Cairo, Egypt | AFP | An Egyptian blogger famed for his satirical videos on YouTube and Facebook has been arrested, his family said on Monday. Shadi Abuzeid was detained at home on Sunday, his sister Rula told AFP. “Lawyers told us that Shadi was currently held by the state security …
Read More »Up to 95% of cyber-crimes go unreported, report
95% of cybercrimes go unreported, report Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | According to the Uganda Cyber Security report 2017, 95% of cyber security incidents went unreported and yet of those reported; only 4.4% of reported cases were followed to successful prosecution. The report released early this month by the African …
Read More »Google to show who is behind US political ads
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Google on Friday said that people looking to place US election ads on its platform will need to show identification, and make clear who is paying. Policy changes being rolled out come as online ad ‘duopoly’ Google and Facebook strive to avoid being …
Read More »Court provisionally blocks Tanzania’s new blogging law
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Tanzania’s high court on Friday temporarily suspended a controversial new law that would impose major fees on bloggers and other online media. Due to come into force on Saturday, the law would compel bloggers to pay $900 (750 euros) for a permit, a huge sum …
Read More »Twitter urges users to change ‘unmasked’ passwords
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Twitter on Thursday urged its more than 300 million users to change their passwords, saying they had been unintentionally “unmasked” inside the company by a software bug. The social media site said it found no sign that hackers accessed the exposed data, but …
Read More »India’s Modi twice as popular on Facebook as Trump: study
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | US President Donald Trump may rule the roost on Twitter, but he lags far behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook, according to a study published Wednesday. Modi is by far the most followed world leader on the gargantuan social networking platform, counting 43.2 …
Read More »Facebook messaging app adds real time translations
San José, United States | AFP | Facebook on Tuesday gave its popular Messenger app the ability to translate missives in real time, deploying artificial intelligence to enable text conversations between people using different languages. Messenger has become a tool for businesses to connect with customers, and the ability to converse …
Read More »Facebook to offer dating service
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that the world’s largest social network will soon include a new dating service. “This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships, not just hook-ups,” Zuckerberg said as he unveiled the plan in a speech at Facebook’s …
Read More »UK MPs pressure Zuckerberg to testify on Facebook data breach
London, United Kingdom | AFP | British MPs threatened Tuesday to issue a formal summons to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg for him to testify over a major privacy row, after he declined to appear. Zuckerberg was grilled by the US Congress last month but sent one of his executives to …
Read More »Facebook should pay its users!
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | People should be paid whenever their personal data is used by tech giants to make money; that is the proposal of Sir Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in the UK. He said data was the ‘new oil’ and the ‘growth …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price