Tag Archives: Facebook

Russian trolls can go viral in three easy steps (The 3:59, Ep. 307)

For today’s podcast, we go through some of the tools Russian trolls have used to draw lots of attention to their posts online, as well as what Facebook and Twitter are doing to stop them. Plus, we talk about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becoming the world’s richest person thanks to his company’s strong third-quarter results, …

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Russian

People linked to Russian-backed Facebook accounts helped organize or fund events in the US around divisive topics — often playing both sides of a hot-button issue, according to The Wall Street Journal.  The WSJ cited an example in July, when a Russia-based firm organized two events on the same day. The first was a “Blue Lives Matter” rally to honor …

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Workplace, Facebook’s Slack rival, adds desktop chat app

A year ago, Facebook released Workplace, its answer to the popular collaborative tool Slack. Early Thursday, Facebook said it’s expanding the software’s chat capabilities. Workplace’s chat feature has always had mobile and browser components, but Facebook is adding a desktop app. From it, employees can do screen sharing, file sharing and video chat. It’s available for Mac and PCs, as …

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Facebook looks to become your next used car salesman

It’s been a little more than a year since Facebook launched its Marketplace platform. Now, the social media giant says it’s time to expand it. Marketplace, which lets people sell new and used stuff locally, is adding more detailed US listings of used cars, one of the categories Facebook said has been most active. In the coming weeks, the platform …

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Instagram’s new ‘Superzoom’ gets up close and personal

Nothing says funny like a theatrical superzoom. Case in point: Dramatic Chipmunk. In that video, you see the little furry creature quickly turn around and then stare into the camera as it zooms in closer and closer to its face. Now, Instagram is making it easy to record and post videos just like this on the social network. The photo-sharing …

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Twitter announces new policy toward political ads

Pressure has been mounting for social media sites like Facebook to reveal information about the people and groups who advertise on such platforms. On Tuesday, Twitter announced a new policy to be more transparent about ads that run on its platform and reveal the identity of who bought them. In a post on Twitter’s website, Bruce Falck, general manager of …

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Get 10 Windows utilities for free

CNET’s Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and follow the Cheapskate on Facebook and Twitter! Get all these for free, no strings attached. WonderFox Quick housekeeping note: Did you know I’m now writing …

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Lights, camera, livestream: How anyone can make it big

Walking into Tomás Puig’s San Francisco apartment, I notice something is a little unusual.  There are three cameras in the kitchen and what looks to be a TV switcher sitting against the wall. Rather than hosting a handful of guests for dinner, twice a week Tomás opens his home to thousands who watch his cooking show on Facebook Live. “Tomás’ …

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Facebook Messenger now lets you pay pals with PayPal

Facebook Messenger can make payments to friends, and has already worked with Paypal. But it can now make payments to people using Paypal using peer-to-peer, too (in the US, for now). The service is live on iOS, and is coming to Android soon. The service connects its 2.5 million customers in the US to make the same payments to friends …

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Vodafone’s passes let you binge Netflix on the cheap

If you regularly find yourself running out of data at the end of the month following a binge of Breaking Bad on Netflix then Vodafone’s new bundles may be just the ticket. If you’re on a pay monthly plan, you can add a pass to your account. It’ll let you use certain specific data-heavy services without eating into your monthly …

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