Facebook, Free Basics - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Facebook

Explanation:
Social media site Facebook is collaborating with the Election Commission of India in 5 states going to polls next year to run a voter registration drive to encourage youth to participate in the democratic process.

• FB is partnering ECI and office of Chief Electoral Officers in UP, Goa, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand
• Close to 155 million Indians are on FB
• The register to vote button is designed to encourage citizens to exercise their votes in the coming elections
• From Oct 6 to 9, FB users in Goa, Punjab, UP, Manipur and Uttarakhand who are 18 or above will receive a News Feed reminder to register for the vote
• Clicking on the register now button will direct people to the National Voters’ Services Portal which in turn will guide them towards the registration process
• Feature will be available at the following dates:
• Oct 6: Punjab
• Oct 7: Manipur
• Oct 8: UP and Uttarakhand
• Oct 9: Goa
• The page will disseminate election related information and develop a live interaction platform in the near future

ANSWER: Disaster Response Summit

Explanation:
Facebook Inc. rolled out Disaster Maps for India to help communities across the country recover and rebuild from natural disasters faster by sharing critical pieces of data sets with humanitarian agencies in a timely manner.

The new product was launched at the company's first Disaster Response Summit in India along with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to improve disaster response and disaster management in India.

According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) data, India is the third-worst affected country by natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, landslides, cyclones and drought.

Moreover, the response time during and after these crises is often slow and it takes significant time and resources to understand where help is needed most.

Disaster Maps, powered by Facebook's technology and intensive research, will address this critical gap in data that government organizations face when responding to a crisis.

Disaster Maps, which was introduced globally in June, uses aggregated, de-identified Facebook data to help organizations address the critical gap in information they often face when responding to natural disasters.

Facebook provides multiple types of maps during disaster response efforts, which include aggregated location information people have chosen to share with Facebook.

This helps NGOs and relief agencies get a clearer picture of where affected people are located so they can determine where resources-like food, water and medical supplies-are needed.

Types of Facebook Maps

Facebook researchers have built three kinds of maps:

• Location density maps: These show where people are located before, during and after a disaster. We can compare this information to historical records, like population estimates based on satellite images.
  Comparing these data sets can help response organizations understand areas impacted by a natural disaster.
• Movement maps: These illustrate patterns of movement between different neighbourhoods or cities over a period of several hours.
  By understanding these patterns, response organizations can better predict where resources will be needed, gain insight into patterns of evacuation, or predict where traffic will be most congested.
• Safety Check: These maps are based on locations where our community uses Safety Check to notify their friends and family that they are safe during a disaster.
  We are using this de-identified data in aggregate to show where more or fewer people check in safe, which may help organizations understand where people are most vulnerable and where help is needed.

• While globally Facebook has partnered with organizations like the Red Cross, in India, initially it will join hands with two organizations: the NDMA and SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society).
• Facebook has 2 billion-plus users globally and according to a media report, its users in India have crossed the 240 million mark, making it the largest audience country for the social media company.
• Facebook has developed a number of crisis response tools.
• It activated the Safety Check feature in 2014 and launched Community Help in 2015, which allows the Facebook community to find and give help such as food, shelter and transportation.

ANSWER: Facebook

Explanation:
Social media giant Facebook will monitor the growth of the MSMEs in Odisha after imparting training to them in next one year.

The social networking giant has partnered the Odisha’s MSME department and Project Mission Shakti to train 25,000 entrepreneurs by the end of 2018.

The state government has plans to organise hands-on workshops for MSME entrepreneurs and women SHGs on 'Digital Marketing Skills'.
Facebook will prepare a data base through registrations in which they will take the email ids and mobile numbers of entrepreneurs in all the workshops.

After sometime either through personal conversations or through email, they can find out what is the difference Facebook has made in the business turnover or profits.

Facebook launched its SheMeansBusiness programme in Bhubaneswar, which was attended by about 1,100 women entrepreneurs of the state. The programme of Facebook is launched in 16 countries around the world including India.

It is designed to reach out to aspiring and established women entrepreneurs to help them build and grow their business online.
As per Facebook, it is the largest congregation globally under SheMeansBusiness programme.

More than 150 entrepreneurs today created their pages and uploaded their products on their profile.

CM Naveen Patnaik stressed on the use of the three Ts - technology, teamwork and transparency - to bring about transformation in the lives of people.

This is amply demonstrated today in the partnership of the government with Facebook - a partnership aimed to reduce the digital divide and empower nearly 25,000 entrepreneurs and SHGs over the next one year.

ANSWER: Rachel Whetstone

Explanation:
Facebook has hired Uber’s former top public relations executive as vice-president of communications for its multiple platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Rachel Whetstone, who has worked for some of the Britain’s most powerful Conservative politicians, stepped down as head of public policy and communications at Uber in April following a string of corporate scandals.

Whetstone in her new role at Facebook will oversee communications for Instagram and WhatsApp, which are both owned by Facebook.

Whetstone worked at Google as the head of communications and public policy prior to Uber.

Whetstone left Uber earlier this year amid a number of public relations crises after a former employee’s accusation of sexual harassment stirred a major controversy, surrounding claims of rampant sexism and discrimination within the company.

Ms. Whetstone has not commented on the scandals since she left Uber.

She is a friend of David Cameron and George Osborne.

She served as Howard’s political secretary and was a major player in Conservative politics when the party was up against Tony Blair’s Labour government.

ANSWER: Hugo Barra

Explanation:
Hugo Barra, vice-president at Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is to join Facebook.

He will lead the company’s virtual reality efforts, including the Oculus VR team as per the CEO of the social networking giant Mark Zuckerberg.

Barra, who has also worked with Google previously, had announced his exit from Xiaomi.

He indicated that he wanted to return to Silicon Valley.

Barra said it had been his dream to work in virtual reality.

In a separate post on his profile, Mr. Barra said he was returning to Silicon Valley in a couple of months and will be joining Facebook as VP of virtual reality (VPVR) and lead the Oculus team.

Mr. Barra was instrumental in Xiaomi expanding outside of its home market to geographies such as India, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia.

More recently, under his efforts Xiaomi expanded to 20 other markets, including Russia, Mexico, and Poland.

The top job at Oculus has been vacant since 2016, when its CEO Brendan Iribe stepped down to run one of the other divisions.

Facebook had acquired Oculus in 2014.

Oculus: Know More

• CEO: Brendan Iribe (since 2012)
• Founded: 2012, Irvine, California, United States
• Headquarters: Menlo Park
• Acquisition date: March 25, 2014
• Founders: Brendan Iribe, Palmer Luckey
• Parent organization: Facebook, Inc.

ANSWER: America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 years

Explanation:
Facebook’s 32-year-old Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $50 billion, has topped Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 years of age for 2016.

Zuckerberg is followed by another Facebook Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.

Uber Co-founder Garrett Camp. Snapchat Co-founder Evan Spiegel and Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom also came on to the list.

Other inclusions are Collison brothers, John and Patrick, who together created online payment outfit Stripe.

John Collison, Stripe’s president is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.

Among these ranks, only 24-year-old Palmer Luckey, who sold his virtual reality equipment company Oculus to Facebook at age 21, is younger.

About Mark Zuckerberg

• Born: May 14, 1984
• American computer programmer and internet entrepreneur.
• Co Founder of FB.
• Also its CEO and Chairman.
• Founded FB with fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

ANSWER: FB

Explanation:
Researchers from Facebook Connectivity Lab have developed a new technology that can make light based wireless communication a reality in the years ahead.

• This new technology can pave the way for fast optical wireless networks that can deliver internet service to isolated places.
• Light based wireless communication is also known as free space optical communications.
• It offers a promising way to bring internet to areas where optical fibres and cell towers can be challenging to deploy in a cost effective manner.

ANSWER: Paper

Explanation:
Social networking major Facebook has decided to close Paper which is a news reading app providing customised news spanning politics, technology, food and more.

• Users said the app would no longer function from July 29
• The goal with Paper is to explore immersive, interactive design elements for reading and interacting with content on FB
• Paper is not among the popular apps according to current estimates

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
Social media major Facebook has hired co-founder of Google Fibre high speed internet project to build up internet connectivity team. Social network major has hired Kevin Lo as director of the Infrastructure Connectivity and Investments to help FB partnerships such as Terragraph to bring WiFi to dense urban areas and FB partnership with Microsoft to build fibre optic cable

ANSWER: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg

Explanation:
For the fifth consecutive year, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has been named the most powerful woman in technology on the Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, placing at No. 7 on the list overall.

• With a personal fortune of $1.4 billion, Sandberg is powerful not only as a billionaire and top executive at the world’s fifth most valuable brand, but also as a voice for female empowerment in the workplace and shared responsibilities at home.
• After Sandberg, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (No. 8 overall) took the No. 2 spot in tech followed in quick succession by HP CEO Meg Whitman (No. 9), IBM CEO Virginia “Ginni” Rometty (No. 11), Apple Senior VP Angela Ahrendts (No. 15), Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz (No. 20), Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat (No. 27) and Ursula Burns (No. 34), the CEO of Xerox since 2009.
• Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (No. 55), down the list 33 spots, is currently overseeing a sale of the embattled tech pioneer’s core business amid falling traffic and ad revenue.