Category: News

Facebook Messenger has added a cool new feature to its platform. People will soon be able to select content from Facebook Watch, the social network’s video hub.

According to CNET, Facebook said Monday that people who make video calls on Messenger or use its videoconferencing tool Messenger Rooms would be able to watch videos together with their friends and family on their smartphones in real-time.

Another great option of this new feature is that Facebook users can select videos and shows to view through the social network’s video hub, known as Facebook Watch. The feature, called Watch Together, will be rolling out globally on Android and Apple mobile devices, Facebook said.

How to Watch Videos Together on Facebook?

When on a video call on any of Facebook’s messaging apps (Facebook, Messenger Room, or hangout), any participant can choose a clip from Facebook’s video catalog — the shows and other content you’d normally find in the “Watch” tab —, and it will play for everyone in the call. It doesn’t, however, support YouTube or videos from other streaming sites, so your viewing options will be somewhat limited (though Facebook says it’s adding some new content to coincide with the feature’s launch).

The Facebook Watch video hub includes long and short videos, and they don’t require a subscription to view. Still, the company faces competition from other popular video apps, such as YouTube and TikTok.

Alain Cocq, who is a 57-year-old man Alain Cocq who suffers from an incurable illness, planned to broadcast his death, which ultimately got blocked by Facebook.

Alain Cocq has a medical condition that causes his arteries to stick together and stopped all food and drink as of Friday night. He has used his condition to try to bring about changes to France’s right-to-die law and announced he would live-stream his death on Facebook. He said he believed he would die in less than a week and would broadcast his death from Saturday morning from his home in Dijon, northeast France.

“The road to deliverance begins and believe me, I am happy,” he wrote in a post announcing he had “finished his last meal”.

Why Facebook blocked Alain’s live streaming?

As we all know by now, Facebook has been acting very strict about the content users share to this platform, and it watches after the shared content more than ever, saying it is trying to protect the platform from harmful content.  

Facebook said in a statement:

“While we respect Alain’s decision to draw attention to this important issue, we are preventing live broadcasts on his account based on the advice of experts that the depiction of suicide attempts could be triggering and promote more self-harm.”

The 57-year-old had said he would Livestream his death on Facebook from Saturday morning. After Facebook blocked it, he said a new means of live streaming would be set up within 24 hours.

In France, euthanasia is illegal, and French law prohibits deep sedation that renders a patient unconscious until their death except under specific circumstances. However, French citizens can decide to cease medical treatment, and French law has no provision to prosecute people for suicide, according to CNN.

According to Agence France-Press, Cocq said he would seek another way to post his live stream video after learning Facebook had blocked his attempt.

The very fresh Facebook news tab, which was rolled out in the US just a few weeks ago, has seen lots of good feedback, and users seem to like the feature. That’s what has made Facebook want to take the feature to more countries.

Facebook has today announced plans to expand the News tab to ‘multiple countries within the next six months to a year’.

Which countries are going to get the Facebook news tab feature?

As Facebook has announced on its official blog post, Based on this progress, Facebook is accelerating its plans to expand internationally. It aims to launch Facebook News in multiple countries within the next six months to a year and is considering the UK, Germany, France, India, and Brazil. In each country, Facebook will pay news publishers to ensure their content is available in the new product.

 As you have surely noticed, Australia is missing from the list of the countries which are going to get the feature soon, and The Verge has clarified the reason. 

Notably absent from the list of possible countries that would receive the News tab next is Australia, which recently unveiled plans to compel tech platforms to help pay for the free content they disseminate. France, which is on Facebook’s list of possible future News targets, ordered Google to pay for content from French publishers in April.

In Tuesday’s announcement, company vice president of global news partnerships Campbell Brown says the News content may vary by country to keep pace with consumer habits. “We’ll work closely with news partners in each country to tailor the experience and test ways to deliver a valuable experience for people while also honoring publishers’ business models,” Brown wrote.

There are plenty of reasons for news publishers in the US and elsewhere to be wary of Facebook’s news efforts. Its News Feed algorithm and ad business have proven devastating for the industry, particularly for local news publishers. And its track record on the news is littered with failures, including the infamous “pivot to video” movement of the early and mid-2010s, with publishers pouring resources into video production seeking to benefit from Facebook’s video platform. “Pivot to video,” however, has become a catchphrase meaning “short-sighted failure,” because it turned out Facebook had juiced the metrics. And of course, there’s the debacle of the 2016 election cycle, which resulted in Facebook removing its Trending Topics section amid accusations it was biased against conservative media.

What the regulatory environment will look like for Facebook and other social media platforms six months to a year from now is anyone’s guess, and it may depend, at least in the US, on the outcome of the November presidential election. Until then, it appears Facebook is holding its cards close to the chest.