 Facebook has called out the Singapore government for its use of the country's Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) to block access to a page on the social networking platform. The move goes against an earlier pledge that the legislation will not be used to censor voices, says the US internet giant. Singapore's Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) on Monday instructed Facebook to block access to the States Times Review (STR) page after the latter repeatedly refused to comply with previous directives issued under POFMA. The "disabling" order, outlined under Section 34 of the Act, requires Facebook to disable access for local users. The order came two days after the ministry served a directive for the STR page on Facebook to be tagged a "Declared Online Location" (DOL). This required the author of the page, Alex Tan, to publish a notice on the page stating it had "a history of communicating falsehoods". The order, which was to take effect from February 16, was not complied with, prompting the directive for Facebook to block access to the page. The page is no longer accessible in Singapore. The STR had said on its Facebook page that it was "turning to YouTube for publication", due to a "censorship ban" in the country on its website. In response to ZDNet's queries, a company spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed Facebook was "legally compelled" to restrict access to the page, but expressed concerns about the use of POFMA to quash freedom of speech. The spokesperson said: "We believe orders like this are disproportionate and contradict the government's claim that POFMA would not be used as a censorship tool. We've repeatedly highlighted this law's potential for overreach and we're deeply concerned about the precedent this sets for the stifling of freedom of expression in Singapore." In defending the decision to issue the disabling order against the STR page, Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said the government needed to "act swiftly" against falsehoods amidst the coronavirus outbreak. "Because if we don't, then these falsehoods can cause anxiety, fear, and even panic," the minister said Tuesday during a media doorstop. When the STR did not comply with any POFMA directives, the government then issued a further direction--the disabling access order--to prevent Singaporeans from access the site, Iswaran said. The POFMA was passed last May, following a brief public debate, and kicked in on October 2 with details on how appeals against directives could be made. The bill had passed amidst strong criticism that it gave the government far-reaching powers over online communication and would be used to stifle free speech as well as quell political opponents. To learn more visit OUR FORUM. This is a visualization about Most Popular Operating systems (Windows) 2003 - 2020 | Most Popular OS (windows) 2003 - 2020. We have gathered data about the market share of Microsoft Windows and we have tried our best to visualize the most popular operating systems I.e the most popular OS in windows family. The market share of operating systems indirectly shows the popularity of operating systems, so we have sorted out the most popular windows operating systems by a percentage of market share that the particular operating system has. The market share of OS is equivalent to the usage of OS which means the operating system which has the highest percentage of market share is the most used OS worldwide and it is also be considered as the best operating system. Obviously the operating system (OS) which has the highest market share may be considered as the best operating system and most used OS too. Microsoft Windows, commonly referred to as Windows, is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families, all of which are developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. Active Microsoft Windows families include Windows NT and Windows IoT; these may encompass subfamilies, e.g. Windows Server or Windows Embedded Compact (Windows CE). Defunct Microsoft Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer (PC) market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. Apple came to see Windows as an unfair encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa and Macintosh (eventually settled in court in Microsoft's favor in 1993). On PCs, Windows is still the most popular operating system. However, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones. In 2014, the number of Windows devices sold was less than 25% that of Android devices sold. This comparison, however, may not be fully relevant, as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms. Still, numbers for server use of Windows (that are comparable to competitors) show one third market share, similar to that for end-user use. Learn more by visiting OUR FORUM.  Microsoft is officially killing Windows version 1809, better known as the October 2018 Update. The failed release will stop being supported starting May 12, 2020. Of Microsoft's litany of the recent update fails, the October 2018 Update stands out for its long delays and deadly bugs. Microsoft was so far behind with the update that it skipped the Release Preview phase altogether before launching in October 2018. It didn't take long for Microsoft's mistake to catch up to them. Shortly after its release, the update was determined to be permanently deleting users' files. Early adopters found that data had been removed from their Photos and Documents folders upon startup. The bug was so bad that Microsoft stopped rolling out the October update to investigate. A fix was found, but the issues were only getting started. The file deletion bug was the first in a series of headaches that ranged from driver compatibility to Intel processor problems. Microsoft has been patching Version 1809 since it released, with the latest fix arriving just last month. Now Microsoft is getting rid of the baggage it carried around last year by ending security updates for all editions of Windows 1809, including Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro for Education, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations and Windows 10 IoT Core. That shouldn't be a concern for most Windows 10 users considering Microsoft announced that it would start forcing people to upgrade past Windows 10 1809 to the latest Windows 10 November 2019 update. Still, some Windows 10 users are still clinging on to the troublesome update, perhaps out of fear of how bad the sequel could be. If you're one of those people, here are the steps you should take to keep your device safe. It's generally a good idea to keep your system up-to-date. Why? To ensure you're getting the latest security updates that fix any vulnerabilities in the operating system. That said, updates like 1809 show why you should probably wait for any bugs to be ironed out before installing a new update. With the Windows 10 October 2018 losing support, it's more important than ever that you update your system to the latest Nov 2019 version. Microsoft is going to force an update before May, but you should do it manually as soon as possible. Find out what you can do by visiting OUR FORUM. |
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