Facebook will start to reduce the amount of political content a small segment of its users see, the social media platform announced on Wednesday.
The site was under fire in recent weeks after far-right groups in the US used the platform to mobilise and plan attacks on the US Capitol on January 6.
The company said it was looking for ways to improve its news feed function to better allow for users to receive the posts they wanted.
"Over the next few months, we'll work to better understand peoples' varied preferences for political content and test a number of approaches based on those insights," said Aastha Gupta, the company's product management director.
Users in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia will be the testing sites for Facebook's trials, with the US to follow in the coming weeks.
"During these initial tests we'll explore a variety of ways to rank political content in people's feeds using different signals, and then decide on the approaches we'll use going forward," Ms Gupta said.
In the aftermath of the US Capitol riot Facebook started to clamp down on some groups. It banned the hashtag #stopthesteal, which had been used by rioters. It also blocked several controversial accounts, including that of former president Donald Trump.
But a recent study by Tech Transparency Project, a Washington-based organisation that holds large technology companies to scrutiny, found the social media site was still allowing far-right groups to gather under the banner "Patriot Party".
Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hinted at the end of January that changes would be coming to reduce political content. But it was unclear what those changes would look like.
In the US, political posts make up about 6 per cent of what people see on their timeline, the company said.
The company already has features in place to help users manage what they see, including a snooze function to temporarily hide posts from people or groups.
"But we're always trying to make News Feed better, and this means finding a new balance of the content people want to see," Ms Gupta said.
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Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
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Director: Christian Schwochow
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Rating: 3/5
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Power 192hp @ 5,000rpm (X2); 355hp @ 5,500rpm (X3)
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Transmission: Seven-speed automatic (X2); Eight-speed automatic (X3)
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Dubai World Cup draw
1. Gunnevera
2. Capezzano
3. North America
4. Audible
5. Seeking The Soul
6. Pavel
7. Gronkowski
8. Axelrod
9. New Trails
10. Yoshida
11. K T Brave
12. Thunder Snow
13. Dolkong
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ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
Read more about the coronavirus
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
