Meta

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Friday announced that it has added a web browser extension called "Code Verify" that provides real-time, third-party verification that the code running someone's WhatsApp Web has not been tampered with.

Meta owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature that will allow users to start and take polls in the group chats. According to a WABetaInfo report, WhatsApp will soon let you type poll questions to send to a group chat. This feature is already available in rival chat app Telegram and even Twitter. Now, it seems that WhatsApp may roll out this feature to its userbase too.

Big Tech companies like Meta, Twitter and YouTube have decried Australia's proposed social media anti-trolling bill, stressing that it would put an "unprecedented level" of defamation risk on social media platforms.The Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill 2022 seeks to remove the right of social media platforms to use the innocent dissemination defence for potentially defamatory material posted by users based in Australia, reports ZDNet.

After less than two years of its launch, Meta-owned Facebook is shutting down its college students-only social network -- Campus. Campus users could access a special news feed and join groups, events and chat rooms focused on college life. It also included a directory where users could find and befriend other students on the app, reports The Verge.

Meta-owned Facebook, which has already blocked access to RT and Sputnik within the European Union and Ukraine, now said it will demote all Russian state media across Facebook and Instagram around the world. According to Engadget, Meta's president of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said the company was making Russian state media "harder to find" on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Tuesday said that it banned 1,858,000 bad accounts in India in the month of January in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021.The company said that it also received 495 grievance reports in the same month from the country and took action on 24 of those in January. Under the new IT rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms -- with more than 5 million users -- have to publish monthly compliance reports.

Meta (formerly Facebook) has now blocked Russian state media outlets RT (earlier called Russia Today) and Sputnik across the European Union. RT and Sputnik pages aren't visible in the EU on Facebook and Instagram any more. The social network has also blocked Russian state media from advertising on the platform. Hit by partial restrictions, Meta (formerly Facebook) had prohibited Russian state media from running ads or monetising on its platform anywhere in the world.

"In accordance with the IT Rules 2021, we've published our monthly compliance report. We use a combination of Artificial Intelligence, reports from our community and review by our teams to identify and review content against our policies," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. Meta actioned 1.4 million content related to adult nudity and sexual activity, 233,600 pieces of content related to bullying and harassment and 1.8 million violent and graphic content, among others.

The people ran websites posing as independent news entities and created fake personas across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and also Russian Odnoklassniki and VK apps, the company said late on Sunday.Meta took down this operation, blocked their domains from being shared on its platform, and shared information with other tech platforms, researchers and governments.

Meta (formerly Facebook) has blocked access to several Russian state-controlled accounts in Ukraine. The social network said it is also reviewing other governments' requests to restrict access to these accounts in their countries. Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Meta, said in a tweet thread early on Monday that the company has been in contact with the Government of Ukraine.