WEATHER ALERT
Facebook lifts restrictions on Trump, giving him equal footing with Biden on the social media site
Read full article: Facebook lifts restrictions on Trump, giving him equal footing with Biden on the social media siteFacebook has lifted restrictions imposed on Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Meta's newest AI model beats some peers. But its amped-up AI agents are confusing Facebook users
Read full article: Meta's newest AI model beats some peers. But its amped-up AI agents are confusing Facebook usersGenerative AI is advancing so quickly that the latest chatbots available today could be out of date tomorrow.
Tech companies sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickery
Read full article: Tech companies sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickeryMajor technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from disrupting democratic elections worldwide.
Deep dive into Meta's algorithms shows that America's political polarization has no easy fix
Read full article: Deep dive into Meta's algorithms shows that America's political polarization has no easy fixA team of some of the world's leading social media researchers has published four studies looking at the relationship between the algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram and America's widening political divide.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech firms agree to AI safeguards set by the White House
Read full article: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech firms agree to AI safeguards set by the White HousePresident Joe Biden is praising new commitments by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies to meet a set of artificial intelligence safeguards brokered by his White House as an important step toward managing the “enormous” promise and risks posed by the technology.
Meta fined record $1.3 billion and ordered to stop sending European user data to US
Read full article: Meta fined record $1.3 billion and ordered to stop sending European user data to USThe European Union has slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine and ordered it to stop transferring users' personal information to the United States by October.
Meta oversight board urges changes to VIP moderation system
Read full article: Meta oversight board urges changes to VIP moderation systemFacebook’s quasi-independent oversight board says an internal system that exempted high-profile users, including former President Donald Trump, from some or all of its content moderation rules needs a major overhaul.
US, EU sign data transfer deal to ease privacy concerns
Read full article: US, EU sign data transfer deal to ease privacy concernsThe European Union and United States made a breakthrough in their yearslong battle over the privacy of data that flows across the Atlantic with a preliminary agreement that paves the way for Europeans’ personal information to be stored in the U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal Friday during Biden’s stop in Brussels while on a European tour amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Facebook unveils new controls for kids using its platforms
Read full article: Facebook unveils new controls for kids using its platformsFacebook, in the aftermath of damning testimony that its platforms harm children, will be introducing several features including prompting teens using its photo sharing app Instagram to take a break, and nudging them if they repeatedly look at the same content that's not conducive to their well-being.
Ex-Facebook manager criticizes company, urges more oversight
Read full article: Ex-Facebook manager criticizes company, urges more oversightWhile accusing the giant social network of pursuing profits over safety, a former Facebook data scientist told Congress she believes stricter government oversight could alleviate the dangers the company poses, from harming children to inciting political violence to fueling misinformation.
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp suffer worldwide outage
Read full article: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp suffer worldwide outageFacebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms are back online after a massive global outage plunged the services and the businesses and people who rely on them into chaos for hours.
Whistleblower: Facebook chose profit over public safety
Read full article: Whistleblower: Facebook chose profit over public safetyFacebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in last year’s elections in a moneymaking move that a company whistleblower alleges contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
Reports: Facebook to end rule exemptions for politicians
Read full article: Reports: Facebook to end rule exemptions for politiciansFacebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to reports from the tech site The Verge, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Facebook suspends Trump for 2 years, then will reassess
Read full article: Facebook suspends Trump for 2 years, then will reassessFacebook says it will suspend former President Donald Trump's accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
Facebook signs pay deals with 3 Australian news publishers
Read full article: Facebook signs pay deals with 3 Australian news publishers(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)CANBERRA – Facebook announced on Friday preliminary agreements with three Australian publishers, a day after the Parliament passed a law that would make the digital giants pay for news. Facebook said letters of intent had been signed with independent news organizations Private Media, Schwartz Media and Solstice Media. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new Australian law was critical to the deals that Australian media businesses were negotiating with the two gateways to the internet. News Corp. Australia executive chairman Michael Miller said last week that his company had pay negotiations with Facebook. I think the door is still open,” Miller told a Senate inquiry into Australian media diversity.
Facebook may have to stop moving EU user data to US
Read full article: Facebook may have to stop moving EU user data to USLONDON Facebook may be forced to stop sending data about its European users to the U.S., in the first major fallout from a recent court ruling that found some trans-Atlantic data transfers don't protect users from American government snooping. The social network said Wednesday that Ireland's Data Protection Commission has started an inquiry into how Facebook shifts data from the European Union to the United States. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said Irelands data commission gave Facebook until mid-September to respond to a preliminary order to suspend the transfers. The Irish data commission suggested that a type of legal mechanism governing the data transfers, known as standard contractual clauses, cannot in practice be used for EU-U.S. data transfers," Clegg said. But in cases where there are concerns about data privacy, EU regulators should vet, and if needed block, the transfer of data.
A pinch where it hurts: can Facebook weather the ad boycott?
Read full article: A pinch where it hurts: can Facebook weather the ad boycott?On Wednesday, more than 500 companies officially kicked off an advertising boycott intended to pressure Facebook into taking a stronger stand against hate speech. But whether Zuckerberg agrees to further tighten the social network's carefully crafted rules probably boils down to a more fundamental question: Does Facebook need big brand advertisers more than the brands need Facebook? In a broad sense, the current boycott, which will last at least a month, is like nothing Facebook has experienced before. At the same time, he added, given these extraordinary times," it's possible that a long-term, pervasive boycott could shift advertising dollars away from Facebook to other companies. Beyond bad PR, though, experts say the protest isn't likely to make a lasting dent in Facebook's ad revenue, in part because plenty of other advertisers can step in.