” which can cost customers and make them frustrated with Facebook, too.…

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Google brings offline translations for 59 languages to its Translate app

Dianne Jacobs

Currently, when the Google Translate apps for iOS and Android has access to the internet, its translations are far superior to those it produces when it’s offline. That’s because the offline translations are phrase-based, meaning they use an older machine translation technique than the machine learning-powered systems in the cloud that the app has access to when it’s online. But that’s changing today. Google is now rolling out offline Neural Machine Translation (NMT) support for 59 languages in the Translate apps. Today, only a small number of users will see…

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