Tag: Snapchat

  • Most common women harassment platforms are WhatsApp, Facebook: Research

    Most common women harassment platforms are WhatsApp, Facebook: Research

    A Pakistani research-focused NGO, Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) revealed its annual report on the five-year cyber harassment helpline.

    According to the DRF, WhatsApp and Facebook were the most commonly utilised apps in Pakistan to harass women. Its helpline for combating online abuse and harassment will reach a five-year milestone this year.

    In the last five years, the online harassment helpline has received over 11,681 cases. In 2021, there were 4,441 cases received, with an average of 370 instances each month. The months of March and September saw a spike in reports, while the remainder of the year was quite constant.

    About 68 per cent of the calls were from women, 30 per cent were from males, and the remaining 2 per cent were from gender minorities. WhatsApp was the most widely mentioned platform for harassment, followed by Facebook.

    In 2021, 893 complaints were related to blackmail, and 727 incidents on the helpline involved the use of non-consensual photos, according to the research.

    Executive Director of DRF Nighat Dad stated that “the pace at which the cases of cyber harassment are increasing is alarming and must serve as a wake-up call for us to take appropriate action to make the internet a safe and equal space for everyone”.

    Pakistan’s first specialised helpline against cyber violence and harassment, the cyber-harassment helpline, was opened in December 2016. The toll-free number (0800-39393) is available Monday through Sunday, 9 AM to 5 PM, and includes email and social media help.

    Via: Geo

  • Instagram is testing ‘pin’ feature for posts

    Instagram is testing ‘pin’ feature for posts

    Instagram is currently testing a new feature that allows users to pin photos to the top of their photo grid. According to tipsters, developers and insiders with access to the feature can already pin posts from the side menu.

    Instagram appears to have been working on the pin option for at least a few months. The upcoming feature will be a welcome addition to the Meta-owned platform, especially for those who want to highlight a photo or video they fancy, which may be buried way down in the grid.

    Instagram users currently have the option to pin stories to their accounts, but the addition of a pin feature would further enhance the user experience.

    The pinned posts test comes around a week after Instagram said that, as part of a modest test, it would remove the ‘Recent’ button from hashtag pages for some users. When you click on a hashtag, you’ll be led to a page where you can sort through the content that’s been shared with that hashtag into three categories: top, recent, and reels.

    Read more: Twitter officially declares adding an edit button

    Some users will only see the ‘Top’ and ‘Reels’ tabs on hashtag pages as a result of this change. The adjustment might be viewed as a method for Instagram to promote Reels, its TikTok competitor, while simultaneously focusing on uncovering the most popular postings on the platform.

  • WhatsApp’s new update will support group voice call with up to 32 participants

    WhatsApp’s new update will support group voice call with up to 32 participants

    In the last few months, the popular Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has made news by adding new and widely requested features in its Beta releases.

    Many other features, including enhanced file sharing size, emoji reactions, and the ability to hide last seen from select contacts, will be available in the live release of the app soon, according to the business.

    As per reports, WhatsApp has begun rolling out a new update for iOS that includes support for 32-person talks, a redesigned call user interface, waveforms, and other enhancements. On iOS, the update will be available in the live build of WhatsApp.

    Until now, WhatsApp users had been able to make group phone calls with numerous people at once. Previously, a group voice discussion could only hold up to eight people, but WhatsApp is now rolling out a new version that allows up to 32 individuals to join.

    In WhatsApp Groups, voice calls with up to 32 participants would be possible. To accommodate the new members, the platform has changed the way participants are displayed on the screen. Different WhatsApp users are labeled using waveform pictures.

    Read more: Google to ban call recording apps in the next update

    This new capability is included in the update version 22.8.80, which is 109.7MB in size for iOS devices. Android users will get a similar upgrade with these additional features in the near future, but it will not be available on the windows or desktop version.

  • Ahsan Khan’s 4-year-old “British-Asian” meme trends on Twitter once again

    Ahsan Khan’s 4-year-old clip has once again come to life, as the #BritishAsian hashtag started to appear on Twitter’s trending list. In the video which was recorded in 2018, the actor flaunted a British accent and presented himself as a “British-Asian actor” who lives “here and there”.

    Khan was in London for the International Pakistan Prestige Awards, where he received the ‘Star Of The Year’ award and spoke at multiple media interviews.

    He voiced several excellent observations, and many people appreciated what he said about Pakistan’s growing drama industry.

    The BBC also covered the ceremony, questioning PEMRA’s ruling (at that time) regarding our productions being “too bold”. Khan stressed the importance of using our shows to address Pakistani moral codes and cultural challenges.

    He highlighted how there should be a clear distinction between exaggeration and depicting reality.

    Besides the appreciation the actor received, the netizens could not resist noting something unusual about his accent during these interviews. The #BritishPakistani posts comprising Ahsan Khan’s quotes have once again flooded social media.

    Trolling has become more common than ever before on the social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and others. Celebrities are often the victim of this troll brigade. Every gesture, every position, and every picture published by celebrities is critiqued, from their attire to their accent.

    Ahsan Khan is best known for his roles in Udaari, Aangan, and Dastaan. For his act in Chupan Chupai, he was also nominated for Lux Style Awards for the ‘Best Film Actor’ in 2018. He currently hosts ‘Time Out with Ahsan Khan’, a talk show that was previously fined Rs50,000 by PEMRA for using animals as props.

  • Instagram may introduce voice message replies for stories soon

    Instagram may introduce voice message replies for stories soon

    Instagram is reportedly working on a feature that would allow users to reply to stories with a picture or a voice message. This was signaled by the application developer, Alessandro Paluzzi, who further mentioned in his tweet that Instagram is also testing a feature that will allow users to share posts using a QR code.

    Paluzzi’s screenshots show the traditional message box where you may reply to users’ stories, with a twist, as one snapshot includes a GIF sign, while another has a mic icon in addition to the GIF button that was already available.

    Users will probably use these icons to respond to Instagram stories with an image or a voice message.

    The social media platform introduced a feature in February that allowed users to like other users’ stories without having to respond with a direct message.

    Until then, the only option to respond to a story was to send a direct message to the user through the text box at the bottom of the story (or using pre-set emojis, GIFS, or stickers, which were almost similar.

    Read more: Intel to launch world’s fastest 5.5 GHz CPU on April 5

    The rumored new picture reply function will complement existing capabilities and provide users with more options for creatively responding to stories. These features are also well-suited to Instagram’s long-term strategy.

    All of this may be included in the coming days as the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, had already stated that the Meta-owned platform will be focusing on the videos, messaging as well as creators.

  • People who use social media for news more susceptible to rumours: study

    People who use social media for news more susceptible to rumours: study

    The United States citizens who rely on social media as their main source of news are more likely to believe false or unproven stories about important topics such as politics and COVID-19, according to a survey.

    The Pew Research Centre report found that people who used social media platforms for news were less informed about major public matters and more susceptible to believing rumors and hoaxes.

    The report comes with social media platforms becoming a growing source of news amid struggles by traditional media to survive in the digital age.

    The Pew report found some 18 per cent of the participants of the survey got most of their political and election news through social media. But those people were less likely to rightly answer the fact-based questions about politics and current affairs than those relying on print, broadcast or news apps.

    Social media news consumers were more aware of specific false or unproven stories about COVID-19 and said they had seen more misinformation about the pandemic such as claims that Vitamin C could prevent infection, the survey found.

    On political news, social media users were less informed about facts such as the function of the state-by-state, Electoral College votes, which ultimately decide who wins the White House, or the unemployment rate.

    The report comes from a series on interviews with some 9,000 US adults from November 2019 through December 2020.

    A majority in the survey said they distrusted social media with Facebook the least trusted among the platforms.

    Among those using traditional media, the researchers also found that roughly a quarter of the US citizen on the political left and right consistently turned to “partisan” news sites, reinforcing their views.

    Pew found that roughly three in 10 Republicans relied on former president Donald Trump as a major source of news about the election and the coronavirus.

    These Republicans were more likely to think the COVID-19 pandemic had been overblown and more likely to see voter fraud as a significant threat to election integrity.

  • Snapchat is offering users $1 million a day to use a new feature

    Snapchat is offering users $1 million a day to use a new feature

    Snapchat is rolling out a new tool for its application to feature popular videos, called Spotlight and is offering $1 million a day to creators of top-performing posts. To earn the money, video submitters to Spotlight don’t have to have large followers or even have public profiles. Instead, an algorithm will determine what to show Snapchat users based on how often others view their content.

    The new feature will help Snapchat in a competitive market for posting entertaining videos online, dominated by Facebook, Instagram and Google’s YouTube, with China-based ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok rising fast among younger audiences. Snap Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel has eschewed public metrics, such as likes and follows, that drive the market for influencers, the most-followed users on photo-sharing apps.

    Social media platforms are striving to attract the makers of quality content. TikTok plans to spend more than $1 billion in the US in the next three years on video-makers. Instagram has been paying some of TikTok’s top stars to test out its TikTok copycat feature, ‘Reels’. Instagram also recently started for the first time sharing revenue on video ads with creators, as YouTube does.

    Snap shares have almost tripled this year to a record $45.38 earlier this month as young people turn to Snapchat to message friends videos during the coronavirus. The app also features television shows and magazines designed for a young audience on mobile. ‘Spotlight’ will initially launch in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France.