This was disclosed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, in his opening remarks at the 12th edition of the “PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023)”.

Godwill Akpabio, the minister of Niger Delta affairs, said at the news conference on Wednesday.

In addition to violence, insecurity, vote buying, and attacks on INEC facilities, among other things, the Minister reaffirmed that fake news and disinformation pose a clear and present threat to the success of the elections in 2023.

He added, “In this regard, I want to acknowledge the announcement by Meta, the owners of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, that it will take clearly-outlined steps to protect the integrity of the forthcoming elections.

“Specifically, Meta detailed the actions it plans to take to combat disinformation and to make political advertising more
transparent. The company committed to these actions before, during and after the elections.

The minister said it hopes Meta will live up to its promise while urging other platform owners like Google (owners of YouTube and others), ByteDance (owners of TikTok), Twitter and the Telegram Group Inc. (owners of Telegram messenger) to emulate Meta by taking positive steps to prevent the spread of fake news, disinformation and hate speech via their platforms ahead, during and after the 2023 elections.

These conditions are stated in the recently released Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries (online platforms).

The National Information Technology Development Agency made this know in a statement on Monday.

The statement read in part, “NITDA wishes to present to the public a Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries for future review and input.”

The Code of Practice was developed by NITDA alongside the Nigerian Communications Commission and National Broadcasting Commission,with input from platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, and Tik Tok.

One of such conditions in the Code of Practice is that each online platform is required to have a country representative, who will interface with the Nigerian authorities.

This means that Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, Tik Tok and other interactive online platforms are required to have country representatives.

Other conditions include registering with the Corporate Affairs Commission as a legal entity, complying with tax obligations, and abide by regulatory and legal demands.

The Code of Practice is aimed at safeguarding the fundamental human rights of Nigerians and non-Nigerians living in Nigeria, and regulating interactions on online platforms.

Facebook Vice President of Infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan, made this known in a statement titled, ‘Update about the October 4th outage’.

The statement reads “To all the people and businesses around the world who depend on us, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused by today’s outage across our platforms. We’ve been working as hard as we can to restore access, and our systems are now back up and running. The underlying cause of this outage also impacted many of the internal tools and systems we use in our day-to-day operations, complicating our attempts to quickly diagnose and resolve the problem. Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centres caused issues that interrupted this communication. This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centres communicate, bringing our services to a halt. Our services are now back online and we’re actively working to fully return them to regular operations. We want to make clear at this time we believe the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change. We also have no evidence that user data was compromised as a result of this downtime. People and businesses around the world rely on us every day to stay connected. We understand the impact outages like these have on people’s lives, and our responsibility to keep people informed about disruptions to our services. We apologize to all those affected, and we’re working to understand more about what happened today so we can continue to make our infrastructure more resilient.”

López wed opposition senator Angélica Lozano on Monday evening in a private civil ceremony.

“I promise to honour you and love you for life!” López wrote on Instagram to her new wife, Agence France-Presse reported. “Thanks to life for this wonderful year: I earned my doctorate, won the Mayor’s office and married the love of my life.”

The post included four photos of the couple dressed in white and carrying bouquets of flowers, according to the news outlet.

Bogota voters elected the left-wing López, who billed herself as “incorruptible,” on Oct. 27. She takes office in January. The post is seen as the second most politically powerful in Colombia after the presidency.

The couple’s union has become a rallying cause among supporters promoting LGBT rights in the traditionally conservative, Catholic country – though Colombia has permitted gay marriage since a landmark Constitutional Court ruling in 2016.

Lozano told Colombia’s BLU Radio that the couple has tried to marry previously but their schedules made organizing a wedding complicated.

“We told ourselves, ‘We have to do it now or another four years will pass by,” Lozano said. “Because Claudia’s priority the next four years will be her job.”

But there was one thing he did correctly that may have saved his life.

Photos of the aftermath show the black convertible wrapped around a utility pole with the passenger side bashed into the unoccupied seating area. According to KTLA neither driver was seriously injured in the incident. According to the cops, here’s why:

“He walked away from this collision without injury for one reason and one reason only: he was wearing his seatbelt. Seatbelts save lives.”

Tehran, however, dropped its charges against Australian-British blogger Jolie King and her fiancé Mark Firkin, who both returned to Australia. They had been held in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran since early July.

King and Firkin were released as part of a possible prisoner swap, according to The Associated Press.

At the same time as the couple’s release, Iranian state-run television reported that Reza Dehbashi, an Iranian scientist who was detained for 13 months in Australia over the purchase of a defense system for his country from the United States, had returned home.

Iranian TV said that the Australian judiciary had planned to send Dehbashi to the U.S. but that he was released through Tehran’s diplomatic efforts.

King and Firkin thanked the Australian government and released a statement, saying: “We are extremely happy and relieved to be safely back in Australia with those we love. While the past few months have been very difficult, we know it has also been tough for those back home who have been worried for us.”

The couple requested privacy as they try to “get back to [our] normal lives.”

“We know there are others who remain in detention in Iran, including a fellow Australian, and believe intense media coverage may not be helpful for efforts to bring them home,” the couple said.

Melbourne University Islamic studies lecturer Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been detained in Iran since October 2018 on accusations of spying for an unidentified third country.

Australia Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Saturday that Moore-Gilbert’s situation is “very complex” and the government is still trying to secure her return.

“She has been detained for some considerable time, and has faced the Iranian legal system and has been convicted and sentenced,” Payne said. It was not immediately clear what sentence had been passed down against her.

Before their arrest, King and Firkin had been traveling around the globe, documenting their adventures in YouTube videos and on Instagram.

According to their joint Instagram account, The Way Overland, the two are currently “taking a break.”

Musgraves, 31, stopped by Tom’s One Hour Photo & Lab at 4158 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles with her sister on Wednesday and took to Twitter to share her experience.

“Got my portrait made at this AMAZING little place” in Koreatown, she started.

The six-time Grammy award winner posted nostalgia-inducing photos from the shop, which she said opened in 1991. “It’s cash only & has no internet. [Tom] said business has gotten so slow since the digital wave,” she wrote, adding they made him an Instagram account to help advertise the shop.

Customers get to choose their own backdrop at the “charming little small business” and, Musgraves explained, can get film developed or a portrait or passport photo taken. She said the owner shot her photos on a digital camera, but “he could shoot on film if asked.”

The newly created Instagram account for Tom – described as a “sweet, hard-working person” – features photos of Musgraves’ visit to the “rad” and “very nostalgic” business. The “Rainbow” singer said Tom might not even know they created the social media account for him, but hopes it helps publicize his business.

Lucian Miu, a 21-year-old Romanian tourist, was climbing on wet rocks below Bridalveil Fall on Wednesday when officials said he bypassed several signs that advised against straying from the designated trail. He reportedly “scrambled up the boulder field” toward the base of the waterfall and slipped off a wet rock, plummeting 20 feet below.

Park officials said in an Instagram post that rescue teams were called in and airlifted the man from the “dangerous terrain” to El Capitan Meadow. He was rushed to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A very similar fall happened on Monday when another hiker slipped and fell after ignoring the posted signs.

On Thursday, a third park visitor was wounded after slipping off a boulder at the base of Lower Yosemite Fall. The hiker became trapped underwater between several rocks before eventually breaking free.

Officials said bystanders helped the person out of the water where they were then tended to by rescuers who provided aid before being transported an area hospital.

The falls prompted park officials to issue a warning to daring hikers: “do not perceive popularity as an endorsement for your safety.”

“Over the last few years at Bridalveil Fall alone, there have been 23 documented incidents in which visitors have slipped and injured themselves, 14 of which involved head injuries,” the Instagram post read. “Although others may be engaging in the same activity, do not perceive popularity as an endorsement for your safety. When you go into these areas, you’re not only exposing yourself to serious injury but also your rescuers.”

Officials said the boulders by the falls are extremely smooth, having been polished by the water, and can present a great danger to unsuspecting tourists.

Ronaldo is the highest followed footballer with 173m followers and can command an astronomical amount from just a single post.

Embattled PSG star, Neymar comes second spot, cashing-in £580,000 per post, while Barcelona Lionel Messi earns £521,000 per post.

See the full list below

The term “shadow ban” refers to a practice where a person is removed from the community without being notified. Instagram creators believe that the app does this for perceived infractions against the Terms of Service that don’t necessarily rise to the level of an outright ban, pointing to notable declines in their reach after controversial posts. Instagram denies doing this.

The new feature would make comments from a bully invisible to everyone but themselves, in essence leaving them shouting into a void without realizing that their comments are not being seen by others.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said “We’ve heard from young people in our community that they’re reluctant to block, unfollow, or report their bully because it could escalate the situation, especially if they interact with their bully in real life, some of these actions also make it difficult for a target to keep track of their bully’s behavior.”