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Facebook launches AI centre in Montreal
Media | 09/15/2017 2:13 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. is opening an artificial intelligence (AI) centre in Montreal, the company announced Friday.
The lab will, by next year, house 20 researchers and “develop new ways of teaching machines the complex relationship between actions and results, known as...
Facebook to penalize false news disseminators
Media | 08/29/2017 6:41 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. is escalating its war against false news by banning the purchase of advertisements by publishers who “repeatedly” share news that has been marked as false by third party fact-checking organizations.
The move represents another step in eliminating the...
Facebook to introduce new video platform
Media | 08/10/2017 2:53 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. will launch a new feature for watching video on its social media site.
Called Watch, it...
Canadian reps at tech companies’ anti-terror initiative
Media | 08/01/2017 5:17 pm EDT
The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, launched in June by Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, held its first meeting in San Francisco,...
Transparency reporting in Canada: still opaque?
telecom | 07/31/2017 4:15 pm EDT
Without an Edward Snowden-like scandal, exposing inappropriate government access of citizens’ personal...
Non-profit gives tech leg up to telecoms, smaller businesses
telecom | 07/28/2017 4:09 pm EDT
Canada’s big three wireless providers are now cooperating on a...
Growth of Canadians on social networks slowing: report
Media | 07/12/2017 5:02 pm EDT
Canada’s social network usage is projected to grow steadily over the next four years but growth will slow compared to previous years, according to a report by research company eMarketer Inc. The number of Canadians using social networking platforms from companies like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. will reach 21.2 million this year, amounting to about 58 per cent of the population, according to numbers provided by eMarketer on Wednesday. This number will grow to 23.1 million by 2021, about 60.7 per cent of the Canadian population. Despite that growth, the rate at which it will get...
Civil society groups take aim at Five Eyes on encryption
Media | 06/30/2017 3:51 pm EDT
More than six dozen civil society organizations and individuals have come out to reiterate support for stronger data encryption in a letter addressed to a quintet of the world’s intelligence...
Five Eyes watching online terror content
Media | 06/28/2017 1:26 pm EDT
Representatives from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance have issued a statement lauding the creation of a coalition by some of the world’s biggest tech companies aimed at tackling terrorist content online. On...
Tech giants coordinating to tackle terror content
Media | 06/27/2017 6:05 pm EDT
Some of the world’s largest technology and social media companies are forming a coalition to counter terrorism. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism is being formed with the help of Facebook Inc., Microsoft...
SCC sets Canadian jurisdiction in Facebook privacy case
Media | 06/23/2017 4:50 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled that British Columbia has...
Facebook no place for terrorists, company says
Media | 06/16/2017 4:14 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. said it wants to be a “hostile place” for terrorists, and outlined Thursday a series of steps it’s taking to counteract terrorism on its platforms. These actions include using artificial intelligence to...
‘Level playing field’ for foreign digital news services: committee
Media | 06/15/2017 4:52 pm EDT
OTTAWA — After a year of study and hearing from 131 witnesses, some of...
Gov’t info requests to Facebook fall in second half of 2016
Media | 04/28/2017 8:41 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. received 773 requests for customer information from Canadian law enforcement and government agencies in the second half of 2016, down from 1,004 requests in the...
Sandvine warns about zero-rating ‘fraud’
telecom | 04/19/2017 5:33 pm EDT
A new report from broadband equipment maker Sandvine Corp. says that some Internet users are avoiding data charges by disguising Internet traffic to look like zero-rated content. “Enticed by the potential of receiving...
Joly to discuss promoting CanCon with Google, Facebook
Media | 04/11/2017 8:41 pm EDT
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will travel to California later this month to meet with representatives from Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc., her office has confirmed. Spokesman Pierre-Olivier Herbert said the minister will go to San Francisco and Los Angeles next week and will meet with officials from Google, YouTube and Facebook. While a report in La Presse Monday quoted the minister as saying she would be accompanied by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and would also meet representatives from Netflix Inc., Herbert said over the...
Encrypted messaging apps no place to hide, says U.K. official after killings
Media | 03/27/2017 8:23 pm EDT
Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging service should not be a place “for terrorists to hide,” according to U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who appeared on a Sunday BBC program...
Facebook beefs up lobbying squad
Media | 03/21/2017 3:04 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. is increasing its government relations presence in Ottawa, with three new registrations filed with the lobbying commissioner’s office last month. According to the federal lobbyists’...
Facebook says its data can’t be used for surveillance
Media | 03/14/2017 6:26 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. has updated its policies to state that developers cannot use data obtained from its social media networks “to provide tools that are used for surveillance.” While...
VoLTE to overtake OTT voice apps by 2021: Juniper
Media | 03/09/2017 8:53 pm EST
The number of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) subscribers on 4G LTE mobile connections is expected to increase significantly and overtake over-the-top (OTT) applications over the next four years, according to Juniper Research. The...
Imposing taxes on foreign OTT could bring in $1B: report
Media | 03/09/2017 4:37 pm EST
Taxing foreign digital services such as Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime service, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Netflix Inc. could provide the federal government with up to $1 billion per year, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The recommendation was included in the progressive think tank’s alternative federal budget, released Thursday. The annual document “brings together 85 economists and sectoral experts to produce a detailed, fully costed progressive economic plan,” a CCAP press release said,...
Joly sitting down with foreign digital companies
Media | 03/03/2017 4:05 pm EST
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly is meeting this week with digital platforms, telling a CBC morning radio show Friday that she was in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., region Thursday meeting...
CBC ‘dimmer star’ in media landscape, conservative event hears
Media | 02/27/2017 6:15 pm EST
OTTAWA — When talking about CBC/Radio-Canada’s role in the media landscape, the public broadcaster is a “pygmy amongst giants,” and more focus should be aimed at large...
Facebook, Google not ‘arbiters of truth,’ committee hears
Media | 02/15/2017 12:24 am EST
OTTAWA — Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Canada told members of Parliament Tuesday they don’t see themselves as “arbiters of truth” in...
U.S. tech companies oppose Trump travel ban
Media | 02/06/2017 6:09 pm EST
Almost 100 tech companies in the United States have filed a brief in a court case against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking entry of citizens from seven countries and all refugees into the United States....
Tax deduction change would boost ad revenue $250-$450M: Friends
Media | 01/23/2017 9:24 pm EST
Removing tax deductions for advertising on non-Canadian online media outlets could help the beleaguered local media and news sectors, while saving the government money, according to a new paper from...
Facebook reports 1K gov’t info requests in first half of 2016
Media | 01/03/2017 10:35 pm EST
Canadian law enforcement and government agencies made over one thousand requests for customer information to Facebook Inc. in the first six months of 2016, four times more than the...
Social media networks team up to flag terrorism-related content
Media | 12/06/2016 9:53 pm EST
Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube will begin sharing information to help curb the spread of terrorism-related content....
CBC asks for 35% funding boost to go ad-free
Media | 11/28/2016 10:31 pm EST
CBC/Radio-Canada is asking the federal government for an increase in its funding so that it can eliminate advertising on its platforms. In a submission made as part of a government review of Canadian content in a digital...
Facebook working on increasing monetization for news media: exec
Media | 11/23/2016 10:05 pm EST
MONTREAL — Facebook Inc. is increasing opportunities for the news media to monetize content, the company’s Canadian head of public policy said Wednesday, citing initiatives like Instant Articles and Facebook Live. Kevin Chan made the comments at a conference held by Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE), a week after newspaper publishers told parliamentarians that global companies like Facebook and Alphabet Inc. were hurting their ad revenue. “We do take our responsibility seriously here in trying to help,...
CBC, Facebook digital ad sales hurting newspapers, committee hears
telecom | 11/18/2016 10:15 pm EST
OTTAWA — The Canadian government should review its mandate for CBC/Radio-Canada in light of the national broadcaster and foreign digital competitors taking away ad dollars...
Privacy commish looking for transparency compliance ‘in coming months’
telecom | 09/27/2016 6:26 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Companies who are not already proactively complying with the federal government’s transparency reporting rules are running out of time before the Office of the Privacy...
Differing opinions on how to guide differential pricing, interventions show
telecom | 09/23/2016 8:09 pm EDT
Even among those who support differential pricing practices such as zero rating and sponsoring data, there isn’t a consensus as to how they should be regulated by CRTC, according to additional...
Facebook desktop users lose ability to block ads
Media | 08/10/2016 8:36 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. said Tuesday that users of the desktop version of its social network will no longer be able to circumvent advertising through ad-blocking software. In a blog post from Andrew Bosworth, vice-president of ads and business platform, the company announced it was tweaking its ad settings controlled by users to “address the underlying reasons people have turned to ad blocking software.” The primary reason is that users wanted to stop “annoying, disruptive ads,” the blog said. “What we’ve heard is that people don’t like to see...
Facebook, AT&T defend differential pricing in CRTC review
Media | 06/30/2016 8:23 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. and AT&T Inc. have waded into the CRTC’s review of differential pricing practices, arguing that the commission should allow carriers to offer zero-rated services...
TheScore launches Facebook Messaging bot for sports updates
Media | 06/01/2016 9:50 pm EDT
TheScore Inc. launched its chatbot for Facebook Inc.’s Messenger on Wednesday, making it one of the first sports media companies to build a messaging bot to update users on sports developments....
CRTC won’t change course despite appeals, criticism: Blais
Media | 02/17/2016 11:05 pm EST
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said Wednesday the CRTC will stick to the course of action it has set despite disapproval by those who feel the CRTC’s direction “upsets their entitlements...
Rogers customer care joins Facebook Messenger
Media | 12/11/2015 2:40 pm EST
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Friday that its customers will now have access to its customer care service on Facebook Inc.’s Messenger. It said in a press release that the service is available for all consumer...
VoLTE connections to reach 2 billion by 2020: Juniper
telecom | 11/02/2015 3:40 pm EST
Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) connections are anticipated to reach two billion by 2020, rising from about 123 million connections this year, according to a new report released Monday from Juniper Research Ltd. It said the opportunity...
Instagram users more tech savvy: MTM
Media | 08/24/2015 5:56 pm EDT
A new report released Monday from Media Technology Monitor (MTM) says 85 per cent of Canadian users of Facebook Inc.’s photo and video-sharing app, Instagram, are younger than 50 and most are prone to owning new technology....
CTV News partners with Facebook for election coverage
Media | 06/16/2015 6:37 pm EDT
BCE Inc.’s CTV News announced Tuesday it has partnered with Facebook Inc. for coverage of this year's federal election campaign. CTV said in a press release the partnership starts immediately and continues until the...
OTT messaging struggling to monetize: Juniper
Media | 06/09/2015 2:06 pm EDT
Over-the-top (OTT) messaging services are expected to see traffic levels triple globally by 2019 compared to last year's levels, but a lack of success in monetizing the product will lead to a decline in global revenue for the...
Social network users spending more time online: MTM
Media | 05/26/2015 7:12 pm EDT
Anglophone Canadians who use social networks spend an average of about three hours more each week online than Internet users in general, according to a report released Wednesday. Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, released data from a poll showing that 75 per cent of anglophone Canadians who use the Internet had visited a social networking site within the previous month. That was up from 71 per cent in 2013, and was as low as 18 per cent in 2006 before surging to 42 per cent in 2007, MTM said. Facebook was used by 92 per cent of social networkers, followed by 33...
Facebook launches Amber Alerts in Canada
Media | 05/25/2015 3:35 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. said Monday that its users in Canada will receive Amber Alert notifications to help find missing children. Amber Alert notifications will be sent to residents living in the area where the child is missing, Facebook...
News agencies to start publishing directly to Facebook
Media | 05/13/2015 2:47 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. said Tuesday it has introduced a new feature to its mobile app that allows news and public affairs publishers to have content posted directly on Facebook feeds and appear 10 times faster...
Oculus Rift to start shipping early next year
Media | 05/06/2015 7:56 pm EDT
Oculus VR, the virtual-reality technology company bought by Facebook Inc. last year, said Wednesday that it will start shipping its Rift headset in the first quarter of next year, and pre-orders will be taken later this...
Facebook adds video calling to Messenger
Media | 04/27/2015 6:56 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. said Monday it has updated its Messenger app to add video-calling capabilities. In a press release, the company said the app, which introduced voice calling in January 2013, now accounts for more than 10 per cent of...
Facebook adds Canadian apps to Messenger platform
telecom | 03/26/2015 2:41 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. announced Wednesday that its Messenger app is being opened up as a platform for other other apps, and at least two Canadian companies have signed on to provide their services. “Messenger Platform brings even more ways for the 600 million people who use Messenger every month to express themselves,” Facebook said in a release. “With more than 40 new apps, people can enhance their conversations with GIFs, photos, videos, audio clips and more.” Toronto-based Keek Inc. said in a release it is launching a separate app called Keek for Messenger that will...
WhatsApp reports more than 700M users
Media | 01/07/2015 3:29 pm EST
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said on a Facebook post Tuesday that the service now has more than 700 million active monthly users, up from 450 million when Facebook Inc. announced its intention to purchase the mobile-messaging-app company...
Instagram begins advertising in Canada
Media | 11/10/2014 4:45 pm EST
Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook Inc., on Monday launched its advertising program in Canada. The company said in a press release the first ads, or promoted posts, that show up in users’ feeds will be from...
Facebook reports more government info requests in Canada
Media | 11/04/2014 8:16 pm EST
Canadian law enforcement and government agencies asked Facebook Inc. for users’ data more times in the first six months of 2014 than in the same period last year, the social networking platform...
Facebook closes WhatsApp purchase
Media | 10/07/2014 6:42 pm EDT
Facebook Inc.'s purchase of instant messaging company WhatsApp Inc. closed Monday, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Details of the filing show the final value as $4.59 billion US in...
U.S. online industry group criticizes Canada
Media | 10/06/2014 5:40 pm EDT
A coalition of some of the biggest Internet companies in the United States criticized Canada in a report released Tuesday for being a laggard in the usage and development of Internet technology to grow the economy. The Internet...
Netflix announces new Facebook feature
Media | 09/02/2014 3:33 pm EDT
Netflix Inc. on Tuesday announced a new recommendation feature that works through Facebook Inc.'s social network. The provider of online TV services said in a blog that, after viewing a program, users will be asked it they...
Kevin Chan representing Facebook in Ottawa
Media | 08/11/2014 9:22 pm EDT
Kevin Chan has been appointed Facebook Inc.'s head of public policy in Canada. Company spokeswoman Meg Sinclair said in an email to The Hill Times that Chan will be based in Ottawa and have an "ongoing dialogue with...
Web operators must pay SOCAN for music videos
Media | 07/22/2014 1:26 am EDT
Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc. must pay Canadian songwriters and publishers for music videos viewed on their services, the Copyright Board of Canada ruled on Friday. The board certified two tariffs from the Society...
Facebook tests direct-purchase feature
Media | 07/17/2014 7:34 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. said in an online posting Thursday that it has begun testing a feature that allows users to purchase certain products without leaving the Facebook site. The social network operator said the function works on computers and mobile devices. The company's posting shows a picture of what the feature looks like. It shows a smartphone accessing a Facebook page showing a "Suggested Post" that includes a picture of a watch, a product description, a price and a "Buy" button. Facebook said payments would be made by users entering debit- or credit-card...
Social TV growing, still lacks audience, monetization: experts
Media | 06/24/2014 8:56 pm EDT
While singing competition reality shows have been a mainstay on network television for the past decade, their newest iteration could offer an indication of the direction in which social-TV strategies...
Social TV activity on Facebook, Twitter up 12%: Seevibes
Media | 06/11/2014 7:19 pm EDT
The number of “interactions” about television on social networks operated by Facebook Inc. or Twitter Inc. increased 12 per cent in the past year, according to a report from social TV...
Instagram to use ads in Canada
Media | 06/09/2014 9:04 pm EDT
Canadian users of the Instagram photo service, owned by Facebook Inc., will soon start seeing advertisements appear in their feeds, the company said Monday. Instagram said in an emailed statement the ads will start "later...
Data-packaging firm bought by Facebook
Media | 06/03/2014 3:13 pm EDT
A Finnish company that works with mobile operators to provide users with app-based data plans said Tuesday it has been bought by Facebook Inc. The company, Pryte Ltd., said in a message on its website: "Today, we are...
Snapchat adds instant messaging, video calling
Media | 05/02/2014 2:38 pm EDT
Mobile picture-sharing service Snapchat has introduced instant messaging and video-calling capabilities to its application. Snapchat has been known for being a way to share photographs between users on Apple Inc. iPhones or devices that run on Google Inc.’s Android software which is then automatically deleted unless users save them. The company said in a blog Thursday that instant messages will also disappear by default. There will also a button one can press to start a video chat with another available user on the Snapchat service, the blog said. It’s been widely reported that...
Bell defends targeted ad program as ‘transparent’
Media | 05/01/2014 2:07 am EDT
BCE Inc.’s chief legal and regulatory officer told a Senate hearing on Wednesday night that his company’s targeted advertising program respects Canada’s current privacy laws. Mirko Bibic repeatedly compared his...
U.S. watchdog approves Facebook purchase of Oculus
Media | 04/23/2014 7:31 pm EDT
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that Facebook Inc. has been given the go-ahead to purchase virtual-reality technology maker Oculus VR Inc. Facebook announced its intention last month to buy the company, which is...
Crack down on free online services: PIAC
Media | 03/27/2014 3:47 pm EDT
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is calling on governments to do more to protect people from companies that offer so-called free online services. In a press release issued Wednesday, it said consumers have little...
Virtual reality ‘the next social and communications platform’: Facebook
Media | 03/26/2014 6:31 pm EDT
Facebook Inc., in announcing the purchase of a pioneering virtual reality company, said this kind of immersive technology is "a strong candidate to emerge as the next social and communications...
BlackBerry CEO would consider selling BBM: reports
Media | 02/25/2014 8:10 pm EST
BlackBerry Ltd. CEO John Chen said Tuesday he would consider selling BBM, the company’s messaging service, according to different media reports Tuesday. CNBC quoted Chen in an interview as saying: "If somebody comes to...
Facebook to pay $19B US for WhatsApp
Media | 02/20/2014 6:52 pm EST
Facebook Inc. said Wednesday has reached an agreement to pay about $19 billion US for mobile-messaging application company WhatsApp Inc. Facebook said in a press release that the purchase price includes $4 billion US in cash and...
Facebook launches trending feature
Media | 01/16/2014 7:31 pm EST
Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it is launching a trending feature that will highlight the most talked-about topics on the social network. The company said in a posting to its website that Facebook users will find the new...
Facebook meets with BlackBerry: WSJ
telecom | 10/29/2013 8:59 pm EDT
BlackBerry Ltd. executives met with Facebook Inc. in California last week “to gauge its interest in a potential bid” for the company, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. In a report citing anonymous people...
Facebook teams small businesses, ad firms
Media | 08/12/2013 8:45 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. is launching a program that pairs up media agencies and Toronto-area small businesses, the company said. Facebook’s six-week “Grand for Good” program will team up local businesses in the Greater Toronto Area with “10 of Canada's top media agencies,” who will compete to build the most effective Facebook presence, the company said in a release Monday. It said the ad agencies taking part in the program are M2Universal, MEC, MediaCom Canada, Mindshare, OMD Canada, PHD Network Canada, Starcom Mediavest Group, UM Canada, Vision7 International...
Facebook opens Montreal office
Media | 07/10/2013 9:37 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. opened a two-person office in Montreal, The Canadian Press reported Wednesday. The employees will “serve businesses looking to expand their presence on the social network,” CP said. The move...
Facebook won’t make smartphones: Zuckerberg
telecom | 07/27/2012 7:09 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. has no plans to get into the smartphone manufacturing business because it “wouldn’t really make much sense,” Mark Zuckerberg, the company's chief executive, said during a quarterly earnings call...