Tech

Apple once threatened Facebook ban over Mideast maid abuse

Editorial Bureau October 26, 2021

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Two years ago, Apple threatened to pull Facebook and Instagram from its app store over concerns about the platform being used as a tool to trade and sell maids in the Mideast. After publicly promising to crack down, Facebook acknowledged in internal documents

Tech

Australia wants Facebook to seek parental consent for kids

Editorial Bureau October 26, 2021

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia plans to crack down on online advertisers targeting children by making social media platforms seek parental consent for users younger than 16 years old to join or face fines of 10 million Australian dollars ($7.5 million) under a draft law released Monday. The landmark legislation would protect Australians online and ensure […]

UK

Whistleblower to testify as UK scrutinizes Facebook

Editorial Bureau October 26, 2021

LONDON — Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told British lawmakers Monday that the social media giant stokes online hate and extremism, fails to protect children from harmful content and lacks any incentive to fix the problems, providing momentum for efforts by European governments working on stricter regulation of tech companies. While her testimony echoed much of […]

UK

Whistleblower Haugen to testify as UK scrutinizes Facebook

Editorial Bureau October 25, 2021

LONDON — Former Facebook data scientist turned whistleblower Frances Haugen plans to answer questions Monday from lawmakers in the United Kingdom who are working on legislation to rein in the power of social media companies. Haugen is set to appear before a parliamentary committee scrutinizing the British government’s draft legislation to crack down on harmful […]

Tech

Facebook dithered in curbing divisive user content in India

Editorial Bureau October 25, 2021

NEW DELHI, India — Facebook in India has been selective in curbing hate speech, misinformation and inflammatory posts, particularly anti-Muslim content, according to leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press, even as its own employees cast doubt over the company’s motivations and interests. From research as recent as March of this year to company memos […]

Tech

EXPLAINER: What the metaverse is and how it will work

Editorial Bureau October 25, 2021

LONDON — The term “metaverse” seems to be everywhere. Facebook is hiring thousands of engineers in Europe to work on it, while video game companies are outlining their long-term visions for what some consider the next big thing online. The metaverse, which could spring up again when Facebook releases earnings Monday, is the latest buzzword […]

USA

Facebook Employees Warned About Election Misinformation, to Little Effect

Editorial Bureau October 23, 2021

1. From Wednesday through Saturday there was a lot of content circulating which implied fraud in the election, at around 10% of all civic content and 1-2% of all US VPVs. There was also a fringe of incitement to violence. 2. There were dozens of employees monitoring this, and FB launched ~15 measures prior to […]

Tech

Facebook plans to change its name

Editorial Bureau October 20, 2021

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 […]

Tech

Facebook says WSJ allegations are ‘mischaracterizations,’ confer ‘false motives’

Editorial Bureau September 20, 2021

Facebook Inc on Saturday slammed a Wall Street Journal series of articles about the social media company’s platform as containing “deliberate mischaracterizations” and said the articles “conferred egregiously false motives to Facebook’s leadership and employees.” The Wall Street Journal, citing a review of internal company documents that

Tech

U.S., EU advance talks to protect data transfers- WSJ

Editorial Bureau September 11, 2021

(Technology) – Officials from the United States and European Union are making progress on keeping data flowing across the Atlantic, with negotiations that are important to companies like Facebook Inc and thousands of others, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The two parties aim to avoid a disruption of company data transfers by resolving […]