Metaverse

PwC India collaborates with Meta to expand its open-source AI solutions

The consultancy firm stated that the collaboration would help PwC India and Meta "democratise" Generative AI (GenAI) and make it more accessible to businesses by jointly building

Google defends ad tech as safe, says it's competitive with Meta, Amazon

In a federal antitrust trial, enforcers allege that Google has monopolised the technology used to buy and sell website ads

AI Alliance adds 7 Indian members including Infosys, AI4Bharat & Sarvam AI

Founded in 2023, the group aims to promote open, safe, and responsible artificial intelligence practices globally

Facebook owner Meta bans Russia state media over 'foreign interference'

Meta said it's banning Russia state media organisation from its social media platforms, alleging that the outlets used deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow's propaganda. The announcement drew a rebuke from the Kremlin on Tuesday. The company, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said late Monday that it will roll out the ban over the next few days in an escalation of its efforts to counter Russia's covert influence operations. After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity," Meta said in a prepared statement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lashed out, saying that such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable, and that Meta with these actions are discrediting themselves. We have an extremely negative attitude towards this. And this, of course, complicates the prospects for normalizing ou

Instagram rolls out teen accounts with parental controls as scrutiny mounts

Users of such accounts can only be messaged and tagged by accounts they follow or are already connected to, while sensitive content settings will be dialed to the most restrictive available

MeitY urges swift removal of fake content by intermediaries after HC order

The Bombay High Court ordered the deletion of false information following the circulation of fake videos featuring NSE's MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan

Meta, Telangana govt partnership for e-gov, citizen svcs leveraging AI tech

Social media giant Meta on Thursday announced a two-year partnership with the Telangana government aimed at enhancing e-governance and citizen services using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. According to a release, the strategic partnership will empower public officials and citizens with the latest emerging technologies like AI to enhance e-governance and citizen services. "Advancing ongoing efforts to foster innovation in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Meta today announced a two-year partnership with the Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications (IT, E&C), Government of Telangana," the release said. Meta will partner with the Telangana government to enable deployment of e-governance solutions leveraging Meta's open-source generative AI technologies including the latest 'Llama 3.1 model'. This will be focused towards transforming various aspects of public service delivery and e-governance, along with enhancing efficiency and ...

Meta AI alerts Lucknow police, saves woman from committing suicide

Social media company Meta AI saved the life of a woman who was attempting to commit suicide here, as she was allegedly upset over being abandoned by her husband, a police official said. The police have arrested the 23-year-old husband of the woman. According to the police, the woman, 21, was going to commit suicide. She made a video with a noose around her neck and posted it on social media. While the video was going viral, the Social Media Centre of the office of the Directorate General of Police received an alert from Meta and the police became active. They immediately reached the spot after locating the village and stopped the girl from committing suicide. ACP Mohanlalganj Rajneesh Verma told PTI Videos, "On Saturday, around noon, an alert was received from Meta AI at the Social Media Centre of the office of the Director General of Police that a young woman was hanging from a noose. Immediately acting on the information, a police team reached the spot and rescued her safely." W

Meta ignores pleas, kills off misinformation tracking tool CrowdTangle

Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms has shut down CrowdTangle, a tool widely used by researchers, watchdog organisations and journalists to monitor social media posts, notably to track how misinformation spreads on the company's platforms. Wednesday's shutdown, which Meta announced earlier this year, has been protested by researchers and nonprofits. In May, dozens of groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, Human Rights Watch and NYU's Center for Social Media & Politics, sent a letter to the company asking that it keep the tool running through at least January so it would be available through the US presidential elections. This decision jeopardizes essential pre- and post-election oversight mechanisms and undermines Meta's transparency efforts during this critical period, and at a time when social trust and digital democracy are alarmingly fragile, the letter said. CrowdTangle, has been an ...

Meta raises its largest high-grade debt sale of $10.5 billion: Report

The longest portion of the deal, a 40-year security, yields 1.3 percentage points above Treasuries after initial discussions of around 1.55 percentage points

Meta offering Hollywood stars millions of dollars for AI voice projects

The company is talking with Judi Dench, Awkwafina and Keegan-Michael Key, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the project is confidential

Turkey blocks access to Instagram over 'censorship', mentions no duration

Turkish communications official Fahrettin Altun, has slammed the Meta-owned platform for 'blocking condolence posts on the killing of Ismail Haniyeh'

Meta reports better-than-expected sales in Q2, shares jump by 10%

Meta has been using AI to improve the way its advertisers can find interested users, adding efficiency to its most lucrative business

Meta to let users to create custom AI characters through AI Studio

The new tool is built with Meta's Llama 3.1, the biggest version of its mostly free artificial intelligence models

WhatsApp not planning to shut services in India: I&B Minister Vaishnaw

WhatsApp and its parent company Meta has not informed the government of any plans to shut down its services in India, I&B Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha on Friday. "Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shared that WhatsApp or Meta has not informed the government about any such plans," Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Congress member Vivek Tankha had asked whether WhatsApp was planning to shut its services in India due to the government's directives to share user details. Earlier this year, WhatsApp had told the Delhi High Court that it will stop functioning in India if it was compelled by the government to break encryption of messages. WhatsApp and its parent company Meta had challenged the newly amended IT Rules contending that they violate the right to privacy and were unconstitutional. Responding to Tankha's question on curbs on social media platforms, Vaishnaw said the central government issues directions under Section

Meta to be hit with first EU antitrust fine for linking Marketplace, FB

Meta could face a fine of as much as $13.4 billion - or 10% of its 2023 global revenue - although EU sanctions are usually much lower than that cap

After praising Zuckerberg; Elon Musk says ready to fight him anytime

Just when the hype around the Elon Musk-Mark Zuckerberg duel seemed to be fading, the Tesla chief has rekindled speculations with latest 'ready to fight' remark

Zuckerberg's Meta aims to rival OpenAI, Google with new Llama AI model

Meta uses its Llama models to power its AI chatbot, called Meta AI, which operates inside its apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, and also as a separate web product

Nigeria slaps $220 mn fine on Meta over violation of data protection laws

Nigeria's government on Friday announced a fine of USD 220 million on Meta, saying its investigations found multiple and repeated violations of the country's data protection and consumer rights laws on Facebook and WhatsApp. A statement from Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, or FCCPC, listed five ways that Meta violated data laws in the West African country, including by sharing the data of Nigerians without authorization, denying consumers the right to self-determine the use of their data, discriminatory practices as well as abuse of market dominance. "Being satisfied with the significant evidence on the record, and that Meta Parties have been provided every opportunity to articulate any position ... the Commission has now entered a Final Order, and issued a penalty against Meta Parties," FCCPC chief executive Adamu Abdullahi said in a statement. A spokesperson for Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Nigeria, which is Africa's

Meta in talks to buy 5% stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica: Report

EssilorLuxottica's Paris-listed shares jumped 6 per cent after the report, while Meta stock was up 2.3 per cent just after the opening bell