Like 1,5bn other people last week, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. A sense of relief that’s arguably as deep as when Eskom doesn’t load-shit the country for a week.
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In South Africa, the biggest threats to democracy are pretty obvious: the stuttering economy, never-ending rolling blackouts (let’s call them what they are), the rampant unemployment (nearly 30% in total, over 50% for youth) and a delusional political elite that doesn’t know it’s out of touch, out of money (due to said economic woes and therefore the inability of Sars to collect revenue) and generalised arrogance.
The number of active users of Facebook (those people who have logged onto the site in the previous month) has reached a historic high of 2.45 billion. To put this in some context, approximately 32% of the global population now use the social media platform, and the trend line of participation is still going up.
The world is starting to see the gradual decline of Facebook, with 15 million US users dropping off between 2017 and last year. Nonetheless, Facebook remains the largest social network in the world.
Facebook-owned Oculus has rolled out some new features for Facebook on the VR platform. The catch? By using them, you’re agreeing that your (first-party, Facebook says) VR usage will be subject to Facebook scrutiny.
It’s safe to say that we’ve been waiting for WhatsApp to roll out Dark Mode for… well, for ages. All…
Like any eight-year-old, Ryan Kaji loves to play with toys. But when Ryan plays, millions watch.
Since the age of four he’s been the star of his own YouTube channel. All up his videos have gained more than 35 billion views. This helped make him YouTube’s highest-earning star in 2018, earning US$22 million, according to Forbes.
Even though it’s less than 0.5% of Facebook’s $66bn revenue in the last year, the social giant will still allow adverts from politicians, even if they’re false.
First Apple, the Facebook, now Google. It seems like all the big players are doing it. No, not horrible things with your personal data (though that’s also happening). Nope, Google’s got designs on more money than it already has, with plans to open bank accounts from 2020.
If we asked you what’s the last thing you’d want Facebook to have access to, it’ll probably be your bank account. We have news for you — Facebook has launched its Facebook Pay feature in the US this week, which allows you to… wait for it… send people money via Messenger.