Fake news: Companies say top bosses may quit over persecution fears

The blow-hot-blow-cold relationship between the government and social media and technology-backed firms seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Some companies now fear exits of their India heads and senior management if the government goes ahead with its plans to carry out criminal proceedings against top bosses over spread of fake news via their platforms.

Apart from global technology giants Google and Facebook (which together have four to five social media platforms), Twitter, LinkedIn, smaller social media portals and payments apps with chat capabilities are planning to approach the government on putting back its plans of booking their top bosses.

While it has not been decided if they would form a common front, the public policy teams in these firms are getting ready for a long discussion with the government. “We are constantly in touch with government officials. We want them to know that we are taking steps to prevent spreading of fake news and such drastic actions are unnecessary,” said a senior public policy executive at one of the tech firms.

Facebook and Google chase a new trillion-dollar payments market in India

Surendrasingh Sucharia always has a few thousand rupees in his pocket, but can’t recall the last time he used cash. The 29-year-old product manager in Bangalore uses a string of smartphone apps including ones from Google and India’s Paytm to pay for everything from $40 bags of groceries to street food that costs pennies.

A bewildering array of digital payment businesses from global names like Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp to Google are in a slugfest to win Indian users. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is acquiring a stake in the company behind payments leader Paytm.

Meanwhile, a string of other big-name players are also expanding in the country’s digital payments market including its banks, its postal service, and its richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

India saw a brief spurt in digital payments two years ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned most of the nation’s existing bank notes, although the spike petered out as new bills were printed. But over the past year, a string of new apps have made payments increasingly easy, and the discounts and cash bonuses they offer are proving irresistible to young, urban users like Sucharia.

Reply within four weeks on WhatsApp payment service: SC to Centre

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and messaging service provider WhatsApp after a plea sought direction to restrain the app from proceeding with its payments systems unless it fully complies with RBI's provisions.

A bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Indu Malhotra sought response from WhatsApp, Law and Justice Ministry, Finance Ministry and Information Technology Ministry within four weeks.

Advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for the petitioner Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change, contended that the messaging platform does not comply with provision of mandating a Grievance Officer and other laws of India including Know Your Customer (KYC) norms laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The plea said that while companies like Facebook and Google have appointed Grievance Officers for users in India, WhatsApp had not.

Govt snubs WhatsApp's no, wants it to trace origin of fake news messages

It’s back to square one on the WhatsApp issue.

In a statement on Thursday, the California-based messaging platform said: “Requiring traceability would undermine end-to-end encryption and the private nature of WhatsApp, creating the potential for serious misuse.” The firm would not weaken its privacy protections as people rely on WhatsApp for sensitive conversations, including with their doctors and banks, spokesperson Carl Woog said.

Reacting, the government reiterated the company should step up its act in tracing the origin of fake texts — a subject of dispute between the two sides for long. “WhatsApp should give a more firm assurance of compliance with Indian laws. It should establish a grievance office with wide network and set up an Indian corporate entity, subject to Indian laws, in a defined timeframe,” a source from the information technology (IT) ministry said.

Two days ago, things looked settled after WhatsApp Chief Executive Officer Chris Daniels met IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi to discuss ways to prevent the spread of fake messages. After the interaction, the minister had briefed the media, saying WhatsApp would try to work out a solution. Daniels and his team had refused to comment on the decisions taken at the meeting.

Fake news menace: You can share WhatsApp messages with only up to 5 people

In response to the government's crackdown on the circulation of fake news, especially using its platform, WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned instant messaging mobile app, has limit the number of people to whom you can forward a message to five.

The move follows several other steps with the same objective, such as issuing guidelines on how to identify forwarded messages and be a responsible user of the service.

The new feature would roll out as part of an app update from this week itself. The step came soon after the government asked WhatsApp and other social media platforms to take onus and help curb fake news circulation, which had been causing violence -- even lynching in some recent cases.

WhatsApp has also reportedly been testing more features to crack down on fake news on its platform. Recently, the company had started testing a feature in its beta app for Android in which the app recognises authenticity of the link and marks unusual links as ‘suspicious’.

Fake news crackdown: Govt seeks options to block Facebook and WhatsApp

In a bid to check the spread of fake news through social media and messaging platforms — leading to mob lynching in some cases — the government is exploring the possibility of blocking mobile applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram. The government is also trying to curb child abuse and pornography spread through these platforms.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had written to telecommunications service providers (TSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) on July 18, seeking inputs about options for blocking mobile applications, especially when national security and public order are under threat.

According to officials, the DoT had a meeting on July 4 with telcos and ISPs to discuss measures. “Issues have been raised by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and law enforcement agencies for blocking of certain mobile apps... Therefore, you are requested to explore various possible options and confirm how the Instagram/ Facebook/WhatsApp/Telegram and such other mobile apps can be blocked on internet,” said the July 18 letter.

We share limited data with Facebook to help customers, confirms WhastApp

Popular messaging app WhatsApp has claimed it shares limited data of payment service with its parent firm Facebook and the social media major does not use the information for commercial purpose. "Facebook does not use WhatsApp payment information for commercial purposes, it simply helps pass the necessary payment information to the bank partner and NPCI. 

In some cases, we may share limited data to help provide customer support to you or keep payments safe and secure," WhatsApp claimed on its website. WhatsApp is running beta version of its payment service in India. According to government sources, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has written to National Payment Corporation of India to verify compliance around WhatsApp payment and check if WhatsApp is sharing data with its parent firm Facebook.

WhatsApp 'Restrict Group' feature allows admin to censor members' posts

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is rolling out its "Restrict Group" for all iOS, Android and Windows Phone users -- a feature that gives the group administrator powers to restrict other members from sending text messages, photographs, videos, GIFs, documents or voice messages in case the admin thinks so.

According to WABetaInfo, a popular fan site that tests new WhatsApp features early, you need to update your WhatsApp version to the 2.18.132 Android update in order to remotely receive the activation of the feature.

The "Restrict Group" feature, first spotted in last December, adds "Privacy settings" in the group.

"All participants can normally edit the group description, icon and subject, but finally the administrator can restrict this feature today, preventing no-administrators to modify the group description," the website said.

By leaving Facebook to play Frisbee, WhatsApp co-founder to lose $1 billion

Jan Koum’s exit from Facebook Inc. could prove costly. A speedy departure may prevent him from collecting as much as $1 billion in stock awards.

The chief executive officer of messaging unit WhatsApp confirmed in a Facebook post-Monday afternoon that he was leaving the company. The announcement comes before the final three vesting dates of restricted stock unit awards tied to Facebook’s $22 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014.

Koum, 42, got about 24.9 million restricted shares as part of the deal. The stock vests in increments until late 2018, with 1.9 million shares due to vest in mid-May and mid-August, plus a final tranche of 2.1 million set to be issued in November.

The awards are contingent on him still being employed through those dates. He would forfeit 5.8 million shares, worth $997.5 million as of Monday’s close, if he left before May 15, unless his exit is categorized as an involuntary termination or a good-reason resignation, regulatory filings show.

Facebook trying to weaken WhatsApp privacy? Co-founder Jan Koum quits

The co-founder of WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Facebook Inc with more than 1 billion daily users, said on Monday he was leaving the company, in a loss of one of the strongest advocates for privacy inside Facebook.

Jan Koum's plan to exit comes after clashing with the parent company over WhatApp's strategy and Facebook's attempts to use its personal data and weaken its encryption, the Washington Post earlier reported, citing people familiar with the internal discussions.

"It's been almost a decade since Brian and I started WhatsApp, and it's been an amazing journey with some of the best people," Koum, WhatsApp's chief executive, said in a post on his Facebook page referring to co-founder Brian Acton.

"But it is time for me to move on." He did not give a date for his departure and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Acton left the messaging service company in September to start a foundation, after spending eight years with WhatsApp.

New Snapchat update to let users share public 'Stories' outside the app

Image messaging and multimedia mobile application Snapchat on Wednesday announced that the platform will now let its user base to share some public 'Stories' via links.

"Stories eligible for sharing right now include those Official Stories and Our Stories found in the Discover tab, as well as Search Stories," TechCrunch reported.

However, according to the company, the type of 'Stories' that one can share will expand over time.

The aim is to allow users to share content from within the app to let people, who don't use the platform, know what it can do.

This feature will be going live to users running the redesigned Snapchat app, which also includes test markets like Australia and Canada.

It will become available for iOS and Android over the next few weeks.

How WhatsApp launched 'Reply Privately' feature in beta update - mistakenly

WhatsApp mistakenly rolled out the 'Reply Privately' feature in a beta update that will allow users to privately send a message to a participant in a group without anyone else knowing about it.

According to Express.co.uk, the hotly-anticipated feature is under development and could be rolled out with other features as well.

The feature appeared and was subsequently dropped from the beta version of the app, watcher of the popular chat app @WABetaInfo said, confirming that the developers wrongly enabled the feature.

"In the new WhatsApp beta for Windows Phone 2.17.344 the private reply feature is disabled. Probably WhatsApp has wrongly enabled it in 2.17.342," WABetaInfo tweeted.

WABetaInfo said that the option will only be available in group chats and will be included in the small menu that pops-up when users press and hold on a message.

Earlier this month, WABetaInfo leaked the details of the features that WhatsApp was developing for web and desktop, including tap to unblock and a picture-in-picture (PIP) mode.
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Rohingya crisis: Desperate for news, refugees tune in to 'WhatsApp radio'

Sat in his hillside grocery shop in a Bangladesh refugee camp, Rohingya Muslim Momtaz-ul-Hoque takes a break to listen to an audio recording on his mobile phone, while children and passers-by gather round to hear the latest news from Myanmar.

“I listen because I get some information on my motherland,” said Hoque, 30, as he plays a message on WhatsApp explaining the Myanmar government’s proposals for repatriating refugees.

Hoque has been in Bangladesh since an earlier bout of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 1992, but the number of refugees in the camps has swelled dramatically to more than 800,000 in recent weeks, after a massive Myanmar military operation sent around 600,000 people fleeing across the border.

Tens of thousands of exhausted refugees have arrived with little more than a sack of rice, a few pots and pans and a mobile phone powered by a cheap solar battery, and many are desperate for news of what is going on back home.

With few news sources in their own language and low levels of literacy, audio and video messages distributed on apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube have become a community radio of sorts for the Muslim minority.

Dozens of WhatsApp groups have sprung up to fill the information gap. Their offerings range from grainy footage of violence, to listings of the names and numbers of people missing in the chaos of the exodus, or even an explainer from educated Rohingya on how to adjust to life in the camps.
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WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton leaving company to start his own foundation

Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, now owned by Facebook Inc, will leave the messaging service company to start a new foundation, he said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Acton spent eight years with WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for $19 billion in cash and stock.

A Stanford alumnus, Acton co-founded WhatsApp with Ukrainian immigrant Jan Koum in 2009. The duo worked at Yahoo before starting WhatsApp.
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WhatsApp down in China: Could meet the same fate as FB, Twitter, YouTube

Netizens in China have reporter disruptions in service by Whatsapp, leading to the scare that the Facebook-owned chat app may be on its way to being entirely blocked.

Several users have reported that the app is no longer properly accessible unless they use a virtual private network to send their internet traffic outside the country and around its great firewall, reports the Independent.

Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had no information on the issue when asked by reporters on Tuesday.

WhatsApp is known for helping those seeking a greater degree of privacy from government snooping than domestic app WeChat, which closely monitored and filtered.

The development comes at a politically charged time in China, as while Chinese censors have boosted efforts to eradicate all mention of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died Thursday in government custody.

Besides blocking Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over possible threat to national security, Chinese authorities are now turning their focus to encrypted messaging apps.
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WhatsApp down: China users report disruption amid censorship fears

Users of WhatsApp in China and security researchers have reported widespread service disruptions amid fears that the popular messaging service may be at least partially blocked by authorities in the world's most populous country.

WhatsApp users in China reported today on other social media platforms that the app was partly inaccessible unless virtual private network software was used to circumvent China's censorship apparatus, known colloquially as The Great Firewall.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and offers end-to- end encryption, has a relatively small but loyal following among users seeking a greater degree of privacy from government snooping than afforded by popular domestic app WeChat, which is ubiquitous but closely monitored and filtered.

Questions over WhatsApp's status come at a politically fraught time in China. The government is in the midst of preparing for a sensitive party congress while Chinese censors this week revved up a sprawling effort to scrub all mention of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died Thursday in government custody.

A report this week by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab detailed how Chinese censors were able to intercept, in real time, images commemorating Liu in private one-on-one chats on WeChat, a feat that hinted at the government's image recognition capabilities

It appeared that pictures were also the focus of the move to censor WhatsApp. Late today, users in China could send texts over WhatsApp without the use of VPNs, but not images.
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Watch: Washing machine ad featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui outrages Pakistanis

A leaked advertisement being circulated on social media in Pakistan has stirred up anger over its casual attitude toward domestic violence, forcing the electronics company behind the video to apologize.

While promoting a Kenwood brand washing machine, the ad shows a group of male friends having a laugh over the main character's story about a fight with his wife. The man brags about not tolerating his wife's “attitude” and resorting to “dhulayi,” which literally means “washing” but is used as a slang for “beating up.”

The ad wasn't officially released, but a Facebook group called “Whatsapp Videos” posted the leaked video and it didn't take long before the criticism started trickling in. Facebook user Wafa Zafar called it:

Disgusting ad….giving concept that a man should be proud among his friends on beating his wife

Another comment by Facebook user Kookie Malik detailed a complaint made to the parent company in the US:

I have made an effort to speak to Kenwood USA and Kenwood Japan and have asked a simple question: Why is it OK to use such crass and potentially violence inciting crap to make money and promote your company or your brand?? Our women and ALL women for that matter are scared and any of you that find this funny should consider a man beating your mother, sister or daughter …and you laughing and thinking it is OK. Shame on Kenwood and its Executives that allowed this to take place – Their Disclaimer is also another eyewash and stinks of the same corporate nonsense that Delta Airlines demonstrated recently. This is not over yet.

Hurmat Riaz from Mangobaaz, which describes itself as an entertainment website for Pakistani millennials, wrote that the ad is the latest in a series produced by the company showing the husband being intimidated by his wife:
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Security flaw found in WhatsApp, Telegram: researchers

BREAKING NEWS - A computer security firm on Wednesday revealed a flaw that could let hackers break into WhatsApp or Telegram messaging accounts using the very encryption intended to protect messages.

Check Point Software Technologies said that it alerted Telegram and Facebook-owned WhatsApp last week, waiting until the vulnerability was patched before making it public.

Check Point did not specify how many messaging accounts were at risk, but did say the flaw posed a danger to "hundreds of millions" of users accessing the messaging platform from web browsers in computers, as opposed to mobile applications.

"This new vulnerability put hundreds of millions of WhatsApp Web and Telegram Web users at risk of complete account take over," Check Point head of product vulnerability Oded Vanunu said in a release.

"By simply sending an innocent looking photo, an attacker could gain control over the account, access message history, all photos that were ever shared, and send messages on behalf of the user."

The vulnerability made it possible for an attacker to booby-trap a digital image with malicious code that could spring into action after the picture is clicked on for viewing, according to Check Point.

The malicious code could then hijack an account, and even spread itself like a virus by sending infected messages to those listed as contacts.

WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption designed to make certain only senders and recipients can see what is in messages.

The privacy protection had the side effect of preventing the services from being able to discern whether message contents included malicious code, according to Check Point.

To remedy the situation, both services shifted to finding and blocking viruses before messages are encrypted, the security researchers said.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging services in the world with more than a billion users. Telegram claims only 100 million or so users, but is often cited as a preferred communications tool of jihadists because of encryption to keep messages from the eyes of authorities.(READ MORE)