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Facebook may add a dedicated news tab later this year
Mark Zuckerberg has revealed he may add a dedicated tab for "high-quality news" to Facebook, perhaps by the end of the year. The section would reportedly be free for users, though Facebook might pay publishers whose work is featured. Zuckerberg mooted the idea in a conversation with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, as part of his goal this year to hold discussions about the future of technology in society.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg proposes four ways to regulate the internet
Facebook has signaled some openness to regulations, but it's making things clearer this weekend. Mark Zuckerberg has posted an editorial floating four ideas for regulating the internet, including approaches that could apply worldwide. To begin with, he believed that governments should set "baselines" for online content and require filtering to minimize the chances of vile content reaching the platform. Facebook shouldn't make too many decisions about speech by itself, Zuckerberg said, and planned an independent moderation committee to match.
Facebook says it accidentally deleted some of Mark Zuckerberg's posts
Don't read Mark Zuckerberg's posts if you're trying to revisit Facebook's biggest moments. The social network told Business Insider that it "mistakenly deleted" some of Zuckerberg's posts a few years ago "due to technical errors," including every post he wrote between 2007 and 2008. It didn't try to bring them back because the work would have been "extensive" and was "not guaranteed to be successful," according to a spokesperson.
Facebook only cares about privacy because it has to
When your reputation is as shattered as Facebook's, all you can do is try to change course. And amid an ongoing crisis caused by its continuous disregard for protecting users' data, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a 3,000-word manifesto on his "privacy-focused vision" for the company. In it, the embattled Facebook chief detailed how he plans to take the social network into a new era by focusing on "simple, intimate places" where people can have private interactions and enjoy features such as end-to-end encryption. Additionally, Zuckerberg said Facebook will start reducing permanent content and offering better safety and secure data storage, though it's unclear when these changes are going to take place.
Mark Zuckerberg outlines a 'privacy-focused' revamp of Facebook
Facebook doesn't have a sterling reputation for privacy given its numerous data scandals, and Mark Zuckerberg wants to address it. In a reflection of what he said during a recent fiscal results call, the CEO outlined plans to rework more of Facebook's services around a "privacy-focused" approach over the next few years. This includes "simple, intimate" places where no one else can see your data, the use of end-to-end encryption, a reduced amount of permanent content, greater safety and secure data storage. Zuckerberg also vowed more interoperability between apps and networks.
The UK government finally pins down Mark Zuckerberg
The UK government has been trying for the best part of a year to get Mark Zuckerberg in front of it. Now, after being repeatedly given the run-around by the Facebook CEO, it looks like it might finally have its man. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has confirmed that UK culture secretary Jeremy Wright will meet with Zuckerberg at Facebook's Californian headquarters on Thursday.
UK parliament calls Facebook leaders 'digital gangsters'
Facebook and its execs have been labeled "digital gangsters" in a UK parliamentary report that calls for the company to be regulated. The 180-page document -- which lays out the findings of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee's 18-month investigation into fake news -- concludes that Facebook wilfuly broke data privacy and competition laws.
After Math: Perfidy!
It was a big week for companies doing shady dealings. The Red Sox got popped stealing signs from the Yankees, Equifax is currently bungling perhaps the largest personal data leak in US history, and Facebook -- despite months of denials -- turns out actually did take ad money from Russian interests during the 2016 campaign. Numbers, because how else will you excitedly count down the days until Zuckerberg is hauled in before a Senate Intelligence hearing to testify?
Musk and Zuckerberg bicker over the future of AI
It's easy to imagine the world's most powerful people as being mysterious and aloof, but thanks to the wonders of Twitter, we can now regularly witness them being just as petty as the rest of us. Everyone's favorite eccentric billionaire Elon Musk is the latest example of this, publicly slamming Mark Zuckerberg with a tweet stating that the Facebook CEO's understanding of AI "is limited."
How artificial intelligence can be corrupted to repress free speech
The internet was supposed to become an overwhelming democratizing force against illiberal administrations. It didn't. It was supposed to open repressed citizens' eyes, expose them to new democratic ideals and help them rise up against their authoritarian governments in declaring their basic human rights. It hasn't. It was supposed to be inherently resistant to centralized control. It isn't.
Facebook adds a 'fake news' reporting option (updated)
Facebook has been getting dragged hard since November 8th -- and rightfully so -- given the unprecedented amount of shitposts and fake news that dominated the social site in the months leading up to the election. After his initial defense of "nuh-uh, wasn't us" fell on deaf ears, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to do something about it. The company has begun hitting fake news sites in the wallet, as well as scrubbing BS content through both curation and automation. And, on Sunday, Facebook appears to have quietly rolled out a third method: a new user-reporting feature that specifically calls out fake news for what it is. Update: Turns out that the false news option has been active on the site since last year.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 15: Everything But the Truth
Senior editor Devindra Hardawar and reviews editor Cherlynn Low join host Terrence O'Brien to dig through the week's biggest news. First they'll talk about two of the biggest new products on the market: the Macbook Pro and the Surface Studio. Then they'll try to figure out what posses a Ubisoft employee to hide a rather graphic image of a vagina in Watch Dogs 2. Lastly the panel will talk about the growing problem of fake news on the internet and what giants like Facebook can do to combat it.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 13: A Chicken with its Head Cut Off
Editor in chief Michael Gorman and executive editor Christopher Trout are in town this week and stop by to talk Peter Thiel, Vine and online voting with host Terrence O'Brien and reviews editor Cherlynn Low. Then, after they've had their fill of beating up on Thiel, the four will explore how dating and sex have changed in the age of apps. Warning, things get a little NSFW.
Facebook's Trending Topics may source more conservative news
According to a group who recently met with Facebook, the social media giant may very well be changing the way it chooses and identifies Trending Topics. This news arrives in light of a recent controversy regarding how and what the site identifies as trending news.
Tech giants push Congress for K-12 computer science education
A coalition of tech industry heavy-hitters and scions of corporate America have joined forces with a bipartisan group of governors and educators to push Congress for federal funding that would give every K-12 student in the country the chance to learn how to code. The group, a partnership between the Computer Science Education Coalition and Code.org, is petitioning Congress for $250 million in federal funding for the effort.
Facebook opens up Internet.org in wake of net neutrality concerns
Led by Facebook but with backing from a number of other prominent tech companies, Internet.org has made slow but steady progress in a bid to connect underserved countries around the globe. However, despite its altruistic approach, the project has come under fire in India for allegedly violating net neutrality rules by favoring certain carriers, sites and services. Zuckerberg and co. certainly don't want those criticisms hanging over their head, so today the Facebook CEO confirmed that the company will open up the Internet.org platform to developers, allowing them to create their own mobile-centric tools for millions of (often) first-time internet users.
Internet.org is taking its free internet services to Kenya
Facebook, Nokia, Samsung, Qualcomm and others created Internet.org in hopes of bringing web connectivity to underserved areas around the globe. Since the start of the collaboration between these tech companies, Internet.org has launched in Zambia and Tanzania, the latter being one of Africa's most populated countries. Next week, Internet.org's app, which provides free access to a variety of different services, is also becoming available in Kenya. As TechCrunch points out, Airtel customers in that area can start using AccuWeather, BBCNews, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Wikipedia, as well as other sites and communication tools, at no cost to them. And let's not forget Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia are only the first three countries to benefit from this initiative -- ultimately, Internet.org aims to blanket roughly 5 billion people altogether.
Watch Mark Zuckerberg answer your most pressing questions
Mark Zuckerberg took time out of his busy schedule yesterday to answer some pressing questions from the public. While none of the answers are particularly surprising, it was nice to hear the young CEO directly address the concerns of its users. High on the list of people's gripes was the decision to break out Messenger as its own app. While Facebook has addressed this issue before, it was still nice to hear Mr. Zuckerberg talk about it directly. He and Facebook still believe that the Messenger app provides a much better experience and that making it a standalone product was the right decision. Though he admitted that perhaps the transition could have gone better. If you're interested, you can watch the entire hour-long Q&A after the break.
Facebook's Zuckerberg offers his long view on Oculus VR
In a recent quarterly earnings conference call (report on Gamasutra), Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg touched on his plans for the future of Oculus VR, the recently acquired virtual reality headset company that Zuckerberg describes as "a long-term bet on the future of computing." "Every 10 to 15 years a new major computing platform arrives ... Virtual reality and augmented reality are an important part of this platform," Zuckerberg stated. "Our efforts here will take longer to achieve their full impact, but we will prepare for the future by continuing to invest aggressively." By "future" Zuckerberg means a timeline spanning the next decade. "[The Oculus Rift VR headset] needs to reach a very large scale - 50 to 100 million units - before it will really be a very meaningful thing as a computing platform, so I do think it's going to take a bunch of years to get there," he said. "[W]hen I'm talking about it as a 10-year thing, I'm talking about building the first set of devices, and then building the audience and the ecosystem around that, until it eventually becomes a business." While Zuckerberg offered no specifics on his plans for Oculus VR, it's clear that Facebook is taking a careful, long-term approach to what is simultaneously the potential future of computing and a largely unproven technology. That's smart, but it also means that the average person won't be immersed in virtual reality for at least a few more years. [Image: Facebook]
What you need to know about Facebook's battle with drag queens (update)
Maybe you've seen RuPaul's Drag Race, the flagship show on Logo TV, where men (dressed as women) compete to become America's next drag superstar. At the end of each show, the lowest-scoring competitors "lip sync for their life" in order to stay on the show another week. Now, some drag queens are fighting for their social media lives.
