In an online world where viral trends can shift in an instant, the "exploding watermelon" video may have set a high-water mark.

The digital news site BuzzFeed on Friday showed just how quickly a mindless act can gain notoriety, using Facebook's new live video service for an event in which its team placed elastic bands around the melon until it exploded.

Minister of Telecommunications, Butros Harb, represented by Nagi Abboud, inaugurated The Middle East and North Africa’s Online, Mobile & Console Games Conference, MENA Games 2016, organized by International Fairs & Promotions (IFP Group) at Mar Mikhael Historical Train Station, with the official support of Alfa, managed by Orascom Telecom, and the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI).

Addressing more than 400 delegates representing some of the biggest local, regional and international game development companies, and more than 40 leading experts and speakers, Abboud emphasized the value and importance of organizing such a conference. In his opening keynote Abboud highlighted the role of the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications as a key enabler to the creation and development of a powerful gaming industry in Lebanon and the region. He also shared the Ministry’s Vision 2020 to build state-of-the-art networks and infrastructure, thus providing the Lebanese gamers with the essential tool to materialize their potential and change the country’s economy.

For those faithful to Marissa Mayer's vision for the future of Yahoo, cries sounding the company's demise stop at the door to its Silicon Valley main campus.

Shouting by activist investors eager to overthrow the board and critics' proclamations that the end is near are muted inside the campus walls by a confidence by some here that the pioneering internet firm is not dying but being reborn.

Police have launched raids against 170 suspected cyber-criminals across Germany and in the Netherlands, France and Canada, German authorities said Wednesday, announcing the arrest of a 22-year-old chief suspect.

Facebook on Wednesday ramped up its challenge to Twitter-owned Periscope with upgrades to the social network's live video broadcasting feature.

People using the Live streaming feature at Facebook will be able to "broadcast: to groups at the social network or in scheduled "events."

Israeli security agencies are on alert over the potential for cyber-attacks by Anonymous on Thursday, after the hacker group previously targeted the Jewish state each April 7.

The attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians have in the past succeeded in blocking government sites, including for the ministries of defense and foreign affairs.

Popular online bulletin board Pinterest on Wednesday began pushing "pins" sponsored by advertisers into countries outside the United States, starting with Britain.

San Francisco-based Pinterest introduced "Sponsored Pins" about 18 months ago, making money by letting brands or companies pay to display advertising in the form of posts "pinned" to virtual bulletin boards at the service.

Amazon chief executive and founder Jeff Bezos defended his company's workplace culture and costly growth strategy in a letter to shareholders made public Tuesday.

The work atmosphere at Seattle-based Amazon became a hot topic last year after a New York Times article portrayed it as a "hurtful," Darwinian setting in which employees were pitted against one another to the point of tears to improve productivity.

Facebook is training its computers to become seeing-eye guides for blind and visually impaired people as they scroll through the pictures posted on the world's largest online social network.

The feature rolling out Tuesday on Facebook's iPhone app interprets what's in a picture using a form of artificial intelligence that recognizes faces and objects. The iPhone's built-in screen reader, VoiceOver, must be turned on for Facebook's photo descriptions to be read. For now, the feature will only be available in English.

Forget Facebook and Twitter.

Two of Asia's biggest social media players, Kakao Talk and Line, are growing by making mobile messaging apps an integral part of the lives of young Asians who prefer to communicate more privately instead of shouting out in virtual arenas and risking troubles with trolls — or disclosing aspects of their lives to their parents they'd rather not share.