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How has your world been effected by Whatsapp/Instagram/Twitter/Facebook outage?

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MenInG

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One in progress now...

Difficult time to handle or are you busying yourself with other things?

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Facebook has apologised as tens of thousands of people report problems accessing its platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Those two services and Facebook itself have all reportedly crashed, with users reporting being unable to send or receive messages, and their feeds not refreshing.

Andy Stone, from Facebook's communications department, tweeted: "We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

Facebook working 'to get things back to normal' - live updates

Sky News US correspondent Mark Stone has been speaking to people across the world on Twitter who have confirmed the networks are down.

Downdetector, which collects status reports on the services, showed 73,804 problems with WhatsApp had been recorded in a spike at 4:53pm.

It showed 43% of the problems were associated with the app and 28% were related to sending messages.

WhatsApp thanked its users for their patience in a statement posted on its official Twitter account.

The tweet said: "We're aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment.

"We're working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible.

"Thanks for your patience!"

Downdetector suggested Facebook had received more than 58,219 reports, of which 71% were regarding its website and 17% were with the app.

Users reported being unable to access the site in California, New York and across Europe.

Several users using their Facebook credentials to log in to third-party apps such as Pokemon Go and Match Masters were also facing issues.

"If your game isn't running as usual please note that there's been an issue with Facebook login servers and the moment
this gets fixed all will be back to normal," puzzle game app Match Masters said on its Twitter account.

For Instagram, a total of 30,473 reports have been recorded, with more than 50% showing issues with the app.

It said on Twitter: "Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them.

"Bear with us, we're on it!"

SKY
 
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Snapchat is fine :afridi

Lets hope the FB/Insta outage last a few decades, humans evolution will more forward again.
 
Only the messenger aspect of FB affects me since most of my friends and family communicate through that.

I could live without FB/IG for a few days. Still got reddit at least.
 
I lived without these 5 months in 2019 not a big deal for me
 
Facebook has apologised after global reports of people having problems accessing its platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Those two services and Facebook itself have all reportedly crashed, with users saying they are unable to send or receive messages, and their feeds are not refreshing.

Andy Stone, from Facebook's communications department, tweeted: "We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

Shares of Facebook, which has nearly 2 billion daily active users, fell 5.7% on Monday, knocking more than $50bn off its market value.
 
A life without WhatsApp…I’m not used to this!!!
 
A lot of people are pretty much running their businesses on Whatsapp
 
Not at all.

We only had an interview scheduled with our next Au Pair who is currently in Europe and we are in the U.S.
So instead of whatsapp, we used another app and it went well.

I am not a heavy user of FB or Instagram etc.
 
I barely use WhatsApp or Instagram. So, those were not big losses for me.

I use FB and hence it was slightly inconvenient.

I could access other sites like YouTube, PakPassion etc. So, it was not a problem for me.
 
Being without whats app for a few hours only meant couldn't chat to friends and family so just used the email. Still had my laptop and TV as well. When it comes to social media I only use Facebook now and again. Did not really miss it at all.
 
Statement by FB:

To all the people and businesses around the world who depend on us, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused by today’s outage across our platforms. We’ve been working as hard as we can to restore access, and our systems are now back up and running. The underlying cause of this outage also impacted many of the internal tools and systems we use in our day-to-day operations, complicating our attempts to quickly diagnose and resolve the problem.

Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused issues that interrupted this communication. This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt.

Our services are now back online and we’re actively working to fully return them to regular operations. We want to make clear at this time we believe the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change. We also have no evidence that user data was compromised as a result of this downtime.

People and businesses around the world rely on us everyday to stay connected. We understand the impact outages like these have on people’s lives, and our responsibility to keep people informed about disruptions to our services. We apologize to all those affected, and we’re working to understand more about what happened today so we can continue to make our infrastructure more resilient.

https://engineering.fb.com/2021/10/04/networking-traffic/outage/
 
Social media services Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram are back up and running after an outage that lasted almost six hours, Facebook says.

The company says the cause was a faulty configuration change.

All three services are owned by Facebook and could not be accessed over the web or on smartphone apps.

Downdetector, which tracks outages, said it was the largest failure it had ever seen, with 10.6 million problem reports around the world.

The services went down at about 16:00 GMT with users beginning to gain access to the sites at around 22:00.

In a statement on Tuesday, Facebook said that the faulty configuration change affected the company's internal tools and systems which complicated attempts to resolve the problem.

It added that there was "no evidence that user data was compromised as a result of this downtime".

Earlier, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg apologised to those affected by the outage.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger are coming back online now. Sorry for the disruption today -- I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about.

Some people also reported problems using Facebook's virtual reality headset platform, Oculus, and apps which require Facebook logins were affected, including Pokémon Go.

An outage of this scale for such a long time is rare. A disruption in 2019 left Facebook and its other apps mostly inaccessible across the world for more than 14 hours.

Several other tech companies, including Reddit and Twitter, poked fun at the social media giant's predicament - prompting responses from the affected apps.

The disruption comes the day after an interview with a former Facebook employee who leaked documents about the company.

Frances Haugen told CBS news on Sunday that the company had prioritised "growth over safety".

On Tuesday she will testify before a Senate subcommittee in a hearing titled "Protecting Kids Online", about the company's research into Instagram's effect on the mental health of young users.

BBC
 
US social network company Facebook saw its stock price plummet more than 5% on Monday after its services, including Instagram and WhatsApp, have all gone down globally for hours.

Facebook's stock price was trading at $325 per share at 3.55 pm EDT shortly before the closing bell on the Nasdaq — down 5.25% from the previous close of $343.01 a share on Friday, according to official figures.

The company's market value lost around $50.7 billion, standing at $915.1 billion at the time, down from $965.8 billion on Friday

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth decline $6.1 billion, or 5%, to $116.5 billion on Monday, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List where he stands at 6th place.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp saw outages earlier worldwide according to the DownDetector website that tracks internet service outages.

Nearly 124,000 outages have been reported on Facebook, almost 97,000 on Instagram, and more than 33,000 on WhatsApp, according to latest data on DownDetector.

"We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products," Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said on Twitter. "We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

WhatsApp said on Twitter it is "aware that some people are experiencing issues with" the application "at the moment".

"We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!" said the company.

The outage's cause remains unclear.
 
London, UK - August 02, 2018: The buttons of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube on the screen of an iPhone.
WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram outages caused by 'faulty configuration change'

Facebook went down because the "faulty configuration change" meant that it stopped telling routers where its data centres were, it appeared to the routers that they simply didn't exist.

How bad is that?

Normally it would be quite straightforward to fix this kind of outage - you start advertising where your servers are and routers begin connecting to you again.

Unfortunately, it seems that Facebook was using the same network for staff to access the network remotely, meaning that the outage prevented them fixing the outage.

It took down Facebook Workplace, the internal communications platform used by its staff, according to numerous reports.

Then when staff tried to sign-in to third party apps to communicate, if they used the "Log In with Facebook" option they discovered this was down too.

The only solution was to physically go to the data centres and refresh things from there - but there was a problem with this too, according to a now-deleted post on Reddit believed to have been posted by a Facebook staff member.

The access cards that Facebook use to physically enter its premises were also dependent on the internal systems working properly. The outage meant that they couldn't authenticate to the premises and get inside.

Shouldn't a big company have better processes?

It is by the far the longest outage for a major platform in recent memory.

Perhaps there should have been better processes in place, but it can be hard to recognise single points of failure - especially when they're based on such a core part of the networking infrastructure - until they fail.

Was it the result of a hack?

Despite the prominence of Facebook's platforms when it comes to spreading most conspiracy theories, unfounded claims that those platforms were down as the result of a hack managed to spread without it.

At the same time as the outage there were some posts on underground hacking forums claiming to be offering user data stolen from Facebook, but most experts assess that these are opportunistic scams rather than real breaches.

Could it happen again?

One would imagine Facebook would introduce some new processes now to prevent this kind of cascade of errors in the future.

The series of failures, from the BGP outage itself through to the way it blocked staff accessing internal communications systems, remote access, and even physical access itself, should probably result in Facebook federating these structures a bit more so they're not all reliant on the same system.

Isn't the timing a little coincidental?

Yes it is, but crucially coincidental rather than linked.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is set to testify before US Congress today after leaking thousands of documents to both the Wall Street Journal newspaper and law enforcement.

She is set to explain how "over and over again" she saw "conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimise for its own interests."
 
Listening to the missus whinging about it.
 
Facebook on Friday said users around the world again had problems accessing its services for hours due to a tweak of its system, just days after a massive outage caused in a similar fashion.

“Sincere apologies to anyone who wasn't able to access our products in the last couple of hours,” a Facebook spokesperson told AFP about 21:30 GMT.

“We fixed the issue, and everything should be back to normal now.”

Website trouble tracker DownDetector showed spikes in reports of problems accessing or using Facebook and its photo-centric Instagram network as well as Messenger and WhatsApp starting about three hours earlier.

Facebook attributed the trouble to a configuration change at its computing platform and said that it affected users of the social network and Instagram, Messenger and Workplace globally.

People flocked to Twitter to voice frustration.

“What's up with Instagram?” read a tweet that included a picture of cartoon character Bart Simpson sitting in a corner in apparent punishment.

“It's not even 4 days and it's already down again.”

“Problems with Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp AGAIN!” read a lament in a DownDetector chat forum.

Hundreds of millions of people were unable to access Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp for more than six hours on Monday, underscoring the world's reliance on platforms owned by the Silicon Valley giant.

In an apologetic blog post, Santosh Janardhan, Facebook's vice president of infrastructure, said that day's outage was caused by “configuration changes” on routers that coordinate network traffic between data centres.

Cyber experts think that problem boiled down to something called BGP, or Border Gateway Protocol — the system the internet uses to pick the quickest route to move packets of information around.

Sami Slim of data centre company Telehouse compared BGP to “the internet equivalent of air traffic control.” In the same way that air traffic controllers sometimes make changes to flight schedules, “Facebook did an update of these routes,” Slim said.

But this update contained a crucial error.

It's not yet clear how or why, but Facebook's routers essentially sent a message to the internet announcing that the company's servers no longer existed.

The outage on Friday was not related to the one earlier in the week, according to Facebook.

Experts say Facebook's technical infrastructure is unusually reliant on its own systems.

Social media outages are not uncommon: Instagram alone has experienced more than 80 in the past year in the United States, according to website builder ToolTester.

Facebook's services are crucial for many businesses around the world, and Facebook accounts are also commonly used to log in to other websites.

Facebook's apps are used by billions of people monthly, meaning outages can touch a large portion of the world's population.

Dawn
 
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Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta as part of a major rebrand.

The company said it would better "encompass" what it does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality (VR).

The change does not apply to its individual platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, only the parent company that owns them.

The move follows a series of negative stories about Facebook, based on documents leaked by an ex-employee.

Frances Haugen has accused the company of putting "profits over safety".

In 2015, Google restructured its company calling its parent firm Alphabet, however, the name has not caught on.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg announced the new name as he unveiled plans to build a "metaverse" - an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.

He said the existing brand could not "possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future", and needed to change.

"Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we're building towards," he told a virtual conference.

"We're now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments, one for our family of apps, and one for our work on future platforms.

"And as part of this, it is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build."

The company also unveiled a new sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Thursday, replacing its thumbs-up "Like" logo with a blue infinity shape.

Mr Zuckerberg said the new name reflects that over time, users will not need to use Facebook to use the company's other services.

The word "meta" comes from the Greek word meaning "beyond".

To an outsider, a metaverse may look like a version of VR, but some people believe it could be the future of the internet.

Instead of being on a computer, people in a metaverse might use a headset to enter a virtual world connecting all sorts of digital environments.

It is hoped the virtual world could be used for practically anything from work, play and concerts, to socialising with friends and family.

Facebook said it intends to start trading its shares under the new stock ticker MVRS from 1 December.

Leaked documents
The company has had multiple hits to its reputation, with The Washington Post today reporting that Facebook withheld important information about vaccine misinformation from policymakers during the pandemic.

It was the latest in a series of stories based on internal documents leaked by ex-employee Ms Haugen to the media. Among other things, the reports have claimed Facebook sat on research that showed Instagram harmed teenage mental health, and struggled to remove hate speech from its platforms outside the US.

Mr Zuckerberg has described the reports as a "coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company".

BBC
 
Urgent warning to Facebook Marketplace users as 200,000 accounts are leaked online - here's how to protect your data

Facebook Marketplace users have been put at serious risk of phishing, identity theft, and cyberattacks as hundreds of thousands of accounts are leaked online.

A massive data breach has exposed the phone numbers, email addresses, and personal information of 200,000 users.

The dataset, which the MailOnline has confirmed is still available, is now on sale to cybercriminals for the creation of targeted scams.

If you use Facebook Marketplace, experts reassure that it's not too late to protect your personal data.

Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor for ESET, told MailOnline: 'If you feel that you have you have been targeted then I would consider changing your password.'

The data was posted to a hacking forum by a well-known cybercriminal operating under the alias IntelBroker.

In their post, IntelBroker claimed: 'In October 2023, a cyber criminal by the name of "algoatson" on Discord, breached a contractor that manages cloud services for Facebook and stole its partial user database of 200,000 entries.'

The leaked data contained a huge variety of personal information including names, phone numbers, email addresses, Facebook IDs, and Facebook profile information.

The data has been verified as legitimate by BleepingComputer who were able to match the email addresses and phone numbers within the sample data.

InfoBroker is an extremely successful and professional hacker or hacker group with a history of targeted breaches against high-profile targets.

Mr Moore said: 'The infamous InfoBroker has a history of successfully breaking into networks.

'They have compromised health data before so they have no morals or ethics but have also targeted HP so they are looking for big money as a result.'

He explains that this data would have been sold on the dark web for months at around $1 per line of data.

Mr Moore said: 'This is a stark reminder that our data is a valuable currency, and the most up-to-date data is the most valuable to criminals.

'Criminals can do a lot of damage with all the pieces [of information] when they put it all together from the dark web.'

Mr Moore told MailOnline that the biggest concern is that this data can be used by cybercriminals to facilitate targeted attacks.

Particularly concerning are the 24,000 email addresses in the dataset that have been linked with Facebook pages.

Mr Moore explains that criminals can connect these with passwords that have previously been leaked onto the darkweb and use targeted bots to hijack accounts.

He said: 'Criminals these days are looking for the ability to take over an account, and they can do a lot with that.

'They might just take over a Facebook account to pump out ads but sometimes they might go a bit more nefarious and start messaging people from those accounts.'

In the worst-case scenario, criminals can use your account to impersonate you and trick your friends and family into sending money.

The leaked phone numbers can also expose Facebook users to an attack called 'sim swapping'.

In these attacks, a criminal calls up the mobile phone provider and impersonates a customer using details gleaned from leaked data and public social media.

They then convince the provider to transfer the phone number to a new SIM card.

To see if your accounts have been breached in the past you can use sites like 'Have I Been Pwned' which check leaked databases.

However, these services will not have been updated with the data from this breach so will be unable to inform you of any recent leaks.

Mr Moore recommends that you regularly update your passwords and avoid giving out too much information online that hackers might be able to use against you.

It's also wise to be extremely cautious when dealing with any unusual messages.

'If you are sent emails always consider thinking twice before clicking on a link and never divulge information on links that appear in emails and text messages,' Mr Moore added.

Additionally, he recommends setting up two-factor authentication for all your accounts and using a secure authenticator app if possible.

Dailymail

www.dailymail.co.uk

Warning to Facebook Marketplace users as 200,000 accounts leaked

Facebook Marketplace users are warned to protect their personal data as 'infamous' cybercriminals leak the account details of 200,000 accounts online.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
 
Outages of Internet these days can cost billions of dollar these days and this is becoming frequent in India and Pakistan.
 
Meta-platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger experienced a widespread outage across the globe, including in Pakistan, but have now recovered.

The unexpected event caused millions of users to be abruptly logged out of their accounts, preventing them from accessing their profiles, news feeds, and messaging features. Reports indicate that the outage began with Facebook sessions automatically expiring, leaving users unable to log back in.


Samaa TV
 
Cricket Warrior said:
Meta-platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger experienced a widespread outage across the globe, including in Pakistan, but have now recovered.

The unexpected event caused millions of users to be abruptly logged out of their accounts, preventing them from accessing their profiles, news feeds, and messaging features. Reports indicate that the outage began with Facebook sessions automatically expiring, leaving users unable to log back in.


Samaa TV
Click to expand...
I initially thought my account had been hacked. :D
 
The popular messaging app WhatsApp was down for several users across the globe, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

Users trying to log in to the App or WhatsApp web – the browser version – were faced with an error message.

WHATSAPP IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING AN ISSUE WITH THEIR SERVERS. #WHATSAPPDOWN

Source: Ary News
 

Meta criticised after lowering WhatsApp minimum age from 16 to 13​


The move, which came into effect on Thursday, reduces the age limit from 16 down to 13 in the UK and EU.

It has been criticised by a number of campaign groups who have urged the company to reverse the decision.

Smartphone Free Childhood told Sky News that it was an example of "a tech giant putting shareholder profits first and children's safety second".

A spokesperson for the group said: "Reducing their age of use from 16 to 13 sends a message to parents that WhatsApp is safe for children, but the stories we're hearing from our community of parents paint a very different picture."

Conservative MP Vicky Ford, a member of the education select committee, said that Meta's decision to reduce the age recommendation without consulting parents was "highly irresponsible".

Meta has defended the move, with a spokesperson saying: "We give all users options to control who can add them to groups, and the first time you receive a message from an unknown number we give you the option to block and report the account."

However, Smartphone Free Childhood questioned the effectiveness of WhatsApp's safety features and said the app, like other social media platforms, could prove disruptive at schools for students.

They also raised the spectre of young people having "unrestricted internet access in their pockets" and the wider effects this can have on mental health, social lives, and development.

WhatsApp has a number of security and safety features already, including users only being accessible by people who have your number, as well as control over profile visibility.

It says the move brings the age limit in line with the majority of countries.

Other popular social media platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and X, formerly Twitter, use 13 as a minimum age too.

This week, Meta also unveiled a range of new safety features intended to protect users, particularly young people, from intimate image abuse and "sextortion".

It confirmed it will begin testing a filter in direct messages, called Nudity Protection, which will be turned on by default for those aged under 18.

The tool will automatically blur images thought to contain nudity and users will also see a message urging them not to feel pressured to respond, as well as an option to block the sender and report the chat.

A number of recent studies have shown parents express concern over social media and smartphone use.

A recent poll from charity Parentkind found that more than four in five (83%) of parents said they felt smartphones were "harmful" to children and young people, and 58% of parents believe the government should introduce a ban on smartphones for under-16s.

In February, the Department for Education published guidance instructing teachers how they could completely ban phones in schools.

Daniel Kebede, the head of the National Education Union, the largest education union in the UK, called on the government to hold an inquiry into "dangerous" online content young people could access on their smartphones.

news.sky.com

Meta criticised after lowering WhatsApp minimum age from 16 to 13

Social media giant Meta has lowered the minimum age to use WhatsApp in the UK and EU. Critics have accused Meta of "putting shareholder profits first and children's safety second".
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 

Instagram is DOWN: Users worldwide hit with outage plaguing the app​


It's one of the most popular social media apps, but Meta's Instagram appears to be suffering issues.

Instagram started experiencing issues just after 3 pm BST on Friday, according to Outage Report, which monitors site outages.

Users have flocked to X (Twitter) to share their frustration, with one saying: 'Oh God not instagram down again.'

According to Outage Report, Instagram's services have mainly been affected for users in the US however it is unclear whether the issue is more widespread.

Downdetector, which monitors reports of service outages, shows a small spike in difficulties accessing the Instagram app.

At 3:53 pm Downdetector reported that there were 36 issue reports, up from a baseline of only nine.

This follows a series of outages to Meta services including Instagram earlier this year.

Minor service disruptions to Meta's services have also recently become more common.

According to Cisco Thousand Eyes, there have been 33 instances of 'performance degradation' between January 1 and April 5, a 154 per cent increase on the same time period the year before.

Since January, Meta services have experienced two of the largest service disruptions since 2022, with users losing access for several hours at a time.

On social media, Instagram users complained that they were once again unable to access Instagram.

'Already running to twitter to check if everyone's Instagram is down', one commenter wrote.

Another added: 'Another day Instagram is down so everyone heads on to check on X'.

While one furious commenter wrote: 'THAT DAMN INSTAGRAM DOWN AGAIN'

Many social media users have also taken to X to check whether the disruption is affecting others.

'Is instagram down or am I tripping', wrote one commenter.

Another asked: 'Is anyone else Instagram down?'

One commenter even said that they were 'panicking thinking my Instagram was being hacked only to find out insta is down.'

Meta has not yet commented on the service disruption so it remains unclear what the cause may be.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Instagram is DOWN: Users worldwide hit with outage plaguing the app

Users have flocked to X (Twitter) to share their frustration, with one saying: 'oh God not instagram down again.'
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
 

EU set to charge Meta over 'pay or consent', FT reports​


The European Union is set to charge Facebook parent Meta with breaking the bloc's landmark digital rules, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

In preliminary findings to be issued this week, regulators will say that they are worried about Meta's "pay or consent" model, according to the report.

Meta launched the no-ads subscription service for Facebook and Instagram in Europe last November, saying users who consent to be tracked get a free service which is funded by advertising revenues or pay not to have their data shared.

According to the FT report, the regulators are expected to say that the choice presented by Meta risks giving users a false alternative, with the financial barrier forcing them to consent to their personal data being tracked for advertising purposes.

Meta and the European Commission did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The report comes after EU antitrust regulators last week charged that Apple breached the bloc's tech rules, a decision that could result in a hefty fine for the iPhone maker, which is also facing another investigation into new fees imposed on app developers.

The charge brought against Apple is the first by the Commission under its landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA) that seeks to rein in the power of 'Big Tech' firms and ensure a level playing field for smaller rivals.

DMA violations could result in a fine of as much as 10% of a company's global annual turnover.

 

Brazil blocks Meta from using social media posts to train AI​


Brazil has blocked Meta from using Brazilians' Instagram and Facebook posts to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
It comes weeks after the company abandoned similar plans to use UK and European users' posts for the same purpose.

On Tuesday, Brazil's national data protection agency (ANPD) said it would immediately suspend Meta's latest privacy policy, which allows it to train generative AI models such as chatbots based on posts from its users.

A Meta spokesperson told the BBC the company was "disappointed by the decision", adding that their approach complied with local privacy laws.

"This is a step backwards for innovation, competition in AI development and further delays bringing the benefits of AI to people in Brazil," the company added.

Meta has a significant market in Brazil. There are 102 million Facebook users and more than 113 million Instagram users in the country.

The ANPD said it had acted over the "imminent risk of serious and irreparable damage, or difficulty repairing fundamental rights of the affected [account] holders".

Meta was given five working days from ANPD's decision to show it has amended its privacy policy to exclude the use of personal information found in public posts to train generative AI. If it fails to comply it will face a daily fine of R$50,000 (£6,935).

The company's updated policy was also the focus of scrutiny in the UK and the European Union (EU).

Under its privacy policy changes, which were due to take effect in the region on 26 June, Meta users' information would be used to "develop and improve" its AI products.

In Europe, the policy change would include posts, images, image captions, comments and Stories that users over the age of 18 had shared with a public audience on Facebook and Instagram, but not private messages.

But that was put on hold after Meta said it had received a request from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) on behalf of other European stakeholders to delay its training of large language models (LLMs).

LLMs are a type of artificial intelligence that powers chatbots, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.

On 14 June, when it announced the delay, Meta said this was a "step backwards" for AI in Europe.

However Meta decided to press ahead with the policy change in Brazil.

Pedro Martins, from Data Privacy Brasil, welcomed the ANPD's decision. He told the BBC there was a discrepancy between Meta's data protection measures for its Brazilian and European users.

Meta had planned to use posts from Brazilian children and teenagers to train its AI models, he said, while in Europe nobody under 18 would have their posts used.

Brazil's data protection regulator also found that personal data found in children and teenagers' posts could be collected and used to train Meta's AI systems, which could be in breach of the country's data protection law.

In addition, Mr Martins said, in Europe the steps users can take to prevent Meta from using personal information are more straightforward than in Brazil, where he said it can take as many as eight steps for users to block the company from using their posts.

The BBC has asked Meta to respond to the claim that it had planned to use posts from Brazilian children and teenagers to train its AI models, and whether it imposed more onerous steps for opting out on users in Brazil.

www.bbc.com

Brazil suspends Meta from using Instagram posts to train AI

Brazil's data protection regulator says it aims to protect users, the company says it is disappointed.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 

Turkey blocks Instagram amid ‘censorship’ row​


Turkey has blocked access to Instagram, the national communications authority said, after a top government official slammed the social media platform for “censoring” Hamas-related content.

The communications authority BTK announced the block on Friday, without giving an explanation for the decision or stating the duration of the ban.

The move follows comments on Wednesday by the Turkish presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, criticising the Meta-owned platform for what he called its decision to block condolence posts on the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun wrote on X, noting that Instagram had not cited any policy violations for its decision to block the content.

“We will continue to defend freedom of expression against these platforms, which have repeatedly shown that they serve the global system of exploitation and injustice,” Altun said.

“We will stand by our Palestinian brothers at every opportunity and on every platform,” he said.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his bodyguard were killed in Tehran on Wednesday. Hamas and Iran blamed Israel, which has not commented on the attack.

According to Turkish media, there are more than 50 million users signed up to Instagram in Turkey, of a population of 85 million.

Many users in the country took to the X platform on Friday to complain about being unable to refresh their Instagram feed.

“Access to Instagram was blocked (…) around 3:00 AM this morning following an administrative order. The decision was made either by the presidency or a ministry. The BTK must have its decision approved by a judge,” wrote Yaman Akdeniz, a Turkish digital law expert, on X.

“The censorship imposed on Instagram is arbitrary and can never have any explanation or justification. No judge should approve such a request,” he added.

The issue led to mockery on other social media networks, including X.

A meme showing a congested metro station with the tagline: “X when Turks wake up to find that Instagram is blocked”, began trending on the platform.

“Instagram is blocked in Turkey, life is over”, wrote user “CringeOfMaster” alongside a picture of a grieving man.

Others mockingly asked Instagram users where they could see their doctored images now.

There was no immediate comment from Meta Platforms Inc on either the ban or Altun’s statements.

www.aljazeera.com

Turkey blocks Instagram amid ‘censorship’ row

Top government official accused US-based company of blocking condolence posts on killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Meta apps including Facebook, Instagram face global outage

Thousands of users worldwide, including in Pakistan, reported disruptions on Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, late last night.

According to Downdetector.com, a real-time platform outage tracker, nearly 1,000 users in Pakistan reported issues with Meta services around 11pm. Meanwhile, WhatsApp experienced disruptions with 2,259 complaints registered since 10:52pm. Instagram, also owned by Meta, recorded over 1,200 outage reports within the same timeframe.

Some Facebook and Instagram users took to the rival platform X to report encountering errors such as "something went wrong." Meta acknowledged the issue in a brief statement on Facebook, stating, "We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can."

WhatsApp addressed the problem on X, saying, "We’re aware of some issues accessing WhatsApp. We’re actively working on a solution and starting to see a return to normal for most people. We expect things to be back to normal shortly."

Earlier this year, a similar technical issue caused a prolonged outage, affecting hundreds of thousands of Facebook and Instagram users globally for more than two hours.


www.samaa.tv

Meta apps including Facebook, Instagram face global outage

According to Downdetector.com, a real-time platform outage tracker, nearly 1,000 users in Pakistan reported issues with Meta services around 11pm. Meanwhile, WhatsApp experienced disruptions with 2,259 complaints registered since 10:52pm. Instagram, also owned by Meta, recorded over 1,200 outage...
www.samaa.tv www.samaa.tv
 
Facebook and Instagram get rid of fact checkers

Meta is abandoning the use of independent fact checkers on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with X-style "community notes" where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users.

In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were "too politically biased" and it was "time to get back to our roots around free expression".

The move comes as Zuckerberg and other tech executives seek to improve relations with US President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office later this month.

Trump and his Republican allies have criticised Meta for its fact-checking policy, calling it censorship of right-wing voices.

Speaking after the changes were announced, Trump told a news conference he was impressed by Zuckerberg's decision and that Meta had "come a long way".

Asked whether Zuckerberg was "directly responding" to threats Trump had made to him in the past, the incoming US president responded: "Probably".

Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican who is replacing Sir Nick Clegg as Meta's global affairs chief, wrote that the company's reliance on independent moderators was "well-intentioned" but had too often resulted in censoring.

Campaigners against hate speech online reacted with dismay to the change - and suggested it was really motivated by getting on the right side of Trump.

"Zuckerberg's announcement is a blatant attempt to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration – with harmful implications", said Ava Lee, from Global Witness, a campaign group which describes itself as seeking to hold big tech to account.

"Claiming to avoid "censorship" is a political move to avoid taking responsibility for hate and disinformation that platforms encourage and facilitate," she added.


www.bbc.com

Meta to replace 'biased' fact-checkers with moderation by users

Meta says its platforms will instead rely on "community notes" from its users, an approach pioneered by X.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 

Politics pushed on all Instagram and Threads users​


Threads and Instagram users will no longer be able to opt out of being shown political content from people they do not follow, parent company Meta has announced.

The firm says its part of its reorientation towards "free expression" - a move that saw it ditch fact checkers on Tuesday.

The change will be introduced in the US this week before being expanded globally next week.

Users will not be able to turn off unsolicited political posts but can choose between three settings - less, standard or more.

The head of the two platforms Adam Mosseri - who had previously said he was opposed to news and political content - says users have "asked to be shown more" of such posts.

But Drew Benvie, chief executive of social media consultancy Battenhall, questioned whether that was accurate, saying the real motivation was the "changing political winds" in the US, where Donald Trump will shortly return to the White House.

"Threads and Instagram were largely thought of as 'safe spaces', especially compared to the turbulent developments on X," he told the BBC.

He predicted it could drive people towards rivals such as Bluesky, but said she also worried about the impact on those who stayed on Meta platforms.

This week's changes "will open up the potential for vast amounts of disinformation to spread at speed across a user base of over 2 billion," he warned.

'Integrity risks'

In 2023, Mr Mosseri said Threads and Instagram should focus on "amazing communities" such as "sports, music and fashion."

"Any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let's be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them," he wrote in a Threads post at the time.

But in a fresh post on the platform he has now explained why that stance was being abandoned, saying it had "proven impractical to draw a red line around what is and is not political content" - and users have asked to be shown more, not less, of it.

Mr Mosseri said Instagram - which Meta acquired for $1bn in 2012 - was founded upon the values of creativity and "giving anybody a voice".

"My hope is that this focus on free speech is going to help us do even a bit better along that path," he said in an Instagram video.

There has been considerable criticism of the changes Meta has already announced, with concerns expressed about the impact on minority groups.

Some users have also reacted to these latest changes on Threads and Instagram with dismay.

"Well, time to delete the Threads app. It was nice while it lasted," said one Threads user responding to Mr Mosseri's posts.

On Instagram - where Mr Mosseri said accounts focused on politics now "don't have to worry about becoming non-recommendable" to other users - some users praised the move as "a good step towards the freedom on the platform".

Many have also, however, expressed concern about the effect that increasing content recommendations about social issues and politics could have on amplifying misinformation and hate speech.

www.bbc.com

Political content on Instagram and Threads ramped up

Users will no longer be able to opt out of political content from people they do not follow.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Instagram may launch separate Reels app to take on TikTok – report

Instagram is reportedly considering launching its short-form video feature, Reels, as a separate app as the future of Chinese-owned TikTok remains uncertain in the US.

The social media platform's boss Adam Mosseri told staff about the potential move this week, according to technology industry–focused business publication The Information, which cited a person who heard the remarks.

Instagram's parent company Meta did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

In January, US President Donald Trump granted TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law signed by then-President Joe Biden that requires a sale or ban of the platform.

At the time, he floated the possibility of a joint venture running the company, saying he was seeking a 50-50 partnership between "the United States" and its Chinese owner ByteDance. But he did not give any further details on how that might work.

The Biden administration had argued that TikTok, which has 170 million US users, could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation.

Opponents of a ban have cited freedom of speech as a reason for keeping the platform open.

In 2018, Meta launched a standalone app called Lasso to compete with TikTok but it was later shut down.

BBC
 

X Outage: Thousands Report Intermittent Issues With Elon Musk’s Platform​


Elon Musk’s social media platform X experienced multiple outages on Monday, with tens of thousands of users reporting problems with accessing the app and website on DownDetector around 10 a.m. EDT, after what appeared to be a brief outage earlier in the morning.

Tens of thousands of users reported issues using Musk’s platform, formerly known as Twitter, after

More than 40,000 people reported problems with X around 9:58 a.m. on DownDetector, a website that tracks outages across platforms based on user reports, with most users reporting issues accessing the platform’s app and website.

The number of incident reports began to decline just after 10:10 a.m., as issues with the platform appeared to be fixed for some users.

Another apparent outage was reported at around 11 a.m., with the number of incident reports surging to nearly 14,000 within minutes.

At 5:43 a.m., thousands of users reported similar issues with X, peaking with as many as 22,766 complaints just before 6 a.m., though issues appeared to be resolved about an hour later.

Neither Musk nor X immediately responded to Forbes’ request for comment, and Musk has not posted about either of the platform’s reported outages.

Key Background

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, experienced several outages after Musk took over in 2022, though reports of issues have declined in recent years. Users reported multiple outages with the platform in 2023, as some speculated issues with X after Musk scaled down the platform’s staff. Some outages also occurred after Musk announced changes to the platform, including in July 2023, when Musk said he would temporarily limit how many posts unverified users could see as X addressed “extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation.”

Source: Forbes
 
Elon Musk says X hit by 'massive cyber attack' as users unable to log in

X has been hit by a "massive cyber attack", according to Elon Musk.

The boss of the social media platform said the attack was carried out "with a lot of resources".

Mr Musk claimed that either a large coordinated group or a country was involved, or both.

He wrote on the platform: "There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X.

"We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing..."


Around 40,000 users reported they couldn't access the platform this afternoon, according to data from tracking website Downdetector.com.

Complaints about outages spiked at about 10am on Monday in the UK, and again at 2pm.


 
Elon Musk blames 'IP addresses in Ukraine' after X hit by cyber attack

Mr Musk claimed that either a large coordinated group or a country was involved, or both.

He wrote on the platform: "There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X.

"We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing..."


Later on Monday, Mr Musk claimed on Fox News that IP addresses involved in the cyber attack were traced to locations "in the Ukraine area".

The US government has recently revoked some access to satellite imagery for Ukraine and paused intelligence sharing, piling pressure on Kyiv as President Trump seeks a swift end to the war with Russia.


news.sky.com

Elon Musk blames 'IP addresses in Ukraine' after X hit by cyber attack

More than 40,000 users reported they could not access X on Monday, according to data from tracking website Downdetector.com.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
Twitter Outage: Cyberattack cripples X, Pro-Palestinian hacker group Dark Storm claims responsibility

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, suffered a series of outages on Monday, disrupting access for thousands of users across the world. The issues began early in the morning and persisted throughout the day, with intermittent failures making the platform inaccessible for extended periods.

Users attempting to access X were met with error messages like "Something went wrong. Try reloading." According to Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions, the number of reports surged, peaking at around 40,000 complaints at one point.

Musk Confirms Cyberattack

Elon Musk, the owner of X, confirmed the outages were the result of a significant cyberattack. "There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against 𝕏. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing," he wrote in a post on X.

Musk also interacted with posts speculating about the nature of the attack. One user, Hassan Sajwani from the UAE, suggested, "They want to silence you and this platform," to which Musk simply responded, "Yes."

Dark Storm Team Claims Responsibility

Shortly after Musk’s statement, a hacker group known as Dark Storm Team claimed responsibility for the attack. The group, founded in 2023, has previously been linked to cyber warfare tactics targeting high-security systems.

According to a Newsweek report, Dark Storm Team posted on Telegram: "We took Twitter offline." They also shared a screenshot of a real-time connectivity status page displaying failed connection attempts from around the world.

Cybersecurity firm Orange Cyberdefense has reported that Dark Storm Team operates with a pro-Palestinian agenda and has threatened cyberattacks against NATO countries, Israel, and other nations supporting Israel.

DDoS Attack Likely Cause

Reports suggest that the cyberattack was likely a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack. These attacks overwhelm a platform’s servers with excessive traffic, causing slowdowns or complete outages.

A Reuters report, citing an anonymous source from the internet infrastructure industry, confirmed that X had been hit by multiple waves of DDoS attacks starting around 9:45 UTC. Downdetector data showed that by 1:46 p.m. ET, nearly 11,745 users in the U.S. were unable to access X. That number fluctuated, peaking at around 40,000 users experiencing disruptions.

Ukraine Connection?

In an interview with Fox Business Network's Larry Kudlow, Musk suggested that the attack may have originated from Ukraine. "There was a massive cyber attack to try and bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area," he stated.

While Musk’s claim added another layer of intrigue, cybersecurity experts were quick to caution against assuming that an attack’s source IP equates to its actual origin.

An Associated Press report cited experts dismissing the idea that tracing the IP directly links Ukraine to the attack, pointing out that attackers often mask their locations or route attacks through compromised systems in other countries.

Scepticism and Social Media Reactions

Musk’s comments stirred debate online. Many users expressed doubts about his claims, questioning whether Ukraine would target a platform that remains a key channel for global communication.

“Traitor Musk is now blaming the outage on a 'cyber attack from Ukrainian IP address'... not really an intelligent lie, because why would Ukraine block Ukraine's access to X ???” one user wrote.

Another commented, "Nobody believes you @elonmusk. This was so predictable of you."

As of now, X has not released an official statement detailing the technical specifics of the attack or potential countermeasures. Musk, however, insisted that tracing efforts were underway.

Cybersecurity experts stress that while DDoS attacks can be disruptive, they are often temporary and do not necessarily indicate deeper security breaches. Whether the attack was politically motivated, state-sponsored, or simply the work of a coordinated hacking group remains unclear.

SOURCE:https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...onservation-efforts/articleshow/118836413.cms
 
Meta Platforms' (META.O), opens new tab WhatsApp messaging service has been banned from all U.S. House of Representatives devices, according to a memo sent to all House staff on Monday

The notice said the "Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use."

The memo, from the chief administrative officer, recommended using other messaging apps, including Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O), opens new tab Teams platform, Amazon.com's (AMZN.O), opens new tab Wickr, Signal, and Apple's (AAPL.O), opens new tab iMessage and FaceTime.
Meta disagreed with the move "in the strongest possible terms," a company spokesperson said, noting that the platform provides a higher level of security than the other approved apps.

In January, a WhatsApp official said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society.

The House has banned other apps from staff devices in the past, including the short video app TikTok in 2022 due to security issues.

Source: Reuters
 
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