Tag Archives: Facebook

Facebook Changes Parent Company Name To “Meta”

CNBC reports: Facebook on Thursday announced that it will change its company name to Meta. The name change, which was announced at the Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference, reflects the company’s growing ambitions beyond social media with the metaverse, a classic sci-fi term Facebook has adopted to describe its vision for working and playing in a virtual world. …

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Facebook Staffers Told To Preserve Docs: “Legal Hold”

The New York Times reports: Facebook has told employees to “preserve internal documents and communications since 2016” that pertain to its businesses because governments and legislative bodies have started inquiries into its operations, according to a company email sent on Tuesday night. The move, known as a “legal hold,” follows intense media, legal and regulatory scrutiny over the social network’s …

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Facebook Weighted “Angry” Emojis To Foment Outrage

The Washington Post reports: Five years ago, Facebook gave its users five new ways to react to a post in their news feed beyond the iconic “like” thumbs-up: “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad” and “angry.” Behind the scenes, Facebook programmed the algorithm that decides what people see in their news feeds to use the reaction emoji as signals to push more …

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Activists Say Facebook Censored Vietnamese Dissidents

The Washington Post reports: In America, the tech CEO is a champion of free speech, reluctant to remove even malicious and misleading content from the platform. But in Vietnam, upholding the free speech rights of people who question government leaders could have come with a significant cost in a country where the social network earns more than $1 billion in …

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Docs: Facebook Knew Its Algorithm Pushed Extremism

NBC News reports: In summer 2019, a new Facebook user named Carol Smith signed up for the platform, describing herself as a politically conservative mother from Wilmington, North Carolina. Smith’s account indicated an interest in politics, parenting and Christianity and followed a few of her favorite brands, including Fox News and then-President Donald Trump. Though Smith had never expressed interest …

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Whistleblower Claims Facebook Honcho Allowed Lies By Breitbart Because He Feared “Fight” With Steve Bannon

The Washington Post reports: A new whistleblower affidavit submitted by a former Facebook employee Friday alleges that the company prizes growth and profits over combating hate speech, misinformation and other threats to the public, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post. The whistleblower told The Post of an occasion in which Facebook’s Public Policy team, …

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Facebook Spent $5M Lobbying Feds Over Last Quarter

Politico reports: Facebook outspent nearly the entire D.C. influence industry on lobbying during the quarter ending Sept. 30, putting in its second most lavish three months ever, according to new filings from the social network embroiled in damaging revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen. The $5.1 million spree outpaces the company’s big tech peers Google, Amazon and Microsoft. In fact, the …

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REPORT: Facebook To Rebrand With New Parent Name

The Verge reports: Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal …

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Facebook Bans Content That “Sexualizes” Celebrities

The Verge reports: Facebook announced Wednesday that it would start removing “severe sexualizing content” targeting public figures as part of a new update to its bullying and harassment policies. The policy changes also include coordinated harassment attacks against users. As part of this new policy update, Facebook said that it would remove any profiles, pages, groups, or events dedicated to …

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Zuckerberg: Whistleblower’s Claims Don’t Make Sense

Mark Zuckerberg writes on his Facebook page: Now that today’s testimony is over, I wanted to reflect on the public debate we’re in. I’m sure many of you have found the recent coverage hard to read because it just doesn’t reflect the company we know. We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health. It’s difficult to see …

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LIVE VIDEO: FB Whistleblower Testifies Before Senate

CNN Business reports: The Facebook whistleblower who released tens of thousands of pages of internal research and documents indicating the company was aware of various problems caused by its apps, including Instagram’s potential “toxic” effect on teen girls, is set to testify at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old former Facebook product manager who worked on civic …

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Whistleblower To Testify Facebook Is “Urgent Threat”

Reuters reports: Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will appear before the US Congress Tuesday (Oct 5), where she is set to sharply criticise her former employer as “one of the most urgent threats” facing the country, and to demand transparency about its operations in order to better regulate it. Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team, says the …

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Facebook And Instagram See Widespread Outage

The Verge reports: Just as Facebook’s Antigone Davis was live on CNBC defending the company’s policies and its handling of research data suggesting Instagram is harmful to teens, its network of services suddenly went offline. On Twitter, Facebook communications exec Andy Stone says, “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get …

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Whistleblower: Facebook Puts Profits Over Safety

The New York Times reports: John Tye, the founder of Whistleblower Aid, a legal nonprofit that represents people seeking to expose potential lawbreaking, was contacted this spring through a mutual connection by a woman who claimed to have worked at Facebook. The woman told Mr. Tye and his team something intriguing: She had access to tens of thousands of pages …

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Whistleblower To Claim Facebook Helped Enable Riot

The New York Times reports: Facebook, which has been under fire from a former employee who has revealed that the social network knew of many of the harms it was causing, was bracing for new accusations over the weekend from the whistle-blower and said in a memo that it was preparing to mount a vigorous defense. The whistle-blower, whose identity …

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Instagram For Kids On Hold After Critical Reports

CNBC reports: Facebook, which faced sharp criticism from lawmakers and users for its plan to develop an Instagram for kids, announced Monday it’s pausing work on the project. “While we believe building ‘Instagram Kids’ is the right thing to do, Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, will re-evaluate the project at a later date. In the interim Instagram will continue …

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BOOK: Mark Zuckerberg Made Secret Deal With Trump

The Daily Beast reports: During a meeting in Washington, D.C. in 2019, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg agreed to not fact-check political posts if the Trump administration would steer clear of any “heavy-handed regulations,” venture capitalist Peter Thiel told an associate, according to a new book. The associate alleged that at the meeting—which was also attended by Thiel, former President Trump, …

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Facebook And Ray-Ban Launch Smart Glasses [VIDEO]

Axios reports: Ray-Ban Stories, the smart glasses being debuted by Facebook and Ray-Ban today, are most notable for just how much they look like a standard pair of the brand’s sunglasses. That speaks to both the most promising and troublesome aspect of the $299 glasses: They look and feel just like a standard pair of Ray-Bans while adding the ability …

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Facebook Working On Forming Elections Commission

The New York Times reports: Facebook has approached academics and policy experts about forming a commission to advise it on global election-related matters, said five people with knowledge of the discussions, a move that would allow the social network to shift some of its political decision-making to an advisory body. The proposed commission could decide on matters such as the …

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Facebook: Post Shared By Anti-Vaxxers Was #1 In Q1

The Washington Post reports: Facebook said Saturday evening that an article raising concerns that the coronavirus vaccine could lead to death was the top performing link in the United States on its platform from January through March of this year, acknowledging the widespread reach of such material for the first time. It also said another site that pushed covid-19 misinformation …

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