Facebook

Nearly 1,000 Asian-American business executives donated $10 million to ending anti-Asian hate. DoorDash founder Tony Xu, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan signed the letter. "We are tired of being treated as less than American," the business leaders wrote. See more stories on Insider's business page. Chief executives and other powerful Asian American Pacific Islander business executives have donated $10 million to groups reporting on hate crimes and supporting the AAPI community.DoorDash founder Tony Xu, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan joined nearly 1,000 other business executives in signing a letter calling to end violence against Asian Americans, including the March 16 Atlanta shooting that killed six Asian women."We are tired of being treated as less than American, subject to harassment and now, every day, we read about another member of our community being physically attacked — simply for being Asian," the letter, signed by the group Stand with Asian Americans,  » Read More

TORONTO, March 31, 2021 /CNW/ - Working with the Government of Canada, today at 1-1:30PM ET, Facebook Canada is hosting Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions Answered, a Facebook Live event with Canada's top doctors to connect millions of Canadians with trusted COVID-19 vaccine information. The event is free to attend and anyone can join: https://www.facebook.com/facebookappCanada  Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic last March, Facebook has connected over 2 billion people all around the world to COVID information from health authorities. Now, as COVID-19 vaccines begin to roll out, Facebook is using its scale to connect billions of people with accurate health information about these vaccines. WHAT: Facebook Live with Canada's top doctors, including Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, to answer Canadians' COVID-19 vaccine questions. WHO: Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada's Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Evan Adams, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Indigenous Services Canada Dr. Supriya Sharma, Chief Medical Advisor,  » Read More

Social stocks are in the spotlight.Deutsche Bank boosted its Facebook price target to a Street high on Monday, highlighting tail winds in the advertising space, while Truist analysts upgraded Twitter to a buy on what they view as the "most exciting product roadmap" they've seen from the company.But, the regulatory overhang persists. The CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter testified in front of Congress last week at a hearing on misinformation. Platforms have been criticized for not holding themselves' accountable for their content, especially false information, and for whether they either suppress or promote different voices.Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global and chief market strategist at Lido Advisors, said Capitol Hill's next move should be a very real concern for investors in these stocks."The question really comes around how Congress decides to act on this question of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and that can potentially change the business model," Sanchez told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Monday.  » Read More

In the early days of the pandemic, a  Facebook page for Earthley promised an easy way to avoid getting COVID-19. The wellness company promoted a Vitamin D cream and an elderberry elixir to strengthen the body’s immune response and "help fight off the possibility of you or your family getting the coronavirus."  The post appeared to violate Facebook’s policy for false claims of coronavirus treatments and cures. It was serious enough that the Federal Trade Commission mentioned it in a warning letter amid the agency’s crackdown on coronavirus scams.  Nearly one year later, Earthley is still spreading false information about COVID-19 and the vaccines — despite Facebook’s new rules against that content. The page has published out-of-context news stories about vaccine side effects and skirted moderation by misspelling the word "vaccine" in posts questioning whether vaccination is safe. We reached out to Earthley for a comment, but we haven’t heard back. "It doesn’t take an advanced, opaque algorithm like Facebook likes to use to predict this behavior," said John Gregory,  » Read More

Gorham, NY -- An Ontario County town justice, who retired from that county’s sheriff’s office, is being publicly scolded for two instances in which he publicly supported law enforcement.John Peck, of the Gorham Town Court, was taken to task by the state’s judicial conduct commission for two actions: a Facebook post about his attendance at a “Back the Blue” rally last summer and a picture on Facebook in which he posed in his old sheriff’s office uniform at his daughter’s police academy graduation.It’s the second time the commission has found fault with Peck: he was privately warned in April 2019 regarding another Facebook post he made critical of a candidate for sheriff at the time.Peck should be admonished for his latest displays in support of law enforcement, the commission ruled. That’s equivalent to a public scolding, but does not remove Peck from office. The judge has since been contrite and regrets his actions, the commission noted.“Respondent now recognizes that individuals viewing his Facebook posts, and seeing him in a law enforcement uniform,  » Read More

Posted: Mar 29, 2021 / 11:30 AM EDT / Updated: Mar 29, 2021 / 12:21 PM EDT ONTARIO COUNTY, N.Y. (WROC) — The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced on Monday that it has determined that John Peck — a justice of the Gorham Town Court in Ontario County should be admonished. The Commission found that Judge Peck should be disciplined for publishing public Facebook posts in which he appeared in a police uniform and expressed his appreciation for law enforcement officers. Judge Peck agreed to the admonition. According to the SCJC: In July 2020, Judge Peck, a retired law enforcement officer: expressed appreciation and strong support on Facebook for members of law enforcement, which he called the “noblest of professions” in connection with a “Back the Blue” eventposted a photo of himself wearing a police uniform. Judge Peck’s Facebook settings were public and his post and photos garnered hundreds of “likes” and many comments, including one that identified him as “Judge!” “A judge must be and appear impartial.  » Read More

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government on Sunday accused Facebook Inc of "digital totalitarianism" after it froze President Nicolas Maduro's page for 30 days for violating policies against spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Facebook told Reuters this weekend it had also taken down a video in which Maduro promoted Carvativir, a Venezuelan-made remedy he claims, without evidence, can cure the disease. Facebook said it followed guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) that there is currently no medication that can cure the virus. In a statement on Sunday, Venezuela's information ministry said Facebook was going after "content geared toward combating the pandemic" and described Carvativir as a retroviral of "national production and engineering." "We are witnessing a digital totalitarianism exercised by supranational companies who want to impose their law on the countries of the world," the ministry said. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuelan doctors have warned that Carvativir's effect on coronavirus has not been established. The treatment is derived from thyme,  » Read More

You can turn off those Facebook friend suggestions once and for all.  (AP) Facebook is a social networking service that is centered around content shared by you and your friends, along with pages and people you choose to follow. While the service regularly recommends pages you should follow and check out, the company also occasionally sends out notifications to suggest people you may know as friends.The company brands these suggestions under the ‘People You May Know’ section, which lists users who could be suggested as part of your contact list that you uploaded to Facebook, or via the company’s algorithms that can predict who you might know based on your profile information and who you are already friends with.Read more: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over COVID-19 misinformationHowever, not all users might want those constant reminders from Facebook about adding more friends to their lists, especially if they already have a small friend circle and intend to keep it that way. If you want to turn off the notifications for People You May Know,  » Read More

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year. This week we’re looking at the case of the missing Arizona app store bill,  » Read More

Facebook, Microsoft and Uber have announced plans to reopen offices on a limited basis, as the spread of the coronavirus pandemic continues to slow. Microsoft and Uber say their headquarters in Redmond, Wash., and San Francisco respectively will welcome employees on March 29. The software giant has already begun to accommodate some additional workers in offices around the globe at its 21 locations and reopening offices in the Northwest by taking a hybrid approach is the next step, the company said in a statement. “Our goal is to give employees further flexibility, allowing people to work where they feel most productive and comfortable, while also encouraging employees to work from home as the virus and related variants remain concerning,” Microsoft said in a blog post. Uber is moving up a back-to-the-office plan from Sept. 13 to next Monday, the company said in an emailed statement, stressing that it is on a voluntary basis. In line with local guidelines, the ride-share company said only up 20% of employees can opt to work from the office.  » Read More