The Netherlands: More Dutch seniors active on social media

Social media usage among the elderly in the Netherlands has soared in recent years. The group 65 to 74-year-olds in particular have become increasingly active users.

In 2019, 76 percent of the respondents in this age category said they had used social media, up from 40 percent five years previously. An ncrease in social media use was also seen among people aged 75 and over. Exchanging text messages, via WhatsApp for example, is most popular among the elderly for passing along information. This is according to recent figures taken from the survey on ICT usage by households and individuals in 2019,
More Dutch seniors active on social media

The Netherlands: More Dutch seniors active on social media

Social media usage among the elderly in the Netherlands has soared in recent years. The group 65 to 74-year-olds in particular have become increasingly active users.

In 2019, 76 percent of the respondents in this age category said they had used social media, up from 40 percent five years previously.

An increase in social media use was also seen among people aged 75 and over. Exchanging text messages, via WhatsApp for example, is most popular among the elderly. This is according to recent figures taken from the survey on ICT usage by households and individuals in 2019, conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

In 2019, 87 percent of the Dutch population aged 12 years and over indicated they had used social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, discussion forums or weblogs in the previous three months. This was still 74 percent five years previously.

Virtually everyone in the age group 12 to 54 years use social media (95 percent or more). The shares were 89 percent among 55 to 64-year-olds and 76 percent among 65 to 74-year-olds last year. In 2014, these shares amounted to 64 and 40 percent respectively.

An increase in social media use is also seen among Dutch seniors over the age of 75: in 2014, 13 percent were active while five years this had risen to 40 percent.

Read more: More Dutch seniors active on social media

Social Media:‘Facebook is the new cigarettes for our society,’ Marc Benioff says, calling for regulation

Salesforce founder rips Facebook and again calls for the social-network giant — which has been wracked by scandals in recent years — to be regulated or split..

Read more at:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-is-the-new-cigarettes-for-our-society-marc-benioff-says-calling-for-regulation-2019-12-29

EU versus Facebook: Will Weber take a hammer to Facebook’s social media monopoly? – by Samuel Stolton

 Dumb fucks.” That’s how Mark Zuckerberg described users of Facebook for trusting him with their personal data back in 2004. If the last week is anything to go by, he was right.

Manfred Weber, the head of the EPP group in the European Parliament and lead candidate for Jean-Claude Juncker’s job as the next European Commission president, threw down the gauntlet on Friday (28 September), suggesting that he may support a breakup of Facebook and Whatsapp.

“I consider it necessary to ask the monopoly question,” Weber told the German newspaper Spiegel. Weber announced his candidacy for the top EU job in early September and has also received backing from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“The European Commission should consider whether, for example, after the acquisition of Whatsapp and Instagram, Facebook has a dominant position. In extreme cases, a breakup should also be conceivable,” he said.

Weber also noted that Facebook will continue to be under close scrutiny from the European Parliament, and called on the internet giant to be more transparent in its advertising activities.

The EU’s Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová has put pressure on Facebook to disclose further details of the massive security breach that impacted around fifty million users last week.

In a statement on Sunday (30 September), Jourová urged Facebook to comply fully with the body in charge of investigating the breach, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, and disclose whether EU users were affected by the breach and how their personal data was impacted.

At least 50mln #Facebook users were compromised in the huge security breach. I urge Facebook to fully cooperate with @DPCIreland. We need to know if EU users were affected and what had happened to their data. Here a reminder about the obligations of biz https://t.co/1bZ6IJdJ4B

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission struck a similar tone on Sunday when they announced that they are still waiting for “further urgent details” of the security breach…[to]…properly assess the nature of the breach and risk to users.”

Facebook said on Friday (28 September) that hackers had discovered a security flaw allowing them to capture data belonging to up to 50 million Facebook users.

According to the New York Times, Facebook’s VP for product management, Guy Rosen, has refused to rule out the possibility that the attack may have been coordinated by a nation-state.

Rosen has stated that the hackers were targeting people’s private information, including name, gender and location.

Due to the lack of disclosure given on the specifics of the hack thus far by Facebook, it currently remains unclear as to whether more sensitive information has been accessed.

Read more: Will Weber take a hammer to Facebook’s social media monopoly? – EURACTIV.com

Social Media - Fake News: Facebook says it found new covert campaign to spread divisive political messages

On Tuesday morning, the political and tech worlds were startled to learn that Facebook had identified and stopped a new covert campaign to spread divisive political messages on its platform, the first such announcement since 2017.

But Facebook released only some of the pages and content publicly. What it did not reveal was the depth some of the pages went to stoke racial tension and incite division among Americans.

NBC News was able to retrieve some of the pages Facebook deleted via a web archive search, which allows people to see internet pages that have been deleted.

A review of some of the deleted pages from groups identified by Facebook as part of the “inauthentic coordinated behavior” found efforts to target people based on liberal politics as well as Hispanic and African heritage.

One deleted post called for protesters to occupy the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Posted by a group called “Resisters,” an event that was initially titled “Stop Ripping Families Apart! DC,” was later retitled “Stop Ripping Families Apart! Take over ICE HQ” after Facebook users said they would attend. A total of 131 people later marked themselves as having attended the June 27 rally outside of ICE’s Washington offices.

Read more: Facebook says it found new covert campaign to spread divisive political messages

Britain- US Relations: Trump's social media posts straining ties with Britain, experts say

US President Donald Trump's latest social media posts, which triggered a heated quarrel between Washington and London, have put strain on bilateral ties.

Trump sparked global controversy in recent days after re-posting what critics say are anti-Muslim social media posts from a Britain-based far right group that allegedly depict violence carried out by Muslims. The authenticity of the videos in the posts has not been verified.

"Trump's (re-posting) of anti-Islamic videos has put a great strain on US-UK relationships," Brookings Institution senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"He took material from a far-right organization and gave it great legitimacy at a delicate time as Britain is negotiating its exit from the European Union (EU)," West said, referring to England's break-off from the EU, a matter of controversy underscored by tensions between classes in England.

"The British Prime Minister has condemned Trump's actions and reprimanded him for giving extreme voices an international platform," West added.

 Read more: Trump's social media posts straining ties with Britain, experts say - World - Chinadaily.com.cn

Social Media: Protect your privacy and ward off trolls on social media - by David Nield

On social media, you get to catch up with old friends, make new connections, and coo over cute baby photos. Although you're supposed to enjoy these visits to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, a persistent commenter or obnoxious "friend" can ruin your experience. That's why these services provide ways for you to fight back. Here are the steps you can take to protect your privacy and slay trolls on three of the world's biggest social networks.

Unlike Twitter and Instagram, which we discuss below, Facebook doesn't make your posts visible to the whole internet by default. So other users will only see your photos, links, and other information if you have chosen to friend them. You can adjust this extra layer of protection every time you post by choosing to make the update public or to restrict it to only a certain number of friends.

You can select who gets to see your own posts, but that doesn't stop your friends from tagging you in public posts. To prevent people from posting on your timeline or tagging you in photos, you can limit this activity from your Timeline and Tagging settings page. One of the options lets you review any tags you're mentioned in before they appear in your News Feed.

If you've friended someone, but they start giving you unwanted attention, you can easily cut off their access: Head to their profile page and clicking on the Friends button to find the Unfriend option. That person won't get an alert that they've been unfriended, but they might notice if they load up your profile and see the Add Friend option.

For the complete report go to: Read more Protect your privacy and ward off trolls on social media | Popular Science

Terrorism: Press and.Governments should stop identifying this band of deranged murderers as IS

Press and Government better start calling a spade a spade

Sad story ( click on link below for full report) reminding us about the cruel practices of these deranged, derelict, murderers, who call themselves IS

The press and.Governments should stop identifying this band of deranged murderers and killers as IS.

There is no country or so called "Caliphate" called IS. It is all dreamworld fiction.

We must start to call a spade a spade, so why not identify these Deranged Psychotic Murderers Trash as DPMT- Deranged Psychotic, Murderous, Trash.

Press and.Governments should stop "glorifying" the exploits of these murderers and Social Media must be far more vigilant in localizing and eliminating Jihadist propaganda from the Internet.

Read more: Flash - Syrian teen's amputated hand a cruel reminder of IS rule - France 24

The Netherlands: Dutch jihadi bride: 'Is she a victim or a suspect?' - by Harriet Alexander, and Anna Mees

She was a blonde-haired, blue eyed Catholic girl whose family was a pillar of the Dutch town of Maastricht. He was a smiling, bicycle-riding Dutch former soldier - a man considered such an asset to his country he was encouraged to try out for their elite special forces.

And yet the marriage of Sterlina Petalo and Omar Yilmaz was, for their families, anything but a cause for celebration.

Yilmaz, 26, was one of the most high-profile Europeans to become a jihadi, travelling to Syria to live in the Islamic State and fight on behalf of the extremists. He gloried in the teenage fantasy of war - posting a series of Instagram photos of himself pouting at the camera on a motorbike, amid bombed-out buildings in his combat fatigues, AK47 slung nonchalantly over his shoulder. Miss Petalo was a recent convert to Islam, who fell in love with Yilmaz after seeing him on television, picturing him as a Robin Hood figure.

Last week their story took a remarkable twist when it was revealed that Miss Petalo had in fact returned to her hometown - after her mother travelled to the Turkish-Syrian border to bring the 19-year-old home from the jihadist-held city of Raqqa.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said her mother, Monique Verbert. “She rang me and said 'Take me home.’ But she could not leave Raqqa without help.”

The pair arrived back in the Netherlands on Wednesday, said Annemarie Kemp, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office. Clad in a niqqab, with only her eyes showing, the teenager - who has changed her name to Aicha - was photographed being driven through the town on her way to custody.

“Upon her arrival, Aicha was detained at once on suspicion of crimes threatening state security,” said Ms Kemp.

Miss Petalo is being held in a police cell - the prosecutor, Roger Bos, ruled on Friday that she should be detained for questioning for three more days. Mrs Verbert, 49, an administrator for BP, argued that her daughter’s flight to Syria was little more than teenage infatuation. Today Monday November 24 the court will decide whether to press charges.

Note EU-Digest: Every civilized human being should condemn the violence and terror IS is using to instill fear and terror in the areas where they operate. In that same breath one should also condemn social media and the International Press for publicizing these horrific scenes of barbarism, including the decapitation of body parts. This is pure commercially based sensationalism, which can only lead to popularizing these horrific acts in the minds of susceptible young people - case in point Ms Petalo who acted upon her teenage fantasy of a "glorified" war and followed this "insanely obsessed man" into certain disaster. 

Kudos to her mother for taking the proper action to bring her daughter back to reality and safety.   
 Read more: Dutch jihadi bride: 'Is she a victim or a suspect?' - Telegraph

Social Media - A Boost For Your Ego Or a Clever Way To Circumvent Your Personal Privacy Rights - by RM

Social Media Serving A Human Need

The popularity of Facebook and other social media comes mainly because the people who developed these programs have successfully exploited one of the human's greatest "need/ addiction/weakness" which is the desire of being recognized and admired for their achievements in every possible form; intelligence, career, quality of life, family, religious devotion, charities, number of friends, travels, professional qualities, business succes, you name it.

As these platforms became more popular its programmers developed large data bases with detailed information about each of their members, which through various methods of cross referencing can come up with quite a precise profile on each of these members.

Obviously these profiles are very much in demand not only by corporations but also by governments.

Is there anything you can do about it?  Not really, unless governments legislate strict rules as to how companies and governments are allowed to make use of your personal data.

Don't expect Governments to do that too eagerly, because it would also tie them down on getting detailed information about you.

All you as a user of social media can do is to be very careful about what kind of information you put in there.

Make sure you "don't give away the store", because corporations and governments will always take advantage of the vulnerabilities of the human mind. That is not an illusion but a fact. 

EU-Digest