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Facebook is letting people hide their money to avoid paying tax and authorities around the world are struggling to play catch up.

Two Australian-based researchers say its an international phenomena across multiple social media platforms, and it has stumped government agencies like the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) even those with sophisticated tax-detection systems.

The loophole means nations around the world are losing millions of dollars in revenue that could otherwise be pumped back into the community.

Selling an old dog kennel or last seasons clothing on Facebook Marketplace could be considered the online equivalent of a garage sale or a modern-day Trading Post.

But instead of receiving a few coins in a bucket, or cash in hand, the profit is transferred through Facebook Pay (yet to be introduced into Australia) into the sellers account within 24 hours.

All from the comfort of home and with the touch of an iPhone button.

Sounds good, right? Well, not for everyone, apparently.

Its become clear that some users activity is more akin to a business not just an occasional sale after a spring clean as, for example, they make frequent transactions and move high volumes of stock.

Tax authorities cant trace the money thats being transferred, just like they cant see cash exchanging hands, said Dr Eva Huang from the University of Sydney.

Right now, most countries are losing millions of dollars in tax because of social networking tools, she told The New Daily.

Her PhD student Xi Nan, who has also been researching the issue, said there are many sellers without a registered business using social payment options like Facebook Pay to earn revenue.

The hidden economy problem has worsened during COVID-19, Ms Xi said.

It could be the person selling masks via Facebook or home-made food via WeChat groups. Seemingly innocent except in some cases its actually business set up to bypass tax law, not a helpful local making a few dollars from their hobby.

Even a platform like Instagram where people cant send or receive money is still being used to hide income.

Dr Huang and Ms Xi uncovered a trend in which users trying to sell something on Instagram will mention in their post a way for buyers to connect with them on another social networking site that enables transactions to be made.

They detailed their findings in a working paper seen by The New Daily.

The pair conducted a study that assessed 2229 Instagram posts with the hashtag #lipstick and found almost a quarter were related to hidden economy transactions and thereby resulting in tax evasion.

As to how big a problem social media is in enabling tax evasion in Australia, Dr Huang said it is too big for me to tell you how big it is.

Because it affects so many countries we dont even know how much of that is [occurring in] Australia, she said.

The in-chat payment feature on Facebook is just one of many social networking apps with a digital wallet function that allows unregistered sellers to hide from tax authorities.

Others include WeChat Pay on WeChat, LINE Pay on LINE and WhatsApp Pay on WhatsApp.

Users are generally required to link their credit or debit card with their digital wallet to use the payment transfer function.

Money is transferred from the buyers digital wallet to the sellers digital wallet, and then to the sellers account via the card.

At this stage, the tax authorities in many countries may face technical difficulties and high compliance costs to achieve the detection on social media platforms, Ms Xi said.

For example, will the social media platform be willing to undertake the joint obligation to report suspicious sellers or account users to the tax office?

Therefore, there are many unregistered sellers who deliberately do not declare the revenue on their tax return as it is not obvious to the tax authority how that money was made, Ms Xi said.

That is another big challenge facing tax authorities (aside from detecting the digital footprints); determining if the income is taxable, she said.

It comes down to the fact that social networks werent designed for commercial purposes, meaning that even if tax authorities begin detecting the money transfers, they will have a hard time differentiating if it was for social or commercial reasons.

For cross-border transactions, Ms Xi said sellers and buyers will always choose to state the parcels are for personal use because governments usually impose tax rates on parcels for commercial purposes.

The indirect taxes are evaded due to the manipulation of the courier statement, she said.

The sellers can also create an offshore bank accounts to receive income from sales, she added.

For some countries like China under a schedular income tax system Australia is under a global income tax system the income tax is levied on particular categories of income stipulated by the taxation law, Ms Xi said.

The ATO maintains its data-matching analysis and forensic capabilities are very sophisticated.

But when it came to questions about tax evasion and social media, the office had nothing to say.

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Virtual tax havens: How social media platforms are helping tax dodgers hide their loot - The New Daily

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google had roles as gatekeepers in common and controlled prices and the distribution of goods and services, the report said. That made third-party businesses like app developers on Apples App Store and sellers on Amazons marketplace beholden to the companies demands, the report said. The word monopoly appeared in the report nearly 120 times.

With no restrictions of tech companies to own and compete on their own platforms, which are the only options for so many small businesses, it takes away any real sense of competition, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat of Washington, who has been a vocal critic of Amazon.

Even without full bipartisan support, the report sets important groundwork, said Gene Kimmelman, a former senior antitrust official at the Justice Department. He said the breakup of AT&T in the 1980s was supported by policies set forth by Congress. Tuesdays report, he said, was the foundation for legislation and regulation that enables antitrust cases against Google, Facebook and others to actually break markets open to more competition.

Google disputed the findings and said its free service had been a boon to consumers. Googles free products like Search, Maps and Gmail help millions of Americans, the company said in a statement, and weve invested billions of dollars in research and development to build and improve them. We compete fairly in a fast-moving and highly competitive industry.

Amazon said the committees recommendations could end up harming small businesses and consumers.

The flawed thinking would have the primary effect of forcing millions of independent retailers out of online stores, thereby depriving these small businesses of one of the fastest and most profitable ways available to reach customers, Amazon said in a blog post. Far from enhancing competition, these uninformed notions would instead reduce it.

Apple vehemently disagrees with the conclusions in this staff report, the company said in a statement. The App Store has enabled new markets, new services and new products that were unimaginable a dozen years ago, and developers have been primary beneficiaries of this ecosystem, the company said.

Facebook disagreed that its mergers with Instagram and WhatsApp were anticompetitive. We compete with a wide variety of services with millions, even billions, of people using them, the company said in a statement. Acquisitions are part of every industry, and just one way we innovate new technologies to deliver more value to people.

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House Lawmakers Condemn Big Techs Monopoly Power and Urge Their Breakups - The New York Times

QAnon has been named one of the largest extremism networks in the United States. The conspiracy theory, which began as a claim that President Trump (and Robert Mueller) were saving the world from cannibal pedophiles, grew out of 4chan message boards. Now its gone mainstream and its reaching moms and Instagram health gurus.

The group is reportedly led by Q, a so-called Trump insider who makes anonymous online postings. Followers of QAnon believe a lot of things but it boils down to a central message: Trump controls everything. Its been embraced by the president and numerous politicians, but it has faced growing criticism about its presence online.

Boasting millions of devoted followers on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, theres been little oversight by tech companies on regulating QAnon. The theory is also a major driver in misinformation, particularly about the 2020 election. Members of Congress have condemned the movement on Capitol Hill and in legislation, saying more needs to be done to address moderating its internet reach.

Facebook announced in October that it was banning the group from its platform, but its unclear how well the social networking site will enforce its new rules. Some civil rights groups claim Facebooks actions compromise free speech; government agencies, meanwhile, have shown QAnon has been linked to real-world violence.

Social media algorithms, like Facebooks, make QAnon-related content easily accessible for people who are dedicated followers or just simply curious. Before people know it, users can find themselves down a rabbit hole. All it takes is one click.

Follow this storystream for all of Voxs QAnon coverage and updates.

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What is QAnon? The conspiracy theory, explained. - Vox.com

World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10 to increase awareness about mental health issues. So, here are the positive and adverse effects of social media on our mind explained by psychiatrist Sonal Anand from Wockhardt Hospital.

World Mental Health Day is celebrated on October 10 annually to increase awareness amongst people globally against mental health problems. So, on this day, Dr Sonal Anand, Psychiatrist at Wockhardt Hospital, Mira Road, shares some positive and negative impacts of social media on our cognitive health.

The influence of social media is such that there is rarely anyone who hasnt been able to form a view and judgement of it whether positive or negative. Internet and social media usage have definitely changed brain cognition. Whereas on the positive side, we have seen better means of expression, positive changes in social acceptance, new skill development and overall progress and on the negative many perils and problems.

World Mental Health Day 2020: What are the impacts of social media on our mental health?

Positive impacts of social media

Research is still going on as to how the brain is changing in structure and cognition due to the usage of screens. We know for sure that the brain is adaptable to continuous external stimuli and learning new experiences so it wont come as a surprise that our mindset and behaviour is influenced by social media and social networking usage. The number of likes and positive comments that we get activate the reward centre of the brain and hence addiction becomes highly likely.

Social media for our development

Communication is the key area in which social media has exerted a very heavy and positive influence. With just a tap, you can join a community with similar and sometimes revolutionary views. This can be an advantage for introverts or people with lesser opportunities and marginalised individuals. Having a platform to express oneself without any boundaries can open whole new ways of thinking and creativity. Learning new skills and the variety of choices promotes self-worth and development.

Social media for sharing emotional problems

Social media makes it easy to find new friends, easy means of connectivity and new ways of social development. Sharing emotional problems online has helped many individuals who were otherwise cocooned into their own shells. A wave of change in some redundant and unfair social patterns has been seen because of the positive influence of social media. Taking part in such movements gives the individual a feeling of being an integral part of social change. Social media movements like MeToo, BlackLivesMatter have been successful in reaching out to the masses and touching the right chords.

Negative sides of social media

While the positive influences of social media on societal change cannot be doubted, the negative effects are what is bothering research scientists. The social media deprives a face-to-face interaction which is critical as non-verbal cues because body language has been an integral part of our evolution.

Habit of comparing

The virtual image and real image become two parts of the individual and the resultant conflicts arising from the disbalance of the two is what mainly brings about negative changes. The impact of seeing perfect lives and photographs of others and comparing them with oneself can become quite traumatising and difficult to express. One forgets that only one dimension is seen in these pictures and that reality could be different. People tend to post mostly the best versions of themselves and hence comparisons cannot be relied on.

Severe mental health issues

Cognition is definitely affected by higher use of social media in the form of attention, memory and prioritisation problems. Sleep pattern could get dysregulated due to the blue light from screens leading to further problems. Cyberbullying, hate spread, negative comments, lies, misinformation, FOMO (fear of missing out) can hurt young minds and leave deep emotional scars. Growing minds are yet to hone their rationalisation and problem-solving skills. Such negative incidences lead to a variety of mental health problems like anxiety, panic, depression, insomnia, problems of self-esteem and hopelessness leading to self-harm behaviour and suicide.

Addiction to social media is what most people and parents fear. Living in a virtual world and forgetting to live in the real world can take out the meaning of life as we know it.

NOTE:

We cannot deny that social media is here to stay and so moulding oneself to use its positive influences and striking the right balance can make life better. One must not be isolated with problems and social media pressure but instead open up to seeking help from family, loved ones and mental health professionals.

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World Mental Health Day: Impacts of social media on our cognitive health explained by Psychiatrist Sonal Anand - PINKVILLA

After being banned, some militant pages returned with different names. We are back! the leader of one such organization said after relaunching on the platform last month. Help us rebuild share and invite friends.

Posted on October 9, 2020, at 8:53 p.m. ET

A day after the FBI disclosed that organized armed extremists coordinated on Facebook to hatch a terrorist plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, multiple pages that encourage political violence were still active on the social network.

An examination by BuzzFeed News and the Tech Transparency Project, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found at least five such pages on the platform as of Friday morning. Those pages, which in some cases appear to be simply rebranded versions of previously banned organizations, use Facebook to recruit and to promote objectives that at times call for violent uprising.

Facebook announced in August that it was banning right-wing militant, anarchist, and QAnon groups after a series of violent crimes were tied to organizations that used the platform. Since then, the company has removed thousands of groups, and this week announced it had banned all accounts, pages, and groups tied to QAnon, the collective delusion that alleges that a secretive government cabal is kidnapping children.

Despite Facebooks efforts, some of those pages have escaped removal despite incorporating words such as militia or minutemen in their names or web addresses; others were created after Facebook removed their original groups or pages and appear to have avoided detection by making small changes to their names.

The Michigan Liberty Militia, for example, was banned from Facebook in August. On Sept. 11, it reappeared under a page with new, slightly altered moniker MLM Michigan liberty minutemen and marked its return with a picture of a flag bearing two hatchets, the Liberty Bell, and two assault rifles.

We are back! read a post on the page posted at 8:59 a.m. and signed by the groups leader, Phil Robinson. Help us rebuild share and invite friends.

A Facebook spokesperson said Friday that its work to remove violent content and extremist organization pages is ongoing.

We remove content, disable accounts, and immediately report to law enforcement when there is a credible threat of imminent harm to people or public safety, the spokesperson said.

That person added that the company had removed three pages identified to it by BuzzFeed News because they violate its policies, but noted that some of them had not been active recently.

While Facebook has taken a harder stance against violent organizations that have used the platform for years to organize and grow, the continued existence of Michigan extremist groups underscores the difficulty the social networking company is having in moderating content. And even as it attempts to show that it is doing more ahead of a contentious 2020 presidential election, Facebook is still falling short, according to its critics.

This is yet another example of Facebook's ongoing moderation failures despite ample warnings from researchers and journalists, making clear that the company is either unable or unwilling to remove militia and extremist movements from their platform, said TTP Director Katie Paul, whose organization was able to locate three Michigan extremist pages still on Facebook as of Friday morning. This comes after months of highly publicized statements from Facebook that it is removing these groups, yet we are still able to identify them with basic searches.

Since August, Facebook said it has removed more than 6,500 Pages and Groups tied to more than 300 Militarized Social Movements.

Although there are other social networks that prove more welcoming to such organizations, none have anything remotely close to the enormous reach of Facebook. For that reason, many organizations, reluctant to abandon the platform, have found ways around the ban, creating new pages with different names to avoid being linked to previously removed pages and groups.

In other cases, Facebook has been slow to remove pages that have clear links to calls for violence.

In late August, for example, members of a militant group called the Kenosha Guard used the platform to organize a confrontation with protesters demonstrating against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. During that event, a 17-year-old gunman allegedly shot and killed two protesters and injured another.

The Kenosha Guard event page, which had been flagged by users 455 times prior to the events of Aug. 25, was not removed from Facebook until after the shooting.

And although Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially took credit for removing the event page, BuzzFeed News later revealed it had been deleted by the events organizer.

On Thursday, unsealed federal and state charging documents detailed how a right-wing militant group in Michigan known as the Wolverine Watchmen used the platform to connect with one another and help plot to kidnap and possibly kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over what the conspirators believed was government overreach in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

An FBI affidavit filed this week indicates that the group, separately identified by the Michigan attorney general, had been attempting to obtain the addresses of local law-enforcement officers, and a member of the Wolverine Watchmen at the time expressed concern to the bureau that the group planned to target and kill police officers.

Facebook said Friday that it began proactively communicating with law enforcement about the Wolverine Watchmen at least six months ago, and the group was removed from the platform on June 30 as part of a sweep to ban what it called a violent US-based anti-government network.

Yet despite this work, not only are Michigan extremist pages still active on the platform, according to TTPs Paul, but Facebooks recommendation algorithm appears to continue directing users to like other pages if they are already following one.

On Friday morning, for example, the platforms algorithm recommended multiple pages for militant groups to a reporter examining a different organizations page, including one for an organization called West Michigan Guardians, which describes itself as a constitutional militia.

TTP found three other pages, including Michigan Minuteman Platoon, which had not posted since last year. Another, Great Lakes Light Infantry, identified itself as a militia group and used photos of children in camouflage clothing to promote its cause.

A fifth page, MCM Standing Together, Defending Together, which had its original page removed in a purge over the summer, returned to Facebook on Sept. 21. The new pages URL features the phrase MichigansConstitutionalMilitia and is liked and followed by 50 people.

Originally we were not going to rebuild the page on FB however YOLO, a page administrator posted on the date it was created.

The pages most recent post, a meme of a soldier and the Statue of Liberty holding a gun, appeared on Sept. 24.

Its been a tough year, the text on the meme reads. But our way of life is worth fighting for.

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Even After The Plot To Kidnap Gov. Whitmer, Michigan Militant Groups Continue To Thrive On Facebook - BuzzFeed News