Pakistan: arrested for Facebook post
Raja Waris, a 25-year-old Christian lay reader, is in police custody in Lahore after he shared another person’s post critical of Islam on his Facebook page. Raja apologised to the Muslims in person,…
Coronavirus: scams and false news
We are all at risk from false information. For instance, a photo was circulated of a busy mosque supposedly in lockdown, but it was taken before lockdown. Another image showed trucks said to…
Hounded out of career for Facebook post
Seyi Omooba had been given the lead role in the award-winning musical The Colour Purple, based on Alice Walker’s classic American novel. The casting was announced on the same day that Seyi went…
Facebook’s new currency
Facebook will launch a Swiss-based cryptocurrency and payment system, called Libra, which could ‘reinvent money’. It is a huge political gamble, but the rewards could be enormous. Facebook is asking its 2.5 billion…
Facebook - suicide images - fake news
Matt Hancock, the UK health secretary, has called on social media giants to ‘purge’ material promoting self-harm and suicide, in the wake of links to teenager Molly Russell's suicide. They could be banned…
Media disinformation
‘Fake news’ threatens honest debate and democracy. Donald Trump’s favourite term was named 2017's word of the year by Collins Dictionary (described as false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news…
Facebook removes Russian and Iranian accounts
Facebook has identified and banned groups and pages engaged in misleading political behaviour and removed 652 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Russia and Iran, for ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ that included the sharing…
Facebook: Zuckerberg agrees to EU grilling
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has agreed to face a grilling from European Union lawmakers over how the data of as many as 2.7 million Europeans could have ended up in the hands…
Israel: reactions to truck attack
A man from the predominantly Bedouin southern city of Rahat has been arrested for posting a video on his Facebook page that called for people to carry out car-ramming attacks, Israeli police said…
Facebook creator no longer an atheist
Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook, has announced he is no longer an atheist, but in fact sees religion as ‘very important’. Zuckerberg posted a ‘Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah’ message from his family…
