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4 killed, 7 wounded in northern Illinois stabbings, one suspect in custody

Four people were killed and seven hurt in stabbings in northern Illinois on Wednesday, authorities said. A 22-year-old man is in police custody and was being questioned Wednesday afternoon, according to Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd. She said one of the people who was wounded remained in critical condition. "My heart goes out to the families right now that are suffering a loss," Redd told reporters. She said the Rockford Police received a medical call at 1.14 pm, followed by additional calls for police and paramedics. "We don't believe there's any other suspects that are on the run or at large at this particular time," Redd said. "Right now, we don't have a clear motive as to what caused this individual to commit such a heinous crime." Not all of the victims found at multiple addresses in the city had stab wounds and none were shot, according to Redd. Rockford Police initially said five people had been injured. Cori Hilliard, a public information officer with the Winnebago Cou

Meta, Microsoft, X join forces against Apple's App Store payment plans

The filing marks the latest volley in the back-and-forth over Apple's tight control over its app marketplace, which is one of the world's two dominant stores alongside Alphabet Inc.'s Google Play

Lok Sabha polls: Meta plans election centre, UPSC exam postponed. 10 points

Lok Sabha elections preparations have firmed up with the stakeholders announcing their progress. In view of the polls, UPSC and CA exams schedule have been revised to avoid clashes with polling days

Meta follows Google, gets ready to pave way for free and fair elections

Meta is bringing together experts from diverse teams such as intelligence, data science, engineering, research, operations, content policy and legal for the initiative

Facebook co-founder's B Capital closes $750 mn fund for late-stage startups

It will make investments in companies specialising in technology, healthcare, climate technology

Meta offers to almost halve Facebook, Instagram monthly fees to 5.99 euros

The move came amid mounting criticism from users about Meta's no-ads subscription service launched in Europe in November which critics say requires users to pay a fee to ensure their privacy

US Senator asks social media firms about preparations for polls in India

An influential American Senator on Friday asked the US social media companies as to what preparations they have made for elections in India, where social media platforms, including Meta-owned WhatsApp, have a long track record of amplifying misleading and false content. The letter, written by Senator Michael Bennet, a member of the Senate Intelligence and Rules Committees, which has oversight over US elections, comes on the eve of the announcement of elections in India by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The letter by Bennet to the leaders of Alphabet, Meta, TikTok, and X is addressed to seeking information from these companies about their preparations for elections in various countries, including India. The dangers your platforms pose to elections are not new users deployed deepfakes and digitally altered content in previous contests but now, artificial intelligence (AI) models are poised to exacerbate risks to both the democratic process and political stability. The ...

Over 40% of real-money gamers in India from non-metro regions, says Meta

Highlighting the growing popularity of gaming in India, a study by social media firm Meta said nearly half of casual gamers and 43 per cent of real-money gamers come from non-metro geographies. A study by Meta GWI showed that more than three of four casual and real-money gamers in the country discover new games to play and purchase on social media, and more than 90 per cent of these do so on Meta platforms. "Gaming is a top three vertical for Meta globally and we are particularly seeing our Advantage+ suite of automated ads drive growth for gaming brands," said Arun Srinivas, Director and Head (India), Ads Business, Meta. Srinivas added that gaming is poised to play a leading role in India's techade. The study revealed that 6 in 10 smartphone gamers game daily, and almost 90 per cent of real-money gamers take part in such activities at least weekly. "Nearly half of casual gamers and 43 per cent of real-money gamers come from non-metro geographies," it said. The study observed tha

TikTok ban will help Facebook, even if it's national security threat: Trump

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he still believes TikTok poses a national security risk but is opposed to banning the hugely popular app because doing so would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to lambast over his 2020 election loss. Trump, in a call-in interview with CNBC's Squawk Box, was asked about his comments last week that seemed to voice opposition to a bill being advanced by Congress that would effectively ban TikTok and other ByteDance apps from the Apple and Google app stores as well as US web hosting services. Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it, Trump told the hosts. There's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don't like is that without TikTok you're going to make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media. When I look at it, I'm not looking to make Facebook double

South Korea regulator likely to sanction Meta over online marketplace

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had investigated possible violations of the country's e-commerce law and had sent an examination report to Meta late last year, reports say

X could soon receive payment licenses in New York, California: Elon Musk

Since acquiring the company formerly known as Twitter in 2022, the billionaire has sought to turn it into an 'everything app' like Tencent's dominant WeChat app in China

X planning to remove likes and reposts from content, says Elon Musk

Elon Musk talked about decluttering the content on X, formerly Twitter

Towards the age of Meta Reason

The Last Dance of Rationality contemplates the rise and fall of rationality, and lays down the contours of a successor regime anchored in consciousness, intuition, awareness and human feeling

AIM, Meta partner to establish Frontier Technology Labs in schools

NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Meta on Wednesday announced their collaboration to set up Frontier Technology Labs (FTLs) in schools of strategic importance with an aim to democratize future technologies. According to an official statement, FTL is an advanced version of Atal Tinkering Lab equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure, including all components of the Tinkering Lab to empower students to innovate using technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Augmented & Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Robotics, 3D Printing, and Internet of Things. AIM Director Chintan Vaishnav said these labs will serve as hubs for innovation, providing students with the necessary tools to explore and contribute to the cutting-edge fields that will shape the future. FTLs are a part of Meta's Education to Entrepreneurship initiative, launched in September 2023, to seamlessly connect students, youth, workforce, and micro-entrepreneurs with futuristic technologies, taking .

Mark Zuckerberg's net worth drops $2.7 bn after Facebook, Instagram outages

Mark Zuckerberg's net worth took a hit of 2.2 per cent to stand at $176 billion. However, the 39-year-old tech mogul remained the world's fourth richest person on the Bloomberg's list

Facebook, Instagram down for thousands of users across globe: Reports

The disruptions started around 10:00 am ET, with more than 300,000 reports of outages for Facebook and about 40,000 reports for Instagram, according to the website

Instagram introduces edit message feature, pin groups and chats, and more

The new messaging features are now rolling out to both Instagram for Android and iOS apps and will be available for everyone in the coming days

AI and competition: Old wine in new bottles?

Big Tech's partnership with GenAI startups echoes a familiar playbook designed to stymie competition and monopolise markets. Regulators must act swiftly

Meta Platforms targeted in privacy complaints by 8 EU consumer groups

The consumer bodies said Meta is not complying with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules on fair processing, data minimisation and purpose limitation

Meta hit with European complaints over data for FB, Instagram targeted ads

The groups claim this violates the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which allows fines as high as 4 per cent of annual revenue for the most serious infractions