United News of Bangladesh

The six-hour outage at Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp was a headache for many casual users but far more serious for the millions of people worldwide who rely on the social media sites to run their businesses or communicate with relatives, fellow parents, teachers or neighbors. When all three services went dark Monday, it was a stark reminder of the power and reach of Facebook, which owns the photo-sharing and messaging apps. Around the world, the breakdown at WhatsApp left many at a loss. In Brazil, the messaging service is by far the most widely used app in the country, installed on 99% of smartphones, according to tech pollster Mobile Time. WhatsApp has become essential in Brazil to communicate with friends and family, as well as for a variety of other tasks, such as ordering food. Offices, various services and even the courts had trouble making appointments, and phone lines became overwhelmed. Read: Facebook services restored after worldwide outage Hundreds of thousands of Haitians in their homeland and abroad fretted over the WhatsApp outage. Many of the country’s more than 11 million people depend it to alert one another about gang violence in particular neighborhoods or to talk to relatives in the U.S. about money transfers and other important matters. Haitian migrants traveling to the U.S. rely on it to find each other or share key information such as safe places to sleep. Nelzy Mireille, a 35-year-old unemployed woman who depends on money sent from relatives abroad, said she stopped at a repair shop in the capital of Port-au-Prince because she thought her phone was malfunctioning. “I was waiting on confirmation on a money transfer from my cousin,” she said. “I was so frustrated.” “I was not able to hear from my love,” complained 28-year-old Wilkens Bourgogne, referring to his partner, who was in the neighboring Dominican Republic, buying goods to bring back to Haiti. He said he was concerned about her safety because of the violence in their homeland. “Insecurity makes everyone worry,” he said. In rebel-held Syria, where the telecommunication infrastructure has been disrupted by war, residents and emergency workers rely mostly on internet communication. Naser AlMuhawish, a Turkey-based Syrian doctor who monitors coronavirus cases in rebel-held territory in Syria, said WhatsApp is the main communication method used with over 500 workers in the field. They switched to Skype, but WhatsApp works better when internet service is shaky, he said. If there had been an emergency such as shelling that he needed to warn field workers about, there could have been major problems, he said. "Luckily this didn’t happen yesterday during the outage,” he said. But hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in the region were thrown into panic. They lost contact with oxygen suppliers who have no fixed location and are normally reached via WhatsApp. One hospital sent staff member searching for oxygen at nearly two dozen facilities, said Dr. Fadi Hakim of the Syrian American Medical Society. In Lima, Peru, the breakdown complicated dental technician Mary Mejia’s job. Like most Peruvian medical workers, she uses WhatsApp for a multitude of tasks, including scheduling appointments and ordering crowns. “Sometimes the doctor will be working on a patient and I need to contact a technician for job,” she said. “To have to step away and make a phone call? It trips us up. We’ve become so accustomed to this tool.” Millions of Africans use WhatsApp for all their voice calls, so “people felt they were cut off from the world,” said Mark Tinka, a Ugandan who heads engineering at SEACOM, a South Africa-based internet infrastructure company. Read:Whistleblower: Facebook chose profit over public safety Many Africans also use WhatsApp to connect with relatives in other countries. Tinka’s stepdaughter lives in Caldwell, Idaho, and lost her father on Sunday, but could not speak with her family back in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, to arrange travel for the funeral. “It’s amazing just how little folks understand the impact of three or four content companies on the utility of the Internet,” Tinka said. Facebook said the outage was due to an internal error related to a “configuration change” but gave no details. The outage came amid a crisis at Facebook, accused by a whistleblower on “60 Minutes” and on Capitol Hill of profiting from hate and division and suppressing research showing that Instagram contributes to body-image problems, eating disorders and thoughts of suicide in young women. For small businesses, the outages meant hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Andrawos Bassous is a Palestinian photographer in the Israeli-occupied West Bank whose Facebook page has more than 1 million followers. He has worked with companies including Samsung and Turkish Airlines to create social media content. He said the social media blackout meant he was unable to book appointments or share videos online for companies that employ him. “Imagine if you promised one of the companies you work for to share their product at a specific time and there is a blackout,” Bassous said. Sarah Murdoch runs a small Seattle-based travel company called Adventures with Sarah and relies on Facebook Live videos to promote her tours. She estimated the breakdown cost her thousands of dollars in bookings. “I’ve tried other platforms because I am wary of Facebook, but none of them are as powerful for the type of content I create,” Murdoch said. As for her losses, “it may only be a few people, but we are small enough that it hurts.” Heather Rader runs How Charming Photography in Linton, Indiana. She takes photographs for schools and sports teams and makes yard signs with the photos. She has her own website but said parents and other customers mostly try to reach her through social media. She said she might have lost three or four bookings for photo sessions at $200 a client. “A lot of people only have a specific window when they can do ordering and booking and things like that,” she said. “If they can’t get a direct answer, they go to someone else.” Read: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram suffer worldwide outage Tarita Carnduff of Alberta, Canada, said she connects with other parents on Facebook just about every day, and the outage drove home for her how crucial that support is. “As a parent with special needs kids, it is the only space I found others in similar positions,” she said. “There’s a lot of us that would be lost without it.” But for others, the breakdown led them to conclude they need less Facebook in their lives. Anne Vydra said she realized she was spending too much free time scrolling and commenting on posts she disagreed with. She deleted the Facebook app on Tuesday. “I didn’t want it to come back,” said Vydra, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and does voiceover work. She added: “I realized how much of my time was wasted.”

Facebook services were restored Monday afternoon after global users experienced outages on social networks Facebook owns, such as Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp for hours during the day. "We've been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now," Facebook said in a post. Read: Ex-Facebook manager alleges social network fed Capitol riot During the outage, Facebook said, "Sorry, something went wrong. We're working on it and we'll get it fixed as soon as we can." Instagram showed a "5xx server error." It appeared that the outage was caused by a DNS (domain name server) fail, a report by TechCrunch said. "Not only are Facebook's services and apps down for the public, its internal tools and communications platforms, including Workplace, are out as well. No one can do any work," Ryan Mac, a technology reporter for The New York Times, said earlier in a tweet. 

Short-video app Likee has partnered with the online educational platform 10 Minute School to encourage users to create and share videos on academic and co-curricular skills. Likee launched the knowledge community development initiative #KnowledgeMonth recently. The campaign, which will run until September 30, aims to create an encouraging community sphere, where a healthy and competitive spirit will boost the users' learning. It will award several lucky winners at the end of the month-long activities. Also read: Learning together with Likee’s #Steps2learn This collaboration of Likee and 10 minute School is set to encourage teachers, researchers, sportspersons, artists; culinary, life-skill and other academic and non-academic skills enthusiasts to come together as a community and share their knowledge. Users can create interesting videos to share their learning, tips, and tricks on different topics like Bengali, Bengali dialect, spoken English, science, puzzle, trivia, economy, culture, humanity, health, medicine, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. These videos will have to be uploaded using the hashtag #AcademicKnowledge, #ArtisticKnowledge, #LifeKnowledge and #UnpopularKnowledge. The videos need to be original and more than 10 seconds in length, according to a media statement. Also read: Likee launches campaign to promote cyber safety "In this era of online learning, Likee believes that it has the power to connect learners through educational video content. Our #KnowledgeMonth campaign is already seeing enthusiastic traffic, and we thank our partner 10 Minute School for their cooperation," said a Likee spokesperson. Ayman Sadiq, owner of 10 Minute School said, "We are glad to have partnered with Likee as together, we can positively use this opportunity to encourage millions of Likee users to share valuable knowledge." Read CID arrests five, inc. Bigo and Likee executives, for app-based crimes

In today’s world of internet connectivity, it's only normal that social media usage will surge. There are about 4.48 billion social media users in this world. That’s more than half the entire population of the world. But the proliferation of social media brings a new set of problems. Nowadays the young generation is suffering from the tendency of increased impulsiveness to scroll through social media. In this article, we will take a deep dive into social media addiction and how to get rid of it. What is social media addiction? Have you ever gone to bed and impulsively reached for your phone? Spent hours scrolling through different social media and messing up your sleep schedule in the process? If it’s a yes, then chances are you’re suffering from a case of social media addiction. You’re not alone, however. Read How social platforms are dealing with the Taliban In 2017, a survey found that there are about 210 million people with social media addiction. This was from a time when the world didn’t have to grapple with the pandemic. In its wake, the pandemic has left most of the office, education, and other works to an online platform, making people increasingly prone to becoming addicted to social media and online platforms. It might not feel much like it at first but it’s part of human behavioral addictions. At one point, you will get so into scrolling through newsfeeds and posts and pictures that it will eventually end up hampering other parts of your life. So, is there a way out of this? Well, there are a lot of ways to go about social media detoxification. We’ll talk about some of the most effective ways to get your life back to normalcy. Read A set of directives for judicial officials for using social media How to Get Rid of Social Media Addiction Turn the notification off The first you can do to get out of the cycle is to turn the notification off. You cannot even start the process of detachment if your phone lights up with a notification every other hour. The tendency to check who twitted or shared a post will eventually start a domino effect where you end up spending more time than you should. Some people count “like” and interactions in their posts. If you have that tendency, we suggest you stay away from your phone for a few hours after posting anything. Do not let the urge to check interactions get to you. Turning off the notification will minimize the distraction and make way for a gradual transition from the addiction. Read Dating changed during the pandemic; apps are following suit Do not go to sleep with your phone More than 45% of social media users said that they go to sleep while scrolling their phones. This is a very bad practice with some serious side effects. You not only deprive your brain of the rest, but the blue light from the phone messes with the eyes and hampers your sleep schedule. The only way to get around this problem is to stop taking the phone to bed. Considering the addictive nature or simply something that became a habit, not taking the phone to bed isn’t something that’s going to be easy. You can keep the phone on the other side of your bedroom or somewhere that’s out of your reach when you’re in bed. It’ll take some time getting used to. But once you do, you will be able to gradually cut off the impulsive need to browse the phone. Read: How to Stop Your Online Shopping Addiction? Say no to social media while in bed Similar to going to bed with a phone, some too many people instinctively reach for their phone once they wake up. This is also a bad habit and compulsive behavior. The extreme dependency on social media content means you are inadvertently getting dragged into the platform without your knowledge. Try to not use your phone until after you’ve completed your morning routine. Too much social media content in the morning will only make you distracted throughout the day. Avoid overthinking social media appearance This is probably the most common problem when it comes to social media platforms. You are not alone if you spend too much time thinking about what to post and how to post. Most social media users have this urge to look better and sound better in social media to get better validation. In reality, you’re using up precious time from your daily life overthinking about social media. This is a form of passive addiction to social media. Read Dutch data protection authority fines TikTok over privacy The stress and anxiety related to this validation might be too much to handle. Some people might even fall into depression because of this stress. As a social media user, the last thing you should worry about is what people think about what you post. The process of destressing starts from detachment from social media appearance. Find replacement Think of a time when neither digital devices nor social media existed. The earliest example of a digital handheld device dates back to the 90s and that of social media dates back to the 2000s. So, what about the people before that time? Didn’t they have a fulfilling life? They probably had a better life considering the analog options they had. This is also something that you need to do. Rather than getting engrossed with social media, try and find your hobbies again. There are effective and productive alternatives to social media like reading books or gardening. The more you indulge in analog hobbies, the more you’ll be able to detach yourself from social media. Read Boithok: Bangladeshi video conferencing app for online meeting Digital detox The best solution is to stay away from social media completely. Once you’ve learned to take the small steps, it's time you focused to take considerable time offs from all types of social media platforms. The entire process is known as a digital detox. It won’t happen overnight. You will have the urge to get back at the start. But the more time you spend away from social media, the more life becomes productive and stress-free. You can gradually minimize your usage to a healthy level, or you can cut it off completely, the choice is yours. Bottom Line Overcoming social media addictions is easier said than done. Just like other behavioral addictions, you’ll have to take small steps to get away from them completely. While it might be seemingly easy, you’ll still have to follow through with each of the steps for successful detoxification. We hope this article helps you to divest yourself of the addiction. Read How To Be A Popular Instagram Influencer

As the Taliban negotiates with senior politicians and government leaders following its lighting-fast takeover of Afghanistan, U.S. social media companies are reckoning with how to deal with a violent extremist group that is poised to rule a country of 40 million people. Should the Taliban be allowed on social platforms if they don’t break any rules, such as a ban on inciting violence, but instead use it to spread a narrative that they’re newly reformed and are handing out soap and medication in the streets? If the Taliban runs Afghanistan, should they also run the country’s official government accounts? And should tech companies in Silicon Valley decide what is — and isn’t — a legitimate government? They certainly don’t want to. But as the situation unfolds, uncomfortable decisions lie ahead. Also read: Who are the Taliban? DOES THE TALIBAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA? The Taliban quickly seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a two-decade war. The insurgents stormed across the country, capturing all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the U.S. and its allies melted away. The last time the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube did not exist. Neither did MySpace, for that matter. Internet use in the country was virtually nonexistent with just 0.01% of the population online, according to the World Bank. In recent years, that number has vastly increased. The Taliban have also increased their online presence, producing slick videos and maintaining official social media accounts. Despite bans, they have found ways to evade restrictions on YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. Last year, for instance, they used WhatsApp groups to share pictures of local health officials in white gowns and masks handing out protective masks and bars of soap to locals. On Twitter, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has been posting regular updates to more than 300,000 followers, including international media. Twitter suspended another account, @AfghPresident, which has served as the nation’s de facto official presidential account, pending verification of the account holder’s identity. “There’s a realization that winning the war is as much a function of a nonmilitary tool like social media as it is about the bullets,” said Sarah Kreps, a law professor at Cornell University who focuses on international politics, technology and national security. “Maybe these groups, even from just an instrumental perspective, have realized that beheading people is not a way to win the hearts and minds of the country.” Also read: Taliban promise women's rights, security under Islamic rule WAIT, THE TALIBAN WERE ALLOWED ON TWITTER? Facebook and YouTube consider the Taliban a terrorist organization and prohibit it from operating accounts. Twitter has not explicitly banned the group, though the company said Tuesday that it will continue to enforce its rules, in particular policies than bar “glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.” This essentially means that until the accounts violate Twitter’s rules — for instance, by inciting violence — they are allowed to operate. While the Taliban is not on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on it. Facebook said Tuesday that the group is banned from its platform under its “dangerous organization” policies. which also bars “praise, support and representation” of the group and accounts run on its behalf. The company emphasized in a statement that it has a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts that are native speakers of Dari and Pashto, Afghanistan’s official languages, to help provide local context and to alert the company of emerging issues. Facebook has a spotty record when it comes to enforcing its rules. Doing so on WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook, could prove more difficult given that the service encrypts messages so that no one but senders and recipients can read them. Twitter said it is seeing people in Afghanistan using its platform to seek help and that its top priority is “keeping people safe.” Critics immediately questioned why the company continues to ban former President Donald Trump even as it allows Mujahid to post. “They certainly decided to silence a former U.S. president,” said Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party in Cincinnati, Ohio, who called Twitter’s decision “preposterous.” Twitter permanently suspended Trump following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, saying his posts glorified and could lead to more violence. The company has long insisted that it suspends accounts based on behavior and whether they violate its rules on the service, and not on offline actions and affiliation. While he understands that social media companies operate in a global economy, Triantafilou said, “it seems to me that supporting America and our own interest” would make more sense for a U.S. company. Also read: What Taliban's return means for Bangladesh WHAT HAPPENS NOW? As the situation unfolds, the major companies are grappling with how to respond. It’s not an entirely unique situation — they have had to deal with groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, for instance, which hold considerable political power but are also violent and have carried out acts of terrorism. “For the past decade, Hamas has used social media to gain attention, and convey their messages to international audiences in multiple languages,” wrote Devorah Margolin, senior research fellow at the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University, in a July report. For example, she wrote, both the political and military wings of Hamas operated official accounts on Twitter. Despite attempts to use its English-language account to make its case to the international community, Margolin said the group still used Twitter to call for violence. In 2019, Twitter closed the official accounts, @HamasInfo and @HamasInfoEn, for violating its rules, saying there is “no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups.” Facebook declined to say specifically if it would hand over Afghanistan’s official government accounts to the Taliban if it is recognized as the country’s government. The company pointed to an earlier statement saying it “does not make decisions about the recognized government in any particular country but instead respects the authority of the international community in making these determinations.” Twitter declined to answer questions beyond its statement. YouTube, meanwhile, provided a boilerplate statement saying it complies with “all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws” and bans the incitement of violence. All that effectively leaves the door open for the social platforms to eventually hand over control of the official accounts, assuming the Taliban behave and U.S. sanctions are lifted. “That seems like a reasonable approach, because I think the social media platforms don’t necessarily want to be adjudicating is which groups are legitimate themselves,” said Kreps, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1999 to 2003, partly in Afghanistan. At the same time, she noted, the companies, especially Facebook, have learned a great deal — and paid a price — for the way the way social media helped incite genocidal behavior in Myanmar. And they’re unlikely to want a repeat of those horrors.

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, Jennifer Sherlock went out with a few men she met through dating apps. The dates were “weird,” she said, and not just because they were masked, socially distanced and outdoors. One one occasion, a date remained masked while they were out for a stroll, but soon after invited her back to his place, a move Sherlock saw as reckless. “It was so off putting, and awkward,” she said. “So we wouldn’t be safe outside without mask(s), but we would be safe back at his place maskless?” Read:Dutch data protection authority fines TikTok over privacy She decided she needed a way to filter people, so she began arranging video chats before agreeing to meet anybody in person. Sherlock, 42, a PR consultant who lives in New Jersey, said it’s a practice she’ll continue post-pandemic. Sherlock isn’t alone in changing the way she used dating apps during the pandemic, prompting many to roll out new features. Despite the social distancing of the past 18 months, the use of dating apps in general has surged as people sought connections amid their isolation. Tinder reported that 2020 was its busiest year yet; this year, its users have already set two records for usage between January and March. Hinge tripled its revenue from 2019 to 2020, and the company expects it to double from that this year. Read Itel Vision 2 Plus Review: Know the Advantages and Disadvantages In response to changing demands, Tinder announced new tools last month that will allow users to get to know people better online. People will now be able to add videos to their profile and can chat with others even before matching with them. “Historically consumers were reluctant to connect via video because they didn’t see the need for it,” said Jess Carbino, an online dating expert and sociologist who has worked for Tinder and Bumble. Post-COVID, however, many people expect a higher degree of screening, she said. “Online dating apps like Tinder are leaning into that.” The dating apps say their research shows video chats are here to stay, even as life starts to return to normal in some parts of the world. Read Moto Edge 20 5G Smartphone Review: Know the Pros and Cons Almost half of Tinder users had a video chat with a match during the pandemic, with 40% of them intending to continue them post-pandemic. Tinder says this is largely driven by Gen Z users in their late teens and early 20s, who now make up more than half of the app’s users. And a majority of Hinge UK users, 69%, also say they’ll continue with virtual dates after the pandemic. Tinder, alongside other popular apps including Hinge, OkCupid and Bumble, has in Britain and the U.S. partnered with the government to add a badge to profiles indicating that users have been vaccinated. (There’s no verification process, though, so matches could be lying). Read:Likee bans 42,751 accounts in 5 months for violating rules Dating app users are also increasingly looking for deeper connections rather than casual encounters, Carbino said. That’s what happened to Maria del Mar, 29, an aerospace engineer, who wasn’t expecting to end up in a relationship after she matched with someone on Tinder early in the pandemic last year. She started chatting with her now-boyfriend through the app in April 2020 during a complete lockdown in Spain, where she lives. Having moved back to her parent’s tiny town of León from Barcelona, del Mar was bored when she joined the app, but was surprised to find many things in common with her current partner. Read Xiaomi POCO F3 GT Review: Can It Satisfy the Crazy Gamers? After weeks of chatting, they finally met for a first date — a socially-distanced hike — after restrictions eased slightly in May 2020. Now the two have moved in together. “If it wasn’t for the app, probably our paths wouldn’t have crossed,” she said. Fernando Rosales, 32, was a frequent user of Grindr, an app popular with gay men looking for more casual encounters, in pre-pandemic times. He turned to Tinder for social connections when coronavirus restrictions prevented people from meeting others in London, where he lives. “Grindr is like, ’I like you, you like me, you’re within 100 meters of me, I’m going to come over,’” said Rosales, who works at the popular British coffee chain Pret. Read OnePlus Nord 2 5G Review: Is it worth buying? “Tinder is something more social,” he added,. Sometimes he uses the app just to meet others to play online video games or video chat. Ocean, 26, a drag artist and photographer in Berlin, turned to the live video feature of a LGBTQ+ app called Taimi to make friends across the world during the pandemic. Having two-to-five minute video chats with strangers from places like the Philippines or parts of the U.S. was “amazing,” she said. Ocean’s given name is Kai Sistemich; she identifies as a woman when in drag. Read:Facebook to end rule exemptions for politicians She said she’ll continue using the feature post-pandemic, especially while she’s doing solo activities like cooking, or getting ready before going out to party. Sherlock also expects some of her pandemic dating behaviors to carry into the post-pandemic world. She recently asked two men she was texting for Facetime chats before meeting in person, something she would not have done pre-pandemic. “It’s a crazy dating world out there, so saving time is necessary,” she said. Read Xiaomi POCO X3 GT Review: Does it Offer Value for Money?

The Netherlands’ Data Protection Authority said Thursday it has fined TikTok 750,000 euros ($885,000) for not offering a privacy statement in Dutch, saying many children who use the popular video sharing app would be unable to understand the information. The agency said that by not offering a Dutch-language privacy statement, “TikTok failed to provide an adequate explanation of how the app collects, processes and uses personal data.” It said TikTok has some 3.5 million users in the Netherlands and that Dutch privacy law is “based on the principle that people must always be given a clear idea of what is being done with their personal data.” Also read: WhatsApp puts its new privacy policy on hold in India The data protection authority said TikTok had “lodged an objection to the fine.” TikTok said in a statement that its privacy policy and a “shorter and more accessible version for our younger users, available in Dutch since July 2020, has been accepted by the Dutch Data Protection Authority as the solution to this issue.” It added that it made other changes to safeguard the privacy of minors in the past 18 months, including setting accounts of 13-to-15-year-olds to private by default and only allowing direct messaging for users 16 and over. Also read: US banning use of WeChat, TikTok for national security Last month, Dutch consumer group Consumentenbond said it was launching a 1.5 billion euro ($1.8 billion) claim against TikTok over what it alleges is unlawful harvesting of personal data from users. The group and a foundation called Take Back Your Privacy demanded that TikTok pay damages to 1.2 million to 1.6 million Dutch children who use the app.

Singapore-based global short video creation and sharing platform Likee has banned 42,751 Bangladeshi accounts from January to May this year for violating safety protection regulations. Recently, Likee kicked off a campaign titled "#BhalorJonnoJano" (#KnowForGood) to enlighten the users about Likee community rules and the positive values that it would like to promote among the content creators and celebrities using this platform. Also read: Likee steps forward to ensure user safety, content quality As part of the campaign, actor Mumtaheena Chowdhury Toya, YouTuber Tawhid Afridi, actor Tanha Tasnia, 10 Minute School founder and CEO Ayman Sadiq and Gender Equality Consultant Rijve Arefin created videos, delineating the rules for posting contents and the necessity of everyone's participation to build a safe and healthy online community.    Also, Likee has taken many steps in the last few months to filter any objectionable contents and encourage users to showcase the brighter side of their creativity through creating contents that inspire others and reveal their talents.    Also read: CID arrests five, inc. Bigo and Likee executives, for app-based crimes The platform strictly maintains a set of criteria to screen out any objectionable content. Also, a complete content security mechanism is in place to inspect fraudulent information, pornographic links, gambling, and other negative activities in real-time. Joy, Likee's head of operations in Bangladesh, said: "From January to May this year, Likee banned 42,751 accounts for violating rules, and around 8.7 million videos were given penalties per month." Read Short video platforms are new way of building communities: Head of Likee Operations in Bangladesh

Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports. Read: Facebook won’t remove posts claiming COVID-19 is human-made The company’s rationale for that policy held that the speech of political leaders is inherently newsworthy and in the public interest even if it is offensive, bullying or otherwise controversial. The social media giant is currently mulling over what to do with the account of former President Donald Trump, which it “indefinitely” suspended Jan. 6, leaving it in Facebook limbo with its owners unable to post. The change in policy was first reported by the tech site The Verge and later confirmed by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Read: Online speech shield under fire as Trump Facebook ban stays Facebook has had a general “newsworthiness exemption” since 2016. But it garnered attention in 2019 when Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs and communications, announced that speech from politicians will be treated as “newsworthy content that should, as a general rule, be seen and heard.” The newsworthiness exemption, he explained in a blog post at the time, meant that if “someone makes a statement or shares a post which breaks our community standards we will still allow it on our platform if we believe the public interest in seeing it outweighs the risk of harm.” Read: Facebook board’s Trump decision could have wider impacts This hasn’t given politicians unlimited license, however. When Facebook suspended Trump in January, it cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as the reason. The company says it has never used the newsworthiness exemption for any of Trump’s posts. Facebook declined to comment.

Likee, the popular short video creation and sharing app has recently kicked off an exciting activity named ‘Crazy Movie Editors’ for film buffs who can win variety of prizes by creating video contents reviewing movies of any language. The activity commenced on May 22 and will continue till June 4, 2021. The initiative aims at discovering talented movie reviewers from Likee users and content creators. Any Likee user is eligible to participate in the activity. All a user needs to do is create a movie review video, add #CrazyMovieEditors and upload it. For every movie, one can upload a review in a maximum of 6 parts, each part not more than one minute, totaling six minutes.  Read Free Online Movies: Best Netflix Alternatives for Streaming Movies in 2021 However, in order to qualify for the contest, the review contents must be original, genuine and complete. The contents must also have original clips from reviewed movies inserted into it to clarify the points, information related to the video cover, and clear voice-over/audio. Joy, Likee’s Head of Operations in Bangladesh, said, “This activity has been designed in a way to let our users and content creators come up with interesting reviews of movies that will give them an opportunity to exhibit their film acumen.”     The winning reviewers will get prizes in three categories for the most popular video contents – cash prize, quality prize, and identity prize. If any user can create review videos for more than five different movies within 2 weeks, selected accounts will get the opportunity to share USD 1000. Read Bengali OTT Platforms for Watching Movies, Web Series, Musical Shows Under the second category (quality prize), a user will have the chance to earn as much as USD 50 from each movie review and USD 500 from each individual account. For every 2000 likes in an individual video, the creator will get 1 US dollar. 10 best content creators will be awarded with Likee Blue V Badge verifications. Next time the user creates any content, it will be evaluated based on the Blue V standard.