Meta

By Hadiza Abdulkadir

In a significant move, Meta has announced plans to begin displaying advertisements in WhatsApp, its popular messaging platform. The decision marks a major shift in WhatsApp’s business model, which has long promised an ad-free experience for its users.

Meta officials stated that the ads will initially appear in the app’s Status feature—similar to Instagram Stories—and may later expand to other areas, such as the chat list. The company says this step is aimed at helping businesses reach customers more effectively, while generating new revenue from WhatsApp, which boasts over 2 billion users worldwide.

The announcement has sparked mixed reactions. While some view it as an inevitable evolution of the platform, others fear it may compromise user privacy and the simplicity that made WhatsApp popular.

Meta has yet to confirm an official launch date but assured users that end-to-end encryption in personal chats will remain intact.

By Sabiu Abdullahi 

In a swift reversal, tech giant Meta has apologised and restored social media posts by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim about the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The move comes after Anwar’s office condemned Meta’s initial removal of the posts as “a blatant suppression of free expression”.

 Meta attributed the removal to “an operational error” and claimed the posts were taken down due to association with “dangerous individuals and organisations”.

However, the company has since reapplied a “newsworthy” label to the content, allowing it to be reinstated on Facebook and Instagram. 

The controversy highlights ongoing tensions between social media platforms and political leaders over censorship and free speech.

Anwar had previously accused Meta of “cowardice” for removing his posts, which included a video offering condolences to a Hamas official. 

Malaysia’s ties with Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by several countries, have been a point of contention. Anwar has defended his country’s links with the group’s political win.

By Sabiu Abdullahi 

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, faced a widespread outage today, disrupting access to its popular social media platforms worldwide.

Internal system failures within Meta are believed to be responsible for the outage, leaving millions of users unable to log in or refresh their feeds.  

Users across the globe experienced difficulties accessing Meta’s Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram platforms as the tech giant grappled with a significant outage on Tuesday.

The outage, believed to have been triggered by internal system failures, resulted in frustration for users unable to access their accounts or engage with the platforms. 

Reports indicate that users were forcibly logged out of their Facebook and Messenger accounts and encountered issues logging back in, despite inputting correct credentials.

Similarly, Instagram users experienced difficulties refreshing their feeds, rendering the platforms unusable for many.

By Ishaka Mohammed

Meta’s instant messenger, WhatsApp, has allowed Android users to have two active accounts on one phone.

The Daily Reality confirmed the development after accessing a Facebook post by one Pal Kelly Media.

Recall that on October 19, 2023, the Chief Executive Officer of Meta Platforms, Mark Zuckerberg, revealed the company’s intention to enable multiple WhatsApp accounts on Android.

WhatsApp also reported the same in a blog post guiding users on how to add a new account. Part of the post reads as follows:

“Today, we’re introducing the ability to have two WhatsApp accounts on Android logged in at the same time. Helpful for switching between accounts – such as your work and personal – now you no longer need to log out each time, carry two phones or worry about messaging from the wrong place.

“To set up a second account, you will need a second phone number and SIM card or a phone that accepts multi-SIM or eSIM. Simply open your WhatsApp settings, click on the arrow next to your name, and click ‘Add account’. You can control your privacy and notification settings on each account.”

However, users are required to update their WhatsApp to enable them to access the new feature.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced new improvements and features to the messaging app WhatsApp. 

Mr Zuckerberg made the announcement in a Facebook post on Thursday. 

According to him, Meta has launched Communities on WhatsApp. 

He further explained that the Communities make groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels and more. 

He also said WhatsApp is rolling out polls and 32-person video calling.

He said: “Today we’re launching Communities on WhatsApp. It makes groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels, and more. We’re also rolling out polls and 32-person video calling too. All secured by end-to-end encryption, so your messages stay private.”

By Muhammadu Sabiu

WhatsApp, a messaging platform, has been inaccessible to millions of users globally. As a result, thousands of users have reported being unable to send or receive messages.

The Daily Reality understands that since 8:30 am, 12,000 faults have been reported. The estimated number of affected users is substantially large.

Although messages are not delivered, users can still launch the application and read previous conversations.

– Newsbriefs

Russian courts have fined TikTok and Meta for failing to delete LGBTQ+ content. Meta was fined 4mn rubles by a court in Moscow. The US tech giant had failed to remove content that ‘promoted LGBTQ+ rights’, ruled the judges. 

TikTok was also fined 2mn rubles in another trial for a similar violation. LGBTQ+ advocacy, such as gay pride marches, and the pride flag, are banned in Russia.

According to the Verge Media “the company announced the rebranding during Facebook Connect. Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s new name will be “Meta.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday at his company’s Connect event that its new name will be Meta. “We are a company that builds technology to connect,” Zuckerberg said. “Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creator economy.”

“To reflect who we are and what we hope to build,” he added. He said the name Facebook doesn’t fully encompass everything the company does now, and is still closely linked to one product. “But over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company.”

Zuckerberg owns the Twitter handle @meta (whose tweets are protected as of this writing) and meta.com, which now redirects to a welcome page on Facebook outlining the changes. The site previously redirected to meta.org, a biomedical research discovery tool that was a project of the Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative. That’s part of the philanthropic arm Zuckerberg co-founded with his physician wife, Priscilla Chan, in 2015. In a Medium post on Thursday, the group says it’s sunsetting Meta.org on March 31st, 2022.

As The Verge first reported on October 19th, the rebrand is part of the company’s efforts to shift gears away from being known as just a social media company and focus on Zuckerberg’s plans for building the metaverse. In July, he told The Verge that over the next several years, Facebook would “effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”

Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post Thursday that the company’s corporate structure would not be changing, but how it reports financial results will. “Starting with our results for the fourth quarter of 2021, we plan to report on two operating segments: Family of Apps and Reality Labs” he explained. “We also intend to start trading under the new stock ticker we have reserved, MVRS, on December 1. Today’s announcement does not affect how we use or share data.”