Safaricom’s Zuri Migrates from Facebook to WhatsApp

Zuri

Zuri, has migrated from Facebook messenger to Whatsapp. Facebook, still a top tier app in Kenya in terms of popularity, is not Kenya’s most popular conversation and chatting app. In that regard, Whatsapp is. Hence the reason why Safaricom have moved Zuri to Whatsapp. Allowing more Kenyans to access it, and use the chatbot to its full capabilities. Through the creation of Safaricom’s chatbot, the precedence of AI in Kenya has taken a new turn. With Safaricom being the trail blazer in a constantly changing Kenyan tech space, AI has…

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Facebook and Instagram to show fewer political ads

Facebook

Facebook announced it will show fewer political ads to people on its platform and Instagram, starting with the US which faces Presidential elections this year, but won’t ban or limit those as Twitter has already done and Google to some extent. Targeting both Twitter and Google, the social networking platform said that while Twitter has chosen to block political ads and Google has chosen to limit the targeting of political ads, “we are choosing to expand transparency and give more controls to people when it comes to political ads”. “Seeing…

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Facebook released its 2019 year in review

Facebook

Facebook has released its ‘2019 Year in Review’ info-graphic, showcasing just some of its investments across Sub-Saharan in 2019.  Committed to giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together, throughout the year this translated into significant support and investments into growing the ecosystem of developers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and many other communities. During 2019, Facebook Africa: Trained over 7,000 woman-owned businesses in digital skills across sub Saharan Africa; Celebrated 79 Community Leadership Circle meetups with over 2 ,650 people attending; Reached its 45th Developer Circle, with…

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Facebook to equip locals with journalistic skills

Facebook

Internet giant, Facebook is partnering with Kenya’s Aga Khan University (AKU) to equip locals with digital journalistic skills to tell their Kenyan stories. The six months ‘Video Journalism Fellowship’ to be hosted at the AKU’s AKU’s Graduate School of Media and Communications(GSMC),Nairobi with beneficiaries attached to local media houses to sharpen their reporting skills. Speaking at the launch event, GSMC Interim dean Alex Awiti said the AKU-Facebook partnership redefines citizen journalism where Kenyans will tell real-life stories using their smartphones to capture video content. “Mobile journalism is a growing form…

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Global social media Ad spend to surpass print for the 1st time – Zenith Study

Social media will overtake print ad spend for the first time this year, becoming the third largest channel for advertising, according to the latest forecasts from Zenith. By offering sophisticated targeting capabilities and unparalleled reach for businesses of all sizes, social and search platforms have chipped away at traditional advertising sources. It’s predicted that growth will slow to 17 per cent in 2020 and then 13 per cent in 2021, at which point it will account for 16 per cent of the market. “Social media advertising gives brands the opportunity…

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Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram in worst ever worldwide outage for the internet giant

Facebook said it was “back at 100 percent” after an outage on all of its services affected users in various parts of the world. Online monitoring service DownDetector reported on Wednesday that the outage began around 12:00 GMT and affected Facebook as well as its Instagram and WhatsApp services. “The issue has since been resolved and we should be back at 100 percent for everyone,” the company tweeted at 00:06 GMT on Thursday, adding they were sorry for “any inconvenience”. A Facebook spokesperson, also speaking on behalf of Instagram and…

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Has your Instagram account been hacked? You can recover it this way

Previously, if your Instagram account was taken over by an attacker, recovering it would require wading through choppy customer support, or calling for assistance from white-hat hackers. Now, Instagram is rolling out new measures to help you get your account back more easily. On Monday, Instagram announced it is testing changes that could make it easier for users to regain access to hacked accounts, as well as security features that could make it harder to steal Instagram usernames in the first place. The news comes after a wave of Instagram…

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Facebook looking to launch own crypto-currency in 2020

By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, LONDON, United Kingdom, May 24 – Facebook has been in contact with US and British financial regulators with a view to launching its own crypto-currency next year, the BBC reported on Friday. “GlobalCoin” would work with a new digital payments system in about a dozen countries, starting in the first quarter of 2020, the broadcaster said on its website. Previous reports have said Facebook is taking a serious look at blockchain technology under its “Project Libra”, in part to tackle doubts about privacy among its many…

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Facebook handed over 150 companies intrusive access to your data

Facebook gave over 150 companies almost unfetted intrusive access to users’ data than previously admitted, exempting them from its usual privacy rules, according to the New York Times. It has emerged that companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify, and Yandex had special arrangements to retain access to users’ data (and data on their friends), despite platform changes in 2014 that restricted the practice. For example: — Netflix and Spotify were able to read users’ private messages — Microsoft had access to the names of virtually all users’ friends, without consent…

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Facebook Transparency Report reveals fewer user data requests by African Governments

facebook

According to the recently released Facebook Transparency Report for the six months from January to June 2018, demands by African governments for information on Facebook users remain low compared to other countries, Globally over the six-month period there were 103 815 requests and in 74% of those requests Facebook produced some data. This was a 26.1% increase when compared to the last six months of 2017, when there were 82 341 requests. It is also an increase of 31.6% from the first half of last year, when there were 78…

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