Facebook looking to change its name as scrutiny damages reputation October 20, 2021 Social media behemoth Facebook intends to rebrand with a new name, it has been reported. A rebrand will be announced next week, according to US tech website the Verge, which cited a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The name change will be addressed at Facebook’s annual Connect conference on October 28 by its [...]
Facebook and Instagram promoting ‘misogyny,’ investigation finds October 18, 2021 Social media giants like Facebook are set to face further questions after a new investigation has revealed platform algorithms actively promote misogynistic content to certain users. Facebook and Instagram users who show signs of hostility towards women online are more likely to then have pages recommended to them that reference sexual violence, disturbing memes about [...]
Nick Clegg reveals Facebook will force children on Instagram to take a break October 11, 2021 Facebook’s Nick Clegg said last night that the social media giant will roll out as range of new features to to help safeguard children on its Instagram platform. The announcement follows allegations Instagram harms children. New functions include prompting teenagers to take a break from using its photo sharing app Instagram, and “nudging” teenagers if [...]
Breakthrough week for historic corporate tax deal: 140 nations including Ireland are on board October 9, 2021 The international community is moving towards sweeping changes to how big multinational companies are taxed to prevent them from stashing profits in offshore havens where they pay little or no tax after 140 countries have agreed to sign the deal. Under the agreement, countries would enact a global minimum corporate tax of 15 per cent [...]
Nick Clegg says Facebook is ‘pleased’ with historic tax deal, even if it means paying more October 9, 2021 Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president for global affairs, said today the social media giant welcomes the corporate tax agreement that 140 countries around the world agreed this week. “We are pleased to see an emerging international consensus,” Clegg said in a statement sent to City A.M. this afternoon. Under the agreement, countries would enact a [...]
Facebook down again: How persistent is the problem and which sites crash the most? October 9, 2021 Facebook and Instagram were down again for millions of users across the UK last night. The platforms apologised on Twitter for the outage, doing so for the second time this week after another, prolonged down time on Monday. Websites go down all the time from more serious issues like cyber attacks to problems in-house, with [...]
Facebook, Instagram and Messenger again down for millions of users around the world October 8, 2021 Facebook and Instagram confirmed this evening that users are having problems accessing services for a second time in a week. The social media giants have apologised to users who are unable to refresh their home pages, though the outage appears to be less widespread than on Monday. our apps and products. “We’re working to get [...]
Facebook’s artificial intelligence catches little offending content, says whistleblower October 6, 2021 Whistleblower Frances Haugen testified in a congressional hearing that “Facebook’s AI systems only catch a very tiny minority of offending content. And best case scenario, and the case of something like hate speech, at most they will ever get 10 to 20 percent.” Watch the full report.
Whistleblower Frances Haugen: Facebook extends users’ stay to drive advertising October 6, 2021 During a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing last night, in which U.S. lawmakers pounced on Facebook, whistleblower Frances Haugen called for transparency about how the social media giant entices users to extend their stay on the site, giving them ample opportunity to advertise to them. Watch the full report.
Facebook accused of being ‘morally bankrupt’ at whistleblower Frances Haugen Senate hearing October 5, 2021 Whistleblower Frances Haugen is testifying against Facebook before the US Senate, and has accused the firm of putting “astronomical profits before people” and said it “harms children.” Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, began her testimony by saying: “I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.” During the committee hearing, Senator Blumenthal, [...]