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Elizabeth Warren Facebook ad mocks Facebook's fact checking policies
Earlier this year Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign ran ads on Facebook that proposed breaking it up, and they were temporarily pulled. Now, after Mark Zuckerberg talked at company meetings about the threat she poses, and as Facebook affirmed its policy to not fact check political ads, the campaign is at it again. CNN points out a Warren ad (that you can view here, collected in Facebook's political ad library) that begins with a lie claiming Zuckerberg endorsed Donald Trump.
Congress will grill Mark Zuckerberg over Libra October 23rd
Mark Zuckerberg will be under the spotlight of regulators once again when Facebook's CEO testifies before the Financial Services Committee this month. The congressional panel is set to grill him October 23rd over Facebook's planned cryptocurrency Libra and digital wallet Calibra.
Mark Zuckerberg hints finger tracking is coming to Oculus
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted a finger-tracking feature is on the way for Oculus headsets. Ahead of his opening keynote at Oculus Connect 6, he posted a video that showed hands making the letters O and C and holding up six fingers. That's a clear reference to the conference, as if the text on his post and an OC6 logo at the end weren't enough. "I'm excited to share our latest work in augmented and virtual reality," he wrote.
Mark Zuckerberg visited Donald Trump at the White House
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has met with the president at the White House, as well as with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to talk about the future of internet regulation. According to The Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg met with his biggest critics in an effort to pacify lawmakers looking to conjure up tighter internet regulations and to compel platforms like Facebook to have stricter moderation practices. He also reportedly used the chance to pitch his vision for moderate internet regulation.
Facebook's new content oversight board can overrule Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook has unveiled the finished charter for its content oversight board, and it's evident that the social site wants to give the board at least some meaningful independence. The new rules will let users appeal content decisions directly to the board instead of through Facebook's usual channels, and any decisions will be binding no matter who at Facebook disagrees with it, according to Mark Zuckerberg. The charter also outlines how Facebook intends to keep the board independent throughout the overall process, and how it will choose and work on cases.
Senators question whether Facebook is doing enough to protect kids’ privacy
Senators are questioning Facebook again. This time their concerns are related to a technical error that let thousands of kids join group chats with unauthorized users, The Verge reports. Senators Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerberg today, asking whether Facebook has done enough to protect children's online safety.
Today was Facebook's worst day ever, and it won’t make a difference
Facebook has had a lot of bad days since the Cambridge Analytica data scandal first erupted in March 2018. But today might be the worst: The FTC formally announced its $5 billion fine as well as a 20-year settlement order that dictates a new management structure, the creation of an independent privacy committee and new rules about how it must monitor and report potential privacy issues. The company was also separately fined $100 million by the SEC and announced it discovered that some of its partners (including Microsoft and Sony) still had access to Facebook user data after it was supposed to have closed it off late last year. Coincidentally, a documentary on Facebook's misdeeds called The Great Hack is hitting Netflix today, bringing even more negative attention on the company. Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg will have to answer to investors this evening after the company releases its quarterly earnings report. And you know what? This isn't going to change a thing.
WSJ: Facebook reaches $5 billion FTC settlement
The inevitable has happened for Facebook. After weeks of reports that the company was working to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its privacy practices, the two parties have finally come to an agreement. The Wall Street Journal reports that commissioners voted to approve a $5 billion settlement -- something Facebook had already accounted for -- for the social network over its "privacy missteps," with three Republicans voting to approve the deal and two Democrats opposed.
Facebook will share data on hate speech suspects with French courts (update)
Facebook is handing over identifying information to French courts on people suspected of using hate speech on its social network. "This is huge news, it means that the judicial process will be able to run normally," Cédric O, France's minister for the digital sector, told Reuters. "It's really very important, they're only doing it for France." Update 6/25/19 9PM ET: A Facebook spokesperson told us: "As a matter of course, we will no longer refer French law enforcement authorities to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty process to request basic information in criminal hate speech cases. However, as we do with all court orders for information, even in the US, we will scrutinize every order we receive and push back if is overbroad, inconsistent with human rights, or legally defective."
Ecuadorian President blocks extradition of alleged Facebook fraudster
A New York man who fled to Ecuador after allegedly trying to defraud Mark Zuckerberg will not be extradited to the US, Reuters reports.
Zuckerberg's latest snub could land him in contempt of Canadian parliament
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg have snubbed an official summons and risk being held in contempt of the Canadian Parliament. The pair were called to a hearing in Ottawa, due to be held later this week, but have confirmed that Facebooka's head of public policy Kevin Chan and director of public policy Neil Potts will instead go in their place.
Mark Zuckerberg apparently tried to buy Panic, the creator of Playdate
Buried in Edge Magazine's exclusive feature on Playdate, is an interesting revelation. Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg once expressed interest in buying Panic, the developers behind the new handheld, hand-cranked console. Perhaps even more intriguing, Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser didn't respond. He didn't want to be part of another Silicon Valley software company gobbled up by a giant.
Facebook has taken down over 2 billion fake accounts in 2019
Facebook took down 2.19 billion fake accounts during the first quarter of 2019, the company has announced. In addition to that, Facebook said it disabled 1.2 billion fake accounts in Q4 2018. These numbers are quite staggering when you consider that Facebook has 2.38 billion monthly active users, as reported in its Q1 2019 earnings. "For fake accounts," Facebook said in a blog post, "the amount of accounts we took action on increased due to automated attacks by bad actors who attempt to create large volumes of accounts at one time."
Facebook co-founder urges FTC to break up the company
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has joined the chorus of prominent voices calling for regulators to break up the social networking colossus. In a New York Times op-ed, he wrote that his college roommate and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had "unchecked power" and that his "influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government."
Facebook’s ‘privacy-focused’ plan is another diversion
When Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at F8 2019, he once again outlined the company's new "privacy-focused" vision. It's a message he's been spreading over the past few months, and it will focus on six key principles: encryption, interoperability, ephemerality, safety, secure data storage and private interactions. While Zuckerberg went all in on how Facebook-owned apps will soon work seamlessly together, and how private conversations will play a key role, he seemed unaware the new plan could create problems of its own.
A closer look at the redesigned Facebook app
Out of all the announcements Facebook made at its F8 2019 developers conference, one of the most important was the redesign of its core smartphone app. The new application, which has been updated with what Facebook is calling the "FB5" version, is now cleaner, faster and puts Groups front and center. And, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "The app isn't even blue anymore." That's the first thing you'll notice when you check out the new app, which is rolling out to users starting today. If you use Messenger, the white-covered design of the FB5 Facebook app will feel quite familiar.
All the important stuff from Facebook’s F8 keynote
Facebook hosted the opening keynote for its annual developer's conference today and announced several updates to its main social network as well as Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger. Privacy seems to be the name of the game this year, as Facebook tries to rehab its damaged reputation and regain the trust of its users. Only time will tell if Facebook made any progress today.
Mark Zuckerberg debuts his own 'Tech and Society' podcast (updated)
Yes, you read that correctly. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has launched his own podcast, Tech & Society with Mark Zuckerberg, that has the company founder siting down with luminaries to chat about (what else?) the social impact of technology. There aren't more details about the length of the series or just where you'll find it (we've only found it on Spotify so far). However, it won't surprise you to hear what the focus is -- it's issues relevant to Facebook.
FTC's Facebook investigation could focus on Zuckerberg
Facebook's privacy troubles just keep on coming, one after another -- just recently, it revealed that Instagram stored millions of passwords in plain text. In an effort to force the social network to be more conscious of its data privacy practices, federal regulators are reportedly looking for ways to make Mark Zuckerberg personally accountable for his company's shortcomings. According to The Washington Post, the FTC regulators investigating Facebook are going over the company chief's previous statements on privacy to figure out if they can use them to seek greater oversight of his leadership.
Facebook stops asking new users for email passwords
Facebook has halted a sketchy practice of asking some new users for their outside email credentials in order to verify their accounts. After a Twitter user on Sunday shared a screenshot of Facebook asking them for the password to their email, the social media giant faced intense criticism from security professionals. A spokesman for Facebook told The Daily Beast that it would no longer engage in this practice.
