Latest News from Pakistan News Express
Eighteen passengers were killed and several others injured when a speedy passenger coach fell into a deep gorge near Palandri, in Azad Kashmir on Wednesday.
In a statement, Deputy Commissioner Rawalakot said that the ill-fated bus was going from Baloch Tehsil to Rawalpindi.
Rescue teams and ambulances reached the site and shifted the dead bodies and injured to a nearby hospital.
Source: Radio Pakistan
WhatsApp has been working on major features for the chatting app for a long time, but there may be some quality of life changes coming soon. The latest beta version of WhatsApp reveals that we may get a new feature for user convenience.
According to the latest report from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp may increase the time window you have for deleting messages for everyone. Currently, you can only delete messages for everyone in a chat within a limited time frame, but this limit may be extended soon.
The screenshot from WABetaInfo shows that a message from more than two months ago is still deletable, which is something you couldn’t do before. It is unclear how long the new time limit for deleting messages will be, but it will certainly be longer than two months.
It is also possible that WhatsApp is completely removing the time limit, but that seems unlikely. We will have to wait and see until the stable update is released. It is also unclear whether messages before the update will be deletable or only the ones after it.
Speaking of the update, it will likely be released soon as it is a small feature only, unlike multi-device support which has been in the works for ages. It will roll out to beta testers first before becoming public.
Source: Pro Pakistani
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) would consider withdrawing the ban on TikTok in Pakistan if the social media application develops an acceptable mechanism for content moderation in line with local laws and societal norms.
This was revealed by senior government officials while talking to a correspondent here on Wednesday. The officials confirmed that the ban on Tik Tok would remain intact till the video-sharing platform comes up with an acceptable solution for content moderation.
TikTok Head of Public Policy-Emerging Markets and Head of Global CSR, Helena Lersch, along with her team visited PTA Headquarters. The team held a detailed meeting with Chairman PTA in order to have meaningful engagement with PTA with respect to content moderation in line with local laws and societal norms. Sources said that PTA conveyed its concerns while observing that with rapid spread, the violations of local norms and laws of the land was increasing.
During the meeting, TikTok senior representative highlighted various initiatives being taken along with future strategy and investment in the local market for ensuring safe, productive, informative, and legitimate content to Pakistani users.
Chairman PTA, while acknowledging the efforts of TikTok, assured to continue engagement with TikTok to reach a mutually acceptable mechanism for the provision of safe, lawful, and productive internet experience to the users in Pakistan.
Sources said that the visit was due for the last over one year but delayed due to COVID-19 and some other matters, however, PTA appreciated the TikTok leadership visit to Pakistan and discussed the outstanding matters.
The video-sharing platform is currently blocked in Pakistan. The first time the app was banned in Pakistan was in October 2020. According to the telecom regulator, the decision was taken over complaints regarding indecent and immoral content.
In July, the PTA had again blocked access to TikTok for its failure to take down inappropriate content.
TikTok has stated that Pakistan ranked second in the world for the largest volume of videos (9,851,404) taken down for violating community guidelines in the second quarter of the current year.
TikTok stated the latest Community Guidelines Report demonstrates that 93 percent of videos were removed within 24 hours of being posted for violating Community Guidelines and 94.1 percent before a user reported them
With 9,851,404 videos removed, Pakistan ranked second in the world for the largest volume of videos taken down for Community Guidelines violations in Q2 2021
TikTok also introduced enhanced mute settings for comments and questions during live streams, where creators can temporarily mute select viewers for a few seconds or the entire LIVE duration.
Looking more closely at the findings, 73.3 percent of content promoting harassment and bullying videos and 72.9 percent focused on hateful behavior videos were removed prior to being reported, a significant increase from the 66.2 percent and 67 percent respectively, from the first quarter of this year. The improvement stems from the pioneering combination of technology and content moderation by a dedicated investigations team used to identify videos that violate policies. To better enforce these policies, moderators also receive regular training to identify content featuring reappropriation, slurs, and bullying.
Source: Pro Pakistani
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is going through its biggest organizational restructuring in history. The Chinese conglomerate will split into 6 different business units as CFO Shou Zi Chew is stepping down from his role to solely focus on being TikTok’s CEO.
The news comes from an internal memo the company shared with Reuters.
These six business units will include TikTok, Douyin (Chinese variant of TikTok), Nuverse (video game publisher), Lark (work tool), BytePlus (business services), and Dali Education (Chinese education app).
The TikTok unit, as the name says, will work on the operations of the social media platform and its expansion into the global e-commerce market. Meanwhile, the company’s video streaming platform Xigua and the news aggregator Toutiao will become a part of the Douyin business unit.
As mentioned earlier, this is the biggest reshuffle in ByteDance’s history ever since the co-founder and former CEO Zhang Yiming stepped down in May this year.
Zhang will remain the chairman of the company with 50% of the voting rights but former CFO Shou Zi Chew will be taking his role as the new TikTok CEO in December. According to ByteDance, this new business model should improve the internal workings of the company with different teams working on different business units.
Source: Pro Pakistani
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has extended the last date for application submission for HEC Commonwealth Scholarship Program by a week.
Previously, 1 November 2021 was the last date to apply for the scholarship, which has now been extended till 7 November 2021.
Students who aspire to study in the United Kingdom (UK) can grab this opportunity provided under the Commonwealth Scholarships for Masters and PhD programs.
While announcing the extension of the deadline, HEC advised aspiring candidates to submit their applications at the earliest without waiting for the last day.
Funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in September 2021, the PhD scholarship allows talented and motivated students who could not otherwise afford to study abroad, get a chance to pursue their higher studies in UK universities.
Programs Offered
The official website of the program says that the scholarships are offered in the following areas:
Science and technology for development
Strengthening health systems and capacity
Promoting global prosperity
Strengthening global peace, security, and governance
Strengthening resilience and response to crises
Access, inclusion, and opportunity
Eligibility criteria
According to the official website, aspirants for a Master’s degree in the UK need to fulfill these requirements:
Be a citizen of or have been granted refugee status by an eligible Commonwealth country, or be a British Protected Person
Be a permanent resident of an eligible Commonwealth country
Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the academic year in September 2022
By September 2022, hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) honors standard, or a second class degree (2:2) and relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master’s degree). The CSC would not typically fund a second UK Master’s degree. If you are applying for a second UK Master’s degree, you will need to justify why you wish to undertake this study
NOT be registered for a Ph.D., or an MPhil leading to a Ph.D., at a UK university or in your home country before September/October 2022
Be unable to afford to study in the UK without this scholarship
Have provided all supporting documentation in the required format
How to Apply for Master’s and PhD programs
The Commonwealth Scholarships do not accept direct applications. Therefore, interested students may visit the following bodies for applying for the scholarships:
National nominating agencies – this is the main route of application
Selected universities/university bodies, which can nominate their own academic staff
Selected non-governmental organizations and charitable bodies
Applicants must check with the nominating body for their specific advice and application rules, their own eligibility criteria, and further details to complete the process.
Deadline to apply: 07 November 2021
For further details, you can visit the official website of the Commonwealth Scholarship program.
Source: Pro Pakistani