Tag: facebook

Social media giant Instagram has blocked a U.S based health centres advertisement for PrEP, on the basis that it was “too political.” The health care provider Apicha Community Health Centre, said they attempted to run a series of promotion via Instagram, to raise awareness about PrEP. However, upon launching the new campaign, they were blocked

Blood donations are urgently needed in some areas and Facebook is using its service to help the Red Cross boost supply. In doing so, however, they are alienating gay and bisexual men who find the service’s choice to target them inappropriate. Men who have sex with men, as well as many transgender people, are routinely barred from donating blood.  “On Facebook’s part, this seems tone deaf,” said Aaron Endre, a gay Facebook user interviewed by CNBC. Endre’s profile makes it clear...

Earlier this year, RuPaul announced that Drag Race had officially begun casting calls for the show’s highly-anticipated 12th season. Yah, season 12. To quote Queer Eye icon Jonathan Van Ness – “can you believe?” “If you are a showgirl, if you are a drag queen, if you are a girl with the cha-cha heels and a pussycat wig honey, you better get up on this show!” the Emmy Award winning host said in a statement. It’s rumoured that the show has...

French farming minister Didier Guillaume has thrown his boule into the mix in an international spat, saying on Tuesday that US president Donald Trump's threat to tax French wines was "completely moronic". Trump threatened last week to make the move in retaliation for France's proposal to levy a tax aimed at big U.S. technology companies - known in France as the 'GAFAs' (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple). "It's absurd, in terms of having a political and economic debate, to say that if...

Carissa Pinkston ― an up-and-coming model who has worked for Rihanna’s lingerie line, Savage x Fenty ― apologized Saturday for lying about identifying as transgender, after losing her job over transphobic messages she posted on Facebook, reports the HuffPost. The controversy began in May, when a number of Facebook posts Pinkston made under the name Rissa Danielle surfaced. In a May 23 post, she wrote, “Being transgender does NOT make you a woman. It makes you simply transgender.” On June...

According to Russian news outlet Fontanka, Grigoryeva’s body was found by a passerby in the bushes near her home in the city of St Petersburg around 5pm on Sunday 21 July. She had been stabbed multiple times. It’s believed she may have been targeted after her name and details appeared on a website encouraging users to “hunt” down LGBTQ activists in a “game” based on the ‘torture porn’ horror movie franchise Saw. Just three days before she was killed, Grigoryeva posted...

Social media giant Facebook will have to pay a record-breaking $5 billion (€4,486 billion) fine, accept news restrictions and a modified corporate structure that will hold the company accountable for decisions it makes about users' privacy to settle a government probe into its privacy practices, said the US Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday. The $5 billion penalty against the tech giant is the largest ever imposed on any company for violating users' privacy and almost 20 times greater than the...

A police officer in Louisiana posted a comment on his Facebook page this past week calling for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be shot, reports NOLA.com. According to the newspaper, Charlie Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the police force in Gretna, Louisiana wrote on Facebook: “this vile idiot needs a round… and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve.” The threat was posted along with a fake news story with the headline “Ocasio-Cortez on the budget: ‘We pay soldiers...

Well, this is awkward. Gay Facebook users in Australia recently found themselves targeted with a sponsored post from the Australian Red Cross Blood Service featuring a gay couple and asking for blood donations. The Facebook ad, which depicted two men in Christmas sweaters, said: “Whether or not you’re celebrating Christmas in July, you can give a lifesaving gift any time, because the need for blood doesn’t take a break.” There’s just one teensy tiny problem: Currently in Australia, just like in the...

FaceApp is one of the most popular apps in the world right now, but privacy advocates are raising concerns about the information that it’s collecting. The app, which was developed by the Russian company Wireless Lab, lets users modify pictures of their faces to make them seem older, younger, as another gender, or hotter. But the data stored in the app isn’t as private as some people could think. The app uses a Facebook login, giving it access to users’ pictures,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc faces more questioning by U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday over its planned cryptocurrency, after a bruising first bout when senators from both parties condemned the project, saying the company had not shown it could be trusted. The social media company is fighting to get Washington on its side after it shocked regulators and lawmakers with its announcement on June 18 that it was hoping to launch a new digital coin called Libra in 2020. Since...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers quizzed Facebook on Wednesday over its planned cryptocurrency, after a bruising first bout a day earlier when senators from both parties condemned the project, saying the company had not shown it could be trusted. The social media company is fighting to get Washington on its side after it shocked regulators and lawmakers with its announcement on June 18 that it was hoping to launch a new digital coin called Libra in 2020. It has...

A gay man was was severely beaten by homophobic attackers, and a picture of his injuries is being shared widely on Facebook. Ryan Williams, 22, said that he and his friends were going to a McDonalds in Preston, England, early in the morning this past Saturday when some people shouted anti-gay comments at them. “There was a group of people nearby in the street and they started calling me and my friends gay,” he told the Mirror. “We went over and told...

French environment minister François de Rugy on Tuesday announced his resignation following a scandal over alleged lavish dinners funded by the taxpayer and renovations to his ministry residence. He made the announcement on his official Facebook page. Investigative website Médiapart claimed he hosted lavish social dinners, which included lobster and fine wines, paid for by the taxpayer, when he was parliament speaker, as well as carrying out pricey renovations on his official residence. At the time, the former minister published a written...