A manipulated image appearing to show India’s opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sitting with controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik — a wanted man in India — has surfaced in social media posts alleging the pair met during Gandhi’s September vacation in Malaysia. The original photo shows Naik meeting religious officials in Oman in 2023.
The image of Gandhi sitting next to Naik and another man was shared on Facebook on September 12, 2025.
“Rahul Gandhi met anti-India terrorist Zakir Naik in Malaysia,” reads part of its Hindi-language caption.
The post surfaced after Gandhi was targeted by members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for taking a holiday in Malaysia’s Langkawi in the middle of campaigning for local elections in Bihar in early September (archived link).
Screenshot of the false post captured September 20, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The purported image of Gandhi and Naik in Malaysia also surfaced elsewhere on Facebookand X.
Naik, a radical television preacher who has called the 9/11 attacks an “inside job”, left India in 2016 and moved to largely Muslim Malaysia, where he was granted permanent residency (archived link).
He is wanted in India for money laundering and terror-related activities, while his Islamic Research Foundation was declared “unlawful” and banned in the country (archived link).
However, the circulating image has been digitally manipulated — it also bears a watermark reading “ChatGPT” in the bottom-right corner, suggesting it was edited using the AI tool.
The post is captioned, “In pictures: Dr Zakir Naik Interactions with His Eminence Sheikh Ahmad Al Khalili, Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman, Dr Mohammed Al Maamari Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, and Assistant Mufti Sheikh Kahlan Al Kharousi.”
Screenshot comparison of the image in the false post (left) and the photo of Naik with Omani religious officials (right)
Arabic-language media outlet Watan also published the photo of Naik with the religious officials in March 23 in a report about the preacher arriving in Oman to deliver a series of lectures (archived link).
Subsequent keyword searches found the image of Gandhi was likely cropped and mirrored from a video uploaded to the Congress politician’s YouTube channel on March 5, 2023 (archived link).
Screenshot of the image in the false post (left) and the YouTube video of Rahul Gandhi (right)
The Congress leader was interacting with journalists during an event in London in March 2023.
As of September 30, 2025, there have been no official reports Gandhi and Naik met in Malaysia.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation around Rahul Gandhi here.
Meta is of facial recognition in Europe, the UK and South Korea to crack down on accounts that impersonate public figures. The new facial recognition-powered safety features are now live on Facebook in the regions and will expand to Instagram in the coming months.
The technology was initially put to use last year starting in the US, helping to identify ads that fraudulently use a celebrity’s likeness as well as to help people regain access to hacked accounts. Public figures opt in to this program in Europe, which is also being rolled out in South Korea alongside the new protections against impersonation. This new use case is aimed at scammers who pose as public figures to trick unsuspecting users into sending money or other scams of that nature.
“We’ll now use facial recognition technology to compare the profile picture on the suspicious account to the real public figure’s Facebook and Instagram profile pictures. If there’s a match, we will remove the impostor account,” said a Meta spokesperson.
In addition to the US rollout, the company’s facial recognition technology has been used to aid account recovery in the UK, EU and South Korea since March. This came three years after Facebook decided to shut down its facial recognition system on Facebook, due in large part to public backlash against the technology.
The social media giant touts the benefits of these tools, reporting that in the first half of 2025, user reports of “celebrity bait” ads dropped by 22 percent globally. Facial recognition remains a controversial technology, with differing public opinion on its use in and the .
The long-awaited sequel to The Social Network will hit theaters next fall, according to a report by Deadline. The official release date is set for October 9, 2026, which is just about 16 years after the first film dropped.
We also have plenty of other information, including the full cast and the actual name of the movie. The official name is The Social Reckoning, which makes sense as the movie follows recent events in which Facebook got into legal and political trouble when a whistleblower alleged that the company knew the platform was harming society but did nothing about it.
The cast is being led by Jeremy Strong from Succession, who takes over Zuckerberg duties from actor Jesse Eisenberg. Mikey Madison is playing the aforementioned whistle blower Frances Haugen and The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White portrays Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horowitz.
Bill Burr is also appearing in this flick, though we don’t know in what capacity. The Hollywood Reporter has suggested he will play a fictional character invented for the film that will be an amalgamation of several people. Aaron Sorkin is both writing and directing this one. He wrote the first movie, but David Fincher directed it.
Facebook and Instagram users in the UK will soon be offered that remove ads. In the coming weeks, those over the age of 18 can pay £3 ($4) per month on the web, or £4 ($5) per month when using Meta’s iOS or Android apps. If you’re wondering why the mobile version is more expensive, Meta blames that on fees levied by Apple and Google in their respective app stores.
A no-ads subscription will apply to any Facebook and Instagram account added to a , which is what Meta uses to let users connect various Meta logins on its different platforms. Any additional account listed in a user’s Accounts Center will automatically gain their own subscription for an extra £2 ($3) per month on the web or £3 ($4) per month for iOS and Android. Anyone who chooses to decline Meta’s offer will continue to see ads on its free platforms as normal, and can still use Ad Preferences to choose which ads they would prefer to see more or less of.
Meta the change is a response to new regulatory “consent or pay” from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), whereby users are given the choice between consenting to an organization using their data to personalize ads, or paying to avoid it. Meta previously introduced a similar change for its EU users, offering an ad-free subscription option for €10 ($11), but was by the European Commission for allegedly failing to comply with its stricter Digital Markets Act (DMA) laws. The company later a revised, cheaper, ad-free plan that was still being assessed by the EC earlier this year.
Meta praised the ICO for its “constructive approach” to personalised ads, which it insists provide the best experience for both its users and businesses, and criticised EU regulators for continuing to “overreach” with its privacy regulations. As reported by , digital advertising accounted for around 97 percent of Meta’s revenue in 2024.
Meta announced on Thursday that its Teen Accounts are now being expanded to teens on Facebook and Messenger globally, after initially only being available to users in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada. The accounts, which feature built-in protections and parental controls for younger users, first launched on Instagram last fall.
Teen Accounts were originally launched shortly after Meta and other popular social networks were grilled by U.S. lawmakers for not doing enough to protect teens on their services.
With the global expansion on Facebook and Messenger, teens will now automatically be placed into an experience that is designed to limit inappropriate content and unwanted contact. Teens under the age of 16 need their parents’ permission to change any of the settings.
Additionally, teens will only receive messages from people they follow or have messaged before. Only teens’ friends can see and reply to their stories. Plus, tags, Mentions, and comments will also be limited to people they follow or who are their friends.
Teens will also receive reminders to leave the social networks after using them for an hour a day, and they’ll be enrolled in “Quiet mode” overnight.
The expansion of Teen Accounts comes as research led by a Meta whistleblower recently found that children and teens are still at risk from online harm on Instagram, even after the company has rolled out protections. The study found that despite being placed into Teen Accounts, young users can still come across suicide and self-harm posts, along with posts describing demeaning sexual acts. Meta has disputed the claims and said its protections have led to teens seeing less harmful content.
Image Credits:Meta
Meta also announced on Thursday that it’s officially launching the School Partnership Program, which allows educators to report safety concerns, like bullying, directly to Instagram for quicker review and removal.
The company says it piloted the program earlier this year and heard positive feedback from participating schools. Now, all middle and high schools in the U.S. can sign up for the program to receive prioritized reporting and education resources. Schools that are part of the program will receive a banner on their Instagram program to notify parents and students that they are an official Instagram partner.
Northern California forecast: Sunny in Valley and Foothills, possible showers in Sierra
NONPUBLIC HOSPITAL AREAS. TURNING TO KCRA 3 WEATHER, NOW WITH A LIVE LOOK AT YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK FROM EL CAPITAN WEBCAM. IT’S LOOKING QUITE BEAUTIFUL OUT THERE RIGHT NOW, AND LET’S SEND IT OVER NOW TO L.A. TRACKING OUR FORECAST FOR THIS LAST DAY OF SUMMER. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE THERE FROM YOSEMITE. IT’S PRETTY HERE, TOO, IN DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO. NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY AS THE SUN IS NOW UP AND SHINING. TEMPERATURES 62 DEGREES RIGHT NOW IN SACRAMENTO. THE WINDS ARE CALM, SO IT’S A GREAT MORNING TO GET OUTSIDE FOR A LITTLE BIT. TAKING A LOOK AT THE SATELLITE RADAR IMAGERY HERE LOCALLY. NOT MUCH TO TALK ABOUT. JUST A LITTLE BIT OF THE MARINE LAYER ALONG THE COAST. AND THAT’S IT. NOW WE ZOOM OUT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE NATIONAL PICTURE. AND WE DO HAVE A LOT OF ACTIVE WEATHER. IN FACT, THUNDERSTORMS IN PARTS OF MICHIGAN STRETCHING DOWN INTO KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. WE HAVE ACTIVE WEATHER IN KANSAS, OKLAHOMA, AND EVEN THERE RIGHT ON THE BORDERLINE WITH TEXAS. THOSE SHOWERS STORMS MOVING THEIR WAY FURTHER TO THE EAST. AND THEN AS WE HEAD OVER TOWARD THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, YOU SEE THIS LINE OF SHOWERS THAT’S MADE ITS WAY THROUGH SEATTLE. IT’S CONTINUING TO PUSH ITS WAY INTO EASTERN WASHINGTON. NOW, PORTLAND STILL SEEING A LITTLE BIT OF SHOWER ACTIVITY. WE’VE EVEN SEEN A LITTLE BIT OF LIGHTNING RIGHT THERE ON THE IDAHO NEVADA BORDER. NOW LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE POTENTIAL FOR THUNDERSTORMS TODAY. SO THIS IS THE CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK PUT OUT BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. AND YOU SEE THE AREA IN YELLOW HERE DOWN TO NORTHERN TEXAS SOUTHERN OKLAHOMA. THAT’S A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE WEATHER. THE AREA SHADED IN GREEN. THAT’S WHERE WE’RE MOST LIKELY TO SEE THUNDERSTORMS TODAY. AND THAT DOES INCLUDE PARTS OF OUR AREA. BUT SPECIFICALLY MONO COUNTY. THAT’S WHERE WE HAVE THE BEST CHANCE TO SEE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TODAY. BUT WE CAN’T RULE THEM OUT IN PARTS OF ALPINE COUNTY AND AROUND LAKE TAHOE, ESPECIALLY ON THE EASTERN SIDE. BUT IT’S UNLIKELY. SO IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE BOATING TODAY, JUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE SOME SORT OF RADIO WITH YOU. KEEP AN EYE TO THE SKY. IF YOU SEE THOSE DARK CLOUDS GET TO SHORE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. NOW LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT FUTURECAST AND HOW WE EXPECT THINGS TO PLAY OUT. SO WE ARE GOING TO SEE A LOT OF SUNSHINE ACROSS THE VALLEY AND THE FOOTHILLS. TODAY. WE’LL SEE SOME CLOUDS STARTING TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN. AND THEN THOSE POTENTIAL FOR SHOWERS, MAYBE EVEN A FEW THUNDERSTORMS AROUND 3:00, 330. NOTICE THEY’RE POPPING UP AROUND MAMMOTH LAKES AND THEN AREAS FURTHER TO THE SOUTH. SAME THING. BISHOP COULD SEE A LITTLE BIT OF ACTIVE WEATHER OVER INTO INYO COUNTY AS WE GET INTO THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EVENING, BUT NOTICE HOW EVERYTHING IS GENERALLY STAYING SOUTH OF LAKE TAHOE. DOESN’T MEAN WE CAN’T SEE A STORM OR TWO IN LAKE TAHOE. IT’S JUST THE BULK OF IT IS GOING TO STAY FURTHER TO THE SOUTH. NOW THAT WINDS DOWN AND GET INTO THE OVERNIGHT TOMORROW, THE FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN, THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX TAKES PLACE AT AROUND 11:00 MONDAY MORNING WE’RE GOING TO SEE SUNSHINE THROUGHOUT THE DAY. NOW LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE SIERRA SEVEN DAY FORECAST. TODAY’S HIGH 72 DEGREES AGAIN. CHANCE FOR SHOWERS, BUT MAINLY SOUTH OF LAKE TAHOE. MONDAY AND TUESDAY. DRY AND THEN CHANCES FOR SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. NOW LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT SACRAMENTO SEVEN DAY FORECAST. TODAY’S HIGH 92. THAT’S FOUR DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. THE FIRST DAY OF FALL 9798 DEGREES ON TUESDAY. AND THEN THOSE TEMPERATURES RETURN TO NORMAL, SEEING HIGHS IN THE UPPER 80S WEDNESDAY AND INTO THE WEEKEND. WE WILL SEE A FEW EXTRA CLOUDS WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. RIGHT NOW IT LOOKS LIKE EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE CHANCES FOR RAIN IN THE SIERRA, IT LOOKS LIKE THE VALLEY AND THE FOOTHILLS WILL LIKELY STAY DRY. BUT THAT’S SOMETHING WE’RE GOING TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON AND WE’LL HAVE MORE UPDATES AS IT GETS A LITTLE BIT CLOSER. JUST GRATEFUL FOR TRIPLE DIGITS. I KNOW 77 IS HOT BUT COULD BE HOTTER. EXACTLY. WE HAVE SEEN TRIPLE DIGITS WELL INTO OCTOBER
Northern California forecast: Sunny in Valley and Foothills, possible showers in Sierra
Sunday brings sunny and warm weather to the Valley and Foothills, but any boaters and hikers in the Sierra should be prepared for possible showers.Sacramento is hanging onto the sunshine on the last day of summer, with a forecasted high of 92 degrees. The average high temperature for Sept. 21 is 88 degrees.Temperatures will climb into the upper 90s on Monday, the first day of fall. Temperatures are expected to remain around there Tuesday, before more clouds and cooler temperatures move in Wednesday. In the Sierra, there is a chance for showers and thunderstorms Sunday, but the best chances will be south of Tahoe, around Mono County. But boaters should have a NOAA weather radio handy or keep an eye on the sky just in case.Chances for thundershowers are also expected in the Sierra Wednesday through Thursday, and some of the showers could move into the Foothills. REAL-TIME TRAFFIC MAPClick here to see our interactive traffic map.TRACK INTERACTIVE, DOPPLER RADARClick here to see our interactive radar.DOWNLOAD OUR APP FOR THE LATESTHere is where you can download our app.Follow our KCRA weather team on social mediaMeteorologist Tamara Berg on Facebook and X.Meteorologist Dirk Verdoorn on FacebookMeteorologist/Climate Reporter Heather Waldman on Facebook and X.Meteorologist Kelly Curran on X.Meteorologist Ophelia Young on Facebook and X.Watch our forecasts on TV or onlineHere’s where to find our latest video forecast. You can also watch a livestream of our latest newscast here. The banner on our website turns red when we’re live.We’re also streaming on the Very Local app for Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV.
Sunday brings sunny and warm weather to the Valley and Foothills, but any boaters and hikers in the Sierra should be prepared for possible showers.
Sacramento is hanging onto the sunshine on the last day of summer, with a forecasted high of 92 degrees. The average high temperature for Sept. 21 is 88 degrees.
Temperatures will climb into the upper 90s on Monday, the first day of fall. Temperatures are expected to remain around there Tuesday, before more clouds and cooler temperatures move in Wednesday.
In the Sierra, there is a chance for showers and thunderstorms Sunday, but the best chances will be south of Tahoe, around Mono County. But boaters should have a NOAA weather radio handy or keep an eye on the sky just in case.
Chances for thundershowers are also expected in the Sierra Wednesday through Thursday, and some of the showers could move into the Foothills.
OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor has held many notable titles in tech. Katelyn Tucker/ Slava Blazer Photography
A.I. agents are the next big platform shift in tech, on par with the dawn of the internet 30 years ago and the rise of mobile apps a decade ago, according to OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, who also runs his own A.I. startup, Sierra. Speaking at the Skift Global Forum in New York City yesterday (Sept. 18), the tech executive argued that enterprises are now racing to adopt A.I. agents much like they once scrambled to build websites or launch mobile apps.
“I think this is an opportunity that, probably, the closest catalog would be the birth of the internet,” Taylor said during an onstage interview.
Taylor has seen several waves of disruption firsthand. At Google in the early 2000s, he helped launch Google Maps. He went on to serve as chief technology officer at Facebook (now Meta), co-CEO of Salesforce, and chair of Twitter’s board during Elon Musk’s tumultuous takeover. In 2023, he was tapped as chairman of OpenAI’s board after the ChatGPT-maker briefly ousted and reinstated CEO Sam Altman.
Now, his focus is on Sierra, the conversational A.I. startup he co-founded two years ago with former Google colleague Clay Bavor. The company has quickly become a “decacorn,” hitting a $10 billion valuation earlier this month after raising $350 million from Greenoaks Capital. Sierra already counts hundreds of enterprise customers across financial services, health care and retail. A fifth of Sierra’s customers have annual revenue over $10 billion.
Taylor insists that A.I. agents are more than just cost-cutting tools. Increasingly, they’re revenue drivers. Sierra’s platform is helping companies sell mortgages, make outbound sales calls and even manage payroll for small businesses. “These agents are not only doing services, but also doing sales,” he said.
And the form factor is evolving. While chatbots dominate today’s landscape, Taylor believes voice-enabled A.I. is “as, or more important, of a channel than chat.” Multi-modal agents are also emerging. For instance, retailers are beginning to process warranty claims by analyzing photos of damaged products.
Just as the internet gave rise to search engines and aggregation platforms, Taylor expects agentic A.I. to spawn entirely new business categories. The challenge will be ensuring that they meet consumer expectations as their desires inevitably evolve with the technology’s development. “Consumers are moving faster than most companies can make decisions,” Taylor warned, noting that ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history. “It’s on all of us leaders to push decisively towards this new world.”
A former lobbyist for Meta is now in charge of the EU’s chief regulator for big tech firms, . Niamh Sweeney has been named commissioner of the Data Protection Commission (DPC), which is one of the largest EU data protection authorities.
Prior to this, she worked at Meta for six years. Sweeney was director of European public policy at WhatsApp and head of Irish public policy at Facebook for many of those years. She becomes the third active commissioner of the regulatory body, joining Des Hogan and Dale Sutherland.
“As the responsibilities and scope of the DPC continue to grow, I am pleased that three commissioners will now lead and manage this key regulatory body,” said Ireland’s Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan.
The organization has welcomed Sweeney’s appointment, saying it looks forward to “working with her as the DPC continues to uphold the EU’s fundamental right to data protection.” However, this regulatory body is notorious to big tech, .
The country offers a low corporate tax rate and tends to be lenient . The DPC has developed a reputation for not actually calling on big tech companies to pay out fines for violating laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. As a matter of fact, the organization has only managed to collect around 0.6 percent of the .
Some of these violations were attributed to Meta itself. The company was fined nearly $300 million impacted Facebook accounts throughout the globe. Meta was after it was found to be storing passwords in plain text, which is a GDPR violation. Here’s hoping Sweeney is willing to step up against her old bosses.
A video of fishing vessels setting sail in northern China has been falsely shared in posts claiming it shows a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and pro-Palestinian activists to Gaza. An analysis found the footage does not correspond to pictures of the Global Sumud Flotilla.
“Global Sumud Flotilla is not a terrorist movement. It is a HUMANITARIAN MISSION!” reads part of the caption of a Facebook video shared on September 10, 2025.
The video, which has been viewed more than 3,300 times, shows clips of what appear to be hundreds of boats heading out to sea.
The caption adds the flotilla is not carrying any weapons, only food and aid.
It was shared after organisers of the Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists said one of their boats had been struck in a suspected drone attack off Tunisia’s coast on September 9, the second in 24 hours (archived link).
Tunisia’s interior ministry said it was launching an investigation into the “premeditated aggression” attack.
Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on September 12, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The video was also shared hundreds of times in similar Facebook, Instagram and TikTok posts.
The war erupted in October 2023, triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,871 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers to be reliable.
In August, as a result of the conflict, the UN officially declared famine in and around Gaza City, home to around a million people. Israel, however, denies the existence of famine in the coastal territory.
“On September 1 at noon, the summer fishing ban in Bohai and the Yellow Sea ended, fishing boats along the coast of Shandong province began setting sail at the same time,” reads the video’s simplified Chinese text.
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Global Times video (right)
Further reverse image searches led to similar clips published by Chinese state broadcaster CGTN’s affiliated Facebook account, China Plus Culture, in a September 3 post about the end of the four-month summer fishing ban (archived link).
“More than 30,000 fishing vessels departed from ports along the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, north of 35 degrees latitude, as the four-month summer fishing ban officially ended at noon on September 1, marking the start of a new season for thousands of coastal communities.” the post reads.
A closer inspection of the clips shows the boats are flying solid red-coloured flags resembling China’s national flag — not the black, white, and green Palestinian flag.
Screenshot of the falsely shared video with the flags on the boat magnified by AFP
Photos of the Global Sumud Flotilla taken by AFP while it was docked in Tunisia show the boats are adorned with Palestinian flags, unlike the vessels seen in the falsely shared video.
Boats, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla gather at the Tunisian port of Bizerte, ahead of the scheduled departure to the Gaza Strip to break Israel’s blockade on the Palestinian territory on September 13, 2025.
FETHI BELAIDAFP
FETHI BELAID / AFP
AFP has also debunked other false claims related to the war in Gaza.
John Colgan Cornelius City Council
https://www.corneliusor.gov/directory
CORNELIUS, Ore. — Cornelius City Councilor and Forest Grove School District middle school teacher John Colgan is now on paid administrative leave from his position at Neil Armstrong Middle School.
After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday in Utah, Colgan wrote on his personal Facebook page: “Hearing that Charlie Kirk got shot and died really brightened up my day. Nobody deserves it, but some are asking for it.”
His post was picked up and went viral and both of Cogan’s employers took notice and action. Each put out statements on Thursday, then on Friday the Forest Grove School District put Colgon on paid administrative leave and opened an investigation.
If you filed a claim in Facebook’s $725 million privacy settlement, you could get a payment within weeks, according to the settlement’s administrator.
Millions of consumers who used Facebook over a 15-year period were eligible to file a claim back in 2023, with the settlement stemming from multiple lawsuits filed against the social media platform by users who claimed the company improperly shared their information with third-party sources such as advertisers and data brokers.
The litigation was sparked by Facebook’s privacy scandal in 2018 with Cambridge Analytica, which scraped user data from the site as part of an effort to profile voters. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has denied any liability or wrongdoing under the settlement.
Here’s what to know about the payments.
How do I know if I’m getting a payment?
People who have been approved for a payment will receive an email from “Facebook User Privacy Settlement Administrator.” The email address is donotreply@facebookuserprivacysettlement.com.
The subject of the email is: Facebook User Privacy Settlement – Settlement and Distribution Status Update. The emails state that your claim has been approved, and includes your claim ID number.
When will the payment be sent?
The claim administrator says the company started sending out the payments in September, and that they will continue to be issued over the next the 10 weeks.
“You will receive an additional email notice approximately 3-4 days before your settlement payment is issued. Please continue to check your email during this time period,” read an email sent to an approved claimant on Sept. 9.
How much will I get?
A Sept. 5 court filing discloses that the average payment amount is approximately $29.43, with the maximum payout rising to $38.36.
Facebook users are receiving a portion of the $725 million after administrative costs and lawyers’ fees are paid out.
The payments are based on how many people filed claims, as well as how long each claimant was using Facebook during the 15-year period covered by the settlement.
Each claimant receives one “allocation point” for each month they had an “activated” Facebook account between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022. The settlement administrator adds up all the points assigned to all eligible claimants and then divides the net settlement amount by that number.
Because the payments are based on the number of points assigned to each claimant, people who were on Facebook for shorter periods of time are likely to receive a lower settlement amount. The maximum payment of $38.36 would be given to people who were on Facebook for the entire 15-year period covered by the settlement, the Sept. 5 document notes.
Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
Another TikTok video Degeling shared with WIRED showed a slow-motion, close-up angle of the bullet hitting Kirk’s neck. The tone of the video was conspiratorial: The user who uploaded it added spooky music and a digitally narrated voice, asking, “What is the black thing on his shirt and why did it move like this before he got shot?” As of Thursday morning, the video was still online. It had been up for eight hours and had more than 900 comments (with many saying the “black thing” was a microphone).
As of Thursday morning, on Instagram, a search for “Charlie Kirk shot” surfaced a close-up video of the incident as the first result. The video autoplays as a thumbnail, without warning. At the time of writing, the video had 15.3 million views.
Not only are the Kirk shooting videos spreading rapidly, but some are in clear violation of the platforms’ social media policies. For example, TikTok’s terms of use state that the company does not allow “gory, gruesome, disturbing, or extremely violent content.”
On other platforms, the Kirk video falls into a gray area. Meta’s overarching policy is to age-restrict certain content, require warning labels, and remove some graphic depictions of violence.
A spokesperson for Meta said that, per the company’s Violent and Graphic Content policies, it’s applying a “Mark as Sensitive” warning label to footage of the Kirk shooting, and are age-gating it to users 18 and older. The spokesperson also said that the company has 15,000 people reviewing content for Meta—though it did not say whether these are employees or contractors—and that it does not allow videos that glorify, represent, or support the incident or perpetrator.
Meta also states in its online Transparency Center that it does not allow content of “terrorist attacks, hate events, multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence, serial murders, or hate crimes perpetrator-generated content relating to such attacks; or third-party imagery depicting the moment of such attacks on visible victims.” Still, the widely circulated footage of Kirk being shot, for now, is allowable. It will get a warning label and be age-gated, but not removed from Meta platforms unless determined to be in clear violation of the “glorified content” policy.
X tells users that they “may share graphic media if it is properly labeled, not prominently displayed and is not excessively gory or depicting sexual violence.” The platform notes that content that is “explicitly threatening, inciting, glorifying, or expressing desire for violence” is not allowed.
Mahadevan, from the Poynter Institute, says that he saw the Kirk shooting video without his consent multiple times on X on Wednesday, likening it to a version of “4Chan turned into a mainstream social media platform.” (He also says he opened up Facebook on Thursday morning and immediately saw a video of Kirk being shot.)
X did not reply to requests for comment or questions about whether the Kirk video was considered “excessively gory” by X’s standards.
But X appears to have another content moderation problem: A few hours after Kirk was pronounced dead, the AI chatbot Grok, which runs on X, insisted that Kirk was “fine and active as ever.” X did not reply to further questions from WIRED about Grok’s misinformation about the Kirk shooting.
TikTok did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. Bluesky has said it’s suspending accounts that encourage violence and taking down close-up videos of the event.
For now, the videos of Charlie Kirk’s shooting continue to spread online.
“This is all psychologically damaging to our society in ways we don’t understand yet,” Mahadevan said. “We’re seeing posts on X of people saying, ‘Congratulations, you’ve radicalized me.’ And part of that is because they’re seeing the video of Kirk being killed. They’re not just reading about it. They’re actually seeing it.”
There are times when you may want to prevent videos and GIFs from automatically playing in your social media feeds. This could be because you’re trying to conserve cellular data, limit the addictiveness of these apps, or maintain better control over your viewing experience, as when a video is going viral that you don’t wish to see. Whatever the reason might be, here are the steps to turn off autoplaying videos and GIFs on popular social media platforms.
Facebook
To turn off autoplay on Facebook, navigate to your profile picture icon, which appears in the top right corner of the desktop version or in the bottom navigation bar of the mobile app. Then, scroll down to “Settings & Privacy,” then select “Preferences,” where you’ll find a menu option for “Media.” Within that menu, there is an option to toggle video playback in your Feed and in Stories. Select the “Never” option.
The quick path: Settings > Preferences > Media > Video Playback > Never.
Instagram
On the Instagram app, tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner. Once you’re on your profile page, tap the menu icon in the upper right corner of your screen (it’s the icon with three horizontal lines). Then, scroll to “Settings and activity,” then navigate to “Your app and media,” where you’ll find “Media quality.” From there, you can toggle on the option to “Use less cellular data.”
This isn’t as foolproof as a “don’t autoplay content” setting, but it will at least slow things down if you’re off Wi-Fi. Instagram also won’t autoplay sounds unless you click on a post with sound first.
The quick path: Profile > Settings and activity > Your app and media > Media quality > Use less cellular data.
X (Twitter)
On X, navigate to your profile picture in the top left to access the sidebar (on desktop, the sidebar is already visible). Then, select “Settings and privacy” — this will be in smaller font at the bottom of the menu on the app, and on mobile, you have to tap the three dots at the end of the list to bring up more options, which includes “Settings and privacy.” Next, scroll down to “Accessibility, display, and languages,” which will open another menu with a “Data usage” option, where you can turn off “Video autoplay.”
Techcrunch event
San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025
You can be extra thorough by navigating back to “Settings and privacy” and selecting “Display and sound.” There, you can toggle off “Media previews.”
The quick path: Settings and privacy > Accessibility, display, and languages > Data usage > Video autoplay, and Settings and privacy > Display and sound > Media previews.
Bluesky
Access Bluesky’s menu by tapping the three-line icon in the upper left corner of the mobile app, then choose “Settings” at the bottom of the list. On desktop, this menu is accessible via the sidebar. Select “Content and media,” which will display options that include “Autoplay videos and GIFs.” Toggle this option off.
The quick path: Settings > Content and media > Autoplay videos and GIFs.
Threads
Unfortunately, Meta’s two-year-old microblogging platform does not yet offer a way to turn off autoplay. Hopefully, that’s on the product roadmap.
Nepal has made a dramatic U-turn, reversing a social media ban imposed last week after the decision sparked nationwide “Gen Z” protests that reportedly left at least 19 people dead.
The ban, which blocked access to 26 platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X, was imposed following an August 25 directive requiring foreign social media companies to register their operations in Nepal and appoint a local contact within seven days. When most platforms failed to comply by the deadline, the government cut access last week.
Late on Monday, Nepal’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung told reporters that the government had revoked the social media ban in response to the public outrage.
Monday’s reversal came just hours after thousands of people, many of them students in school uniforms, flooded the streets across Nepal, demanding an end to the social media blackout. The youth-led protests escalated into violent clashes with security forces in several areas, resulting in the deaths of at least 19 demonstrators and leaving more than 100 others injured, according to local media reports.
In a statement late Monday, Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that the protests turned violent due to infiltration by certain elements, but that the government was never opposed to the demands of the new generation.
International organizations, including the United Nations and human rights groups such as Amnesty International, had earlier raised concerns about the ban and the government’s response to the protests.
“We call on the authorities to respect and ensure the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement on Monday.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025
Some platforms, such as TikTok and Rakuten Group-owned Viber, were not affected by the ban as the government stated they had already complied with the directive and registered locally.
The social media restrictions are part of a broader government effort to regulate digital platforms. Earlier this year, Nepal’s government faced widespread outrage over its proposed social media bill, which is still pending approval. The legislation includes provisions for imprisonment and fines for posts “deemed against national sovereignty or interest.” The proposal “threatens to severely undermine press freedom and digital expression,” the International Federation of Journalists said.
An Indiana attorney who shares his name with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social media giant keeps shutting down his accounts, and now he’s fighting back.
Mark S. Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy lawyer practicing in Indianapolis for nearly four decades, filed a lawsuit Sept. 2. against Meta after claiming Facebook repeatedly locked him out of his business and personal accounts because of his name.
The suit, filed in Marion Superior Court, accuses Meta of negligence and breach of contract.
Zuckerberg says his accounts have been suspended at least nine times in the past eight years, disrupting client communications and costing him thousands of dollars in lost advertising.
Zuckerberg said Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is in breach of contract because he paid for advertising on his Facebook business account(Mark.S. Zuckerberg/LinkedIn)
“It almost feels like they’re doing it to me on purpose, the number of times they’ve done it,” he told Fox News Digital.
“You would think a company that’s supposed to be cutting edge and so sophisticated would find a way to stop doing this.”
The lawyer insists his identity is genuine and even predates that of Meta CEO Mark Elliot Zuckerberg. Still, he claims Facebook continues to mistake him for an impersonator.
“I have sued Meta because they have turned off my business and personal accounts over nine times,” he said.
“I think they believe I’m impersonating their head honcho, Mark E. Zuckerberg.”
CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with representatives of social media companies at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday Jan. 31, 2024, in Washington, D.C.(Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
According to his lawsuit, Zuckerberg’s business account has been disabled five times, while his personal profile was suspended four times.
One recent suspension, he says, lasted more than four months despite repeated appeals.
Zuckerberg says the repeated mistakes have cost him. He estimates at least $11,000 in wasted advertising funds.
“It’s not fair that they will take my money, but then shut my account down,” he said.
“The first time they shut it down, I was down for at least six months. This time I was down four months and one day which equals lost business.”
On this day in history, Feb. 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg’s The Facebook launched for Harvard students(Taylor Hill/Getty Images/iStock)
The lawsuit seeks restoration and maintenance of his accounts, reimbursement for lost advertising, and attorney’s fees.
Zuckerberg insists he’d rather not be in this fight. But just last weekend, he says Facebook suspended an account tied to his sister’s Tampa homeowners association, again flagging his name as impersonation.
“Since my name is on my sister’s list, or at least they just suspended that account over the weekend, saying that I’m impersonating somebody,” he said.
“If Mark wants to fly here personally and say ‘I’m sorry’ or maybe let me spend a week on his boat, I’d probably take him up on that.”
A Meta spokesperson said “We looked into this quickly after receiving word of the lawsuit and have reinstated Zuckerberg’s account. Here is our statement:
We have reinstated Mark Zuckerberg’s account, after finding it had been disabled in error. We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s continued patience on this issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future.”
Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.
Federal immigration arrests in Colorado surged this summer as the Trump administration charged ahead with its plans to mass-deport undocumented immigrants.
But as arrests have spiked, law enforcement agencies increasingly have detained people without any prior criminal convictions or charges, internal data show.
Between June 11 and July 28, ICE arrested 828 people in Colorado, according to a Denver Post analysis of data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley. That amounted to more than 17 arrests per day, a more than 50% increase from the first five months of the Trump administration, through June 10, a period covered in a previous Post story. The rate from this summer was also more than five times higher than the daily arrest average from the same time period in 2024.
Of those detained over the summer, only a third had prior criminal convictions noted in the records. Another 18% had pending charges, indicating that nearly half had been neither convicted nor charged with a crime and that their only violation was immigration-related.
That, too, is a shift: In the earlier months of President Donald Trump’s second term, two-thirds of the 1,639 people arrested in Colorado had either been convicted of a crime (38%) or charged with one (29%).
“That tracks with what we would have expected (and) what we’ve been hearing from community sources,” said Henry Sandman, the co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “The data and the reality disproves ICE’s talking points that they’re going after criminals. We’re seeing tactics increase. They’re trying to increase arrest numbers as high as possible, whatever the reason may be for detaining folks.”
Steve Kotecki, a spokesman for Denver’s ICE field office, did not respond to a request for comment late last week.
The data, obtained directly from ICE by the UC Berkeley researchers through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, offers the clearest look at immigration enforcement activities available, as ICE doesn’t post recent information online. For this analysis, The Post examined arrests that occurred in Colorado; arrests that were listed in the dataset as occurring in Wyoming but which took place in a Colorado city; and arrests lacking a listed state but which occurred in a Colorado town or county.
The Post removed several apparent duplicate arrests and a similarly small number of arrests in the region that did not have a specific location listed. The analysis also included a handful of people who appeared to have been arrested twice in the span of several months.
When listing a detainee’s criminal background, the data provides no details about the criminal charges or prior crimes. Illegally entering the country is typically treated as a civil matter upon first offense, but a subsequent entry is a felony criminal offense.
More info about July operation
The newly released data includes the same nine-day period in July during which ICE has said it arrested 243 immigrants without proper legal status “who are currently charged with or have been convicted of criminal offenses after illegally entering the United States.” The arrests, the agency said, all occurred in metro Denver.
But the data published by the UC-Berkeley researchers does not fully match ICE’s public representations.
During the same time frame, the agency arrested 232 people, according to the data. Most of those arrested during that time had never been convicted or charged with a crime, at least according to what’s in the records. Sixty-six people had a previous criminal conviction, and 34 more had pending charges.
Kotecki did not respond to questions about the July operation.
The Post previously reported that ICE falsely claimed that it had arrested a convicted murderer in Denver as part of the July operation. The man had actually been arrested at a state prison facility shortly after his scheduled release, state prison officials said last month.
While ICE claimed the man had found “sanctuary” in the capital city — a shot taken at Denver’s immigration ordinances — The Post found that state prison officials had coordinated his transfer directly to ICE. He was then deported to Mexico, and information matching his description is reflected in the UC Berkeley data.
It’s unclear if all of ICE’s arrests are fully reflected in the data, making it difficult to verify ICE’s claims. The researchers’ data is imperfect, experts have told The Post. The records likely represent the merging of separate datasets before they were provided by the government, increasing the likelihood of mistakes or missing data.
Some arrests in Colorado were listed as occurring in other states or had no state listed at all. Other arrests were duplicated entirely, and researchers have cautioned that ICE’s data at times has had inaccurate or missing information.
The anonymized nature of the data, which lacks arrestees’ names but lists some biographical information, also can make it difficult to verify. When ICE announced the results of the July operation, it named eight of the people it had arrested. Court records and the UC Berkeley data appear to match up with as many as seven of them.
The eighth, Blanca Ochoa Tello, was arrested on July 14 by ICE’s investigative branch in a drug-trafficking investigation, court filings show. But it’s unclear if she appears in the ICE data, as she was arrested in La Plata County and no woman arrested in that county was listed in the data.
To verify ICE’s July operation claims, The Post examined arrest data in Colorado and Wyoming, which jointly form the Denver area of operations for the agency. The Post also searched for arrests in every other state to identify any arrests that may have occurred in a Colorado area but were errantly listed under other states.
Federal agents detain a man as he exits a court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on July 30, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Nationally, immigration authorities had their most arrest-heavy months this summer, according to data published by researchers at Syracuse University. Immigration officials arrested more than 36,700 people in June, its highest single-month total since June 2019, during Trump’s first term. More than 31,200 were arrested across the country in July.
The Trump administration has also set out to increase its detention capacity to accommodate the mass-deportation plans.
As of late July, ICE planned to triple its detention capacity in Colorado, according to documents obtained last month by the Washington Post. That plan includes opening as many as three new facilities and the expansion of Colorado’s sole existing facility in Aurora.
DHS officers watch from the parking lot as protesters gather at the entrance to the ICE Colorado Field Office on Aug. 30, 2025, in Centennial. (Photo By Kathryn Scott/Special to The Denver Post)
Over the course of this year, ICE arrested people in Colorado who were originally from more than 60 countries, according to the data. That included 10 Iranians arrested in late June or early July. Six of those people were arrested on June 22, the day after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Three more were arrested over the next 48 hours.
The vast majority of the undocumented immigrants who were arrested and deported were returned to their home countries, though roughly 50 were sent somewhere else, the data show. Nine Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, when alleged gang members were dispatched to a notorious prison there.
ProPublica identified roughly a dozen Coloradans who were sent to that prison. It reported that several were arrested in late January, which matches information listed in the ICE data published by UC Berkeley.
Advocates’ fears of continued arrests have escalated as ICE’s funding has surged. On Aug. 30, several immigration advocates picketed outside an ICE field office in Centennial after a number of immigrants received abrupt notices to check in at the facility.
Four people were detained, said Jordan Garcia, the program director for the American Friends Service Committee’s immigrant-rights program in Colorado.
Among them, he said, was an older Cuban man with dementia. Garcia and other advocates spoke with the man and his son before they entered the facility. The son later came out, Garcia said, and said that his father had been detained.
Thousands of young Nepalis have poured onto the streets of Kathmandu after the government imposed a sweeping ban on 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, X and WhatsApp. What began as an outcry over digital restrictions has escalated into the largest youth-led uprising the country has seen in years, fueled by broader frustrations over corruption and political dysfunction.
Protesters, many in their teens and 20s, rallied outside Parliament chanting slogans such as “Shut down corruption, not social media.” Demonstrators attempted to storm barricades near Singha Durbar, the government headquarters, prompting police to respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. Authorities later imposed a curfew across parts of the capital.
Casualty figures remain disputed. Local media have reported between two and eight deaths, while hospitals confirmed more than 80 people injured in clashes, including journalists caught in the crossfire.
The protests were triggered last week when Nepal’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology ordered platforms to suspend operations unless they formally registered under new regulations. Officials argued the ban was necessary to curb disinformation and protect national security. Critics, however, say the move is a thinly veiled attempt to stifle dissent and control online spaces heavily used by Gen Z.
Opposition parties have voiced support for the demonstrators, warning the government that the ban risks deepening instability. International human rights groups have also raised concerns about freedom of expression and access to information.
Whether the restrictions will hold remains unclear. Many Nepalis have already turned to VPNs to bypass the blocks, while organizers vow to continue street protests until the ban is lifted. For now, Kathmandu remains under tight security, with riot police stationed around major intersections and the city bracing for further unrest.
Like in other parts of South Asia, censorship is not new in Nepal. Earlier this year, Nepali auteur Deepak Rauniyar’s Venice-bowing “Pooja, Sir: Rajagunj” released in the country after a contentious battle with government censors that left the film with significant alterations.
The scenes in Nepal echo mass youth protests in neighboring Bangladesh last year, where students and young professionals mobilized against corruption, unemployment and government crackdowns. That movement, which paralyzed Dhaka for weeks, ultimately forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign after more than 15 years in power, reshaping the country’s political landscape and underscoring the rising influence of South Asia’s younger generations.
A shelter-in-place order in Champlin, Minnesota, is expected to be lifted Friday night after a reported stabbing prompted it, city officials said.
Officers responded to the incident on the 7100 block of 120th Avenue at 5:54 p.m. They requested the shelter-in-place order for anyone who lived within a 1-mile radius of Andrews Park “out of an abundance of caution” while they searched for the suspect, the city said in a Facebook post.
According to the city, the suspect and the victims know each other, though officials haven’t said whether anyone was hurt.
“As of 7:20 p.m., investigators believe the suspect has left the City of Champlin,” the Facebook post said.
The city said the shelter-in-place order would “be rescinded,” and that the investigation is ongoing.
Goose’s new gig: Animal sanctuary reveals new setup for infamous Webster water monitor
The water monitor lizard that went viral after escaping its home in Webster is getting a new gig.
According to the Rainforest Reptile Shows Facebook page, Goose is now living happily at the reptile sanctuary in Beverly.
“Once Goose has cleared quarantine, we’ll be hosting a special event in Webster, MA for the communities of Webster, Douglas, and the surrounding towns to meet him,“ the sanctuary wrote on Facebook.
Goose has had quite the journey since being reported missing nearly two months ago.
Goose gained quite a reputation around town and throughout parts of Massachusetts, even garnering the attention of a self-proclaimed reptile expert to make his way to Webster to locate the “little” guy.
“I do not believe this will ever be found,” said reptile expert Jean-Paul LaPierre. “I wouldn’t advise any to go out like I just did and walk around. You’re not going to find it.”
It sure seemed that way for a bit, despite multiple sightings of the lizard in Connecticut and in Douglas.
Goose was eventually captured by the Massachusetts Environmental Police, Webster Police Department, and Douglas PD in August.
Goose will soon have a new habitat at the RRS Oasis Animal Sanctuary, where people will be able to watch what he’s doing on a live stream.
