Social

Snapchat on Wednesday announced the expansion of its augmented reality (AR) focused feature Landmarkers that will now be available to all as Custom Landmarkers through Lens Studio. Custom Landmakers will allow creators on the platform to develop AR filters — known as Lenses —that can be anchored to local places and allow Snapchatters to create

As Russia blocked access to Meta Platforms Inc’s flagship social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, demand from internet users for tools to skirt the restrictions skyrocketed, data from a monitoring firm showed. Instagram access in Russia was cut from Monday in response to Meta’s decision last week to allow social media users in Ukraine to

Instagram users in Russia have been notified that the service will cease from midnight on Sunday after its owner Meta Platforms said last week it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages such as “Death to the Russian invaders”. An email message from the state communications regulator told people to move their

Telegram is getting an update that includes multiple new features. These include a download manager to control downloads, a new attachment menu to share documents and re-arrange media albums before sending, and new streaming tools to turn a Telegram channel into a TV station. In addition, the Android app is getting semi-transparent headers. Further, there

Facebook owner Meta Platforms said on Sunday that it is further narrowing its content moderation policy for Ukraine to restrict calls for the death of a head of state, according to an internal company post seen by Reuters. The move came after Reuters reported last week that Meta was temporarily allowing some posts on Facebook

Russian regulators said Friday that the country’s internet users will be blocked from accessing Instagram, saying it’s being used to call for violence against Russian soldiers. In Moscow’s latest move to restrict access to foreign social media platforms, communications, and media regulator Roskomnadzor said in a statement that it’s restricting national access to Instagram. It

Dating app Tinder will give US users a way to check if potential dates have been convicted of a violent crime, a check that experts warn has limitations. The app’s parent firm Match Group announced on Wednesday it would begin offering access to Garbo, a new US online background check platform that can show if

Twitter will experiment with allowing companies to showcase up to 50 products for sale on their profiles, the company said on Wednesday, part of an effort to gain a piece of the $45 billion (roughly Rs. 3,42,780 crore) US market for so-called e-commerce. Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta Platforms, have been leaders

Twitter has started rolling out an update to essentially make it harder to switch to the reverse-chronological feed and push users more prominently towards an algorithmically-served timeline. The change, which is initially live for iOS users and will soon be available to Android as well as Web versions of the microblogging network, brings distinct ‘Home’

A video of students stranded in the war-hit Ukrainian city of Sumy holding Indian flags and threatening to take up a journey to the Russian border on foot created an uproar in national and international media, which in turn, prompted the Indian authorities to fast-track their evacuation process.Cut to Wednesday, all the stranded students have

WhatsApp on Friday introduced a Web browser extension called Code Verify that lets users check whether the WhatsApp Web version they are using on their system is authenticated. The Web extension automatically verifies the authenticity of the WhatsApp Web code being served to the users and confirms that their messaging experience is secure and not

Alphabet Inc’s YouTube and Google Play store are suspending all payment-based services in Russia, including subscriptions, as Western sanctions start to pose banking challenges in the country.  Google and YouTube had recently stopped selling online advertising in Russia following similar pauses by Twitter and Snap after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.  “As a follow-up, we’re now extending

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk on Tuesday asked a federal judge to terminate his 2018 agreement with the top US securities regulator requiring some of his tweets to be vetted by a lawyer. Musk also asked the judge to block a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subpoena requesting records of pre-approval of a Twitter

Two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, an account on the Telegram messaging platform posing as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his armed forces to surrender. The message was not authentic, with the real Zelensky soon denying the claim on his official Telegram channel, but the incident highlighted a major problem: disinformation quickly spreads unchecked on the

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have experienced a meteoric rise in 2021, despite divided opinions. In India alone, Twitter claims conversations on NFTs increased by 3,000 percent within a period of one year, from January 2021 to January 2022. According to Twitter, at least 375 million tweets were sent on NFTs worldwide but currently, male users dominate

Britain said on Tuesday it would force Google, Facebook, Twitter and other online platforms to prevent paid-for fraudulent adverts after calls from regulators and consumer groups for a stronger crackdown on scams. The government said its draft law on preventing online harms would include the requirement for large platforms to improve protection from criminals impersonating

The Georgia state Senate voted 33-21 on Tuesday to pass a bill that seeks to prohibit social media platforms from removing or censoring content amid an outcry from conservatives that their political views are being discriminated against, even though a similar Texas law has been put on hold by a federal court. Senate Bill 393

Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke has been working on technology that helps people navigate and enjoy places in the real world since he helped create Google Maps nearly 20 years ago. So it’s not surprising that he isn’t a fan of the current hyperbole surrounding the notion that technology is poised to hatch a “metaverse”