Facebook Hits 2.38 Billion Users and 500 Million Stories.

• The social network website Facebook hits 2.38 billion users

• Facebook also hits 1.56 Billion daily active users

• There are 500 million users are using Facebook stories daily.

"Daily active users (DAUs) - DAUs were 1.56 billion on average for March 2019, an increase of 8 per cent year-over-year," the statement added.

"In addition, we estimate that more than 2.1 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger (our "Family" of services) every day on average, and around 2.7 billion people use at least one of our Family of services each month," Facebook added.

Back in September, the Facebook stories was a 300 million daily user active.

Mark Zuckerberg also focus on privacy, he said,

Earth Day 2019- Google Doodle Celebrates A Day

In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be celebrated on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations.

A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work.

Google Doodle also celebrates Earth Day,

It also highlights through a brief description about these organisms. The creator of 2019 Earth Day doodle Kevin Laughlin describing how he chose which organisms to feature said that it was the most difficult task in making this doodle.

Source- Wikipedia, TOI

Netflix removed support for Airplay

Now you won't able to use your iPhone or an iPod to beam Netflix to an Apple TV. 

The reason for dropping Airplay given by Netflix is "Technical limitation" and instruct iOS users to connect to a TV using built-in Chromecast.

AirPlay is a proprietary protocol stack/suite developed by Apple Inc. that allows wireless streaming between devices of audio, video, device screens, and photos, together with related metadata.

Netflix given statement to Macrumors,

"We want to make sure our members have a great Netflix experience on any device they use. With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isn't a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV vs. what isn't) or certify these experiences. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met. Members can continue to access Netflix on the built-in app across Apple TV and other devices."

Still, it is not clear that why Airplay support removed from the Netflix App, It was available since 2013. 

Indian State Court Ordered To Ban TikTok, Saying It "Encourage Pornography".

The Madras High court ordered to Ban Chinese Video App TikTok. 

The Tamil Nadu High Court, which has been hearing a public interest litigation against the app, on Wednesday said children who were using TikTok were vulnerable to exposure to sexual predators.

“Inappropriate” content was TikTok’s “dangerous aspect”, the court said in an order seen by Reuters, adding that “there is a possibility of the children contacting strangers directly”.

“Maintaining a safe and positive in-app environment ... is our priority,” he said.

According to Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) statement,
The Hon’ble High Court of Madras has passed three harsh directions which merit to be contested.

The first direction prohibits the download of the application, the second prohibits the television telecast of videos created through it and the third directs a response from the Union Government on it’s position to legislate a statute analogous to the Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). 

According to Bar and Bench, Indian legal news,

Even after that [the Blue Whale Challenge], the officials have not learned that they should be alert with regard to these type of problems. Only when the officials and policymakers are alive to the problems of society, the decision could be taken to prevent this kind of cyber applications.

At TikTok, we are committed to abiding by local laws and regulations. We fully comply with the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011. We are currently awaiting the official order by the Honourable High Court of Madras and once received, we will review and take appropriate action regarding this matter. Maintaining a safe and positive in-app environment at TikTok is our priority. We have robust measures to protect users against misuse, protect their privacy and digital wellbeing. 

Amazon Works To Launch Satellites To Provide Internet To The World.

The project name gives 'Kuiper'. The satellites would cover the globe from 56 degrees north to 56 degrees south. The area covers over 95 Percent of Earth population.

"Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world," an Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire. "This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet. We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision."

Amazon will need the permission of Federal Communication Commission approval before it starts the project.

It looks like SpaceX planned to launch Starlink Satellite Internet Service. Last year, SpaceX launched the first two prototype satellites for its Starlink broadband data constellation, which is projected to grow to more than 12,000 satellites in low Earth orbit.

The SpaceX Starlink satellites are much closer to reality. The company could reach its first Starlink satellites in orbit in 2020, and its bigger network than Project Kuiper. SpaceX will have more than 10,000 satellites.

Source: TheVerge, GeekWire

Ahrefs is Working on Own Search Engine To Compete With Google.

Dmitry Gerasimenko, the founder and CEO at Ahrefs announced on Twitter.

Ahrefs is working on general purpose search engine to compete with Google. Sounds crazy, right?
But lets talk about two huge problems with Google which they will never want to fix:

— Dmitry Gerasimenko (@botsbreeder) March 27, 2019

He talks about Privacy and profit share on Google, 

He also said about Google, YouTube and Wikipedia earning from its search engine.

"That could have been quite a different world. Remember that banner on Wikipedia asking for donation every year? Wikipedia would probably get few billions from its content in profit share model. And could pay people who polish articles a decent salary.

We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who can make living by organizing knowledge. In our imaginary world websites might remove their paywalls since they get profit share from serving a good content, and it makes sense to make it convenient so people come back.

We've seen how profit share on YouTube made a whole new industry of video making for living.
So why not Google would not share profit from ads within search results? The answer is the drive for profits to please investors.

By the way, situation is actually even worse than just taking all the profit, Google is showing scraped content on search results page more and more so that you don't even need to visit a website in many cases, which reduces content authors' opportunity to monetize.

We see the Internet as a global effort by humankind to preserve and multiply knowledge, which is as frequently coordinated as chaotic, often driven by economic forces, often by personal impulses.

Nonetheless it is a huge and unprecedented in history multiplicator of knowledge power, as well as entertainment, and infinite education source, merciless Wild West of free speech and ever-reaching communication medium.

As a countermeasure, there must be a mechanism that will make the ties stronger and self-repairing and shall keep the web strong and transparently interconnected, how it came to be. It is natural to view search engines as an attempt to bring order to the messy bazaar of the Web.

Putting away the lyricism, what we plan to do is to launch a search engine with commitment to privacy and 90/10 profit share model, meaning 90% goes to content creators, leaving 10% for expenses and profit."

For the Facebook Gerasimenko said,

Many users support to Ahref on Twitter, let's see when its search engine become lives then how users will react.