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News Tech

Facebook And Twitter Debated The False Accounts and Fake News Topics Before the US Senate

The role of social networks in US elections continues to be scrutinized by the US Senate. After Mark Zuckerberg, now Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Sheryl Sandberg, number two at Facebook, were heard on September 5th regarding the foreign interference on these social networks in the perspective of the US elections.

“We are not proud,” said Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO. “We were not prepared and equipped for the immensity of the problems we discovered,” he added.

“We hope you can help us better understand how Twitter decides when to suspend or ban a user from the service, and what you do to ensure that such decisions are made without undue bias,” said Greg Walden, the President of the Commission, at the opening ceremony.

According to Jack Dorsey, Twitter failed to fight “abuse, harassment, troll armies, and bots propaganda.”

“We have been too slow to act,” also said Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook.

Facebook and Twitter reassured the US Senate that the measures against fake news and false accounts are still in place

In short, thousands of fake accounts leading hostile campaigns against Hillary Clinton had suddenly been shut down on Twitter and Facebook. That raised questions about Russia’s role in this matter, while, on the other side, Russia categorically denies this accusation.

Additionally, the US President Donald Trump blames Twitter and Facebook for ejecting conservative media from the social network, media that would be favorable to him.

“We do not take into account political views or party affiliation in the application of our policies and procedures,” said Jack Dorsey. “Impartiality is our guiding principle,” he added.

The renowned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was recently banned on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, came before the US Senate to express his dissatisfaction on this matter.

This hearing comes in the view of the mid-term elections scheduled for next November, while Facebook and Twitter wanted to reassure us that thousands of foreign accounts broadcasting fake news were reportedly deleted from these platforms.

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Tech

Facebook Announced The Elimination Of Hundreds Of Fake Profiles

With less than three months to go before the US legislative elections, companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft announced the closure of fake profiles, accounts or Internet domains with alleged links to Russia and Iran. Facebook, for its part, removed 652 accounts, pages and groups considered fraudulent. Twitter, on the other hand, closed 284 accounts planned for a “coordinated manipulation,” as reported by the company.

According to Facebook, the accounts it closed were intended to spread propaganda through fake profiles. The accounts were reportedly operated by Iran and by factions related to the Russian military secret service. Hours later, Twitter announced the closure of 284 accounts.

This news came after Microsoft, the world’s largest software manufacturer, announced that it took control of six web domains that looked real and could be used to attract users and infect their computers with viruses. These domains created the impression of being associated with Microsoft services and were registered by a group of hackers also connected to the Russian secret services.

Facebook intensified its security measures to put an end to the manipulation propagated via fake profiles

“We ban this kind of behavior because we want people to be able to trust the connections they make on Facebook. We are making progress in eradicating this abuse, but it is an ongoing effort because those responsible are determined and funded,” Facebook stated.

At the end of July, Facebook already denounced an attempt to manipulate public opinion in the United States through a network of fake profiles on the social network.

Being criticized for not taking the situation of fake accounts serious, Facebook hardened its security conditions in late-2017. Meanwhile, research is ongoing, Zuckerberg said. In the United States, the main goal of the new security measures the social network adopted is to avoid manipulation of public opinion before the November congressional elections.

The activity of Russian hackers in the United States is a hot topic and the special researcher Robert Mueller’s enquiries into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections, in which Facebook and Cambridge Analytica firm were also involved, are receiving a great deal of attention, although US President Donald Trump sees them as a “witch hunt.”

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Crypto News

Facebook Denies The Partnership With Stellar (XLM) For Implementing Joint Projects

Contradictory information about the possible partnership between Facebook and the Stellar (XLM) project team was published in the media on August 10th. Shortly after the publication, on the Business Insider portal, of unofficial information that Facebook was meeting with the Stellar project’s team to work together, a statement emerged from a Facebook spokesperson who denied the news.

The information published by Business Insider also came from an unidentified spokesperson who claimed that the Facebook team, led by David Marcus, was in discussions with the open source payment technology company, Stellar, to explore the likelihood of entering the field of finance and banking transactions, taking advantage of the new technology.

Thus, according to comments from the source, the social network would plan to register payment transactions on a platform like Stellar (XLM), to which merchants could connect.

Facebook denied the information, according to an unidentified spokesperson from the social network’s part, who also added that after the publication of the Business Insider report, the price of Stellar (XLM) token surged by approximately 10% on Binance.

Facebook denied the partnership with Stellar (XLM) team, but it manages a blockchain technology team

The news about the potential partnership between Facebook and Stellar (XLM) coincided with the announcement that the research leader of the Facebook blockchain team, David Marcus, is leaving his position on the board of directors of the Coinbase exchange house to devote himself full-time to the project of the company led by Mark Zuckerberg.

Marcus is the former director of Messenger and has been leading a small technology development team on Facebook since last May. On this point, some commented that the decision to leave Coinbase might be due to the need to avoid a conflict of interest between the two companies.

At the same time, the Facebook blockchain team has been consolidating itself in recent months, by the incorporation of personnel trained in the area, among them Evan Chang, appointed director of blockchain engineering last July.

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News Tech

Facebook Messenger 179.0.0.14.71 Beta Download Available with AR Games

Even though reports are showing that Facebook is losing its popularity, the social media giant is not giving up that easy. Instagram and Snapchat are the two apps that are “stealing” users from Facebook and Facebook decided to strike back by launching a new update for the Messenger app which introduces two AR games.

Facebook Messenger 179.0.0.14.71 Beta

The latest update for Facebook Messenger has been recently released and it sports the 179.0.0.14.71 beta version number. As we can clearly tell from the update’s version number, the update is targeted towards beta testers who want to get access to Facebook’s latest features ahead of everyone else. With that said, let’s see what the new update brings.

AR Games

One of the main reasons why Snapchat and Instagram have the upper hand over Facebook is because they feature cool camera filters. Well, it looks like Facebook wants to get back into the popularity race because the new update introduces two new AR (augmented reality) games which are quite similar to what Snapchat and Instagram have to offer. Nonetheless, the two games are really fun to play and it shows us that Facebook is taking the Messenger app into the right direction.

Android Package Kit

We need to mention that this latest update is exclusive to Android users because it comes in the form of APK. APK is an acronym for “Android Package Kit” and Facebook fans who want to get access to the new AR games need to manually download and install the update. This is the case with all APK updates. In addition, Facebook fans who want the new update also need to enlist in Facebook’s beta program and to enable the “Unknown Sources” feature that can be found in the “Settings” panel.

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Crypto News

Facebook Is Up For Accepting Cryptocurrency Ads, Once Again, But Only Under Specific Conditions

Facebook’s ban on Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency ads on its social networks, including Facebook, has been partially lifted. Now, only authorized advertisers can once again add cryptocurrency ads on Facebook.

In January 2018, when Facebook announced that it was no longer accepting cryptocurrency ads, the company immediately added that it was not a permanent ban. Facebook wanted to give itself some time to examine how to deal with this somewhat new type of advertising. Five months later, we guess Facebook found an answer.

Only the authorized advertisers will be able to use cryptocurrency ads on Facebook

Cryptocurrency platforms and other companies that want to advertise for services related to cryptocurrencies must now submit a request to Facebook and wait for approval. Advertising in favor of ICOs (Initial Coin Offering) is still prohibited with no further details being offered, but Facebook announced it maintained its opinion on ICOs, as this type of fundraising is often associated with misleading or deceptive promotions.

On the other hand, no advertising is tolerated for the binary options trading platforms that are allowing speculation on the course of the cryptocurrencies.

Facebook sees the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies as something useful

Rob Leathern, product management director for advertising at Facebook, writes in a release posted on his blog that due to restrictions, not all cryptocurrency ads will be accepted.

“We will be attentive to reactions, we will examine how our policy works, and we will continue to study the subject so that we can review our position after some time, if necessary.”

Rob Leathern

Facebook sees the blockchain technology behind the cryptocurrencies as useful. For example, in May, the company created a research department on new applications for the blockchain technologies, directed by David Marcus, the former manager of Facebook Messenger.

On Twitter and Google, on the other hand, the cryptocurrency ads ban remains active.

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