United News of Bangladesh

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Facebook in a lawsuit over unwanted text notifications it sent, rejecting a claim that the messages violated the federal ban on robocalls. The high court’s ruling for the Menlo Park, California-based social media giant was unanimous. Democratic lawmakers and consumer groups said the court opened a gaping hole in the law, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, that would subject anyone with a cellphone to endless automated calls and messages. The case was brought by a man who received text messages from Facebook notifying him that an attempt had been made to log in to his account from a new device or browser. The man, Noah Duguid, said he never had a Facebook account and never gave Facebook his phone number. When he was unable to stop the notifications, he filed a class action lawsuit. Also read:Facebook says it will pay $1B over 3 years to news industry The 1991 consumer law bars abusive telemarketing practices. The law restricts calls made using an “automatic telephone dialing system,” a device that can “store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator” and then call that number. The question for the court was whether the law covers equipment that can store and dial telephone numbers even if the equipment does not use a random or sequential number generator. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court that it does not. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in an emailed statement, “As the Court recognized, the law’s provisions were never intended to prohibit companies from sending targeted security notifications and the court’s decision will allow companies to continue working to keep the accounts of their users safe.” But Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said in a joint statement that the court ignored Congress’ intent when it passed the law and now will allow “companies the ability to assault the public with a non-stop wave of unwanted calls and texts, around the clock.” The lawmakers said they would introduce legislation to expressly prohibit Facebook’s practice. “If the Justices find their private mobile phones ringing non-stop from now until our legislation becomes law, they’ll only have themselves to blame,” Markey and Eshoo said. Facebook had argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because Duguid had not claimed Facebook was sending messages that were randomly generated. Facebook said it sends targeted, individualized texts to numbers linked to specific accounts. A trial court agreed, but an appeals court reversed that decision. Also read:Facebook acknowledges a bug that blocked coronavirus news Facebook said it was possible Duguid’s cellphone number previously belonged to a Facebook user who opted to receive login notifications. The case is Facebook v. Duguid, 19-511.

 

 

There is no denying that social media are having a moment as more and more people are opening accounts to be a social butterfly with every passing day. Nowadays, you will hardly find a man or woman who doesn’t have an account on any of the popular social networking sites. The trend is so popular now that even when people go out of their places to have an outing, say for in a restaurant, they remain glued to the screens. It seems, in contrast to the usual reality, social media are controlling the users’ thanks to the irresponsible use of social media by the netizens.

Facebook capped a tumultuous 2020 with soaring earnings in the final quarter, but the company forecast challenges in 2021 that include a coming privacy update by Apple that could limit the social network’s ad targeting capabilities.

Twitter says it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts associated with the far right QAnon conspiracy theory following last week’s U.S. Capitol riot.

A UN human rights expert has called on Facebook’s Oversight Board to take the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities into account in reaching decisions, particularly on hate speech.

Individuals linked to Russia and the French military used fake Facebook and Instagram accounts to wage a covert disinformation campaign in the Central African Republic ahead of elections there this month, Facebook announced this week.

The popular social media Facebook’s Messenger went down on Thursday afternoon.

Facebook says it has taken down several fake accounts based in Iran that had voiced support for protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.