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SAN JOSE, Calif.In true Silicon Valley tradition, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company's annual developer conference on Tuesday by sharing his vision for the future of the world's largest social network, but not before acknowledging that Facebook's new features sometimes fall short.

Zuckerberg took the stage here one day after a Cleveland man, 37-year-old Steve Stephens, posted a video of himself on Facebook announcing his intent to commit murder and then shooting and killing an elderly man.

"We have a lot of work, and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening," Zuckerberg told the audience. Facebook has often been criticized for how it polices its live videos, which have featured footage of other controversial shootings in the past. On Monday, the company said Stevens's account was not disabled until two hours after it first received notice of inappropriate content, and pledged to quicken its response times.

But even as it acknowledges missteps in how it filters the billions of photos and videos on its platform, Facebook appears to have no plans to pause the stream of new ways for people to share them, especially if you own an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Starting today, you can download a beta version of the new Facebook Spaces, a one-stop app for sharing photos, videos, and other content with friends online.

Designed to be used with the Touch controllers, Spaces lets you create an avatar of yourself, complete with custom eye colors, hairstyles, and facial features. The avatars can then create and enter virtual rooms with other avatars that your friends create, joining in activities as diverse as playing tic-tac-toe (by drawing your own 3D game board with a virtual marker) to putting yourself in the middle of a 3D video.

"We're all about extending the physical world online," Zuckerberg said. "Augmented reality is going to help us mix the physical and digital in all new ways."

Zuckerberg has been extolling the social capabilities of VR for more than a year, including offering an early demo of what became Spaces at last year's gathering of developers for the Oculus platform. While Spaces itself is in an early beta, and only available to the tiny subset of tech early adopters who own expensive Rift headsets, it's clear that VR, not text-based status updates, is the way of the future for Facebook.

Still, there are a few ways for people who don't have a headset to participate in Spaces. You can make video calls via Facebook Messenger directly from Spaces while you're in VR, and your non-VR friends can even experience many of the same photos and videos from within their Messenger app, including 360-degree videos and 3D drawings.

On stage in San Jose, Facebook's head of VR, Rachel Franklin, made it clear that Spaces is a "very early version" of what she hopes will eventually be a new way for people to connect online. Franklin, who was previously executive producer of The Sims, noted that Spaces can already access Facebook's entire library of 360-degree videos. She said the company plans to expand it to other VR platforms in the future, although it's unclear when it will come to cheaper and less powerful headsets like the Samsung Gear VR.

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Facebook Brings Social VR to Oculus Rift - PCMag India

A photograph posted by the Italian Embassy in Tripoli on Twitter of an apparently fuel smuggler has sparked the anger of a broad spectrum of Libyans.

The Embassy tweeted the photo on Friday with the comment: " The future of Libya: its youth and its resources. One Libya."

The photo showed a young man standing on a fuel truck while flashing the victory sign with for sale written on the storage tank. Several social media users labelled the photo as an insult to the Libyan people because it does not reflect the tweet and could have a negative meaning.

The reactions to the tweet varied between those who demanded the Embassy to mind their own business and focus on their diplomatic work and others who said that the Embassy was busy tweeting on the Libyan issue, while no visa had been issued for the applications sent since it resumed its work from Tripoli.

Other users downplayed the tweet as a joke and viewed it from a different angle saying that it was not an irony of Libyans.

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Italian Embassy tweet sparks anger in social networking sites - The Libya Observer

T.K. Singh Soon after Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on 30 March 2017 accused Pakistan for using social media to incite youth in Kashmir, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in response organised a workshop on digital warfare on 1 April 2017 allegedly to instigate younger generations and fuel unrest in Kashmir. The domain of cyber space or social networking sites has been exploited as a major platform for transmitting unwanted information by spoilers to augment militancy in the region. Interestingly, the regular restoration of mobile phone services in February 2017 after a prolong suspension since July 2016 induced locals to conglomerate and swam over the encounter sites to support militants. Considering it as a disturbing trend, a new mechanism on cyber security is essential to address this alarming concern. The union home minister accused Pakistan when Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Saugata Roy, during a parliamentary session in Lok Sabha, asked clarification about the death of three civilian in firing by security forces in Budgam on 28 March 2017. He further stated that the situation in the valley is critical as Pakistanis are exploiting social media as a tool (multiplying force) to incite the innocent youths of Kashmir to storm encounter sites to cover up militants. Rajnath expressed that a new trend has been observed lately in which residents from local areas gathered at the skirmishes site (between security forces and militants) and pelted stones to support the militants flee by distracting the activities of forces. In fact, these hordes of local youths were stimulated by transferring information through social network applications including WhatsApp and Facebook originated/orchestrated from Pakistan. In common practice, congregation of residents in encounter locations and pelting stones on soldiers (disturbing operational duties) to facilitate the militant escaping has been observed recently in several instances. On 12 February locals had suddenly turned up in the street to pelt stones at the security forces while gun fight was going on with Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) at Nagbal in Frisal area of Kulgam district. Similarly on 14 February a mob pelted stones on security forces during an encounter with LeT members in Handwara area of Kupwara. Earlier on the same day, in an encounter site at Parray Mohalla Hajan in Bandipora district, locals had come out and started pelting stones at soldiers helping to escape a militant. On 28 March security forces were attacked by native stone pelters at Nagam village when the former were approaching towards an encounter site at Chadoora area in Budgam district. The information sharing applications in mobile phones help a major role in creating such disturbing activities in the localities. The unexpected gathering of residents in such large scale can be possible only by means of quick communication generated through phone calls, text message or WhatsApp information sharing. Interestingly, this affair has been practicing after the reactivation of mobile network services which was suspended for months after the death of Burhan Wani, Commander of Hzbul Mujahideen (HM) who died in an encounter on 8 July 2017. He was a popular techie (media propagandist) who set the new trend of militancy in Kashmir. As much as he was famous in social media, that much influential was he amongst his followers. He had used social networking system as a powerful weapon than any lethal gun he carried in his life. His funeral was attended by more than two Lakh of people creating a historic memorial service in Kashmir. A widespread protest (popularly known as 2016 Uprising) erupted in several parts of the valley for more than half a year in which about 90 people were died and thousands were injured. As it was misused to emanate violence by ultras, telephone communication and internet services for both prepaid and post paid connections were deactivated from 9 July 2016 to 30 January 2017. Nevertheless, the unrest lingered for various months though the communication network was disconnected. Burhan was succeeded in sowing the new seeds of fresh militancy in Kashmir. After his death, 59 youths have joined militant ranks as disclosed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in a State Assembly session in January 2017. The figure is according to the official record maintained by the Crime and Investigation Department (CID) of state police. However the data could have been increased by now and even in actual count by then. Some of the recruits are already neutralised including one Basit Ahmed Dar alias Sameer, a young engineering student who joined HM after the influence of 2016 Uprising in an encounter at Bewoora Mirhama, Anantnag District on 14 December 2016. Induction of tech savvy like Basit with engineering background enhanced the social networking prowess of the militant organisation. Meanwhile, to further augment its campaign in Kashmir, the Cyber Team of JuD has conducted a workshop titled Social Media Workshop: An instrument for Kashmir uprise 2k17 at different places including Gujranwala and Sarghoda areas in Punjab, Pakistan. Banner of the events printed texts such as Hybrid Warfare and Pakistan using social media to incite youth in Kashmir (the statement given by Rajnath). Leaked images of the conferences in media indicated that about 20 young techies participated in each meeting in which JuD leaders have given important lectures on digital warfare. To recognise their efforts, participants were issued certificates at the end of the programmes. Quoting intelligence inputs, reports suggested that the new recruit team of cyber army was termed as Team Burhan. In addition, with the support of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), militant outfits including JuD or LeT have generated 15,000 to 17,000 networking accounts to launch fresh turmoil in Kashmir. While the attempt of JuD to foment unrest through cyber space needs a critical surveillance, the current trend clearly indicates that the reopening of internet service in February motivates to congregate locals in the encounter sites. As absolute suspension of communication system is not viable only on the basis of irregular residents-storming-activities, authorities can consider partial disengagement of network facilities in those vulnerable locations during the crucial time of operation. In fact, the positive activation of internet service after a long period shall not be misused, and utilised it meaningfully for promoting harmony and growing prosperity by the peace loving natives of Kashmir. (The author is Assistant Professor at the Department of National Security Studies, Central University of Jammu. ) feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com

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Militancy and social networking concerns - Daily Excelsior

Facebook is in hot water after journalists flagged child pornography. Picture: Loic Venance

CHILD porn is cropping up on Facebook again.

For the second time in the past month, Mark Zuckerbergs social network is scrambling to remove filthy posts ridden with child pornography as well as posts promoting ISIS after media reports flagged them, reports the New York Post.

In the latest incident, the Times of London said it had used a dummy Facebook profile to alert the site to images of an allegedly violent sexual assault on a child, as well as cartoons of child abuse.

Facebook, which failed to remove the pictures until it was finally contacted directly by reporters, blamed the mess on human error.

The company said it sorts through about a million flagged posts a day, with human moderators giving priority to child abuse and suicide risks.

The offending pictures were finally taken down because they violate our policies and have no place on Facebook, Justin Osofsky, Facebooks vice president of global operations, said.

A court case against Facebook has been brought on by a 14-year-old girl whose naked photo was published repeatedly on the site.

He added that the social-networking giant was sorry that this occurred.

Facebook is in hot water after journalists flagged child pornography. Picture: Loic VenanceSource:AFP

It is clear that we can do better, and well continue to work hard to live up to the high standards people rightly expect of Facebook.

Last month, Osofsky landed in a mess when the BBC sent images of child porn it found on Facebook and the social network responded by reporting the BBC to law enforcement for distributing illegal images.

Using Facebooks policing tools, the BBC had attempted to report 100 sexualised images of children, and found that Facebook eventually removed just 18 of them.

The BBCs report also said Facebook took no action when it was notified that five convicted paedophiles had active Facebook accounts, explicitly violating the companys rules.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post.

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Facebook's child porn problem getting worse - NEWS.com.au

A Look at Twitter's Trends before Its 1Q17 Earnings Release PART 3 OF 15

Reuters and The Drum reported in March 2017 that European Union (EZU) authorities are pushing Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB), and Alphabets (GOOGL) Google to address concerns regarding consumer protections. These companies have reportedly been given ultimatums to amend their user policies within a month or face fines.

None of these companies have publicly commented about the EUs demands. There have been media reports that the companies and EU officials have been in discussions over the policy amendment requirements. However, a deal has yet to be reached.

Among the contentious issues are the requirements that users of these social networks seek legal redress from a California court instead of courts in their home countries.

The other controversial issue is the labeling of sponsored content, which EU authorities want to be clearly labeled so that users can easily identify such content.

Tech giants Facebook and Google have deep pockets. However, for a company like Twitter that is already rattled by tepid revenue growth and a stream of losses, losing money through fines could throw its recovery efforts into disarray.

As you can see from the chart above, Twitter had a net loss of $167.1 million in 4Q16, which was worse than its net loss of $90.2 million in 4Q15.

The EU user policy demands could present another risk for Twitter in that it could create bad blood between the company and authorities in the region. In recent years, EU authorities have appeared to be tough on US (SPY) companies, scrutinizing their activities such as theirtax practices.

Given the serious impact that an EU fine could have on Twitters finances and future in Europe, the companys management would do well to discuss its progress regarding its user policy amendment issue. This kind of clarification could reduce anyuncertainty that could impact the stock.

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The EU's Demands of Social Networking Companies Could Impact ... - Market Realist