Social Media

Facebook has recently come under renewed criticism over inadequate content moderation policies in languages other than English. Whistleblower Frances Haugen, who leaked internal Facebook research documents to The Wall Street Journal and appeared before a US Senate committee, has revealed that while only 9 percent of the social networking giant’s …

Jennifer Gates, the daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has married Egyptian equestrian Nayel Nasser, it has been reported. The two tied the knot at her farm in North Salem, New York. The 25-year-old wore a custom Vera Wang gown, as per reports. Media outlets also reported that the newlyweds …

Apple has removed a popular Quran app from its app store in China on the request of Chinese officials.  “Quran Majeed,” a reading-friendly application used by millions of Muslim users around the world, has been deleted on the Chinese app store for “hosting illegal religious texts,” the BBC reported.  “According …

A viral video showing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s millionaire cousin Ali Makhlouf cruising around Los Angeles in his $300,000 Ferrari 488 Spider has highlighted the stark divisions in a war-torn country where many people do not have enough to eat. The video, which was apparently caught randomly, showed popular vlogger …

Tech giant Google has exposed how Iranian-backed groups attempt to use its platforms to carry out espionage on behalf of the government in Tehran. In a blog post released on Thursday, Google’s Threat Analysis Group exposed the work of APT35, a shady hacking group that Google said is linked to …

“We are Google and Amazon workers. We condemn Project Nimbus.” That is the headline of an open letter written by Google and Amazon employees who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Gabriel Schubiner, software engineer and researcher at Google and Bathool Syed, content strategist at Amazon, wrote in an op-ed …

Facebook has removed two networks linked to military organizations in Sudan and Iran for violating its policies. The company shared details about the accounts in its September 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report. The report comes on the heels of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony before the US Senate Committee. Haugen …

The World Bank is taking action to rebuild the credibility of its research after a data-rigging scandal forced it to cancel its flagship “Doing Business” report on the business climate in countries, the country said on Monday. president of the bank, David Malpass. Speaking to reporters ahead of the annual …

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa used her new prominence to criticize Facebook as a threat to democracy. She said the social media giant fails to protect against the spread of hate and disinformation and is “biased against facts.”The veteran journalist and head of Philippine news site Rappler told Reuters …

Teenagers often prefer to seek help and advice from their peers, rather than their elders, when they are dealing with personal problems or having a tough time making sense of the world. Whether they want to discuss social issues or other things they feel passionately about, or are experiencing challenges …

For a platform with at least 2.91 billion “friends,” Facebook has been creating a lot of enemies of late, even among its own ranks. Just this week, former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before members of the US Senate, delivering a scathing overview of how the world’s largest …

An investigation by Human Rights Watch has found that social media giant Facebook wrongfully silenced Palestinian content, including documentation of Israeli human rights violations, during the flare-up in violence that occurred in May this year. “Facebook has wrongfully removed and suppressed content by Palestinians and their supporters, including about human …

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hit back Tuesday at claims the social media giant fuels division, harms children and needs to be regulated, saying the claim the company puts profits over safety is “just not true.” “The argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply …

The Israeli-based NSO Group ended its contract with the United Arab Emirates to use its powerful “Pegasus” state spyware tool because Dubai’s ruler was using it to hack the phones of his ex-wife and some close to her, her lawyers told England’s High Court. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, vice …

US lawmakers pounded Facebook on Tuesday, accusing CEO Mark Zuckerberg of pushing for higher profits while being cavalier about user safety and they demanded regulators investigate whistleblower accusations that the social media company harms children and stokes divisions. During a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing, whistleblower Frances Haugen called for transparency about …

Lebanon’s information minister George Kordahi on Tuesday labeled himself a “great defender of press freedom” and denied accusations that he was trying to repress the media. Kordahi, who was appointed to the new cabinet last month, has sparked controversy with a series of announcements seen as an attempt to restrict …

Lebanon’s telecommunications and internet sector could collapse within days due to fuel shortages, a parliamentary committee warned Tuesday. Parliament’s Media and Communications Committee said: “The quantity of diesel at Lebanon’s state-owned Touch and Alfa mobile companies and the state-run telecommunications company Ogero, which operates fixed lines and fixed internet, is …

Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal judge in Florida to force Twitter to restore his account, which the company suspended in January following the deadly storming of the US Capitol. Trump’s attorneys on Friday filed a motion in US District Court in Miami seeking a preliminary injunction against …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD A number of factors worked against me enjoying this movie. I’m a fan of both Frank Herbert and the 1984 David Lynch movie, am hypersensitive about Hollywood politics and I’d recently watched two stunning movies that upped my expectations to breaking point. A wonderful fanedit[1] …

A US federal judge has ordered Facebook to release records of accounts connected to anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar that the social media giant had shut down, rejecting its argument about protecting privacy as “rich with irony.” The judge in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday criticized Facebook for failing to hand over …

US President Joe Biden did not fall asleep during a meeting last week with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, according to a Reuters fact check of the incident. The false claim was widely disseminated on social media, in the US and Israel, including by a Likud MK. Biden and Bennett met …

Saudi social media influencers have become a key element in the Kingdom’s advertising market in recent years, but many are increasingly aware they risk a backlash if their growing power is not used wisely. While many observers argue that influencers serve a positive purpose, others say they are simply filling …

TikTok has announced new features to safeguard the mental well-being of users on the app in honor of World Suicide Prevention Month. TikTok, like other social media platforms, has come under fire for a perceived weak response to mental health issues. Earlier this year, the AFP reported that a Pakistani …

Three former US intelligence operatives who worked as cyber spies for the United Arab Emirates admitted to violating US hacking laws and prohibitions on selling sensitive military technology, under a deal to avoid prosecution announced on Tuesday. The operatives – Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke – were part of a clandestine unit named Project Raven, first reported by …

It goes without saying that it is not an easy skill and one has to be gifted to draw – political – cartoons. The Levant News’ own Joon W. (45) is a gifted cartoonist with a cynical sense of humor and has the talent of producing drawings that bring out …

The deportation of senior Reuters correspondent Suleiman al-Khalidi from Lebanon has been criticized by journalists in the Arab world. Al-Khalidi, a Jordanian national, flew to Beirut in early August on a reporting assignment but was stopped by authorities at passport control who took him aside for questioning and asked him …

Lebanon deported a Reuters correspondent after questioning him on arrival at Beirut airport at the start of a reporting assignment last month, detaining him overnight before putting him on a flight to Jordan. Suleiman al-Khalidi, a Jordanian national, flew to Beirut on Aug. 2 but was stopped by officials at …

Hollywood actor-turned-producer Bo Svenson has had enough of the US entertainment industry’s one-dimensional depiction of characters from the Middle East. He is working on films he hopes will shake up the industry and position Arabs and Muslims to be the stars of their own stories. Svenson, who was born in …

The NEOM Media Industries Sector has partnered with ITP Media Group, the parent company of magazine brands such as Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire, to train young Saudi journalists. “Talent development is a key element of our aim of establishing NEOM as the regional epicenter of the media industries,” said Wayne …

Houthi rebels in Yemen have been holding a young journalist abducted in Sanaa for more than a week, as the militia’s clampdown on outspoken academics, journalists and social media activists intensifies. After detaining Younis Abdul Sallam, the Iran-backed Houthis waited more than 10 days before informing a local lawyer of …

Facebook said Tuesday it was blocking WhatsApp accounts linked to the Taliban after the radical Islamic group seized control of Afghanistan and sought to use the messaging service to help it govern. “The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our …

British police will be required to check the social media profiles of firearm licence applicants under new rules following the Plymouth mass shooting in England, The Times newspaper reported. In the autumn, the British government will publish new statutory guidance outlining how police forces handle firearm licence applications. It will …

Facebook is introducing tools and policies that aim to provide increased transparency and controls on electoral and political ads in Iraq ahead of parliamentary elections on Oct. 10. The move is part of the company’s “ongoing commitment to raise the bar for transparency and accountability on our platform, and to …

Iran International news channel launched an Afghan-version of its station on Sunday in the midst of the US withdrawal from the country. The channel’s launch comes at a time when the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has been all but completed, and its media industry is set to be heavily affected. …

Masked men claiming to represent Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel have taken the unusual step of circulating a video threatening to kill a national television news anchor for what they viewed as unfair coverage. The video circulated Monday showed masked and heavily armed men surrounding a man seated at a …

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a leading global certification program, has awarded TikTok the TAG Brand Safety Certificate across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Brand safety is the practice of ensuring a brand (through advertisements or any other promotional material) does not appear in an unsafe environment. This certification …

For Ali Hedieloo, a 40-year-old making wooden furniture in Iran’s capital, Instagram is more than just a surfeit of glossy images. Like an estimated 1 million other Iranians, it’s how he finds customers, as the app has exploded into a massive e-commerce service in the sanctions-hit country. But now, the …

A pro-Trump social media platform has been inundated with terrorist propaganda spread by Daesh supporters, a political news website reported on Monday. According to Politico, Gettr features extremist-related content, including graphic videos of Daesh beheadings, mainstream images that incite violence against the West, and even memes of an extremist executing …

Facebook has restored the account of a Palestinian user the social networking company had temporarily blocked over the posting of a letter written by a jailed activist. Omar Nazzal had shared online a poignant letter penned by Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar after she was barred by Israel from attending her …

Turkish authorities are seeking up to 15 years in prison for the licence holder of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app Ankara says was used by the group it blames for an attempted military coup in 2016, state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Wednesday. Ankara has cracked down on the network …

A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest US tech companies including Facebook and Microsoft is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias, the group told Reuters. Until now, the …

Leaked documents have revealed Iran’s secret research into how the Republic’s cyber capacity could be used to sink cargo ships, blow up a petrol station or other forms of cyber assault, according to a report by Sky News. The leaked documents — a set of internal files — also include information …

Israel has set up a senior inter-ministerial team to assess growing allegations that spyware sold by an Israeli cyber firm has been abused on a global scale, Israeli sources said on Wednesday. One source said the team is headed by Israel’s National Security Council, which answers to Prime Minister Naftali …

Saudi Aramco said its operations were not affected following a data breach from one of its contractors. The Dhahran-based company confirmed a limited amount of data had been leaked from the company following reports that a cyber extortionist had demanded a $50 million ransom. “Aramco recently became aware of the …