Zuckerberg Says Facebook Will Review its Policies Around State Use of Force and Voter Supression !!

Despite rising criticism over Facebook’s inaction over recent comments from US President Donald Trump, despite Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently stating that he believes in the company’s policy direction is well thought out and on the right track. In light of the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter protests, and internal unrest over its approach, Zuckerberg has today announced that Facebook will review its policies as part of a broader effort to improve, and address concerns around racial inequality. In a long post on his Facebook profile, Zuckerberg shared a memo, which he’d initially posted to Facebook employees, which outlines his thoughts…

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Extending safety net: Companies keen to continue ‘work from home’ !!

Companies in India will likely encourage most of their  employees to continue functioning from home for the next two-four months as they aren’t willing to let their guard down over Covid-19, even though lockdown curbs have been eased for offices. Most firms find the current system working well enough and don’t want to risk the health of their workers. Amazon said staff can function work  from home for another four months. “Employees who work in a role that can effectively be done from home are welcome to do so until at least…

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Reddit Co-Founder Resigns. Wants A Black Candidate To Take Over !!

  Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian on Friday resigned from the social network firm’s board and sought to be replaced by a black candidate. Following Ohanian’s post on Reddit, the company’s Chief Executive Steve Huffman said the company would “honor” his request and is working to strengthen its content policy to combat racist speech on its platform. Ohanian’s decision to step down comes at a time when the United States is witnessing widespread protests against racism and police brutality after an unarmed African American, George Floyd, died at the hands of…

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You may need permission to embed someone’s Instagram post or you could be sued !!

Instagram lets you embed posts from any public account on the platform. This may however get difficult as you may need to get the permission to embed someone’s Instagram post. This new development was confirmed by Instagram itself following a lawsuit was filed by photographer Elliot McGucken against Newsweek for embedding his Instagram’s post. Newsweek on not getting to license the photo taken by McGucken, decided to instead embed his Instagram post on their website. Newsweek cited Instagram’s terms of services which gives the company a copyright license along with…

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And… Mitron is back on the Google Play Store !!

Mitron, the Indian alternative to TikTok, was pulled off the Google Play Store on June 2. “We don’t allow apps that merely provide the same experience as the other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services,” Google explained. Mitron was inherently identical to the very popular short video streaming app TikTok.  However, the app is back on the Play Store now.  Google has said yesterday – “We’ve given this developer some guidance and once they’ve addressed the issue…

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Microsoft Edge beats Mozilla Firefox to become 2nd most popular browser !!

  Microsoft’s efforts to get back in the browser has worked with Edge becoming the 2nd most popular globally. Microsoft Edge has managed to beat Mozilla Firefox, according to NetMarketShare’s March report. Microsoft Edge now has 7.59 per cent share in the desktop browser segment. Firefox has taken the third position with 7.19 per cent  followed by Internet Explorer with 5.87 per cent  market share. Google Chrome still leads with a mammoth 68.5 per cent market share overall. Edge browser’s competition will most likely be with Firefox considering Chrome is practically untouchable right now….

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Are Indians exporting data via Chinese software?

When data is regarded as the vital fuel for digital economy, data-access requests that most Chinese mobile applications make outnumber their non-Chinese alternatives. Either available on the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store, these applications usually list permissions they require for installation. A comparative analysis of Play Store information reveals startling facts about the volume of data Chinese applications seek from their users. TikTok, owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, requests around 30 permissions compared to its German counterpart Dubsmash seeking 19 and Scandinavian counterpart Funimate asking them…

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Why  Facebook  Is Blocking the Sikh Hashtag From Some Users?

Facebook appears to be blocking the hashtag #Sikh for some of users. This was highlighted by a huge number of users on Twitter and independently verified by Gadgets 360 as well. Curiously, the blocking of the hashtag appears to be happening selectively, as some of the  members accounts could not search for the term, but results were showing up for others. Gadgets 360 has reached out to Facebook for more details about why #Sikh was hidden, and why this appears to have been done only for some users but not…

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Jets with enhanced protection to join PM’s fleet by September!!

Two specially modified Boeing-777 Aircraft, capable of countering missile threats, will join Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Air India One fleet by September-end, two people are familiar with the development said on Wednesday. The first head-of-state Boeing-777 Aircraft will arrive in India from the United States by the end of August followed by the second one a month later, they said on condition of anonymity. The planes will come equipped with self-protection suites (SPS) consisting of aircraft infrared counter measures, advanced integrated defensive electronic warfare suite and the counter-measures dispensing system to protect…

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Zoom Plans to Strengthen Encryption for Paying Clients, Institutions !!

Zoom has attracted millions of the free and paying customers amid the pandemic, in part because users could join a meeting – something that now happens 300 million times a day – without registering. Video conferencing provider Zoom plans to strengthen encryption of video calls hosted by paying clients & institutions such as schools, but not by users for its free consumer accounts, a company official said on Friday. The company, whose business has boomed with the covid-19 pandemic, discussed the move on a call with “civil liberties groups and…

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