Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to create shared database against terrorist content

Participating companies can add hashes of terrorist images or videos that are identified on one of our platforms to the database.

With an aim to limit online terrorist content, technology giants Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube said together they would build a shared database that will also help them to weed out content used to recruit people into terrorism.

According to a report on Tech Crunch, the companies said they will create a shared industry database that will be used to identify this content, including what they describe as the "most extreme and egregious terrorist images and videos" that have been removed from their respective services.

The content will be hashed using unique digital fingerprints, which is how its identification and removal can be handled more easily and efficiently by the company's computer systems and algorithms.

"We commit to the creation of a shared industry database of hashes - unique digital 'fingerprints' - for violent terrorist imagery or terrorist recruitment videos or images that we have removed from our services," read a joint statement.

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Watch out! Lenders are now tracking your social media profile

If you are involved in clandestine gambling activities or drunk driving, watch out – you might be hampering your chances of getting a loan from new-age online lenders like InstaPaisa, GoPaySense, Faircent, CashCare and Vote4Cash! Lenders have been using an algorithm to track your social media profile for assessing your creditworthiness.

A report in the Economic Times on Monday says: "Online credit marketplaces like CreditMantri and BankBazaar.com that have found a clientele in the 25-35 age group do their due diligence on borrowers using not just payslips and bank statements but also unorthodox metrics like phone location data, SMS alerts and social media behaviour.”

How does it work?
The social lenders run their algorithms through tonnes of data in just a few minutes to assign someone a personality score. This score determines the rate at which the person would get a loan. The rate so determined could range from, say, 9% to 30% -- against the standard industry norm of 13-17%.

Besides, mobile phone data also give lenders and other financial service providers useful information about potential borrowers. From someone’s smartphone usage – how much the person spends on airtime, how he or she uses mobile wallet, etc – algorithms can determine both creditworthiness and need for credit.

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Twitter launches app to stream its videos on TV

Micro-blogging website Twitter has launched a new version of its app for digital media players -- Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and for Microsoft's video game console Xbox One -- allowing users to see live streaming video available on Twitter.

The app is free and users do not have to create a Twitter account and will feature all the live streaming video available on the network.

"NFL's Thursday Night Football games will all be streamed free via the app as well as content from MLB, the NBA, and media organisations including Bloomberg News," technology website The Verge reported on Wednesday.

Twitter's Apple TV app will have a unique feature that allows users to watch live video and Tweeted video clips, side by side.

The app will be available globally via the App Store for Apple TV.

For the Xbox One, the app will be available in the US, Britain, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico.

For Amazon's Fire TV and the Fire TV Stick the app will be available only in read full story

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