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Meta Leases Office Space in Downtown Skyscraper Scheduled for Completion in 2023Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms Inc. completed a lease to take the entire portion of the office space in a mixed-use skyscraper expected to become the tallest tower in fast-growing Austin, Texas, once it is complete next year.This news story is available exclusively to CoStar subscribers.Watch the video to learn how you can access industry leading CRE news and the data analytics you need to drive success.This news story is available exclusively to CoStar subscribers.Ready to Learn More?Sign Up For a Personalized Demo.Sign Up For a Demo To Learn More.  » Read More

Pope Francis issued a warning Monday against so-called cancel culture during his annual address to the Vatican’s Diplomatic Corps. In the speech to representatives from the 183 countries accredited to the Holy See, the pope declared getting vaccinated a “moral obligation” — and he also came out swinging on the issue of “cancel culture,” whereby people are ostracized, particularly online, for making remarks that are deemed to be politically incorrect. “Cancel culture is invading many circles and public institutions,” the pope said. “As a result, agendas are increasingly dictated by a mindset that rejects the natural foundations of humanity and the cultural roots that constitute the identity of many people.” He added that “under the guise of defending diversity, it ends up canceling all sense of identity.” This risks silencing voices that “defend a respectful and balanced understanding of various sensibilities,” he said. The pope also said that cancel culture is a form of “one-track thinking” that wants to rewrite the past through a modern-day lens. And he warned that “any historical situation must be interpreted in accordance with a hermeneutics of that particular time.” He concluded his attack on cancel culture by saying,  » Read More

Google and Facebook have both been found in violation of the French Data Protection Act. Following complaints on the way cookies can be refused on facebook.com, google.fr, and youtube.com, French data protection agency CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés) carried out probes and concluded that the websites committed breaches. “The restricted committee, the body of the CNIL responsible for issuing sanctions, has noted, following investigations, that the websites facebook.com, google.fr, and youtube.com offer a button allowing the user to immediately accept cookies,” explained the CNIL in a release. “However, they do not provide an equivalent solution (button or other) enabling the internet user to easily refuse the deposit of these cookies. Several clicks are required to refuse all cookies, against a single one to accept them. “The restricted committee considered that this process affects the freedom of consent: since, on the internet, the user expects to be able to quickly consult a website; the fact that they cannot refuse the cookies as easily as they can accept them influences their choice in favour of consent.  » Read More

Digital Banking The CEO of neobank Starling has pulled ads from Facebook and Instagram in a stinging attack on its policies toward checks on financial fraud. Image source: Anne Boden/Starling BankThe CEO of Starling Bank Anne Boden has pulled all paid advertising from Facebook and Instagram owing to concerns over financial scams. Boden, writing in a blog post last week, said until the social media giant Meta, the recently rebranded - owner of Facebook and Instagram  - addresses fraudulent adverts it will cease to use it as a customer acquisition channel.  “It cannot be right that these platforms profit from crime and yet remain beyond the reach of law,” she said. “We want to protect our customers and our brand integrity. And we can no longer pay to advertise on a platform alongside scammers who are going after the savings of our customers and those of other banks,” she added. Big tech rival Google said it would not be accepting financial services advertisements from firms that did not prove they are authorised by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or unless they qualified for certain limited exemptions as in July of 2021.  » Read More

BLAINE, Minn. — Students at a Minnesota high school are doing their part to keep classrooms clean after the dismissal bell rings.Read more trending newsThe state’s largest school district -- the Anoka-Hennepin School District — is 18 custodians short of the 220 it normally employs, which means some buildings are not being cleaned quickly enough, the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis reported.Tom Karp, the district’s assistant director of buildings and grounds, came up with a plan.“I said, what if we looked at the untapped potential of high school kids?” Karp told the newspaper.A student janitor program was rolled out at Blaine High School, where students clean classrooms for two hours each afternoon, the Star-Tribune reported.Karp approached Blaine High School’s assistant principal, Steve Drewlo, who was enthusiastic about the idea.“We were immediately on board,” Drewlo told the newspaper. “We were really limited to having zero other alternatives.”The students are paid $15.30 an hour,  » Read More

Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti is the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. This year it is falling on 9 January 2022. He was the tenth and the last Sikh guru. Born in Patna on December 22, 1666, the tenth guru was born in the Sodhi Khatri family. His birth anniversary is also known as Prakash Parv. The date is decided according to the Nanakshahi calendar and falls between December and January. Guru Gobind Singh is known as a great warrior, poet and writer. He was also the founder of the Sikh warrior community known as Khalsa. He introduced the 5Ks, the five articles of faith in Sikh wear too. He is even known as the one who composed the Dasam Granth hymns, which is considered a key scripture of Sikhs. Devotees celebrate Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti with lots of enthusiasm and fervour. People also distribute food and clothes to needy on his birth anniversary. If you are confused about what to share, we are here to help you with wishes,  » Read More

The head of communications at Facebook parent Meta Platforms, John Pinette, is leaving the company, the social media company said late on Friday.Chris Norton, vice president of international communications, will cover the role on an interim basis, a Meta spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters."John Pinette has left Meta. We are thankful for his positive contributions during an intense and significant time in the company's history, and we wish him well going forward," the statement said.The spokesperson declined to say why Pinette was leaving, citing Meta policy of not commenting on personnel matters.The Wall Street Journal first reported Pinette's departure on Friday.Pinette was appointed vice president of global communications in April 2019, according to the company's website.Before joining the company, Pinette led communications for Gates Ventures, the private office and innovation lab of Bill Gates, for five years, and was the head of Asia Pacific communications for Google. He also held a number of product and corporate communications leadership positions at Microsoft.  » Read More

The head of communications at Facebook parent Meta Platforms, John Pinette, is leaving the company, the social media company said late on Friday (Jan 7). Chris Norton, vice president of international communications, will cover the role on an interim basis, a Meta spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "John Pinette has left Meta. We are thankful for his positive contributions during an intense and significant time in the company’s history, and we wish him well going forward," the statement said. The spokesperson declined to say why Pinette was leaving, citing Meta policy of not commenting on personnel matters. The Wall Street Journal first reported Pinette's departure on Friday. Pinette was appointed vice president of global communications in April 2019, according to the company's website. Before joining the company, Pinette led communications for Gates Ventures, the private office and innovation lab of Bill Gates, for five years, and was the head of Asia Pacific communications for Google. He also held a number of product and corporate communications leadership positions at Microsoft.  » Read More

Published January 6, 2022 7:44PM Meta sued over federal officers death KTVU's Andre Senior reports. OAKLAND, Calif. - On the night of May 28, 2020, the streets of downtown Oakland were packed with people protesting the death of George Floyd when David Patrick Underwood was shot and killed while protecting a federal building, by someone using the demonstration as cover to carry out the crime. Underwood's sister, Angela Underwood Jacobs filed a wrongful death suit against Facebook, now known as Meta, claiming the social media company radicalized the alleged shooter.The key suspect, Steven Carrillo, met alleged his accomplice, Millbrae resident Robert Alvin Justus Junior, on a Facebook group. The suit alleges that Facebook kept Carrillo engaged on the platform by using its algorithm to feed into his echo chamber with inflammatory content and spoon-feeding him information on extremist groups, a move that critics say keeps users engaged and in turn drives-up ad sales. "Facebook is much more than just a landing spot,  » Read More

The feds say that far-right “Boogaloo” militia types killed federal officer David Patrick Underwood, while trying to pose as Antifa. Underwood’s sister says Facebook gave them the tools to do it, and is suing the company.   There have always been incredibly fishy circumstances around the May 29, 2020 killing of federal security officer David Patrick Underwood. For starters, the Boogaloo extremists whom the feds have charged with that murder had tried to make it look like Antifa committed the killing, a lie which even then-vice president Mike Pence repeated at the 2020 Republican convention. We also now know that Facebook was these Boogaloo adherents' platform of choice, because the platform was astonishingly inept at cracking down on far-right extremists. And that’s just brought Facebook (Meta, whatever) a new civil lawsuit, as the Washington Post reports that Underwood's sister is suing Facebook for their alleged indifference at allowing Underwood’s murder to be organized on their platform.  » Read More