Meta yesterday launched paid subscription plans for its flagship apps, marking a major push by the tech giant to diversify beyond its long-time reliance on advertising revenue. Meta head of product Naomi Gleit announced the move in a video posted to Instagram, saying she was rolling out Facebook Plus, Instagram Plus and WhatsApp Plus globally,...
Italian regulators ordered Meta today to open its WhatsApp chat platform to rival AI chatbots as it and EU authorities pursue a probe that the US tech giant is abusing its dominant market position. Meta has integrated Meta AI across the company’s platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, that serve billions of users globally, reports [&...
Russia said yesterday it was considering banning popular messaging service WhatsApp, accusing it of failing to prevent crime, and urged its tens of millions of users to switch to domestic alternatives. US technology giant Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said Russia was trying to ban the application because it “defies government attempts to violate ...
Nigeria’s Supreme Court held its first hearing in a high-profile blasphemy case today that defence lawyers hope will lead to a ruling that puts curbs on sharia law. Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi Muslim musician, was sentenced to death by a sharia court in Nigeria’s northern Kano State in 2020 for sharing song lyrics deemed to […]
WhatsApp said yesterday that users will start seeing ads in parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms moves to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping the billions of people that use the messaging service. Advertisements will be shown only in the app’s Updates tab, which is used by as many as 1.5 billion […]
The Nigeria Police Force, through its National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), has successfully dismantled a sophisticated cyber fraud syndicate that operated via WhatsApp, hijacking accounts of high-profile individuals to defraud their contacts. The operation followed a formal complaint lodged on April 14, 2025, prompting swift action by the NP...
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) Tribunal has upheld a $220 million fine against Meta Platforms Incorporated and WhatsApp over discriminatory data practices against Nigerian users. The ruling delivered by a three-member panel led by Thomas Okosun also ordered the tech giant to reimburse the FCCPC the sum of $3...
Millions of users in Nigeria and around the world may soon lose access to WhatsApp as the platform phases out support for older devices. Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, has announced that starting May 5, 2025, the app will no longer function on certain outdated smartphones that do not meet the latest security and […]
•US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation flights via military airlift Fearing a US immigration raid will separate her from her children, an undocumented Honduran immigrant hunkers down in her Washington home, anxiously scouring a WhatsApp group for real-time updates on nearby sweeps. Rosario, a 35-year-old mother of two, pract...
A man has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting the administrator of a community WhatsApp group who removed him from the chat, police said today. Mushtaq Ahmed was shot dead on Thursday evening in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province that borders Afghanistan, which has a history of bloody sectarian violence, repo...

