When the news broke last week that Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest man, had paid US$2.9 billion (£2.3 billion) for 9.2 percent of Twitter, the media world – old and new – briefly lost what might loosely be called its collective mind. What was Musk up to? (He’s always up to something, after all, even if it’s just trolling.

The last time the Taliban were in power, social networks were a thing of the future -- but this time around, the militants' takeover of Afghanistan poses tricky questions for the likes of Facebook and Twitter.As their arrival in Kabul sparked worldwide panic, Taliban officials took to Twitter to project a message of calm beyond Afghanistan's borders.Claims that the Taliban forces young girls to marry fighters are "poisonous propaganda", the group's international media

Hong Kong's leader on Tuesday brushed off a warning by major tech companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter that they may quit the financial hub if authorities push ahead with a new privacy law.City authorities have unveiled plans to pass a new law targeting "doxxing" – the act of publishing someone's private details online so they can be harassed by others.But the broad wording of the proposed legislation has spooked major tech companies who fear they could be held

Tens of thousands of protesters poured onto the streets across Myanmar Sunday in the biggest anti-coup rallies yet, as an internet blackout failed to stifle growing outrage at the military's ouster of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.Some estimates put the number of protesters in Yangon at 100,000 and there were reports of large demonstrations in other cities condemning the coup that brought Myanmar's 10-year experiment with democracy to a crashing halt.Backed by a din of car horns,

Myanmar saw its largest anti-coup protests yet on Saturday with young demonstrators spilling on to the streets to denounce the country's new military regime, despite a nationwide internet blackout aimed at stifling a growing chorus of popular dissent.Soon before nearly all lines of communication in and out of the country went dark, an Australian advisor to ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi told media he had been detained.The shutdown did not stop thousands of demonstrators from gat

In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, people are spending more time online with their devices to entertain themselves and to get COVID-19 updates during quarantine or virus lockdowns. An estimated 4.66 billion people now use the internet – more than half of humanity. This is an increase of more than seven percent since this time last year.

Twitter unveiled a plan Tuesday to curb the spread of manipulated content including "deepfake" videos as part of a move to fight misinformation which could result in violence or other harm.The policy was announced after Twitter asked for comments last year on ways to reduce "synthetic and manipulated media" on the online platform that could deceive people during election campaigns or provoke violence or physical harm.Twitter, which along with other social platforms has bee

Twitter and Facebook said Monday they had uncovered a campaign by China to use the social media platforms against pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong."We are disclosing a significant state-backed information operation focused on the situation in Hong Kong, specifically the protest movement and their calls for political change," Twitter said in an online post.Facebook said a tip from Twitter led to the removal of pages, groups and accounts originating in China and involved in "c

Nowadays nearly everyone either has a Facebook account or a Twitter account. Many, in fact, have both or even more. Social media has become something that most of the world cannot imagine life without. There are many advantages to using social media. Through social media, information can be obtained at your fingertips and in real-time, awareness of important issues can be spread faster than ever before.

Major tech firms on Wednesday pledged to come up with new measures for stamping out violent extremist content on the internet, amid growing pressure from governments pushing for action in the wake of the massacres at two New Zealand mosques in March.Executives from Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft met with the leaders of France, New Zealand and other countries in Paris to unveil the "Christchurch Call" of voluntary commitments for online platforms.It was named for the city wh