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Facebook blocks Trump 'until transition complete'

It means the president will be unable to post on Facebook and Instagram until after the transition of power to Joe Biden on 20 January.

The social network had originally imposed a 24-hour ban after his supporters attacked the US Capitol.

Facebook's chief Mark Zuckerberg wrote that the risks of allowing Trump to post "are simply too great".

In a video posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Trump told the rioters attacking the seat of government "I love you" before telling them to go home. He also repeated false claims about election fraud.

EU reveals plan to regulate Big Tech

Fresh restrictions are also planned to govern their use of customers' data, and to prevent the firms ranking their own services above competitors' in search results and app stores.

The measures are intended to overhaul how the EU regulates digital markets.

Large fines and break-ups are threatened for non-compliance.

It is proposed that if companies refuse to obey, they could be forced to hand over up to 10% of their European turnover.

Facebook Oversight Board reveals its first cases

All involve decisions originally made by the platform to remove user content.

They include images of female breasts in a post about breast cancer, and an image of a dead child alongside text about whether retaliation was justified against China for its treatment of Uighur Muslims.

The board said Facebook users had submitted 20,000 suggested incidents for review since October 2020.

The arbitration body is inviting the public to comment on the cases - which have all been anonymised - over the next seven days.

Facebook and Twitter grilled over US election actions

Democrats questioned whether steps taken to flag that President Trump's claims of election fraud were "disputed" had gone far enough.

Republican members of the Judiciary Committee asked whether the tech firms should be taking such action at all.

This was the second time the CEOs had been cross-examined in three weeks.

They were previously questioned by the Senate Commerce Committee last month in what was a more rowdy event.

Once again, the issue of a law known as Section 230 loomed large.

Kamala Harris: Facebook removes racist posts about US vice-president-elect

The social network removed the content after BBC News alerted it to three groups that regularly hosted hateful material on their pages.

Facebook says it takes down 90% of hate speech before it is flagged.

One media monitoring body described the pages as "dedicated to propagating racist and misogynistic smears".

However, despite the pages being places where hate-speech is regularly directed towards the vice-president-elect, Facebook said it would not take action on the groups themselves.

Facebook, Twitter and Google face questions from US senators

At present, the companies cannot be sued over what their users post online, or the decisions they make over what to leave up and take down.

Some politicians have raised concerns this "sweeping immunity" encourages bad behaviour.

But the chief executives say they need the law to be able to moderate content.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Google's Sundar Pichai were summoned before the Senate after both Democrats and Republicans agreed to call them in for questioning.

'A loophole'

Facebook avoids Apple with cloud-gaming launch

Initially, only five titles already available as standalone smartphone apps will be accessible - via the main Facebook and Facebook Gaming apps on Android and Facebook's website on PCs.

Later, it may add "all types of games".

But it is not offering the product on Apple's iOS mobile operating system because "we don't know if launching on the App Store is a viable path".

Facebook shuts down 150 fake Chinese accounts

While mainly concerned with backing China's interests, some also posted about the US presidential election.

It is only the second time that Facebook has identified such fake accounts as originating in China.

The network had about 130,000 followers - although very few of these were in the US.

The accounts starting appearing in 2016, and most of the information was related to China's influence in the Philippines and South-East Asia.

Amazon, Facebook and Apple thriving in lockdown

Amazon sales soared 40% in the three months ending June, while Apple saw a surge in purchases of its iPhones and other hardware.

At Facebook, the number of people on its platforms, which include WhatsApp and Instagram, jumped by 15%.

The gains come as the firms face scrutiny over their size and power.

At a hearing in Washington on Wednesday, lawmakers grilled the companies about whether they were abusing their dominance to quash rivals, noting the sharp contrast between their fortunes and many other firms.

Facebook and WhatsApp 'pause' Hong Kong police help

Several countries, including the UK, have criticised China for imposing new security laws, which they say threaten the territory's long-standing autonomy.

Facebook said it would stop considering the requests, "pending further assessment" of the human rights issues.

No personal information about users in the region was held at or disclosed from its Hong Kong office, it added.

"We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and support the right of people to express themselves without fear for their safety or other repercussions," Facebook said.