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Gabourey Sidibe is afraid of the police in America and has never felt protected by them.

The Precious actress has stepped behind the camera to direct short film The Tale of Four, a 20-minute project which addresses issues such as race-based violence, fatal encounters with law enforcement and domestic abuse. Noting that the U.S. is great as long as youre white, Gabourey admits shes yet to feel safe in her home country as a black woman, and highlights the struggles people of colour face in her new project. I dont want to argue with anyone, or with Make America Great Again. I just want you to show me the facts, she shrugged to Refinery29. Because Ive always been afraid of the police. Ive never had the chance to see police as helpers. Its not my fault. Its where I was raised. Im from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Ive always felt like an oil stain that they needed to clean up and not a citizen that they felt obligated to protect." There have been a number of high-profile cases over the past few years that have drawn attention to the treatment of black people in America, notably the death of teenager Trayvon Martin, whose killer neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman - was acquitted. This incident led to the launch of Black Lives Matter in 2012, but Gabourey, 34, is upset by how little coverage there is of female victims. "When we were shooting, there was the woman who was shot in front of her five-year-old, fatally; and her five-year-old was shot, too," she sighed. "Just a few days ago, there was a woman who was killed, who was pregnant, in front of her four children. I dont know if its equal or unequal to the black men were losing. But certainly I have the same amount of outrage." The Tale of Four, which follows the lives of four women who live in the same building, screened at Nantucket Film Festival on Sunday (25Jun17) and will be available to stream later this summer.

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Gabourey Sidibe: 'Police in America don't make me feel safe' - Star Magazine UK

Dating apps are, in their own way, a form of social networking especially as they expand into new areas like friend-finding or professional networking. So it only makes sense that they would adopt video as well, given the growing popularity of the format on social apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, as well as the industrys larger embrace of Stories as a means of offering an angle into peoples lives, activities, and interests.

This week, both Hinge and Zoosks Lively are rolling out support for video, each in their own way.

Hinge, for example, will now allow users to augment their user profiles on the service with video. The company says users can add videos up to 30 seconds long, by pulling from those that already exist on their phone. However, its shying away from short-form, disappearing videos like those found in Instagram, Snapchat, or Messenger Stories.

In fact,Hinge will not prompt people to take a front-facing video at all, only those pre-recorded or previously shared to Facebook or Instagram. (The videos imported from social networks can be longer than 30 seconds, Hinge notes.)

Instead, Hinge believes support for videos will allow members to better show who they really are, by sharing fun or memorable moments and activities from their lives. This continues the dating services larger mission of helping users find relationships, not casual encounters.

On Hinge we encourage our members to be authentic with one another because we know that leads to the best connections, explains Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod. Our profiles already do a great job, but video creates the opportunity for our members to learn about potential matches in a way that simply cant be captured with still photos and text.

The company will also encourage video adoption, too, by showing Hinge profiles with video to five times more people it says.

Meanwhile, Zoosks newer product Lively is hoping to capitalize on video to bring more people to its app.

Launched last summer as a product from the companys R&D group, Zoosk Labs, Lively had adopted video from the get-go. In Lively, users upload photos and videos that are then turned into story collages, which also include transitions and movement.

Again, the idea is that using video can show off someones personality much better than static, photo-only profiles.

Now, Zoosk is pushing the bar even further in terms of video with the launch of live video chat. The feature, which will be public on Wednesday morning, is designed to help users make connections with people that extend beyond dating.

In the updated app, users will be able to pick a topic and start chatting with others who are also available to chat. But unlike with Livelys profile videos, the chat feature allows users to start their session with their screen blurred. This helps users instantly feel more comfortable, the company explains, without having to worry about what they look like right away.

As users continue to talk, the blur fades away but users can opt to add it back if they want to remain hidden. Zoosk says the blur fades over 40 seconds, but you can tap Add Blur whenever you like to remain hidden.

Lively is about creating fun ways to help people connect, not just match, says Zoosks SVP of Product Behzad Behrouzi. Were hoping to create an overall experience where people can feel more relaxed being themselves, and more excited to meet and get to know other people.

This feature will push Lively beyond dating to help users just generally meet new people. This trend is not one thats limited to Lively. Top dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and others have also adopted friend-finding features as of late, as they become more like social networks. And Bumble is preparing to launch into professional networking in September, with the debut of BumbleBizz.

Shortly after, Bumble will roll out its own video support as well.

Announced in January, BumbleVID will allow users to share video stories on their profile. Bumble says it decided to hold the feature back because it would make more sense from an engineering perspective to launch it in the rebuilt app arriving this fall. That version of the app will support BumbleBizz, but will also introduce features that let you craft different profiles for dating, friends, and professional networking.

Similar to Snapchat and Instagram, Bumble will support short-form videos recorded live or in the past 24 hours, which can be either posted to your profile for all to see, or only shared with matches.

Also like Stories on other social apps, these videos will vanish in a day. However, a later version of the app will allow for a semi-permanent way to keep them. (More to come on that this fall.)

Again, Bumbles interest in video has a lot to do with how the company feels the format will help users show more of themselves, which is the common thread between all the dating apps embrace of video.

Its more of a way to storytell, and express yourself beyond a photo, explains Bumble co-founder CEO Whitney Wolfe, but in a way that was native to how we in our audience already use social media video. We didnt want to reinvent the wheel we wanted to just take what was already working well in other platforms, and give them the opportunity to do that with people they dont know yet, versus their friends, she says.

But these newer dating apps like Lively, Bumble and Hinge arent alone in making video a key feature in their updated user experiences. Even longtime dating giant Match.com is getting into the video game.

The company this week announced its plans for a Stories feature, too. In Matchs case, the stories can stretch to 60 seconds, as compared with Bumbles 10-second videos, for example. And theyre meant to be a combination of photos and videos, similar to whats available on Lively. Plus, you can narrate the content if youd like, to describe the imagery youre showing.

It gives people flexibility, Match CEO Mandy Ginsberg explained earlier in an interview with Mashable. Hearing someone talk about their photo is far better than just seeing the photo. Seeing a video and hearing their voice is, I think, the holy grail in terms of figuring out your attraction.

Match says Stories will launch into testing in the coming weeks, with a national rollout planned for later this year.

Video chat, however, is not on Match.coms public roadmap, nor Bumbles, nor Hinges.

This is likely because of the additional overhead that comes with allowing users to chat live, not only from a product and engineering standpoint, but also from a community safety perspective. It also may not be necessary after all, if two people enjoy chatting with each other a lot, what usually comes next is a request along the lines of, lets get off this app.

Livelys video chat launches tomorrow, around 9 AM PT. Hinges video is live now. Match and Bumble will roll out video later this year.

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Dating apps are embracing video - TechCrunch

June 28, 2017 | Mobile | Social Media

India has experienced explosive growth in the number of Facebook users over the past few years, making the country home to the largest share (32.6%) of users in Asia-Pacific.

According to eMarketers latest worldwide social network users forecast, 182.9 million people in India will log on to Facebook regularly in 2017, equating to 69.9% of social network users and 42.6% of internet users. eMarketer expects user growth to continue throughout the forecast period, increasing 20.0% this year. By 2021, 70.1% of social network users in India will access Facebook at least once per month.

Mobile social network usage is helping to drive up Facebook usage in India. This year, 96.5% of Facebook users will access the platform via mobile device, up from 90.3% in 2015.

By comparison, Twitter users in India will total 10.9 million this year, with 4.2% of social network users and 2.6% of internet users in the country accessing the platform. That number is forecast to reach 15.7 million by 2021, eMarketer estimates.

Mobile devices continue to fall in price, making them increasingly accessible to the average Indian consumer, according to Monica Peart, eMarketers senior forecasting director. This trend will continue to positively impact the growth of various internet activities, including regular use of the countrys most popular social networking platform, Facebook.

Using data collected from sensors, infrastructure and networked devices, smart-city projects are helping municipalities improve efficiency, boost sustainability and encourage economic development. They are also creating more collaborative environments among cities and their businesses and residents. Preview Report

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eMarketer Forecasts Strong Growth in Facebook Users in India - eMarketer

Social networking website Facebook reached two billion active monthly users globally on Tuesday, the company has said via a statement.

An average of more than 800 million people "like"something each day on Facebook, and more than 175 million "share a Love reaction," the company said.

The website's "Groups"feature has more than a billion monthly users, it said. The groups are built around everything from sporting interests to humanitarian projects.

The company defines a monthly active user as a registered Facebook user who logged in and visited Facebook through its website or a mobile device, or used its Messenger app, in the past 30 days. It does not include people who use the Instagram or WhatsApp networks but not Facebook.

"As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially 2 billion people!"co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg posted on Facebook.

"We're making progress connecting the world, and now let's bring the world closer together,"Zuckerberg wrote. "It's an honor to be on this journey with you."

Rapid growth

Founded in 2004, the social media behemoth hit the billion-user mark five years ago.

Now, the user base is bigger than the population of any single country, and of six of the seven continents. It represents more than a quarter of the world's 7.5 billion people.

The company said in May that duplicate accounts, according to an estimate from last year, may have represented some six percent of its worldwide user base.

Still, the social network's user population dwarfs that of similar companies. Twitter Inc reported in April monthly active users of 328 million, while Snap Inc's Snapchat had 166 million daily users at the end of the first quarter.

As it has grown, Facebook has updated features to fend off challengers such as Snapchat and adapt to trends such as the migration of news and streaming video online.

In the latest move to deepen its reach, it revealed Monday it is starting production on high-quality television series and gaming shows to be broadcast on its platform.

Hate speech

Facebook is also under pressure - along with other social media giants - to tackle the proliferation of hate speech and extremist content, trolls and misinformation, while safeguarding freedom of speech online.

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube announced Monday the launch of an anti-terror partnership aimed at thwarting the spread of extremist content on the internet.

Each of the technology giants has been working individually to prevent its platforms or services from being used to spread extremist views.

Facebook posted details Tuesday on how it defines and enforces rules against hate speech on its platform. Last month, Zuckerberg said the company would hire 3,000 employees in the next year to review and remove offensive content posted by users.

Whether hate speech, propaganda or activism, governments across the globe have upped efforts to curb content deemed illegal from circulating on social networks. From drawn out court cases to blanket bans, DW examines how some countries try to stop the circulation of illicit content while others attempt to regulate social media.

In Germany, Justice Minister Heiko Maas has proposed a law that would impose heavy fines on social media companies, such as Facebook, for failing to take down posts containing hate speech. But Facebook has pushed back, saying "preventing and combating hate speech and fake news is a public task that the state cannot avoid." The law is currently being reviewed by a German parliamentary committee.

In 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled that European citizens had the right to request search engines, such Google and Bing, remove "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive" search results linked to their name. Although Google has complied with the ruling, it has done so reluctantly, warning that it could make the internet as "free as the world's least free place."

In May, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Russian social media platforms and web services. The blanket ban affected millions of Ukrainian citizens, many of whom were anxious about their data. The move prompted young Ukrainians to protest on the streets, calling for the government to reinstate access to platforms that included VKontakte (VK), Russia's largest social network.

In 2015, the European Court of Justice ruled that Safe Harbor, a 15-year-old pact between the US and EU that allowed the transfer of personal data without prior approval, was effectively invalid. Austrian law student Max Schrems had launched the legal proceedings against Facebook in response to revelations made by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden.

In China, the use of social media is highly regulated by the government. Beijing has effectively blocked access to thousands of websites and platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Instead, China offers its citizens access to local social media platforms, such as Weibo and WeChat, which boast hundreds of millions of monthly users.

Author: Lewis Sanders IV

sri/rd (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

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Facebook now has two billion monthly users - Deutsche Welle

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

This week, constitutional law experts and the law enforcement community were abuzz after the U.S. Supreme Court added Carpenter v. United States to its docket, a case that could reshape government data collection and the Fourth Amendment in the internet Age. The Fourth Amendment asserts that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. Timothy Carpenter, the petitioner in this case, alleges that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated.

The case comes at a time when domestic surveillance by intelligence agencies is under scrutiny, and smartphone and internet records are playing a greater role in law enforcement investigations. It raises an important legal question about the applicability of old doctrines that give the government immense power in the Information Age.

Carpenter was convicted of taking part in six armed robberies in Michigan and Ohio. The FBIs evidence at trial included information collected from his cellphone carrier without a warrant, including location information that placed him in the vicinity of the robberies. Police almost certainly could have gotten a search warrant for Carpenters phone records. The appeals court upheld his conviction and dismissed his argument because, as most courts hold in these cases, personal information gathered from businesses like phone companies is not a search or seizure and doesnt require a warrant.

Before the creation of the web or smartphones, courts developed whats known as the third party doctrine for Fourth Amendment cases. This doctrine denies that information turned over to a third party like phone call and location information automatically transmitted to a phone company when placing a call is protected by Fourth Amendment. The doctrine derives from Supreme Court decisions from the 1970s about phone and bank records.

Today, technological advancements mean we each turn over tremendous amounts of personal data to third parties simply with routine use of the digital services of our age. New services that transmit data to the internet cloud, like smart homes, voice-activated devices, and Google Docs, offer law enforcement an even bigger treasure trove of personal records that, under the third party doctrine, does not require a warrant to collect.

The mere fact that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Carpenter case was a small victory for civil liberties groups. The third party doctrine is a blunt instrument that, in our connected world, permits too many low-value fishing expeditions by law enforcement. Cellular phone companies in particular are inundated with law enforcement subpoenas every year for user data, including user location. Verizon, for instance, reported that the government issued more than 120,000 subpoenas to the company in 2016 over 350 per day. Legal teams at Google, Facebook, Amazon and Uber are required to sift through similar government requests for information.

The political right and left have bristled in recent years against intrusive and often secretive government data collection. Conservatives were alarmed when The Wall Street Journal broke news last October that federal agents in Southern California had co-opted state license plate readers and drove around a parking lot to collect information about thousands of gun show attendees. For years, police departments around the country have spent millions acquiring cell site simulators that jam cellular signals and collect data from hundreds of nearby smartphone users. Progressives have alleged that these devices are used to identify people at mass protests.

The third party doctrine denies that such information can ever be unreasonably seized or searched. As the Cato Institute argues in its amicus brief in the Carpenter case, its time for the court to strip away the decades of privacy doctrine that has permitted police data collection to metastasize.

If the court takes up the Fourth Amendment issues, it should scrupulously apply the Fourth Amendments language: Are Carpenters phone records papers or effects? Were they searched or seized? Was the search or seizure unreasonable? Courts ask these questions in other criminal cases, but not when information leaves someones home or device. Justice must be served, but the third party doctrine short-circuits what should be a demanding constitutional analysis that protects us all.

Contracts between individuals and phone and app companies affirm the confidentiality of sensitive information, and courts should allow only reasonable searches of that data. We should not relinquish Fourth Amendment protections the moment a third party is involved especially in an era when devices in our pockets automatically transmit data.

Brent Skorup is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Melody Calkins is a Google Policy Fellow with Mercatus.

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A Supreme Court call on the third party doctrine - Washington Times