Tag Archives: Facebook

All Meta Platforms Appear To Have Crashed Worldwide

The Daily Mail reports: Meta’s Facebook, Threads, Messenger and Instagram are down worldwide, leaving thousands of users unable to access the social media platforms. The issues appeared around 10:20am ET and are impacting both social media sites’ apps and website. Rather than showing a skeleton version of the site, Facebook will automatically kick you out. An error message saying that …

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Meta Platforms To Stop Promoting Political Content

Variety reports: In a blog post Friday, Instagram, the popular photo and video app owned by Meta, said it will no longer “proactively recommend” political content from accounts that users do not already follow. The same policy applies to Threads, the Twitter-copycat app launched last summer under the Instagram brand. “We want Instagram and Threads to be a great experience …

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Meta Board Wants Stronger Rules Against Fake Videos

The Guardian reports: Meta’s oversight board has found that a Facebook video wrongfully suggesting that the US president, Joe Biden, is a paedophile does not violate the company’s current rules while deeming those rules “incoherent” and too narrowly focused on AI-generated content. The board, which is funded by Meta – Facebook’s parent company – but run independently, took on the …

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Meta To Investors: Zuckerberg’s Hobbies Could Kill Him

The New York Post reports: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s love of “high-risk activities” pose a “risk of serious injury and death,” the company warned investors in its latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The warning was included for the first time under “risk factors” in Meta’s 10-K filing — a comprehensive report on the tech behemoth’s activities throughout 2023 — …

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Meta Accused Of Collecting Data On Underage Users

The New York Times reports: Meta has received more than 1.1 million reports of users under the age of 13 on its Instagram platform since early 2019 yet it “disabled only a fraction” of those accounts, according to a newly unsealed legal complaint against the company brought by the attorneys general of 33 states. Instead, the social media giant “routinely …

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Meta May Charge EU Users For Ad-Free Subscriptions

Reuters reports: Meta Platforms is exploring options to introduce ad-free subscription plans for Instagram and Facebook users in Europe, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The proposal is an attempt by Meta to circumvent European Union regulations that threaten to curb its ability to personalize ads for users without their consent and hurt its major revenue source. …

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New EU Rules On Harmful Online Content To Launch

The Associated Press reports: Google, Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech companies operating in Europe are facing one of the most far-reaching efforts to clean up what people encounter online. The first phase of the European Union’s groundbreaking new digital rules will take effect this week. The Digital Services Act is part of a suite of tech-focused regulations crafted by …

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Musk: “Zuckerberg Fight Will Be Live-Streamed On X”

The Insider reports: Elon Musk appears to be pressing ahead with his plans to fight Mark Zuckerberg. The billionaire wrote on X – formerly Twitter – on Sunday that their highly anticipated cage fight will be live-streamed on X. Musk did not provide further details on when this would happen and Zuckerberg is yet to weigh in on his comments. …

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EU Privacy Regulators Fine Meta Record $1.3 Billion

CNBC reports: Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) by European privacy regulators over the transfer of EU user data to the U.S. The decision links back to a case brought by Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems who argued that the framework for transferring EU citizen data to America did not protect Europeans from U.S. surveillance. …

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SCOTUS Upholds Liability Shield For Social Media Firms

Bloomberg News reports: The US Supreme Court left in place a broad liability shield for social media companies for content posted by users, insulating Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google LLC from claims that they provided assistance to Islamic State terrorists. Acting in a case involving Google, the court said it wouldn’t rule on efforts to limit the immunity internet …

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SCOTUS To Decide If Public Officials Can Block Critics

Courthouse News reports: The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear two cases arising from public officials blocking critical commenters on their social media accounts, after the Sixth and Ninth Circuits reached different conclusions on whether the constituents’ free speech rights were violated. The first case involves two elected members of the Poway Unified School District Board of Trustees in San …

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Trump Posts To Facebook For First Time Since Riot Ban

CNN reports: Former President Donald Trump has posted on Facebook for the first time since January 6, 2021, the day that rioters attacked the US Capitol. “I’M BACK!” Trump wrote in the post, which included a short CNN clip of him from the night he was elected president during which he said: “Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business. Complicated.” …

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Facebook And Instagram Launch Paid Verification In US

The Hill reports: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, officially launched its paid “verified” subscription service for its social media platforms in the United States on Friday, similar to Twitter’s own service. Elon Musk created a paid subscription service for Twitter users in October. He tweaked the service a few times, but the current iteration of Twitter Blue …

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Meta To Make Up To $3B/Year From Paid Verifications

Bloomberg News reports: The new Meta Verified service for Facebook and Instagram will allow users to join celebrities and other public figures in having a blue check that confirms their identity, starting from $11.99 per month, the company said in a statement. The Meta Verified feature may add $2 billion to $3 billion to Meta’s annual sales, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst …

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Meta To Test $12/Month Paid Verification Feature

Axios reports: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Sunday that it will be testing out a monthly subscription service that allows users to verify their accounts. The move is aimed at “increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing the news. It will allow users to verify …

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Meta Reinstates Trump’s Facebook, Instagram Accounts

NBC News reports: Former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been reinstated, a company spokesperson said Thursday. The reinstatement had been expected after Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president of global affairs, announced in late January that the suspension would be lifted. Facebook first suspended Trump’s accounts in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, initially as an indefinite ban …

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Meta To Reinstate Trump On Facebook And Instagram

The New York Times reports: Just over two years after Donald J. Trump’s accounts were suspended from Facebook and Instagram, Meta, the owner of the platforms, said on Wednesday that it would reinstate the former president’s access to the social media services. Mr. Trump, who had the most followed account on Facebook when he was barred, will in the coming …

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Trump Petitions Facebook To Reinstate His Account

NBC News reports: Mounting a comeback for the White House, Donald Trump is looking to regain control over his powerful social media accounts.  With access to his Twitter account back, Trump’s campaign is formally petitioning Facebook’s parent company to unblock his account there after it was locked in response to the U.S. Capitol riot two years ago. “We believe that …

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Meta To Settle Cambridge Analytica Suit For $725M

Reuters reports: Facebook owner Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users’ personal information. The proposed settlement would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as …

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Facebook To Axe Sexual Orientation Field From Profiles

TechCrunch reports: Facebook is notifying users that it will remove four information fields from profiles starting next month. These fields include religious views, political views, addresses and the “Interested in” field, which indicates a user’s sexual orientation. The change will go into effect on December 1. A spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch in an email that the reason behind …

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