Tag Archives: Facebook

Facebook Hides Friends Lists For Users In Afghanistan

The Verge reports: Facebook’s head of security policy said the company is putting into place security measures for users in Afghanistan, including hiding “friends” lists and adding a tool to quickly lock down accounts. Nathaniel Gleicher said in a thread on Twitter that Facebook made the changes based on feedback from activists, journalists, and civil society groups. As the Taliban …

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FTC Files New Antitrust Complaint Against Facebook

Politico reports: The Federal Trade Commission has filed a new antitrust complaint against Facebook, rebooting a high-stakes case to break up the social media giant after a federal judge tossed the agency’s original complaint in June. Progressive FTC Chair Lina Khan joined with her two Democratic colleagues in a 3-2 party-line vote Wednesday to file the new complaint. The agency’s …

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Ask Jesus: Facebook Launches “Pray For Me” Function

The Associated Press reports: Facebook already asks for your thoughts. Now it wants your prayers. The social media giant has rolled out a new prayer request feature, a tool embraced by some religious leaders as a cutting-edge way to engage the faithful online. Others are eyeing it warily as they weigh its usefulness against the privacy and security concerns they …

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Facebook Moderators Demand End To Their NDAs

The Verge reports: Facebook content moderators in Europe and the US are calling on the company to put an end to overly restrictive nondisclosure agreements that discourage people from speaking out about working conditions. In a letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and the CEOs of Covalen and Accenture, moderators say these NDAs aren’t limited to user data and …

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NPR: How Ben Shapiro Is Dominating Facebook

NPR reports: In 2021, Ben Shapiro rules Facebook. The conservative podcast host and author’s personal Facebook page has more followers than The Washington Post, and he drives an engagement machine unparalleled by anything else on the world’s biggest social networking site. An NPR analysis of social media data found that over the past year, stories published by the site Shapiro …

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Biden Clarifies Comments On Facebook Disinfo [VIDEO]

The Washington Post reports: “They’re killing people,” Biden said Friday on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One on his way to Camp David for the weekend. “Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people.” Biden was asked to clarify those comments Monday after giving a speech about increasing support …

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Facebook And White House Continue To Trade Barbs

The New York Times reports: Facebook and the Biden administration engaged in an increasingly rancorous back and forth over the weekend after the administration denounced the social media giant for spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines. On Sunday, the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, reiterated warnings that false stories about the vaccines had become a dangerous health hazard. “These platforms have …

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Facebook Lashes Out Over Biden’s Disinfo Comments

Axios reports: Facebook fired back on Friday evening after President Biden earlier said that social media platforms are “killing people” by allowing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on their sites.  “We will not be distracted by accusations which aren’t supported by the facts,” a spokesperson for the tech giant said in a statement Friday. The Facebook response followed Biden’s commentary on the …

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Facebook To Pay $1B To Content Creators Thru 2022

The Verge reports: Facebook plans to pay out $1 billion to creators over the next year and a half as part of an effort to court content makers to its many services. The money will be awarded to creators who use Facebook products in different ways: on Facebook, creators can get a cash bonus for running ads on their videos …

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BOOK: How FB Botched Russian Election Meddling

Axios reports: “Oh f—, how did we miss this?” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asked, looking around at the somber faces of his top executives, the N.Y. Times’ Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang write in their book, “An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination,” out Tuesday. In an excerpt provided first to Axios, the authors write that the executives met …

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FB Tests Alert: Is Your Friend Becoming An Extremist?

CNN Business reports: Some Facebook (FB) users in the United States are being served a prompt that asks if they are worried that someone they know might be becoming an extremist. Others are being notified that they may have been exposed to extremist content. It is all part of a test the social media company is running that stems from …

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Trump Group Is Fundraising On Facebook Once Again

Politico reports: Former president Donald Trump’s fundraising arm is once again advertising on Facebook after the social media giant banned the ex-president from using the site. Starting late last week, Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, a joint venture between Trump’s Save America leadership PAC and his Make America Great Again PAC, has spent $3,506 on Facebook ads promoting Trump’s upcoming …

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Facebook Begins Rollout Of “Live Audio Rooms”

The Verge reports: Facebook’s Clubhouse competitor, Live Audio Rooms, is making its way stateside. The company announced today that some US-based public figures, as well as certain groups, can start hosting rooms through the main Facebook iOS app. (People can join, however, from both iOS and Android.) Anyone can be invited up as a speaker with up to 50 people …

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Facebook To Update Its Policies On Satirical Content

The Verge reports: Following a recommendation from its Oversight Board, Facebook says it will update its community standards to be clearer about how it handles satirical content, the company said in a blog post. “We’ll add information to the Community Standards that makes it clear where we consider satire as part of our assessment of context-specific decisions,” according to the …

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Kirk Group Posed As Green Party Advocates On FB

The Guardian reports: A digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal. In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come …

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Trump Calls On Countries To Ban Twitter And Facebook

Via press release: Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech—all voices should be heard. In the meantime, competitors will emerge and take hold. Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I …

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POLL: 51% Support Trump’s Two-Year Ban By Facebook

Politico reports: While the majority of Americans have heard about former President Donald Trump’s Facebook suspension, just over half support the platform’s two-year ban, according to a new POLITICO/ Morning Consult poll released Monday. 71 percent of voters have heard “a lot” or “some” about Trump’s suspension from the social media platform, while 51 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat …

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G7 Nations Strike Deal On Taxing Multinational Firms

Reuters reports: The United States, Britain and other large, rich nations reached a landmark deal on Saturday to squeeze more money out of multinational companies such as Amazon and Google and reduce their incentive to shift profits to low-tax offshore havens. Hundreds of billions of dollars could flow into the coffers of governments left cash-strapped by the COVID-19 pandemic after …

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Trump Rages Over Latest Facebook Ban: Zuckerberg Won’t Be Invited To Dinner When I’m Back In The WH

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump has appeared to drop his strongest hint yet at another presidential run in 2024, responding to news of his two-year ban from Facebook on Friday by saying he would not invite Mark Zuckerberg to dinner “next time I’m in the White House”. It has also been widely reported this week that Trump believes he will …

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Facebook Continues Trump Ban For At Least Two Years

The Washington Post reports: Facebook said Friday that it plans to suspend Trump for two years following his comments in the wake of the Capitol insurrection on January 6th, and will only reinstate him” if the risk to public safety has receded.” Since the 2016 election, the company has applied a test to political speech that weighs the newsworthiness of …

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