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Despite costing €9 million, the campaign has been slammed by art critics and government officials.For many, Botticelli’s Venus embodies the Renaissance ideal of beauty, but have you ever wondered what that might look like today? Italy’s ministry of tourism has launched a campaign that reimagines the iconic figure as an influencer—and it has been swiftly ridiculed on social media. “Hi there, everybody. My name is Venus,” the ad’s digitally altered protagonist announced on her Instagram. “But that’s something you probably already know. I’m 30, ok maybe just a wee bit more than that… And I am a virtual influencer. What...

The company plans to lay off employees on Wednesday ... In an internal memo posted to a Meta employee message board on Tuesday evening and viewed by Vox, the company told employees that the layoffs will start on Wednesday and will impact a wide range of technical teams including those working on Facebook, Instagram, Reality Labs, and WhatsApp. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the memo was sent to employees but declined to comment further. The cuts could be in the range of 4,000 jobs ... Meta employees in North America will be notified by email between 4 am to 5 am...

Donald Trump marked his return to Instagram after more than two years with posts promoting his line of NFT trading cards. The former president, who was previously suspended from Meta’s social media services following the Jan. 6 riot, celebrated his first post in 118 weeks by announcing a “SERIES 2” of his digital cards. The NFTs, which were launched as a “major announcement” in December, depict the 76-year-old as a cartoon cowboy, a sheriff, a race car driver and in other fantastical outfits. The first series of NFTs featured 45,000 cards, which sold out in a day and reportedly made...

A woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann will appear on a hit US TV show with millions of regular viewers. Julia Wendell, 21, has recorded the high profile interview with Dr Phil after she sensationally claimed she might be Madeleine McCann, the toddler who went missing in 2007 during a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Wendell, who is a Polish national, is waiting on the results of a 23 and me style genetic test and has submitted three different DNA samples which will help to determine where she is from, according to RadarOnline. A private investigator and claimed...

Sen. Chuck Schumer called on Fox News not to air a second night of January 6 surveillance footage after Tucker Carlson showed video of Capitol Police officers escorting “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley through the Capitol Building. Police have since released a statement saying they were doing their best to “de-escalate” the situation and prevent more rioters from entering the building — meaning they can’t refute what the video clearly shows. Elon Musk tweeted that “Chansley got four years in prison for a non-violent, police-escorted tour,” but Instagram has appended a note leading readers to “see why fact-checkers say this is...

New York magazine’s veteran art critic Jerry Saltz advised his social media followers to “shun” anybody who has voted for Republican political candidates — even if they are “friends and family.” “If you know anyone who voted Republican — including friends and family — you should shun them,” Saltz wrote on his Instagram page on Sunday. “No need to even tell them that you are no longer communicating with them or why,” Saltz wrote. “You own it [sic] yourself, to them, your country, and any idea of moral damage.” Saltz — who was responding to a post of an old...

Ben Savage, who starred in the 1990s sitcom "Boy Meets World," is running for U.S. Congress in a Los Angeles-area district, aiming at a seat being vacated by Representative Adam Schiff, who is now running for Senate. "I'm running for Congress because it's time to restore faith in government by offering reasonable, innovative and compassionate solutions to our country's most pressing issues," Savage, 42, said in an Instagram post announcing his campaign. Savage graduated from Stanford University with a degree in political science.

An Instagram influencer — and self-proclaimed “con artist” — flaunted her way to a federal guilty plea. Native New Yorker Danielle Miller, 32, admitted Monday the luxurious lifestyle she bragged about on TikTok and Instagram was funded with more than $1 million in stolen COVID-relief loans, federal prosecutors said. Miller pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $1.5 million in government funds by swiping the identities of more than 10 people, according to the the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. The Horace Mann graduate — who has more than 34,000 followers on Instagram — then brazenly publicized pricey items...

Chicago — Prosecutors say a Chicago man shot and killed his friend while the victim was on Instagram Live, then bent over with a gun in his hand to end the live stream. DeAndre Adams, 25, began streaming on Instagram around 9 a.m. on February 7 and continued while walking to his mother’s house to do laundry. His friend, Edwin Sims, 24, met him at his mother’s house and walked with him back to Adams’ apartment as the live stream continued, according to prosecutor Anne McCord. ... Judge William Fahy granted the state’s motion to hold Sims without bail.

The Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, the last such store in America, is planning to run an ad during the Super Bowl.Instead of buying ad time during the TV broadcast, however, the proprietors of the Bend Blockbuster will stream the spot on Instagram, and also play it via a VHS tape at a watch party being held at the store, according to Ad Age. Afterwards, the VHS will be available for rent for $2 a day.“We are doing a fun, retro-style commercial that we will be releasing during the Big Game. We are featuring it during halftime in the store and...

Former President Donald Trump can now post on Facebook and Instagram after having his accounts restored by Mark Zuckerberg and the Masters of the Universe.The Hill reports that Facebook has agreed to restore former President Trump’s accounts across the platform. Former President Trump was suspended across all Facebook platforms following the events of January 6th at the Capitol in Washington, DC.Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram have now been restored, according to a spokesperson for the company, who cited a statement from January 25 that said that the account would be restored in the “coming weeks.” Trump still has a...

Takeaways * We will be ending the suspension of Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. * We’ve put new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses. * The public should be able to hear what politicians are saying so they can make informed choices.Social media is rooted in the belief that open debate and the free flow of ideas are important values, especially at a time when they are under threat in many places around the world. As a general rule, we don’t want to get in the way of open, public and democratic debate on...

A German woman is accused of murdering a lookalike she found on Instagram in an elaborate attempt to fake her own death. The alleged perpetrator — identified only as 23-year-old Sharaban K. — killed beauty blogger Khadidja O., also 23, in Ingolstadt, Germany last August, according to investigators. Khadidja O. had been brutally stabbed more than 50 times, with her body left on the back seat of Sharaban K.’s Mercedes. Sharaban K. and an accomplice — identified as her boyfriend Sheqir K.— subsequently went into hiding. When the body was found, police traced the car’s registration to Sharaban K.’s family....

Meta will be ending former President Trump's suspension across its platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, "in the coming weeks," according to a blog post from the company. In a blog post on Wednesday, Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, said that Trump's suspension on both Facebook and Instagram will be lifted. "To assess whether the serious risk to public safety that existed in January 2021 has sufficiently receded, we have evaluated the current environment according to our Crisis Policy Protocol, which included looking at the conduct of the US 2022 midterm elections, and expert assessments on the...

In a strange turn of events, Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis has deleted an Instagram post after followers noticed a photo in the background depicting a naked child stuffed in a box, with some commenters comparing the apparent artwork to Jeffrey Epstein. Jamie Lee Curtis, who endorsed Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential run and is currently attracting Oscar buzz for her performance in the sci-fi comedy-adventure Everything Everywhere All at Once, shared a photo of her Comet Productions office on Instagram on Tuesday. While the actress drew attention to the designer office furniture, a photo hanging on the wall ended up...

EXCLUSIVE: Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday told Fox News Digital that Facebook "needs us more than we need them," but confirmed that his campaign is working to set up a meeting to discuss his reinstatement to the platform with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ahead of the 2024 election cycle. Trump, who announced his 2024 presidential campaign in November, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Facebook has "lost $700 billion since I was de-platformed." "It has been considered a major business mistake for them, Twitter, and others," he said. "If they took us back, it would help...

Two weeks before the slayings of four University of Idaho students last November, the man now accused of killing them sent a series of messages to one of the victims on Instagram, an investigator familiar with the case tells PEOPLE.

New documents reveal how the United States government used a secret Twitter portal to censor COVID-19 content that contradicted the government’s narrative. In its ongoing probe into Twitter’s censorship practices, America First Legal has obtained a fourth set of documents (pdf) exposing a secret Twitter portal, which U.S. government officials used to censor dissenting COVID-19 views in violation of the First Amendment. It’s a revelation Elon Musk described as “extremely concerning.” The documents reveal that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was collaborating with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and Mafindo to mitigate “disinformation.” Mafindo is a Facebook...

The man who shot Lady Gaga´s dog walker and stole her French bulldogs last year took a plea deal and was sentenced to 21 years in prison on Monday, officials said. James Howard Jackson, one of three men and two accomplices who participated in the violent robbery, pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Jackson and others drove around Hollywood on Feb. 24, 2021 'looking for French bulldogs,' prosecutors said previously. They found Lady Gaga's dog walker, Ryan Fischer, 41, with the pop star's three pets named Asia, Koji...

A Florida man who went viral for a mugshot featuring his unusually large neck is behind bars again – this time on a stalking charge. Charles McDowell, 35, of Pensacola, Florida, was booked into the Escambia County Jail Sunday on charges of aggravated stalking and withholding child support. McDowell allegedly showed up at a woman's home on August 24 and sent her threatening text messages, according to local outlet WEAR-TV. McDowell gained internet fame in 2018 when he was arrested on multiple drug charges. His mugshot went viral with hundreds of thousands of comments and shares due to his unusually...