



PRECISE – Social media titan Mark Zuckerberg took the stand for a second day Tuesday in a landmark US antitrust trial where his conglomerate Meta is accused of taking over Instagram and WhatsApp before they could become competitors.
The federal court trial in Washington has dashed Zuckerberg’s hopes that the return of President Donald Trump to the White House would see the government let up on the enforcement of antitrust law against Big Tech.
The case could see the Facebook owner forced to divest of Instagram and WhatsApp, which have grown into global powerhouses since their buyout.
It was originally filed in December 2020, during the first Trump administration, and all eyes were on whether the Republican would ask the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to stand down.
Zuckerberg, the world’s third-richest person, has made repeated visits to the White House as he tried to persuade the president to choose settlement instead of fighting the trial.
As part of his lobbying efforts, Zuckerberg contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund and overhauled content moderation policies. He also purchased a $23 million mansion in Washington in what was seen as a bid to spend more time close to the center of political power.
Central to the case is Facebook’s 2012 billion-dollar purchase of Instagram — then a small but promising photo-sharing app that now boasts two billion active users.
An email from Zuckerberg cited by the FTC showed him depicting Instagram’s emergence as “really scary,” adding that is “why we might want to consider paying a lot of money for this.”
In his first day of testimony Monday, Zuckerberg downplayed those exchanges as early talk before plans for Instagram came together.
But the FTC argues that Meta’s $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition in 2014 followed the same pattern, with Zuckerberg fearing the messaging app could either transform into a social network or be purchased by a competitor.
Meta’s defense attorneys counter that substantial investments transformed these acquisitions into the blockbusters they are today.
They also highlight that Meta’s apps are free for users and face fierce competition.
FTC attorney Daniel Matheson said in opening remarks on Monday that “they decided that competition is too hard and it would be easier to buy out their rivals than to compete with them.”
Meta attorney Mark Hansen countered in his first salvo that “acquisitions to improve and grow an acquired firm” are not unlawful in the United States, saying that is what Facebook did.
A key part of the courtroom battle will be how the FTC defines Meta’s market.
The US government argues that Facebook and Instagram are dominant players in apps that provide a way to connect with family and friends, a category that does not include TikTok and YouTube.
But Meta disagrees.
“The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others,” a spokesperson said.
AFP
A 29-year-old Islamic cleric, Mohammed Bello, has claimed that Hafsoh Lawal, a woman he met on Facebook, died of an asthma attack before he dismembered her body in an attempt to conceal the incident.
Bello was arrested in Ilorin after police traced Hafsoh’s last known communication to him following her disappearance last Monday.
The private school teacher was last seen leaving a naming ceremony to visit the cleric, but when she failed to return home, her family reported her missing.
The suspect, in an interrogation video obtained by news men, alleged that he had gone out to buy food for Hafsoh when she suddenly began gasping for breath. Upon his return, he claimed, he found her lifeless.
“I was in shock when she died, so I couldn’t cry out for help. I dismembered her body and disposed of it because I couldn’t think of a better way,” Bello said.
However, Hafsoh’s family dismissed his claims, insisting that she had no history of asthma.
A family associate, Lawyer Odedele, questioned the suspect’s account, stating that the victim had actively participated in cooking at the event before heading to meet him.
Meanwhile, the Kwara State Police spokesperson Toun Ejire-Adeyemi said further details would be provided upon the conclusion of the investigation.
Meta at the Meta Connect 2024 developer conference in Menlo Park on Wednesday morning, announced an upgrade to its AI capabilities.
Meta AI can now respond verbally to user questions across Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Users can choose from several voices, including AI clones of celebrities such as Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.
While this new voice feature enhances user interaction, it differs from OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, which is known for its expressive and emotive tones. Instead, Meta’s offering is more akin to Google’s Gemini Live, which transcribes speech and then reads responses aloud using synthetic voices.
Meta has invested heavily in securing these celebrity likenesses, reportedly paying millions for their use. However, some industry observers remain skeptical about the effectiveness of this strategy, with many eager to see the feature in action before forming a conclusion.
In addition to the voice updates, Meta AI can now analyze images, allowing users to share photos and receive information about them.
Meta is also piloting a translation tool designed to automatically translate voices in Instagram Reels. This tool will dub a creator’s speech into another language while synchronizing lip movements, enhancing the viewing experience for multilingual audiences. Currently, the tool is undergoing small tests with select creators’ videos from Latin America, focusing on English and Spanish translations.
As Meta continues to enhance its AI offerings, the potential impact on user engagement and content creation remains to be seen.
UNITED STATES- Elon Musk, founder of X, formerly Twitter, threw shade at Meta after its social media apps Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads experienced a global outage on Tuesday.
Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, on his official X handle at 4:25 p.m., acknowledged the platforms’ blackout and assured it was being worked on.
“If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working,” Musk tweeted shortly after Mr Stone’s tweet.
The 52-year-old businessman further shared a photo of four penguins: three penguins marked with Facebook, Instagram and thread, saluting the fourth, marked with the X icon.
Attached to the picture was Mr Stone’s post acknowledging Meta’s global outage.
Meanwhile, in July last year, X accused Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg of engaging in “unlawful misappropriation” of the company’s trade secrets and intellectual property after the launch of Threads.
In a memo addressed to Mr Zuckerberg, X’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, threatened a lawsuit and accused Meta of hiring former X employees fired by the company.
Reacting to the launch of Threads, Mr Musk said, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
ENUGU- Police operatives of the Enugu State Command have arrested a suspect, Mr Somtochukwu Franklin, 26, for allegedly faking and using a popular philanthropist’s facebook to defraud members of the public.
This is contained in a statement issued by the command’s Spokesperson, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, on Wednesday in Enugu.
Ndukwe said that the arrest was made by police operatives serving in New Haven Police Division on Dec. 3, at about 12:30 p.m. when they acted on credible information.
According to him, Franklin uses the Facebook account name and details of Chief Emmanuel Okoh, popularly known as “Okwuluora” to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
“A preliminary investigation has revealed that the suspect confessed to the crime, as he created the fake “Okwuluora” Facebook account in January 2023 and has since been using it to solicit funds from his over 33,000 followers.
“The suspect further stated that he usually waits for the actual “Okwuluora” to make a post, soliciting support for persons in situations requiring financial assistance.
“Upon sighting such posts, he immediately copies and posts them on the fake Facebook account and changed the beneficiary’s account details to his, thereby fraudulently obtaining funds from unsuspecting donors,” he said.
The police spokesman noted that by so doing, the suspect had received funds running into tens of thousands of Naira from donors.
He said that the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr Kanayo Uzuegbu, had ordered the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (CID) to conduct a further thorough investigation and timely prosecution of the suspect.
Ndukwe said: “The commissioner, therefore, enjoins victims of the fraudulent act to report to the State CID and volunteer their statements.
“The commissioner also called on the citizenry to be wary of social media impostors and their fraudulent activities, especially this yuletide.” (NAN)
Washington, – Facebook parent company Meta announced on Wednesday that it is cutting 11,000 jobs.
The job cuts amount to about 13 per cent of its workforce, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said.
It is the biggest round of job cuts in the history of the firm, which also owns photo messaging app Instagram.
“We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1,” Zuckerberg said in a statement.
He pointed out that he had overestimated the online boom at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and therefore had increased investments.
“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected.
“I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” the Meta boss added.
Meta seen its core business with advertising in online services such as Facebook and Instagram generate less revenue recently than it used to.
At the same time, the development of virtual worlds promoted by Zuckerberg under the term “Metaverse” is eating up more and more money. (dpa/NAN)
The Federal Government has set out new regulations for the operation of Internet platforms including Facebook, and Twitter in Nigeria.
The regulations issued through the office of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), demand that the social platforms and other internet-based applications are duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and appoint a representative from within that will be in communication with the Nigerian authority.
The new guidelines were contained in a statement signed and issued on Monday by NITDA spokesperson, Hadiza Umar.
The agency explained that the new guidelines were established to better define set rules for interaction in the digital ecosystem.
NITDA also demand that the platforms must comply with all regulatory demands and applicable tax obligations on their operations under Nigerian law.
Precise Post understands that the agency was directed by President Muhammadu Buhari to set out a code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries (online platforms), in collaboration with relevant regulatory agencies and stakeholders, working in line with the Section 6 of the NITDA Act 2007, which enables it to standardise, coordinate and develop regulatory frameworks for information technology (IT) practices in Nigeria.
It was in this regard the NITDA has presented the document to the public for consumption and more input. NITDA also added that “Internet platforms need to provide a comprehensive compliance mechanism to avoid publication of prohibited contents and unethical behaviour on their platform”.
The agency stated that the new rules were developed in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), as well as input from Interactive Computer Service Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, Google, Tik Tok, among others.
Facebook, Inc. is an American multinational technology company based in Menlo Park, California. Facebook is a social platform which allows it’s users, who sign-up for free, to connect with friends, family, work colleagues or people they don’t know, online. It was founded in 2004 as TheFacebook by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, roommates and students at Harvard College.
In this new socially connected world, Facebook is one of the most used and one of the highly ranked social networking platform that allow us to stay in touch with each other and be yourself. You can not only socialise with new friends but you can also find your old buddies and relatives and get connected through Facebook. Or maybe you already use it regularly but want to know how you can further personalize your account, better configure privacy options or create a fan organization page.Gmail SignupSnapChat Login
However, We shall learn the Facebook sign up process before all that. Moving on, let’s take a look at some pre-requirements for creating an account on Facebook:
Now as we all know some easy pre-requirements for creating a Facebookaccount, now let’s discuss why Facebook is best andhighly ranked social networking platform.
There are already a lot ofother ways to communicate online, like through email, instant messaging, and so on but have you ever thought why people love using Facebook? Even For some, having a Facebook account is currently aexpected part of being on the web. In this era, Facebook contains informative content covering every possible national, global, or local issue while at the same time entertains it’s users with memes, video games, and other applications.
In this guide of signing up on Facebook, we will show you how you can create your own Facebook account in some easy steps and how to securely login in to your account and how you can configure other features and options as well.
All done, you’re ready to login into your Facebook account. You can also click remember your password so you can access your account just by touching the application, without having to enter your details each and every time.
We’ve already shown you how to create a Facebook account in some easy steps in the above guide, Now we will show you how you can easily login in to facebook.com account. Here are some easy steps:

When you login in your Facebook account for the first time, a message or box will appear to Save and Remember your login details. If you want to save these details and don’t want to fill your email/mobile and password next time you login, click on “Accept and Save” and your session will automatically log you into Facebook from the device you are using.
No matter which device you got, Facebook’s likely got you covered. Let’s take a look at how to get the Facebook app. If you want to find Facebook on any mobile device, use the dedicated mobile site on your mobile browser, m.facebook.com. First you’ll need to download the Facebook app, and install it with just a few taps. It’s really that easy.
Hereare some easy steps you can login into your Facebook app:
Now you don’t need to login Facebook every time when you are using Facebook app on your mobile.
It might be a good idea to set one memorable password accross all your social media and emails, doing so can actually leave your account vulnerable. It is important to keep your account secure and choose strong password, which is why we’ve put together this guide to show you how you can keep your account secure and reset or change your Facebook password.
To change your password on Facebook if you’re already logged in:
Keep in mind that you’ll need access to the email associated with your account.
Reset your forgotten Facebook password:
Make sure that you’re using a computer or mobile phone that you have previously used to log in to your Facebook account.
Note: For security reasons, you won’t be able to use the same mobile phone number that you use for two-factor authentication to help you reset your password. You’ll need to have a different mobile phone number or email address added to your account to reset your password if you ever need to.
Before you do that Facebook allows you to download your information. This includes your timeline information, posts, photos and more. It is recommended to download your data before deleting you account.
You can also take a temporarily break from Facebook and temporarily deactivate your account.
If it’s been less than 30 days since you initiated the deletion, you can cancel your account deletion. After 30 days, your account and all of your information will be permanently deleted, and you won’t be able to retrieve your information. It may take up to 90 days from the beginning of the deletion process to delete all the things you’ve posted. While Facebook deleting this information, it’s not accessible to other people using Facebook.
Facebook says Nigerians will pay 7.5 per cent value-added tax (VAT) on all ad placements from January 1, 2022.
The social media giant said this in a statement issued yesterday.
According to the statement, the charge will apply to those buying ads for businesses or personal purposes.
“Due to implementation of a value-added tax (VAT) in Nigeria, Facebook is required to charge VAT on the sale of ads to advertisers, regardless of whether you’re buying ads for business or personal purposes,” the statement reads.
“All advertisers with a business country of Nigeria will be charged an additional 7.5% VAT on advertising services purchased beginning 1 January 2022.
The statement added that those exempted from VAT would be able to recover the fund if they provided their tax ID.
“If you’re registered for VAT and provide your VAT ID, your VAT ID will show up on your ads receipts,” it added.
“In the event that you’re entitled to recover the VAT, this may help you recover any VAT you paid to the Nigerian tax authorities if you are a VAT registered business in Nigeria,” the company said.
Facebook (now META) is the parent company of Instagram, FB Messenger, and Facebook social media channel.
The new 7.5 per cent VAT charge will also apply to Instagram ads.
The Federal Government is currently working on modalities to tax the digital economy and improve revenue. President Muhammadu Buhari had transmitted the 2021 Finance Bill to parliament.
The bill is seeking to empower the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to assess and charge companies income tax (CIT) on any digital company with a significant presence in the country, such as Facebook, Twitter, AliExpress, others.
If passed into law, it will increase government revenue and widen the tax net in a cash-strapped economy.
Facebook, Big Cabal Media and Comic Republic on Wednesday announced the launch of #NoFalseNewsZone, a campaign aimed at minimising the spread of fake news in Nigeria.
Facebook, in a statement, said #NoFalseNewsZone is an educational campaign focused on helping people identify false news and educate them on the actions to take to help minimise its spread in Nigeria.
Oluwasola Obagbemi, Facebook’s Corporate Communications Manager for Anglophone West Africa, said: “We are committed to the well-being of individuals and communities that use our platforms and we take responsibility in minimising the spread of false news.
Obagbemi said Facebook was delighted to be working with Big Cabal Media and Comic Republic to launch #NoFalseNewsZone in Nigeria.
“As part of the campaign, Big Cabal Media and Comic Republic have also joined the conversation to sensitise Nigerians on how to identify and report false news online beyond a conceptual level,” the manager said.
Tomiwa Aladekomo, Chief Executive Officer, Big Cabal Media said:” The world is increasingly relying on sourcing for information from digital news outlets and social media platforms.
Aladekomo said the consequences of false news were glaring and especially painful to those who fell victim.
“Big Cabal Media is passionate about connecting people to accurate news sources and is excited to work with Facebook on its #NoFalseNewsZone campaign,” the chief executive officer said.
Also, the Chief Executive Officer of Comic Republic, Mr Jide Martin also said that as more people consume news and information on social media, service providers must become more socially responsible in order to combat misinformation on their platforms as effectively as possible.
“I am pleased to be working with Facebook, a company that has taken the bold step to use the longest and most relevant art form to tell the story of misinformation to drive the desired attitudinal change.
“Comic Republic has since used comics to shine the light on issues like social injustice, online security and domestic violence.
“We are pleased to be collaborating on art for a good cause and we cannot wait to show you what we are working on,” he said.
According to the statement, Facebook has also commenced the 2021 edition of its ‘safe online forum’ in Nigeria, bringing teachers, parents, and other important education stakeholders together to discuss ways of promoting and ensuring online safety and digital literacy for young people.
NAN reports that Big Cabal Media (BCM) is a Nigerian digital media company that engages African youths with conversations around culture, innovation, entertainment and entrepreneurship.
Comic Republic is a Nigerian online multimedia company that primarily focuses on the digital distribution of indigenously created comic books.
(NAN)
…..Begins consultations with state and non-state actors to strategize on modalities for conducting impactful activities for the recovery and mitigation of COVID-19 pandemic.
By Chris Udochukw
Abuja (Precise Post) – As Nigeria joins the rest of the world on 21st of September to celebrate the International Day of Peace, the Director General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) Dr Bakut Tswah Bakut has tasked Nigerian to take responsibility in their neighbourhoods, communities or groups to make peace happen through peace-building activities such as peace sensitization, peace advocacies, peace talks, arts, sports, dialogue and mediation, either online or offline.
The DG also informed that the Institute has begun consultations with state and non-state actors to strategize on modalities for conducting impactful activities for the recovery and mitigation of COVID-19 pandemic and violent conflict in Nigeria.
According to the statement released by the IPCR Media office signed by Esther Ndukwe, the theme for this year’s celebration titled; “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world”, was inspired by the global challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively affects all strata of the population, including those caught in conflict settings because of their vulnerability to the vagaries of the environment and lack of access to healthcare.
Recall that sequel to the United Nations General Assembly’s declaration of 21 September as the International Day of Peace or World Peace Day through Resolution 55/282 of 1981, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) standing on its statutory mandate as the Federal Government of Nigeria’s think tank and agency for the promotion of peace, annually commemorates the Day of Peace with a number of activities in collaboration and support of critical stakeholders which include relevant civil society organizations, security agencies, Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) and, development partners.
The Peace Day is devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to peace above all differences and to contribute to a culture of peace despite prevailing challenges.
So in line with the United Nations’ annual appeal for the observation of non-violence and cease fire, that the Security Council’s call for a ‘sustained humanitarian pause’ to local conflicts and the prevalence of violent conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the IPCR has begun consultations with state and non-state actors to strategize on modalities for conducting impactful activities for the recovery and mitigation of COVID-19 pandemic and violent conflict in Nigeria.
Of particular importance this year, is the localization of the global call and practice of observing Ceasefire and non-violence on the 21st of September every year by combatants or parties in conflict, the statement reads.
This also aligns with the African Union (AU) programme of “Silencing the Guns”. We are reaching out to and calling on all peace loving people, the civil society including faith-based groups, traditional and religious leaders, statesmen, women, youths and media peace networks, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Security Agencies and Development partners to leverage their mandates and areas of operational presence and influence to take action towards realizing a ceasefire or non-violence, especially on the Day of Peace.
The IPCR noted that in social relations, conflict is inevitable and may be necessary for peace to occur.
“However, conflict becomes negative, destructive and costly to all when they become violent. It is our utmost conviction that peace is possible with non-violent approach to dispute resolution.
“We therefore call on all parties to dispute across the country to deploy the use of dialogue and non-violent approach to resolving their conflict.
He therefore encourage all Nigerians to use the upcoming Peace Day celebration on 21 September, 2021 to spread compassion, kindness, tolerance, hope, love and peace for sustained recovery from the impact of COVID-19 and violent conflict. We have begun listing of activities by stakeholders all over the country to track responses and impact.
It reminded that the Institute’s Facebook account is also open to receiving all recovery and peace-building activities by stakeholders for documentation and global visibility of local efforts towards realizing the theme of this year’s Peace Day, “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world.”
“We look forward to having a collaborative and successful International Day of Peace in Nigeria, the statement added.
Social media giant, Facebook, has banned Taliban and related contents from all its platforms.
This confirmation comes after Taliban fighters took over Afghanistan Capital, Kabul on Sunday, causing many citizens to flee the country including the American backed President, Ashraf Ghani.
Speaking with the BBC, a Facebook spokesperson said the organisation has been banned under its “Dangerous Organisation policies” which applies to all its platforms including Instagram and WhatsApp.
“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,” they said
The ban, will ensure the removal of “..accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them.”
Adamawa businessman remanded for allegedly calling Gov Fintiri ‘father of all thieves’
“We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us to emerging issues on the platform,” they added.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday, Adam Mosseri, the head of Facebook’s photo and video sharing app, Instagram said the company was relying on the Dangerous Organisations Policies “…to proactively take down anything that we can that might be dangerous or that is related to the Taliban in general.”
“Now this situation is evolving rapidly, and with it I’m sure the risk will evolve as well. We are going to have to modify what we do and how we do it to respond to those changing risks as they happen,” he added.
With its track record of repression of human rights, Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan government has raised global concerns about the freedom of citizens under its rule.
By Chris Udochukwu
Abuja – Facebook on Friday began rolling out encryption for voice or video calls made through its Messenger texting app, ratcheting up privacy for users.
The move comes as the sanctity of data on smartphones becomes an increasingly sensitive topic.
Encrypting text chats on Messenger has been an option since 2016.
The number of audio or video calls made on Messenger has surged since then to more than 150 million daily, prompting Facebook to add the option of scrambling exchanges from one end to the other to prevent snooping.
“The content of your messages and calls in an end-to-end encrypted conversation is protected from the moment it leaves your device to the moment it reaches the receiver’s device,” Messenger director of product management Ruth Kricheli said in a blog post.
“This means that nobody else, including Facebook, can see or listen to what’s sent or said.”
End-to-end encryption is already widely used by apps including Facebook-owned WhatsApp and is becoming an industry standard.
“People expect their messaging apps to be secure and private,” Kricheli said.
Facebook disclosed that it is testing encrypting group chats and calls on Messenger, as well as direct messages at its image-centric Instagram social network.
“We’ll also kick off a limited test with adults in certain countries that lets them opt-in to end-to-end encrypted messages and calls for one-on-one conversations on Instagram,” Kricheli said.
Apple’s recent announcement that it would scan encrypted messages for evidence of child sexual abuse has revived debate on online encryption and privacy, raising fears the same technology could be used for government surveillance.
The move represents a major shift for Apple, which has until recently resisted efforts to weaken its encryption that prevents third parties from seeing private messages.
Apple argued in a technical paper that the technology developed by cryptographic experts “is secure, and is expressly designed to preserve user privacy.”
Nonetheless, encryption and private specialists warned the tool could be exploited for other purposes, potentially opening a door to mass surveillance.
The Apple move comes following years of standoffs involving technology firms and law enforcement.
FBI officials have warned that so-called “end to end encryption,” where only the user and recipient can read messages, can protect criminals, terrorists and pornographers even when authorities have a legal warrant for an investigation.
AFP
A picture showing the Senator representing Delta South Senatorial District, James Manager, kneeling before a former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, has gone viral on social media, eliciting reactions from many Nigerians.
In the picture, Senator Manager is seen wearing an Ankara outfit with a face mask below his chin and his hands folded while Ibori in a blue outfit sits on a red and black couch.
Ibori was governor of the oil-rich Delta State from 1999 to 2007 but was later convicted for embezzling billions of state funds while Manager has been a senator since 2003 and is one of the longest-serving lawmakers in the country.
Ibori has, however, remained influential in the state despite his criminal record.
Confirming the authenticity of the photo, an associate of the senator told The PUNCH that it was just a sign of respect in Urhobo culture.
He said, “Senator went to visit him on Wednesday. Ibori is a senior, a king and an elder to him, being his former boss. Whenever you go to pay homage to an Urhobo elder or someone you hold in high esteem, you kneel down. It is a sign of appreciation for people to show who the person is to you. Things are just being twisted on social media. It is a personal relationship. You don’t expect the senator to stand up to address Ibori.
“Senator came to pay homage to him because he had not seen Ibori in a long time and he took drinks. Those are the drinks you see on the table in the picture.”
However, many people on social media said it was wrong for the senator to have done such.
Precious Erutase wrote on Facebook, “Yes, I don’t demean people on social media, but with due respect, this photo didn’t speak well of Senator James Manager and his media aide. In my own words, it is true that the media aide that took this photo has revealed to Deltans the incongruous ambition and the overzealousness of his boss.
“There is nowhere in the whole of the Niger Delta that you will find a man of Senator James Manager ranking, kneeling down with both legs before a fellow man who happens not to be his biological father, but a man I can accurately guess to be of the same age with him. No, it is not done and this is demeaning.”
Omemiroro Ogedegbe, who is a lawyer, wrote on Facebook, “The people continue to suffer as the politicians do not hold allegiance to their sovereignty but to perceived political gods to whom they continue to pay royalties upon their emergence and the people suffer.
“Imagine my senators kneeling like schoolchildren all for the quest of power. James Manager is 61 years like James Ibori and from their look, that of James Manager might be his football age. Each time we see this level of timidity the institutions they represent suffer.”
Ezekiel Ibok, who identified himself as a teacher on Facebook also wrote, “A serving Senator, James Ebiowu Manager representing Delta South kneels before James Ibori, seeking endorsement for his 2023 governorship ambition. Kneeling down for an ex-convict that looted Delta State dry.”
“How come we celebrate thieves and looters in Nigeria? How did we get here as a people?” he asked.
Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp has announced the launch of a trial aimed at freeing its users from smartphones.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook engineers said the new feature would allow for the hugely popular service be used on multiple “non-phone” devices without needing to connect to the smartphone app.
“With this new capability, you can now use WhatsApp on your phone and up to four other non-phone devices simultaneously – even if your phone battery is dead,” the blog post said.
Since its launch in 2009 as a smartphone messaging app, WhatsApp has amassed more than two billion users around the world and been acquired by Facebook.
WhatsApp can already be used on “companion devices,” such as computers, but exchanges are routed in such a way that if a person’s smartphone is offline or has zero battery, it won’t work.
Other issues can arise as well, such as frequent disconnection.
“The new WhatsApp multi-device architecture removes these hurdles” by no longer requiring a smartphone to perform every operation, the company said.
The new capability will be expanded more broadly as it is refined, Facebook added.
It also made assurances that WhatsApp’s security measures will still work under the new system.
“Each companion device will connect to your WhatsApp independently while maintaining the same level of privacy and security through end-to-end encryption that people who use WhatsApp have come to expect.”
(AFP)