Facebook to tighten live stream access after mosque attacks
San Francisco: Facebook on Friday said it is tightening live video streaming rules in response to the service being used to broadcast deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand.
The Christchurch attacks -- carried out by a self-avowed white supremacist who opened fire on worshippers at two mosques -- claimed 50 lives.
Many people have "rightly questioned how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate horrific videos of the attack," chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an online post.
"In the wake of the terrorist attack, we are taking three steps: strengthening the rules for using Facebook Live, taking further steps to address hate on our platforms, and supporting the New Zealand community," she added.
Facebook is looking into barring people who have previously violated the social network's community standards from livestreaming on its platform, according to Sandberg.
The social network is also investing in improving software to quickly identify edited versions of violent video or images to prevent them from be shared or re-posted.
"While the original New Zealand attack video was shared Live, we know that this video spread mainly through people re-sharing it and re-editing it to make it harder for our systems to block it," Sandberg said.
"People with bad intentions will always try to get around our security measures." Facebook identified more than 900 different videos showing portions of the streamed violence.
The social network is using artificial intelligence tools to identify and remove hate groups in Australia and New Zealand, according to Sandberg.
Those groups will be banned from Facebook services, she said.
Facebook this week announce it would ban praise or support for white nationalism and white separatism as part of a stepped-up crackdown on hate speech.
The ban will be enforced starting next week on the leading online social network and its image-centric messaging service Instagram.
"It's clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services," the social network said in a statement.
Facebook policies already banned posts endorsing white supremacy as part of its prohibition against spewing hate at people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity or religion.
The ban had not applied to some postings because it was reasoned they were expressions of broader concepts of nationalism or political independence, according to the social network.
Facebook said that conversations with academics and "members of civil society" in recent months led it to view white nationalism and separatism as linked to organized hate groups.
People who enter search terms associated with white supremacy will get results referring them to resources such as Life After Hate, which focus on helping people turn their backs on such groups, according to Facebook.
Amid pressure from governments around the world, Facebook has ramped up machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for finding and removing hateful content.
"We are deeply committed to strengthening our policies, improving our technology and working with experts to keep Facebook safe," Sandberg said.
"We must all stand united against hate and work together to fight it wherever and whenever it occurs."
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SC rejects pleas of Anil Ambani challenging Bombay HC order on declaration of accounts as fraud
New Delhi (PTI): Observing that crores of public monies had been siphoned off, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed industrialist Anil Ambani's three separate pleas, challenging the Bombay High Court order that allowed the proceedings, initiated by banks against him and Reliance Communications Ltd to classify their bank accounts as fraud, to continue.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi permitted Ambani to pursue his plea before the high court's single judge bench against the banks' show cause notices to declare the accounts as fraud.
"Hard-earned public money to the tune of thousands of crores has been siphoned. Did you make good losses to banks and financial institutions," the bench said.
Ambani and the firm were represented by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Shyam Divan, who said the order would lead to the "civil death" of their clients.
Refusing to interfere with the February 23 order of the Bombay High Court's division bench, the SC said, "We see no ground to interfere with the judgment of the High Court (division bench). It is clarified that the observations of the Division Bench shall have no bearing in the pending suit. The (single judge bench) High Court is requested to expedite the disposal of the suit (filed by Ambani against the show cause notices issued by banks on move to declare the accounts as fraud)."
The bench requested the single judge bench to expeditiously decide Ambani's plea against the show cause notices issued by three banks.
The apex court passed the order while hearing three separate pleas filed by Ambani who had challenged a February 23 order of a division bench of the high court.
The division bench had quashed a single judge bench interim order that stayed proceedings initiated against him and Reliance Communications Ltd to classify their bank accounts as fraud.
The division bench allowed the appeals filed by three public sector banks and auditor firm BDO India LLP against the December 2025 interim order passed by a single bench.
The single judge bench order had stayed all present and future action by Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank, and Bank of Baroda, noting that the action was based on a legally flawed forensic audit and violated the Reserve Bank of India's mandatory guidelines.
Ambani challenged the show cause notices issued by Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI and Bank of Baroda before the single bench, seeking to declare his and Reliance Communications' accounts as fraudulent.
At the outset, Sibal said there was a question of law that must be decided. The bench said, "the matter pertains to siphoning of thousands of crores of public money," and any intervention at this stage would prejudice the ongoing investigation by probe agencies.
"Please go and raise all these issues before the high court … show cause notices have been issued. You have your own remedy against them...institutions have been duped crores of rupees," the CJI said, adding, "it's a case of siphoning off… We can't really express any opinion as we don't want to prejudice."
Sibal submitted that Ambani had conveyed his willingness to amicably resolve and settle all pending matters with the banks.
Earlier, the high court's division bench quashed the single bench order and termed it "illegal and perverse."
The banks had challenged a December 2025 single-bench order granting interim relief to Ambani and his company.
The order cited violations of mandatory RBI rules and a classic case of banks "waking up from deep slumber" after years.
The three banks in their appeal said the forensic audit, which led to accounts being classified as "fraud", was legally valid and based on serious findings of fund siphoning and misutilisation.
This was recorded in the report submitted by the audit firm BDO LLP, they contended.
The banks, in their plea, also said Ambani had raised a technical challenge to the forensic audit before the single bench.
Ambani, as an interim relief, sought a stay of the notices and an injunction against any coercive action on the ground that BDO LLP was not qualified to conduct the forensic audit as its signatory was not a chartered accountant.
BDO LLP is an accounting consultant firm and not an audit firm, Ambani claimed. The single bench agreed with Ambani and stayed the action by the banks.
