Facebook “Watch” looked like a Netflix killer in 2017, but antitrust prosecutors claim it was shut down to protect advertising deals.
In both cases, Meta ended up reinstating the posts — one showing Palestinian casualties and the other, an Israeli hostage — on its own, although it added warning screens to both due to violent content. This means the company isn’t obligated to do anything about the board’s decision.
The social media company has stepped up enforcement, but its algorithms continue to promote problematic content.
Meta Platforms will let political ads on Facebook and Instagram question the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, one of several changes the social-media company and other platforms have made to loosen constraints on campaign advertising for 2024. Meta made the change last year, but it hasn’t gained wide attention. The company decided to allow political advertisers to say past elections were “rigged” or “stolen” but prevented them from questioning the legitimacy of ongoing and coming elections.
The economics of zero-ad versions of mainstream social media services are unlikely to appeal to tech companies or their users.
Exclusives
Her exit indicates how Meta’s priorities around news and its relationships with media companies have changed.
Siding with Meta Platforms, a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit alleging that the company wrongly banned ads on Facebook for the Holocaust-related movie Beautiful Blue Eyes.
A nonprofit watchdog group has found that the right-wing group PragerU has pushed out more than 100 political ads on Facebook and Instagram, flouting Meta’s policies.
Facebook and YouTube are receding from their role as watchdogs against conspiracy theories ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The subscription plan is a response to European Union policies and court rulings to restrict Meta’s data-collection practices.
Meta’s decision to block news links in Canada this month has had almost no impact on Canadians’ usage of Facebook, data from independent tracking firms indicated on Tuesday, as the company faces scorching criticism from the Canadian government over the move.
Facebook De-Platformed My Community TV Station In Canada. U.S. Broadcasters Should Take Heed
CHCO-TV relied heavily on social platforms to reach news audiences in vastly underserved New Brunswick, Canada. A recently enacted news ban on those platforms has had a chilling effect on democracy to which U.S. broadcasters need to tune in. (Shannon May Pringle photo)
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have decided they don’t need the news industry. That’s causing problems when natural disasters strike.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday accused Facebook of putting profits over people’s safety during the emergencies created by Canada’s record wildfire season. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced earlier this summer it would keep its promise to block news content from Canada on its platforms because of a new law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.
Facebook is shunning the news business in the U.S. The Meta-owned company has quietly made changes in recent months that have dramatically reduced referral traffic to media outlets, more than half a dozen publishers say. The move has put considerable dents in the daily traffic publishers see, with the damage appearing to be more pronounced among those who publish more hard news-oriented content. “If you’re a major publisher, you’ve gotten nicked,” said an executive at a major media company, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a “cage match” face-off in late June. Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts, and the CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta posted about completing his first jiu jitsu tournament earlier this year. “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X,” Musk wrote in a post Sunday on the platform. “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.”
Meta has begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada, the company said on Tuesday. The move comes in response to legislation in the country requiring internet giants to pay news publishers. Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, said the changes will roll out in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, the Canadian government announced that it will cease all ad spending — about $7.5 million per year — on Facebook and Instagram. The decision comes after Meta and Google blocked Canadian news in opposition to a law requiring technology platforms to compensate publishers for linking to their content.
After the nation’s senate passed the Online News Act yesterday, Meta confirmed it will remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for all Canadian users, but it remained unclear whether Google would follow suit for its platforms.
Meta is preparing to block news for some Canadians on Facebook and Instagram in a temporary test that is expected to last the majority of the month. The Silicon Valley tech giant is following in the steps of Google, which blocked news links for about five weeks earlier this year for some of its Canadian users in response to a controversial Liberal government bill. Bill C-18, which is currently being studied in the Senate, will require tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.
Meta Platforms violated prior privacy settlements, and as a result should be prohibited from monetizing minors’ data, including the use of it to fuel ad targeting or algorithms, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday. “Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said. “The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.”
Workers at Facebook’s parent have been increasingly alarmed by job cuts and the company’s direction.
The company said in a blog post Wednesday it is adding “new guardrails” to ensure there are no “repeat offenders” who violate its rules, even if they are political candidates or world leaders. “The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,” wrote Nick Clegg, Facebook parent Meta’s vice president of global affairs.
Former President Donald Trump, who recently announced plans to run again in 2024, reportedly is urging Meta Platforms to restore his account. “We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” a representative for Trump said in a letter to Meta, according to NBC News, which first reported on Trump’s request for his account to be reinstated.
Why Is Facebook Afraid Of The JCPA?
Facebook has been making a lot of noise lately about the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) – a bill to level the playing field between behemoth tech platforms and your local broadcasters and news publishers. The bill would give local TV and radio stations the ability to jointly negotiate with Big Tech platforms regarding the terms by which their content may be accessed. Why is Facebook – a company whose $300 billion market cap dwarfs the entire broadcast industry – so afraid of this bill?
Facebook parent Meta is sparring with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in federal court over its pending acquisition of a virtual reality fitness company Within Unlimited.
The ads, submitted by researchers, were rejected by YouTube and TikTok.
The job market is booming, so why is the tech industry getting hit with layoffs?
Among the mass layoffs at the company formerly known as Facebook last week are several roles that have served as a bridge between the news industry and the sprawling tech company.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the news today in a note to staff: “Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” he wrote. “I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.”
TikTok and Twitter won’t take campaign money, so Meta’s social network remains the default winner, even though strategists say the platform is losing its effectiveness.
The parent of Facebook and Instagram said that it had taken down what was the first targeted Chinese campaign to interfere in U.S. politics and that the effort was limited.
In response to stalling growth and intense competition, Facebook parent Meta is looking to reduce costs by at least 10%, people familiar with the plans said, while Google has required some employees to apply for new jobs.
Facebook has agreed to settle a long-running lawsuit over claims that the company violated users’ privacy by sharing their information with outside developers, including the defunct political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, according to court papers filed Friday.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, shared data for the first time about the number of times it’s applied its newsworthiness allowance. The company will sometimes leave up posts that could violate its rules, if it determines the posts are newsworthy.
