Twitter

The breach saw the accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Kanye West and Bill Gates among other celebrities used to tweet a Bitcoin scam.

Twitter also revealed the perpetrators had downloaded data from up to eight of the accounts involved.

It declined to reveal their identities but said none of them were "verified".

This means they did not have a blue tick to confirm their ownership, and thus were not among the most high-profile hacked accounts.

The hacking group OurMine posted on the Twitter and Instagram accounts for Facebook and Messenger, writing "even Facebook is hackable".

The accounts have now been restored.

OurMine claims its attacks are an attempt to show cyber vulnerabilities. In January it hijacked over a dozen accounts for teams in the US National Football League.

The group posted a statement on Facebook's Twitter account. "Hi, we are OurMine. Well, even Facebook is hackable but at least their security is better then Twitter."

The social media giant has faced criticism in recent weeks for allowing players to come in for severe abuse online.

Those affected have included Manchester United's Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba and the Chelsea pair of Tammy Abraham and Kurt Zouma.

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Chelsea boss Frank Lampard have been quick to call for firm action to prevent the targeting of players.

Twitter said on Wednesday it has "taken action on more than 700 examples of abuse and hateful conduct related to UK football" in the past fortnight.

Twitter said it removed 936 accounts it said were being used to “sow political discord in Hong Kong”.

The network said the accounts originated in mainland China and were part of a coordinated attempt to undermine the “legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement”.

Facebook said it had, after being tipped off by Twitter, removed "seven Pages, three Groups and five Facebook accounts.”

"Kia ora @jacindaardern!," she wrote.

"It's been a big year for you & [New Zealand] - congrats!"

The 'Diamonds' singer told Ardern her year could "get even better" if she pledged funds to the Global Partnership for Education.

"I hope you & @MFATgovtNZ agree that educating every child can change the world!" she added.

The organisation is working alongside Rihanna's own charity, the Clara Lionel foundation, to provide education for children in poor countries around the world.

The @nytimesworld team, which covers international events, has about 1.9 million followers and is recognised by the social network as being a "verified account".

But on Saturday it was locked after posting a report about the Canadian prime minister.

The newspaper was told it had violated Twitter's rules about hateful conduct.

The NYT said it had taken Twitter nearly 24 hours to unlock the account and allow it to start posting again.

It normally sends up to 100 tweets a day.

It said that the @realdonaldtrump account was "deactivated" by an employee, later clarifying that it was their last day in the job.

The account was down for 11 minutes, and Twitter is now investigating.

Mr Trump - who is an active Twitter user with 41.7 million followers - has not commented on the issue.

On Thursday evening, visitors to Mr Trump's page for a short time could only see a message that read "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!"

It said it would be clearer about who funded ads and to what end, especially those pushing a political agenda.

The company, like several tech firms, is keen to show it can self-regulate after it was found that Russian-backed groups were exploiting its ad platform.

Several key senators, from both sides of the US political divide, have backed measures clamping down on online ads.

The Honest Ads Act would regulate ad sales on social networks, search engines, websites or apps that have more than 50 million US visitors each month for the majority of months in a year.

He follows Katy Perry (103m) who managed it in June, but is in front of Taylor Swift (85.5m) and Rihanna (79.9m).

Former US president Barack Obama comes in third though with 94.3m.

To celebrate, Bieber has been given his own emoji on the site, which fans can use by using the hashtag #100millionbeliebers.

It all started for him when he was 15 and needed the hits:

Check out my single "ONE TIME" on my myspace and spread the word for me. Thanks www.myspace.com/justinbieber

The Waigani National Court this afternoon granted the orders sought to Commissioner Gamato after his lawyer moved an application before Justice Collin Makail.

The urgent application was moved without Namarong in court because they could not locate him to serve the documents. The application was heard ex-parte.

This case arises from alleged defamatory remarks the blogger made on social media, associating Commissioner Gamato to a fruit.

Justice Makail granted the application, allowing for the serve of the orders to be published in both daily newspapers.