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WhatsApp Services Go Down in Multiple Countries

WhatsApp Services Go Down in Multiple Countries

WhatsApp services have gone down across multiple countries. Despite being the most popular messaging app in over 100 countries, it is not immune to service disruptions. Wordwide, users have had to resort to other services when they were unable to access the app late Monday. Alex Himes, who was unable to contact her brother, used Apple FaceTime to communicate with him. Meanwhile, her mother used Signal, another messaging app that competes with WhatsApp.

Popularity

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in over 100 countries, with users in more than 100 different languages. While it started as a simple messaging app, it has evolved into a feature-rich communication platform. Its global audience has steadily increased since its initial launch in 2009, and WhatsApp statistics indicate that the growth will continue well into 2020. In the US, for instance, one out of every four adults uses WhatsApp. According to the company, its user base is made up of men and women from every age group.

In the United States, WhatsApp users are most active among those who are university graduates, with nearly a third of users accessing the service daily. While male users tend to be more active than females, there were still significant differences among the genders. For example, in the United States, 33% of WhatsApp users have college degrees, while 20% of users have only completed high school. WhatsApp users in the US also earn higher than average incomes, with 23% earning less than $30k per year, and 48% earning between $50,000 and $75,000 per year.

Cheaper Than SMS

While the cost of SMS messaging remains high in most regions of the world, it is significantly cheaper to use WhatsApp. SMS texting is free on some carrier plans, but in Europe, it costs as little as 0.07 cents per message. Some carriers in the EU even offer data packages, which allow you to send unlimited texts for less than a dollar per message.

In addition to being cheaper, it offers a variety of features that make it ideal for businesses. For example, businesses can send messages as an individual or entity. They can also use the tool to send canned responses to customers. This makes customer communication much easier than it is with SMS, which often involves one- way communication. Another benefit of WhatsApp is that it offers end-to-end encryption, which keeps your communication confidential.

With its low cost, WhatsApp became a popular alternative to SMS messaging. Previously, phone providers charged per text message, with a limit on the number of messages per month. However, with WhatsApp, there is no limit on the number of messages you can send – you simply need an internet connection and an app.

Alternative to Text Messages

WhatsApp is a messaging application for mobile devices that is free of charge. It can send text messages, photos, video, and audio files. It also has voice and video calling options and the ability to leave video messages. What’s more, it doesn’t cost you a dime to download, and it won’t cost you anything unless you use up your data allowance. Be cautious, though, since video calls can use up a lot of data.

A recent global Facebook outage affected the entire service for several hours. The outage affected both WhatsApp and Facebook. Many people were cut off from their Facebook accounts, which may have made them leave WhatsApp for good. Regardless, this latest scandal could be just what WhatsApp needs to move forward with its plans.

WhatsApp allows you to send messages to many people at once. It also allows you to create a group chat where you can view and reply to messages from other members. The advantage of this feature is that it lets you stay in touch with friends and co-workers while at the same time letting others contribute to the conversation.

Author Bio:

Leanne Smith is a professional writer with over eight years of experience and has completed several successful projects. My main goal is to offer excellent work and cheap essay writing service for students that is unique, plagiarism-free, well formatted, and delivered on time.

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Elon Musk Pulls Out of $44bn Deal To Secure Twitter Ownership

Elon Musk Pulls Out of $44bn Deal To Secure Twitter Ownership

Billionaire Elon Musk has pulled out of an agreement he had reached with the board of Twitter to takeover the social media platform.

The deal that had previously been agreed was said to be worth an estimated $44bn. However, Musk has now back out because of Twitter’s failure to supply enough information on the number of spam and fake accounts.

The Tesla owner was set to take charge of the company that has heavily criticized in the past by various politicians and regulators as well as Musk himself claiming that it has not been used as a platform for “free speech”.

Musk had initially bid on the 14th April for $53.20 a share, approximately $43bn, and since then there had been extensive negotiations between the two parties.

The initial bid from Musk was rebuffed by the Twitter board but they did manage to agree a deal.

In a statement provided to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, representatives for Mr Musk said Twitter breached terms of an agreement and “appears to have made false and misleading representations”.

“Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the statement continued,” the statement read.

Twitter’s chairman Bret Taylor revealed on the social media site that the company is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement”.

“We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” he continued.

The original agreement contains a $1bn (£830m) break-up fee.

According to Forbes magazine, Musk is the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $273.6bn. In addition to his ownership of Tesla, he has also co-founded many other major companies such as SpaceX, OpenAI, Neuralink and Starlink.

When announcing the initial agreement on the platform, Musk tweeted: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” he added.

“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

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Is Modern Life Making Today's Youngsters More Depressed?

Is Modern Life Making Today’s Youngsters More Depressed?

Since 1990 there has only been an increase in the number of youngsters taking their life due to depression. From 2012, there has been an additional spike in teenagers reporting mental distress and depression. With cyberbullying, social media, exams, drug abuse, etc., the pressure on teens is only increasing, and the present time is a difficult time to be a teenager. Read on to know what is depression, its causes and what we can do to fight this disease?

What is depression?

It is usual for people of all ages to get an occasional feeling of sadness, which goes away with time. This sadness can result from fights, breakups, exams, etc. However, if this feeling of sadness does not seem to go away and affects the youngster’s daily life to the extent that they find it challenging to feel motivated, it can be a sign of depression. If depression is not treated on time, it can affect the patient’s well-being, and there are also chances that they may try to commit suicide.

Due to hormonal changes, it is normal for teenagers to feel irritated and get occasional mood swings. However, if these symptoms last for more than 14 days and make it difficult to focus on day-to-day life, it can be a sign of depression. Some signs of depression are nervousness, feelings of worthlessness, change in behaviour, constant exhaustion, bodyweight fluctuation, sadness, drug abuse, suicidal tendency, loss of interest, etc. These symptoms are not always a sign of something serious; however, these signs should never be ignored.

What are the causes of depression in youngsters?

Research shows that today’s teenagers are much more depressed than their forefathers and mothers. Many people believe that it is because we have raised our kids with unrealistic expectations, while others believe that exam pressure and social media have made youngsters depressed. There is only no shortage of people who blame the parents and think that they have made the kids weak and not provided them with enough coping skills to survive in this cruel world. In reality, these and many more factors are responsible for the rise of depression in youngsters.

The present generation is much more stressed than any of the prior generations, and this stress is the biggest reason behind depression and other mental conditions. While lack of exercise, support, unlimited social media are more factors responsible for depression, the effects of genes cannot be ignored when we talk about depression.

Technology and depression

While technology has made life easier for many, a considerable number of teenagers cannot imagine their life without a smartphone. Many youngsters in the present times are so obsessed with social media that it has become difficult for them to differentiate between real life and online life. Not only youngsters, but people of all ages do things to impress their online friends while conveniently forgetting people in their lives. Teenagers’ obsession with social media is to the extent that they feel left out and stressed if they do not check their social media for some time. Moreover, with their innocence, they get easily fooled by things they see on social media and start comparing their lives with their online friends, which puts them in depression. Unmonitored social media also puts teenagers under the threat of cyberbullying, which can take a serious turn if appropriate steps are not taken at the right time. Not only this, but youngsters today are also busy on social media that they do not take time for studying, social life or exercise, which pushes them towards depression.

While technology is a significant reason behind the rise of depression in teens, it is not the only reason. Society’s growing stress on money and fame is also something that has pushed youngsters towards depression. The constant competition and the breakdown of the societal bond have been a reason behind teenagers becoming alone, pushing them towards depression and other mental health-related issues. So, yes, it can be said that modern life is making our youngsters depressed.

Treatment

One cannot stop the advancement of society and technology. However, what we can do is try on our level to ensure that teenagers don’t take stress about unimportant things in life. Youngsters should be encouraged to share their feelings with someone they trust, and they should be heard. Also, there is a need to remove the stigma around mental health and take the kids to a doctor if you think they are suffering from depression. Other than this, parents should also monitor the kids’ time on social media and make them aware of the ill effects of social media. As a society, we all should come forward and lay stress on the emotional well-being of our children, putting stress on their happiness rather than their marks. If all this is done, we will see happy, carefree, compassionate youngsters who will build society.

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Social Media Sites Return Following Outage

Social Media Sites Return Following Outage

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are running again after an outage that barred people from all across the world from accessing its services which lasted for nearly six hours.

All three platforms crashed on Monday afternoon at around 12:00 AST and services remained down until 18:00 AST, as users failed to receive and send messages or refresh their feeds.

Facebook named the cause of the outage due to a “faulty configuration change” which not only affected their services but also their employees passes and emails.

CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, apologised for the outage after the three sites had been restored, saying in a Facebook post: “”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.”

It is reported that the outage affected Zuckerberg himself as according to Fortune, a business website, the founder of Facebook had lost an estimated $6bn in shares during one point of the outage.

Downdetector, a platform that tracks outages from various sites, stated that around 10.6 million issues were reported from across the world. Reports came from areas including North and South America, Russia, New Zealand, Europe and Australia. Despite this, with more than 3.5 billion users from all sites, the real number of people affected would have been significantly more.

Security experts have predicted other possible cause for the outage with suggestions including a sabotage from an insider or an unintentional mistake.

Facebook released a statement, which said: “”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 centres caused issues that interrupted this communication.

“This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centres 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.”

Due to the outage of these sites, other social media giants such as Twitter and TikTok benefitted, as they reported higher-than-normal usage, with Twitter recording its highest number of people on its platform at one time.

SEE ALSO: The 8 Coolest Tech Gadgets in 2021

OnlyFans Announces Ban on ‘sexually explicit’ content

OnlyFans Announces Ban on ‘Sexually Explicit’ Content

OnlyFans, a site that allows models and performers to charge their viewers for their explicit images and videos, announced that it will ban “sexually explicit” images and videos from its site from October – then promptly changed its mind after a backlash from users.

The London-based subscription platform had declared that from October 1st, they would change their regulations by not allowing any sexually explicit photos and videos from being uploaded onto the site. However, people will still be able to post nude content within the guidelines provided by the site.

This decision comes after the pressure applied onto them from banks and financial transaction services to stop the explicit imagery.

The popular social media platform, founded in 2016 by Essex businessman Tim Stokely, has been used by a range of content providers such as celebrities and musicians, but has been heavily patronised by sex workers and models allowing them to share their images and videos to their subscribers for either a tip or a monthly fee.

During the heart of the pandemic, OnlyFans grew rapidly in popularity, with millions of people subscribing to various creators, with the site claiming it has 130 million users. But it now admits that certain changes need to be made.

A spokesperson for the company said: “In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines.”

The OnlyFans website affirms that its creators receive 80% commission on their earnings, while the other 20% covers “referral payments, payment processing, hosting, support, and all other services”. The site has therefore allowed some creators to earn a vast income. Movie celebrity Bella Thorne is said to have made $1m in her first day on OnlyFans, sparking complaints that she had ‘ruined the platform for other content providers.’ Thorne charged users $200 for a single image, and soon after the company initiated a $50-per-image cap. The actress is reportedly the second-highest earning user on the site, with an estimated monthly income of $11 million, while Blac Chyna is said to be the top earner, with estimated monthly earnings of $20 million, while Cardi B is third with $9.34 million a month

The BBC has recently revealed in an investigation that the changes announced by OnlyFans followed concerns about how the site has handling the accounts posting the explicit imagery and videos.

In a response to the investigation carried out, OnlyFans said that it does not tolerate violations of its terms of service, and its systems and age verification go far beyond “all relevant global safety standards and regulations.”

But days after the announcement of the change of policy, OnlyFans announced it has suspended the move, saying in a tweet: “Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard. We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change. OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators.”

The change of heart may be too late may be too late for some sex content creators who have already announced that they would move from OnlyFans to other platforms such as Justforfans, Fansly, LoyalFans or Pocketstars.

SEE ALSO: Social Media sites Remove Offensive Comments following Lizzo Abuse

Social Media sites Remove Offensive Comments following Lizzo Abuse

Social Media Sites Remove Offensive Comments Following Lizzo Abuse

Facebook and Twitter have withdrawn numerous comments from Lizzo’s pages following the abusive remarks she had sustained on the social media platforms.

Action has been taken as the singer-songwriter revealed the amount of ‘hurtful’ abusive comments she had received following the release of her latest song, Rumours.

After the release of the song on 13th August, which also features popular rapper Cardi B, Lizzo was instantly targeted with large amounts of negative and abhorrent abuse, specifically related to her race and her body.

Lizzo has come out on Instagram, breaking down in tears revealing: “On the days when I should feel the happiest, I feel so down. Sometimes I feel like the world just don’t love me back. It’s like it doesn’t matter how much positive energy you put into the world, you’re still gonna have people who have something mean to say about you.”

A spokesman representing Facebook has come out and told The Hollywood Reporter the comments had been pulled off the site because they broke the social media site’s regulations regarding hate speech, harassment and bullying.

The Detroit-born artist in an interview with Good Morning America on Wednesday explained how she doesn’t mind receiving critical messages on the different songs she delivers however, the some of the treatment she gets specifically fat-shaming comments are unfair.”

Lizzo continued to let viewers know that “self-love is a journey”, while also saying “vulnerability is sexy and extremely powerful.”

The singer has also gathered positive messages of support from many of her followers in the days after.

Lizzo’s collaborator, Cardi B, has heavily supported the singer amongst the negative comments, stating: “Body-shaming is mean and racist.”

“Whether you skinny, big, plastic, remember these are nerds looking at the popular table.”

This is not the only time where social media sites have had issues with celebrities experiencing large amounts of abusive comments. In recent years, countless celebrities have come out and questioned platforms such as Twitter and Instagram and whether they should remain on their sites.

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Testimony to US Congress

Mark Zuckerberg’s Testimony to US Congress: What We Know so Far

In the wake of the data scandal that involved millions of people’s personal data being potentially shared with Cambridge Analytica, Mark Zuckerberg—CEO and co-founder of Facebook—faced US Congress to answer for the company’s involvement. Here’s what we know so far.

The scandal

The lid was lifted on Facebook’s relationship with Cambridge Analytica after the Observer published an account from a former worker from the firm. The academic, Aleksandr Kogan, had apparently used a personality quiz to harvest personal data from users of the social network and, through a company called Global Science Research (GSR), shared that information with Cambridge Analytica. At present, it is believed that 87 million people may have been affected (this figure includes both those who took the test as well as their friends, whose personal records the app also had access to).

In the US, Cambridge Analytica is backed by the Mercer family, whose heavy influence was thrown into championing Donald Trump during the presidential election in 2016. It is this association that has sparked allegations of election manipulation. Further revelations surfaced after Channel 4 News in the UK revealed a separate undercover investigation in which Alexander Nix, head of Cambridge Analytica, was filmed boasting of using dirty tactics in order to successfully swing elections. The incident saw Nix speak about an opportunity in Sri Lanka where he mentioned the creation of sex scandals and the use of fake news to swing votes.

Zuckerberg’s testimony to US Congress

This Tuesday, Zuckerberg faced US Congress for the first time since the scandal hit the headlines. Questions from the senate commerce and judiciary committees were fired at Zuckerberg on a number of pressing topics including privacy, regulations, data mining and Cambridge Analytica during the five-hour long hearing. Bombarded with cameras, Zuckerberg’s countenance was collected yet alert.

On rights to privacy

When asked in detail about user rights to privacy, Zuckerberg said the following:

“I believe it’s important to tell people exactly how the information that they share on Facebook is going to be used.

“To your broader point about the privacy policy […] long privacy policies are very confusing. And if you make it long and spell out all the detail, then you’re probably going to reduce the percent of people who read it and make it accessible to them.”

Senator Jon Tester then asked him: “You said multiple times during this hearing that I own the data. I’m going to tell you that I think that sounds good, but in practice you’re making $40 billion a year, I’m not making money on it. It feels like you own the data […] could you give me some idea on how you can honestly say it’s my data?”

Zuckerberg responded with, “When I say it’s your data, what we mean is that you have control over how it’s used on Facebook. You clearly need to give Facebook a license to use it otherwise the system doesn’t work.”

Tester countered with: “The fact is the license is very thick, maybe intentionally so.”

Cambridge Analytica

When probed on Facebook’s relationship and dealings with Cambridge Analytica, he said: “[From] what my understanding was … they were not on the platform, [they] were not an app developer or advertiser. When I went back and met with my team afterwards, they let me know that Cambridge Analytica actually did start as an advertiser later in 2015.

“So we could have in theory banned them then. We made a mistake by not doing so.

“When we heard back from Cambridge Analytica they had told us that they weren’t using the data and deleted it, we considered it a closed case. In retrospect, that was clearly a mistake. We shouldn’t have taken their word for it. We’ve updated our policy to make sure we don’t make that mistake again.”

Storing and selling data

“Yes, we store data… some of that content with people’s permission,” said the Facebook CEO.

When Senator Tammy Baldwin asked whether the neuroscientist Kogan had shared the data with any other users aside from Cambridge Analytica, Zuckerberg replied: “Yes, he did.”

Senator Cory Gardner read out parts of the terms of service offered by Facebook relating to account deletion—which mentions that backup copies of the profile may persist after an account is deleted for some amount of time—and questioned Zuckerberg about it. Zuckerberg said that he doesn’t really know how long those backup copies are kept, but generally expressed his belief that they are actually deleted.

Rules and regulations

Senator John Kennedy: “I don’t want to regulate Facebook but god help you I will […] I say this gently: your user agreement sucks. You can spot me 75 IQ points. The purpose of that user agreement is to cover Facebook’s rear end; it’s not to inform your users about their rights. You know that and I know that. I’m going to suggest that you go home and rewrite it.”

Zuckerberg’s testimony to US Congress continued: “I think the real question, as the internet becomes more important in people’s lives, is what is the right regulation, not whether there should be or not.

“We’re investigating every single app that had access to a large amount of information in the past. And if we find that someone improperly used data, we’re going to ban them from Facebook and tell everyone affected.”

Russian interference

“One of my greatest regrets in running the company is that we were slow in identifying the Russian information operations in 2016.

“We have kicked off an investigation … I imagine we’ll find some things,” Zuckerberg continued.

“This is an on-going arms race. As long as there are people sitting in Russia whose job is it to try to interfere in elections around the world, this is going to be an on-going conflict.”

Zuckerberg’s personal privacy

When asked by Senator Dick Durbin if he would be comfortable sharing the name of the hotel he stayed in last night he said: “No. I would probably not choose to do that publicly, here.”

“I think everyone should have control over how their information is used,” he added.

Accountability

In the closing of Zuckerberg’s testimony to US Congress, he took responsibility for the situation, citing his position and interest in making positive changes for the future: “It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.

“It was my mistake and I’m sorry.”

Are you convinced by Zuckerberg’s testimony to US Congress? Do you believe regulation will improve or is this the beginning of the end for Facebook? Give us your comments below.

Further reading: Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: All You Need to Know

Market Yourself Social Media

Market Yourself on Social Media

Statistics tell us that in 2017 alone 81 percent of Americans had a social media profile—but how can you market yourself on social media professionally?

It’s amazing the way people perceive someone from a simple, yet detailed, social media website such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. The saying is true: “A picture says a thousand words.” So how do you make yourself more appealing when it comes to prospective head hunters looking for their next applicant?

To market yourself on social media, eliminate all those old photos starring you holding a beer bong or a bottle of liquor with your tongue hanging out—for starters. Sure, save them onto your computer so you can look back someday and laugh at your memories, but remove them from social media because employers will take a look at a candidate’s social media profiles. The last impression you want to make on a prospective employer is that you’re unprofessional and irresponsible. There’s a time and place for everything, and as we get older, we need to leave a lasting, positive impression for those who may help us plant seeds for long and prosperous career.

A person’s perception of you can change in an instant. All it takes is some light “Facebook stalking” to find out where you might live, who you’re currently dating and the things you enjoy doing. I, personally, have found myself reeling in shock after seeing an old friend’s social media page. It makes you wonder what kind of life they’re living and this is what potential employers will think, as well. Even though you may not be connected on social media, your profile picture is very much visible and certain information about yourself could be posted publicly. To market yourself on social media to a professional standard, hide anything that may potentially harm your reputation—such as offensive public statuses or tweets—and make a future boss reconsider adding you to the team. Instead, consider publishing your academic and professional achievements. You can also use platforms like Twitter and Facebook to build a network of like-minded professionals by making groups or forums for topical discussions. This will help future employers see that you are serious and passionate about the industry you’re applying for.

Not every profile photo of yours needs to be of you wearing professional attire or a head shot you had snapped at Sears. Just try to keep it moderately conservative and classy. Don’t be too revealing in certain areas—if you catch my drift. Men: this goes for you, too. Keep status updates to a minimum so it doesn’t appear that you spend a majority of your day with your nose in your phone. Yes, we all have our opinions on politics, children and lifestyles; to a head hunter, however, an aggressive and assertive personality could spark controversy in an office setting—this is a big turn-off for someone in search of a solid candidate. So keep those blunt thoughts between you and friends, and off of your social media accounts.

I’m not saying do not be true to who you are—by all means, be yourself. Just remember though, you’re not the only person viewing your profile. Words mean something, an image represents something, and social media portrays you. Don’t be fake, just be smart. A positive mind is the beginning to a positive life. You know that Memories notification you get on Facebook every day that displays everything you posted on that very day over the past um-teen years? Wouldn’t you love to look back at it in a year and say, “Wow, I’ve come a long way since then.” Welcome to adulthood!

Further reading: Using LinkedIn