The year I stopped getting advent calendars in December was a sad one. Not only did it mean I was getting old, but the joy of going to sleep every night knowing a chocolate was waiting for me the next day was a feeling I'd sorely miss. But now there's a new calendar in town as we creep towards the Christmas season: one not filled with chocolates, but rather Twitter's updates on its safety work. And really, who can say which one is better? In a blog post Thursday, the company wrote that it had "far too often in the past said ...
WhatsApp will soon introduce a live location tracking feature, the company announced this week. "Whether you're meeting up with friends, letting loved ones know you're safe, or sharing your commute, Live Location is a simple and secure way to let people know where you are," the company explains in a blog post. As its name would suggest, the addition allows users and groups in your contact list to see your realtime location. Traditional location sharing in the "attach" menu within chat screens will now feature a "share live location" option. Users can also adjust how long they'd like their location to...
A shooting at Cape Town International Airport this morning has reportedly left two wounded and many in shock. The shooting appears to be gang related, and EWN has reported that one of the victims is alleged gang leader Jerome Booysen. Police have yet to confirm his identity. The victim has been taken to hospital with minor wounds to his upper body. The airport's official Twitter account confirmed the shooting, and assured that all other operations were to continue as usual. @capetownint there was an incident where someone got shot. Airport operations are ongoing. — Cape Town Airport (@capetownint) October 18, 2017 Some at the airport took to Twitter...
Oh, but it's a busy news day in South Africa folks. President Jacob Zuma, on the back of appointing a new board for the SABC, has reshuffled his cabinet once again. The news broke Tuesday morning after the Presidency issued a brief press release. Ministry of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande was one of the more notable scalps, replaced by David Mahlobo The presser is copied in below: After careful consideration, I have decided to make the following changes to the National Executive; Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize is the Minister of Higher Education and Training Ms Ayanda Dlodlo is the Minister of...
Over the weekend, actress Alyssa Milano encouraged women to tweet the hashtag #MeToo if they had ever been sexually harassed, assaulted, or abused -- and by Tuesday morning it was trending in the top spot in South Africa. Just finished reading #Khwezi and decided to come detox on these streets. Then I see #MeToo. Women are going through the most 😭😭😭 — Thabi Pebane (@Thabip) October 16, 2017 The hashtag is in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal that revealed Hollywood's deep sexual harassment problem. Weinstein, one of the most influential producers in the industry, was found by The New York Times to have...
The remnants of Hurricane Ophelia is currently battering the south-western coastline of Ireland, but much of the country doesn't seem to be taking it very seriously. #Ophelia is currently trending worldwide on Twitter at present, and obviously in Ireland. But while that hashtag does include updates on the storm, alerts and citizen reports, it also includes a healthy dosage of memes. The snarky comments emanating from the emerald isle is as humourous as it is worrying, considering that Ex-Ophelia (as the UK Met Office is calling her) is still packing wind gusts in excess of 170km/h. This must be a the strongest...
If you're too lazy to visit a restaurant, or even open your favourite food ordering app, Facebook now lets you place orders for delivery or pick up directly from its app and website. The company's VP of local Alex Himel today announced the move in a press release. "Today, we’re taking the time out of finding what you want to eat by officially launching the ability to order food for pick-up or delivery, directly on Facebook," he writes. "People already go to Facebook to figure out what to eat by reading about nearby restaurants, and seeing what their friends say about...
Twitter users have been calling for the removal of Nazis on the platform for ages, but sometimes when the powers-that-be won't help, you have to find your own solutions. That's exactly what user @christopeterso did when she changed her country setting to Germany. One Weird Trick to get nazi imagery off twitter pic.twitter.com/pCDvRu5JwY — MicHELL🔥Spookcault (@christapeterso) October 12, 2017 Germany has strict laws about promoting Nazi imagery and ideology, and so have banned that kind of content online. To de-Nazify your own timeline today, head over to your settings, make sure you're on the account tab, and scroll down to "content" to change your country. Content...
Some women on Twitter are taking a leave of absence from the platform on Friday the 13th to protest actress Rose McGowan's suspension for speaking out against Harvey Weinstein and his company's board. The hashtag #WomenBoycottTwitter was adopted Thursday evening and was intended to take effect from midnight in New York. The intention is to limit Twitter's ad revenue for a day as fewer users log on. Many high-profile Twitter users have stood in solidarity with the boycott, and by Friday morning it was trending number one worldwide. #IStandWithRose .@rosemcgowan and all the other victims. #WomenBoycottTwitter tomorrow. https://t.co/XTXtFMv2CM — Anna Paquin (@AnnaPaquin) October 13,...
Update, 13 Oct, 9.30am: The fire between Camps Bay and Llandudno on Cape Town's 12 Apostles mountain range is still burning, this according to reports from firefighters and eyewitnesses. The blaze, fanned by strong winds, was at its most intense Thursday evening. #12ApostlesFire Crews working hard to contain the runaway flank. Good luck out there. @NCCwildfires @vwsfires @TableMountainNP @wo_fire pic.twitter.com/OG9CSwwW4T — Sullivan Photography (@Sullphotography) October 12, 2017 Friday morning paints a slightly different picture. As first aerial resources get to work, we get a better idea of the real #12ApostlesFire size and challenges. Photo from @wo_fire Spotter. pic.twitter.com/1k77Rd4e93 — VWS Wildfires (@vwsfires) October 13, 2017 #CTFire...
Facebook executives are gearing up to "push toward even greater transparency" in a series of live interviews with digital news site Axios. As part of the company's Hard Questions series -- heretofore existing only in the form of blog posts -- the company is opening up to reporters and editors from multiple news outlets and independent groups. At least in the case of Axios, Facebook says that the reporters will "fully control the questions and resulting coverage". The company says that it looks to take on the "most crucial topics in social media" -- including terrorism, hate speech, and Russian propaganda. The first interview will see...
Actress Rose McGowan, who has been using her Twitter account to speak out against Hollywood production studio The Weinstein Company, has had her account temporarily disabled. TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE MY VOICE. #ROSEARMY A post shared by Rose McGowan (@rosemcgowan) on Oct 11, 2017 at 9:19pm PDT Last week, The New York Times revealed that powerful producer Harvey Weinstein had been paying off sexual harassment accusers for decades. Rose McGowan was one of the first women to disclose that she had signed a settlement with Weinstein after an "episode in a hotel room" in 1997, and has been using...
Facebook and Instagram users across the world are today experiencing connectivity issues. Reports from users on Twitter and websites like DownDetector and Outage Report suggest that connection issues began around 5pm SAST. Facebook is having issues since 11:11 AM ESThttps://t.co/YbrNS7dpo9 RT if you're also affected #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/b5q3KqwkKs — Outage Report (@ReportOutage) October 11, 2017 On Facebook, users were unable to post status updates while Instagram users experienced a similar issue. The outage affected users across the world, including Japan, Brazil, India, the majority of Europe and the United States. In our tests, both Facebook and Instagram are seemingly up in South Africa. #FacebookDown began trending on Twitter...
After powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was outed by The New York Times for three decades of sexual harassment allegations, social media flooded with high-profile responses ranging from condemnations to confessions. While many women, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, opened up to journalists, others found a more natural medium in the form of social media. This is how celebrities used their own platforms to speak out. Rose McGowan Actress Rose McGowan, best known for her roles in Scream and Charmed, has become the figurehead of the online movement as one of the first women to admit she signed a settlement after an "incident" in a hotel room. McGowan has...
Rapper Eminem unleashed a four-minute-long freestyle criticising US President Donald Trump at Tuesday's BET Hip Hop Awards, and the South African responses have been split. In the freestyle, the rapper says that, among other issues, "racism's the only thing fantastic for". He also bashes his "distraction" tactics of focussing on the recent NFL protests rather than disaster-relief for Hurricane-hit Puerto Rico. Eminem goes so far as to tell any of his Trump-supporting fans that he's "drawing a line in the sand; you're either for or against". The FULL verse that EVERYBODY is talking about! @eminem BODIED THIS! #HipHopAwardspic.twitter.com/zoS0wEwjQF — BET (@BET) October 11, 2017 Former-NFL...
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