Tag Archives: Instagram

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 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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Instagram Reinstates Personal Account Of RFK Jr.

The Washington Post reports: Instagram on Sunday lifted its suspension against the account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outspoken anti-vaccine activist and nephew of the late president John F. Kennedy, who is running for president as a long shot Democratic challenger to President Biden. The platform removed Kennedy’s account in 2021 for “repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus …

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Tennessee’s Lt Gov Thirst Trap Survives Confidence Vote

The Tennessean reports: Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally prevailed in a Republican caucus confidence vote, indicating state senators aren’t yet willing to publicly break with the Senate speaker over a controversy sparked by McNally’s repeated comments on a young man’s suggestive Instagram photos. Republican senators voted 19-7 in favor of McNally’s continued leadership, per a statement released by his office. …

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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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REPORT: Meta Plans To Make “Significant” Job Cuts

The New York Times reports: Meta plans to lay off employees this week, three people with knowledge of the situation said, adding that the job cuts were set to be the most significant at the company since it was founded in 2004. It was unclear how many people would be cut and in which departments, said the people, who declined …

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Instagram Influencer Guilty In $8 Million Bitcoin Scam

From the Justice Department: Earlier today, Jebara Igbara, also known as “Jay Mazini,” pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to a three count information charging him with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering. As set forth in the information, up until March 2021, Igbara maintained a popular Instagram account under the name “Jay Mazini,” where he would …

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Meta Fined $400M For Violating EU Privacy Laws

The New York Times reports: Meta was fined roughly $400 million for breaking European Union data privacy laws for its treatment of children’s data on Instagram, the latest in a series of steps by authorities in Europe and the United States to crack down on what information is collected and shared by companies about young people online. European laws give …

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Facebook And Instagram Ban Leading Anti-Vax Group

The New York Times reports: Facebook and Instagram on Thursday removed the accounts of Children’s Health Defense, an organization led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that is one of the largest U.S. anti-vaccine groups, for spreading medical misinformation. In an emailed newsletter, Children’s Health Defense said Facebook and Instagram had taken down its accounts after a 30-day ban by the …

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Instagram Also Removing Posts About Abortion Pills

The Associated Press reports: The AP obtained a screenshot on Friday of one Instagram post from a woman who offered to purchase or forward abortion pills through the mail, minutes after the court ruled to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. “DM me if you want to order abortion pills, but want them sent to my address instead of …

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Russian Influencers Sob As Instagram Gets Blocked

The Washington Post reports: The tears were flowing Sunday among Russia’s airbrushed Instagram influencers, who begged their followers in farewell posts to join them on alternative social media platforms, as Russian authorities prepared to shut down the U.S.-owned social network at midnight. Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, officially banned Instagram on Friday and gave Russian users a 48-hour grace period to …

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Meta Threatens To Leave Europe Over Privacy Laws

Mashable reports: Buried in Meta’s dense annual report for the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed Thursday, is a surprisingly stark sentence laying out a scenario in which The Company Formerly Known as Facebook might have to entirely stop operating Instagram and Facebook in Europe. Yep, no Instagram, no Facebook, for all Europeans. At issue are European data regulations that prevent …

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Bipartisan Bill Requires Social Media Algorithm Opt-Out

Axios reports: A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced a companion to a Senate bill that would let people use algorithm-free versions of tech platforms, according to a copy of the text shared exclusively with Axios. Recent revelations about Facebook’s internal research findings have renewed lawmaker interest in bills that seek to give people more of a say in …

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