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A group of 30 companies that own more than 200 local newspapers have formed a coalition against Google and Facebook in a newly consolidated antitrust lawsuit, alleging the tech giants have manipulated the digital ad market to the detriment of local news. The Charleston Gazette-Mail, a small West Virginia newspaper, was the first to file suit in January 2021. Doug Reynolds, managing partner at the holding company that owns several West Virginia newspapers, gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal, comparing Google and Facebook to last century’s robber barons. “These companies are more powerful than Standard Oil in its heyday, so no one wants to be the first to take them on,” Reynolds said. “We felt the political and legal climate have moved in our favor and are ready to go ahead.” In May, the News Media Alliance successfully filed a declaration to consolidate the newspapers’ cases and they were consolidated by a judicial panel shortly after that in the Southern District of New York.  » Read More

There's a new security protocol required for users who have a sizeable reach on Facebook and failure to enable in time may result in account lockout. Some Facebook users may be surprised to receive a warning to turn on a security protocol called Facebook Protect when they launch their apps on their devices. Described as an "advanced security program" by the company, the feature is currently on a slow rollout, and plans to continue expanding the program globally in 2022 are underway. Geared towards users who may have a potential to be targeted on social media, Facebook Protect is a security measure designed to increase account protections by requiring two-factor authentication, as well as monitoring activity that may be deemed as hacking threats. Other users, specifically those who have created and are managing Facebook Pages, will have additional requirements to fulfill to completely enable the feature. Facebook Page admins will need to undergo 'Page Publishing Authorization' to increase security around pages they manage,  » Read More

Facebook is in the “Oh, sweetie” phase of its corporate timeline. That’s the phase that comes right after “extremist hotspot” and right before “certain implosion.” First, the heavy-duty Facebook Papers, which were leaked by former-employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen, hit the floor and put several cracks in the linoleum. That’s when Mark Zuckerberg decided that, instead of working swiftly to change how he runs the company, he would announce a surface-level rebrand: The company (but not the app) will now be called Meta. Every step in the nearly two decades of Facebook’s dominance has been guided by an incurable lust for growth and incurable fear of irrelevance. Oh, sweetie, you think a little rebrand is the end of your troubles? That’s cute. Or evil, I can’t tell which yet. Either way, it’s an obnoxious response. Apparently, Facebook wants to lean into the “metaverse,” which Zuck thinks is the future of everything. The metaverse is the entire world of virtual “places” where people can meet, work, and play. So, basically, it’s a coffee shop without any of the things that make it fun to be at a coffee shop.  » Read More

Chance The Rapper had a minor slip up on Thursday morning via his Facebook Story that has all of social media talking. The Grammy Award winning rapper filmed himself having an early morning bathroom moment, when he spotted a large bug behind the toilet. In a miniature spooked out moment, Chance tried to get a close up of the large insect, but must've forgotten that he was exposed --- and on camera. Fans quickly took to social media to point out that the rapper had mistakenly showed a bit of his penis during the Facebook video. One Twitter user joked: It’s too early for chance the rapper to be out here flashing us like this .. I ain’t complaining tho. Another fan wrote: I loved @chancetherapper before this but now, I worship him. Chance has yet to speak out about the nude slip up. However, fans aren't letting the Chicago rapper off that easily, especially when it comes to dropping new music.  » Read More

Facebook has worked for years to revamp its handling of political ads — but researchers who conducted a comprehensive audit of millions of ads say the social media company's efforts have had uneven results. The problems, they say, include overcounting political ads in the U.S. — and undercounting them in other countries. And despite Facebook's ban on political ads around the time of last year's U.S. elections, the platform allowed more than 70,000 political ads to run anyway, according to the research team that is based at the NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy and at the Belgian university KU Leuven. Their research study was released early Thursday. They also plan to present their findings at a security conference next August. After analyzing more than 4.2 million political and 29.6 million non-political ads from more than 215,000 advertisers, the researchers said that in Facebook's enforcement efforts on U.S. political ads, "61% more ads are missed than are detected worldwide, and 55% of U.S. detected ads are in fact non-political. " Researcher criticizes Facebook's use of 'rudimentary' methods Laura Edelson of NYU,  » Read More

Home News Computing (Image credit: Shutterstock) Meta has announced a new professional mode for Facebook user profiles that makes it easier for content creators to monetize their posts on the social network.While professional mode will first be available to select users in the US, the company plans to expand it to more countries in the coming months while also adding access to more monetization options and platform tools.Content creators that do decide to use professional mode with their Facebook profiles will be presented with additional ways to make money on the social network and with expanded insights that were previously only available with Facebook Pages.One of the main perks of Facebook's new professional mode is the ability to participate in the company's new Reels Play bonus program where top content creators will be able to earn up to $35,000 per month based on the views of their short-form videos.  » Read More

Facebook is expanding its definition of “high-risk accounts” that will require the use of two-factor authentication to log on, in a move that mirrors broader trends across big tech platforms. Users flagged as having high-risk accounts will be periodically reminded to enable two-factor authentication; after a time, they will be locked out of the platform until they enable it. The move adds to speculation that Facebook’s eventual plan is to require two-factor authentication for all of its users as it transitions into the “Meta” phase of its existence. Two-factor authentication mandatory for Facebook Protect members The move appears to apply to users that have enrolled in Facebook Protect, the platform’s optional enhanced security program meant for users at elevated risk of having their accounts breached. Some “VIP” celebrity and public figures, as well as users with sensitive jobs such as journalists and activists, are automatically enrolled in the program as a mandatory component of their Facebook use. Popular Facebook pages are also sometimes required to have administrators and advertising accounts enable two-factor authentication. For some,  » Read More

By KELVIN CHAN, AP Business WriterLONDON — Rohingya refugees sued social network powerhouse Facebook for more than $150 billion, accusing it of failing to stop hate speech that incited violence against the Muslim ethnic group by military rulers and their supporters in Myanmar. Years after coming under scrutiny for contributing to ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar, recently revealed internal Facebook documents show the company still has problems defining and moderating hate speech and misinformation on its platform in the country. The breaches have even been exploited by hostile actors since the Feb. 1 military takeover this year that resulted in human rights abuses across the country. The Rohingyas’ claims were fortified by the revelations in internal company documents that former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen provided this fall to Congress and U.S. securities regulators. The documents could also serve to buttress potential legal action by other groups around the world harmed by hate speech and misinformation on Facebook’s platform. Lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit Monday in California against Facebook parent Meta Platforms,  » Read More

With the shopping season now in full swing, Facebook has published a new, 18-page guide to optimizing your Facebook Marketplace listings, in order to maximize reach, interest, and ideally, sales in the final push of the year. And while the guide is focused on Marketplace, many of the notes and stats relate to broader eCommerce trends. You can download the full guide here, but in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the key elements. First off, Facebook shares some key consumption stats for the holiday period, and specific trends that it's seeing on Marketplace. There’s also this helpful graph of the key elements that consumers consider in their shopping journey: I mean, the colors and the random order of the bars is a little confusing, but it may provide some pointers as to what you should be focusing on in your customer journey mapping. There’s also data on what users are looking for online,  » Read More

The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Illustration/File PhotoRegister now for FREE unlimited access to reuters.comDec 6 (Reuters) - Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are suing Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O), formerly known as Facebook, for $150 billion over allegations that the social media company did not take action against anti-Rohingya hate speech that contributed to violence.A U.S. class-action complaint, filed in California on Monday by law firms Edelson PC and Fields PLLC, argues that the company's failures to police content and its platform's design contributed to real-world violence faced by the Rohingya community. In a coordinated action, British lawyers also submitted a letter of notice to Facebook's London office.Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the lawsuit. The company has said it was "too slow to prevent misinformation and hate" in Myanmar and has said it has since taken steps to crack down on platform abuses in the region, including banning the military from Facebook and Instagram after the Feb.  » Read More