BREAKING NEWS FROM THE STREAMING SECTOR
FACEBOOK LIBRA
DEEP FAKEBOOK TROUBLE
Facebook has announced a digital currency, called Libra, which will allow its billions of users to make financial transactions across the globe. It’s being touted as a means to connect people who do not have access to traditional banking platforms. However, it is already the subject of intense scrutiny, as Facebook continues to reel from a series of privacy scandals. At launch, users will be able to send Libra inside Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp as an intermediary for transferring traditional currencies. Eventually, Facebook hopes Libra will be accepted as a form of payment and other financial services will be built on top of its blockchain network. The company intends to share control of Libra with a consortium of organisations,
A doctored video of Mark Zuckerberg has been posted to Instagram, in a stunt that put Facebook’s content moderation policies to the test. The video, created by artists Bill Posters and Daniel Howe in partnership with advertising company Canny, shows Zuckerberg boasting about his power. “Imagine this for a second: one man, with total control of billions of people’s stolen data, all their secrets, their lives, their futures,” says the faux-Zuckerberg. “I owe it all to Spectre. Spectre showed me that whoever controls the data, controls the future.” The video follows the recent viral spread of a manipulated Facebook video of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, altered to make her look and sound drunk. Instead of deleting the video from its platform, Facebook chose to de-prioritise it from users’ feeds. At the time, Neil Potts, Facebook’s director of public policy, said that if someone posted a deep fake of Zuckerberg, the same rules would apply. Now that it’s happened, Facebook says it will not remove the video. The artists behind the video say they “welcome” Facebook’s decision, but they still question the company’s ethics.
companies and other tech giants. Together, they will form the Libra Association. Facebook claims the Libra Association will be not-for-profit and will serve two main functions: to validate transactions on the Libra blockchain and to manage the reserve Libra is tied to and allocate funds to social causes.
Facebook is also launching a subsidiary company called Calibra, which will develop products and services based around the Libra network. It’s where Facebook intends to make a profit from its cryptocurrency. The first product will be a digital wallet for Libra, expected to launch in 2020.
which will include venture capital firms, credit card
SOUTH KOREA HITS 1 MILLION 5G
Predictions that the adoption of 5G would outpace the early uptake of 4G networks appear to be coming true, at least in South Korea. The government announced that in 69 days, the country has reached one million 5G mobile network subscribers. This is markedly
faster than the 80 days it took 4G to hit that figure in 2011. South Korea claims to be the first country to have commercially launched 5G, but US mobile network provider Verizon says that it switched on the high-speed technology just hours earlier on 3 April.
Switzerland, Bahrain and the UK all followed in the weeks since. By the end of the year, South Korea predicts that 85 of its cities will have 5G connectivity. Its Ministry of Science and ICT states local networks will begin installing kit at airports, train stations and large shopping centres.
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