Russia’s head of censorship ***** after being censored on ********
An aide to Vladimir Putin has told Russians to leave Facebook after the head of the country’s telecommunications regulator was censored by the social network. As the Moscow Times reports, Maxim Ksensov was given a 24-hour time out after posting an ethnic slur for Ukranians on his personal page. The paper believes that the word has now been blacklisted by the service and will be instantly deleted if it’s found. In response, Putin aide Igor Shchegolev has instructed locals to abandon Facebook in favor of Vkontakte, its homegrown alternative.
The irony here is that Ksenzov is the head of Roskomnadzor, an agency with a famously heavy-handed approach to free speech. The outfit is believed to have
shut down more than 10,000 websites, criminalized parody accounts and threatens meme creators with a court appearance. In addition, its blogger registration law helped to push Intel and Google to close some of their operations in the country.
In addition, the outfit has shut down Twitter, Facebook and Google pages if it finds them to be critical of the government. Oh, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the founder of Vkontakte himself fled Russia after pressure to hand over data on the website’s users. So, all in all, it’s probably fair to say that if you can’t take it, folks, you shouldn’t be dishing it out.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: Fortune
Source: Moscow Times
Facebook says it has ‘no plans to go into music streaming’
Yesterday, it seemed like Music Ally blew the lid off of Facebook’s next big project: a streaming music subscription service the likes of which could rival Spotify or Apple Music. It all seemed to make so much sense, but the company says it’s not happening. “We have no plans to go into music streaming,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge. Instead, it’s reportedly working on something unique and new.
According to Music Ally’s original report, that “new” service is probably a robust video sharing service, complete with YouTube-like Content ID matching, competitive stream rates and, presumably, something musical to follow the social networks recent talks with major music labels. “We have all been really utilizing it in internal testing,” an insider source told Music Ally. “It is way, way ahead of YouTube.” That at least meshes well with Facebook’s track record–but for now, it’s just a rumor.
[Image credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet
Source: Verge
Facebook denies reports of a music streaming service plans
Earlier this month, we came across reports claiming that Facebook was planning to launch a digital music-streaming service to take on the existing players in this domain such as, Spotify and Apple Music. However, in a statement issued to The Verge, the social networking giant has quashed such reports, saying that it isn’t building a music streaming service.
“We have no plans to go into music streaming,” a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Earlier, a report in Music Ally stated that Facebook was in early talks with music labels and it could launch an audio streaming service in the next few months.
While Facebook may not be currently looking to enter into a streaming war with Apple Music and the likes, sources familiar with the development revealed that Facebook indeed is in talks with major labels to create something unique and completely different from the existing services.
Source: Music Ally
Via: The Verge
Come comment on this article: Facebook denies reports of a music streaming service plans
Facebook update lets users customize news feed preferences
Facebook today introduced new configuration settings for its mobile apps which let users handpick their news feed appearance. Expected to hit Android in the coming weeks, the app also allows for easier discovery of pages for artists, businesses, and more.
Users will be able to select which friends and Pages should appear at the top of the News Feed. Tapping a friend’s profile picture brings up their respective posts first. New stories shared since your time with Facebook will be at the top with a star in the top right. Below said favorites will be the rest of the normal news feed. You can scroll down to see the rest of your News Feed normally.
Once in place, the new Facebook will provide tools to help follow and unfollow friends, Pages, and groups. This isn’t the same as outright unfriending but more of what you see in your News Feed.
The more customized Facebook layout should bring about more interaction and time spent within the app. The more configurable News Feed settings are available for the iOS app today; the Android and desktop versions will show up in the next few weeks.
The post Facebook update lets users customize news feed preferences appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Facebook News Feed update to restore tiny bit of control to users
Savvy Facebook users are aware that the social media giant has been working to control how the News Feed appears to end users for some time now. For users who are not happy with how Facebook decides to curate the News Feed, tweaking it to their own liking has been a frustrating experience. However, acknowledging that “you’re the only one who truly knows what is most meaningful to you” Facebook has announced some new ways to control the News Feed.
All of the changes come out of the News Feed Preferences setting, and the first and probably most significant change has to do with the the ability to prioritize users or pages that appear in the feed. Users will now be able to “star” users or pages which will cause any new posts from them since the last time a user visited Facebook to appear at the top of the News Feed. The normal News Feed items will then appear after these “starred” users. The interface of the News Feed will be tweaked slightly to include a small blue star to help users identify posts that are appearing at the top of the News Feed due to this selection.
Facebook is also providing a new way to discover new Pages. Based on a review of Pages that a user has liked in the Past, Facebook will generate a list of Pages a user may be interested in connecting with.
Facebook is also tweaking the interfaces for selecting who to follow and unfollow. The new interface will list users, pages and groups in order of most views and give users the ability to unfollow any that they do not want to see posts from. Likewise, if a user has previously unfollowed a person, page or group, they can easily add them back into the mix.
Facebook says the new features will be available starting today on iOS. However, the update for Android devices and on the desktop will not be released for a few more weeks.
Click here to view the embedded video.
source: Facebook
Come comment on this article: Facebook News Feed update to restore tiny bit of control to users
Facebook lets you choose what appears in your News Feed
If you’re a regular Facebook user, you’ll know that the posts that appear in your News Feed are visible because of an algorithm. It’s part of the company’s mission to reduce post overload, but it can often mean that you’ll miss updates from some of your friends. In May, Zuckerberg and co. began testing a new feature that let users choose what they see in their feeds, but it was only available to a select few. From today, however, the new set of controls are rolling out to all.
So what’s new? Firstly, Facebook wants you to choose who you’ll see first when you open its apps. In the News Feed Preferences, you can select the profile picture of a friend, family member or your favorite page and their updates will be loaded before the rest of your timeline.
For those friends or pages who you probably should have removed eons ago, two updated features let you better control what you see from them. You can now zip through friends and pages and choose who you want to “unfollow,” allowing you to keep up appearances without having to suffer through numerous photos of cats, uninformed rants or needy status updates. Now it’s a handy list, you also can re-add friends that you feel might deserve a second chance.
Lastly, there’s a new Page suggestion tool that will automatically suggest pages based on your previous Likes. This is similar to Twitter’s tailored suggestions, which recommends people you might want to follow based on who you’ve just added. Facebook says that the updated News Feed controls will roll out on iOS devices today and arrive on Android and the official website “in the coming weeks.” If you’ve been crying out for a more personalized timeline, your voice has finally been heard.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/132961281?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Facebook
Your Facebook likes and shares will be ignored by advertisers
Facebook likes and shares can give you a pretty good idea of how popular your posts are, and since sharing is essential for social media, they can be considered as two of the website’s key features. Apparently, though, they’re more like extra metrics making success much harder to measure for advertisers, as people accidentally click them (especially the Like button) all the time. So, the social network has decided to drop your likes and shares from their Cost per Click (CPC) measurements, making them less valuable than they are today.
When the company’s new API rolls out in the coming weeks, advertisers will see adjusted CPCs that only count clicks leading you to an external website, to install an app or to watch a video on another domain. While the two buttons don’t matter as much anymore, Facebook maintains that they’re not completely useless either: “If an ad has lots of likes and shares, that’s a signal of high-quality content being delivered to the right people.” Besides, they’re probably still as important to you and a good indicator of success for company, celebrity and pseudo-celebrity pages.
[Image credit: shutterstock]
Source: Facebook
Facebook reportedly has a music streaming service in the works, too
If you think the playing field for music streaming services is already quite crowded, we may need to make room for one more. Music Ally reports that Facebook is working on a subscription service of its own, after recent reports tied the social network to record labels through ad-supported music videos. While that video-driven project may resemble something more akin to Vevo, the report says that Facebook is in fact eying audio streaming, joining the likes of Apple, Rdio, Spotify and others. The folks in Menlo Park are said to be focused on getting the video platform off the ground first — in the coming months, apparently — but an all-audio version is in the plans for the future. Facebook could go the route it did with Instagram or WhatsApp, opting to purchase an established service rather than build its own. A smaller subscription-based company could potentially be nabbed for less than Zuckerberg & Co. spent on the photo or chat software. Apple certainly thought that was a solid approach.
[Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: Business Insider
Source: Music Ally
Google Maps for iOS can share places on Facebook
There might be a time when you quickly need to share your location on Facebook to make sure at least one person knows where you are. If that ever happens, you can just fire up Google Maps on an iPhone or an iPad, drop a pin and share your info from within the app, now that it’s been updated with the feature. The latest version’s also useful if you’re friends with someone who always seems to get lost, since it comes with the ability to share via FB’s Messenger app, as well. Plus, it brings a better Transit view to the platform with more route choices and real-time arrival info, just like the one already available on Android. Finally, you get a brand new image gallery when you update. That will make it easy to look at user-uploaded photos on Maps, which you can use to cross-reference places you’ve never visited in the past.
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: iTunes
Facebook says renewables will power 50% of its data centers by 2018
Facebook is stepping up its commitment to renewable energy today. While announcing a new data center in Fort Worth (above), which happens to be entirely powered by wind energy, the social network also set a new goal of having 50 percent of its data centers relying on renewables by the end of 2018. That follows an earlier self-imposed goal to have 25 percent of its data centers powered by clean energy come the end of this year. Naturally, Facebook plans to have all of its operations powered by renewable energy eventually. It’s also working together with Greenpeace — which took today’s announcement as a chance to shame Amazon for its data center energy usage — to ensure that it’s exploring new energy options properly. Facebook teamed up with Citi Energy, Starwood Energy, and Alterra Power to bring a 17,000 acre wind farm online for its new Fort Worth data hub, which should deliver around 200 MW of energy to Texas. Facebook plans to get that new data center online by the end of 2016.
Filed under: Networking, Internet, Facebook
Source: Facebook
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