WhatsApp, Facebook - 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: Facebook

Explanation:

• Social networking giant Facebook has introduced tools and educational resources to help people in India who may be struggling with self-injury or experiencing suicidal thoughts. These tools are already available in countries like the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
• Vulnerable users will then be encouraged to connect to the AASRA India helpline or the Live Love Laugh Foundation or a friend or seek self-help advice from resources and tips provided on how they can work through these feelings.
• Facebook has also introduced 'Help a Friend in Need' guide to help people identify when someone is distressed and what steps to take to get help. The guide also offers suggestions on how to approach their friend, what to say, how to react and what to avoid.
• It gives people the skills to reach out without fear of making the situation worse. The guide will be available in English, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Marathi.

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: Both a and b

Explanation:
Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, now owned by Facebook Inc, will leave the messaging service company to start a new foundation, according to a Facebook post on 12th Sept 2017.

Acton spent eight years with WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for $19 billion in cash and stock.

A Stanford alumnus, Acton co-founded WhatsApp with Ukrainian immigrant Jan Koum in 2009.

The duo worked at Yahoo before starting WhatsApp.

ANSWER: Picture in picture feature for video calling

Explanation:
WhatsApp has lately been trying its hands-on different features on its platform.

In July this year, the Facebook-owned messaging app rolled out a testing version of picture-in-picture feature for video calling on Android O.

Now, the WhatsApp has rolled out the support for picture-in-picture mode to its users across the globe. Apart from that, the company has also added the ability to put text as a status message.

The first feature is called picture-in-picture.

After rolling out the picture-in-picture (PIP) video calls to beta users of its app, WhatsApp has now rolled out the feature to everyone.

This means both Android and iOS users will now be able to minimize video calling window and move it around while browsing through other messages in the background.

When in a video call, you can tap back to continue the video call in picture-in-picture mode.

The picture-in-picture video calls update will only be available for Android users whose smartphones have been updated to Android 8.0 Oreo.

For iOS users, the feature works fine on iOS 10.

The second feature allows you to post text-only updates to your status. The status, just like the photos and videos will be visible for a time interval of 24 hours.

WhatsApp Changes: Know More

• WhatsApp has been trying to bring in many new features on the app recently.
• Very recently, WhatsApp introduced a number of changes to its iOS and Android app.
• These features include the ability to pin favourite chats on top of the conversation list and the option to forward or delete shared images as one whole album.
• WhatsApp for Business is another feature that has been in news for a while now.
• It is currently testing new tools and the app is said to be free for small-scale companies. Large firms with a global base of customers will have to get the enterprise version of the app that might be a paid one.
• The feature will let business get company’s solutions to provide customers with useful notifications like flight times, scheduled, arrival, delays, offers and other updates.

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.