Tag: Facebook

Nations unite against Facebook over encryption plans ‘that endanger children’

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook referred 21 million messages to the US authorities last year for suspected child abuse. Picture: Getty Images

Britain’s home secretary has been building an international alliance to take on Facebook over its plans to introduce default end-to-end encryption for its messaging apps.

Suella Braverman has warned Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, that “there will be no let-up” amid fears about the technology’s use by pedophiles and other criminals.

End-to-end encryption stops anyone but the sender and recipient of a message seeing it, meaning the companies cannot police the content, making it an ideal tool for criminals. Meta will introduce it on Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct chats this year.

Braverman spoke last week to Alejandro Mayorkas, the US homeland security secretary, to enlist his support for the campaign, which has the backing of Britain’s Five Eyes security partners, including Australia and New Zealand.

A government source said: “Meta’s introduction of end-to-end encryption without the safeguards which are currently in place will provide an online haven for pedophiles, organised criminals and fraudsters. It’s crucial for the safety of our children and citizens that they think again. The whole of government is clear about the terrible threat that this poses and the home secretary and security minister are pushing hard to drive this message home to Meta. There will be no let-up.”

Meta scans all messages on its platforms and is obliged by US law to report any suspected child abuse activity, including obscene images, to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Of the 32 million referrals made by tech companies last year, more than 21 million came from Facebook and just over five million were from Instagram.

Source : https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/nations-unite-against-facebook-over-encryption-plans-that-endanger-children/news-story/cd9df44f2f0a8d6fda9fef64f529f6b4

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to lay off another 10,000 staff

Meta is the latest large firm to wield the axe as it tries to ride out a worldwide economic downturn. The latest job cuts announcement comes just four months after the firm cut its global headcount by more than 11,000 employees.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is axing another 10,000 jobs to cut costs.

The company said on Tuesday it will reduce the size of its recruiting team and make further cuts in its tech groups in late April, and then its business groups in late May.

“We expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“This will be tough and there’s no way around that.

“It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success.”

It comes just four months after Meta – which is investing billions of dollars to build the futuristic metaverse – cut its global headcount by more than 11,000 employees.

It is one of several big companies to wield the axe to rein in costs in an attempt to ride out a worldwide economic downturn.

Rapid interest rate hikes and weak consumer demand have forced firms such as Amazon, Twitter and Microsoft to trim their workforces.

The latest job cuts at Meta are part of a wider shake-up at the tech firm that will see the company cancel lower priority projects, reduce its hiring rates and flatten layers of middle management.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/facebook-and-instagram-owner-meta-to-lay-off-another-10000-staff-12833642

Into The Metaverse: How India Can Leverage The Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity

Facebook’s name change to Meta was a line in the sand, an announcement that the metaverse had arrived. The concept of the metaverse is still very much undefined and evolving. While some definitions describe it as a fully immersive virtual world, others, including myself, perceive it as an extension of our current digital communication tools, such as Zoom, WhatsApp, or Google Meet.

While ideas about how the metaverse might remain blurry, there’s no doubting its economic potential. In India, things are looking good, with Deloitte predicting the metaverse could boost the economy by $79 Bn to $148 Bn annually by 2035. That’s 1.3–2.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

New Digital Economy

With help from augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and a host of other technologies, the metaverse will provide new ways for humans to interact with the world virtually. People will socialise, work, shop, and find entertainment in a virtual space available 24/7.

Welcome to a new digital economy with new rules of engagement. In the future, a real estate agent in the metaverse might take homebuyers on virtual tours of physical properties. An engineer could replicate an online model of a yet-to-be-manufactured tool, giving investors a 360-degree experience of how it would look, feel, and work. The emergence of digital twin cities could improve urban planning practices.

Already elements of the metaverse are being used to train retail staff and healthcare personnel. And there’s more in store. Last year, a Hong Kong-based luxury fashion brand held a virtual fashion show with no physical apparel, then offered VR and AR tools enabling shoppers to trial clothes virtually before placing an order. It resulted in less inventory, a lower carbon footprint, and a new way to shop.

In a recent online sneaker purchase with Adidas, I was struck by the powerful impact of AR in providing an immersive, lifelike experience. With AR, I was not only able to see what the shoes looked like on my feet, but I could also feel their texture and get a true sense of their fit.

Source: https://inc42.com/resources/into-the-metaverse-how-india-can-leverage-the-multi-billion-dollar-opportunity/

Facebook Reels can now last up to 90 seconds

In an attempt to catch up with TikTok, Meta announced a series of upgrades for Facebook Reels on Friday. Most notably, Reels are now 1.5x as long, as Facebook will now allow creators to post videos up to 90 seconds long. Previously, the limit for Facebook Reels was only 60 seconds — significantly shorter than TikTok’s enormous 10-minute limit.

New features coming to Facebook Reels

Beyond longer videos, Meta also added new features to Reels that users can take advantage of starting today. If you would rather survey old photos and videos for content than create something new, you’re in luck. You can now share your Memories as reels with a single tap. You should start seeing the option below your Memories on Facebook.

Another new feature is called Grooves, and as the name suggests, it allows you to automatically align and sync the motion in your video to the beat of a song.

Facebook Reels also now has templates, so you can make your videos look like everyone else’s with as little effort as possible. Jokes aside, not everyone has the time or patience to become a professional Reels creator, so templates are a welcome addition.

Source: https://dnyuz.com/2023/03/03/facebook-reels-can-now-last-up-to-90-seconds/

Govt to close toll booths within 60 km of national highways; I-T dept conducts raids at Hiranandani group; Russia bans Facebook, Instagram

The Income Tax department conducted raids at Hiranandani group at 24 locations across Chennai, Bengaluru, and Mumbai in the foreign assets case. In Lok Sabha, Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said that all toll collecting points which are within 60 kilometre of each other on the national highways will be closed in the next three months. Meanwhile, a Russian court banned Meta-controlled Facebook and Instagram in the country on March 21, calling its parent company “extremist.”

Facebook wants to bring back young adults on its platform but they say there’s nothing much it can do to win them

In its July-September 2021 quarterly earnings conference, Meta’s cofounder Mark Zuckerberg seemed a little worried. He was vocal about it, too. He wants to see a shift. A shift that would take years.

Representative imageUnsplash

“We are retooling our teams to make serving young adults their North Star rather than optimising for the larger number of older people,” Zuckerberg said.

Meta’s social media firm Facebook is losing its popularity among teens and young adult users across its key markets, according to numerous studies.

They are jumping to other social media platforms. This slow departure of young users, increasing data privacy concerns and rising cost per impression threaten Facebook’s advertising business, as it could lose its grip on social media ad spend. Business Insider India spoke to content creators and young internet users born between 1997 and 2012, who are also known as Generation Z, and social media experts, who believe Facebook has lost its fame to the perception war and might not see a revival.

To pique the young audience’s interest again, Facebook has replicated various social media formats that have worked for other platforms. It is almost like Joey from popular sitcom Friends believing that he can pass for 19 by simply replicating what young people wear.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.in/home/facebook-wants-to-bring-back-young-adults-on-its-platform-but-they-say-theres-nothing-much-it-can-do-to-win-them/articleshow/90206539.cms

Facebook owner defends policy on calls for violence that angered Russia

Facebook owner Meta Platforms (FB.O) said Friday that a temporary change in its content policy, only for Ukraine, was needed to let users voice opposition to Russia’s attack, as Russia opened a criminal case after the company said it would allow posts such as “death to the Russian invaders.”

Meta logo and Russian flag are seen through broken glass in this illustration taken March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Russian prosecutors asked a court to designate the U.S. tech giant as an “extremist organisation,” and the communications regulator said it would restrict access to Meta’s Instagram starting March 14. The company said the decision would affect 80 million users in Russia.

“A criminal case has been initiated … in connection with illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation by employees of the American company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

The committee reports directly to President Vladimir Putin. It was not immediately clear what the consequences of the criminal case might be.

Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg responded after the Russian government action with a tweeted statement saying that the company aimed to protect rights to speech as an expression of self-defense reacting to the invasion of Ukraine and that the policy only applied to Ukraine.

“If we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable,” Clegg wrote.

“We have no quarrel with the Russian people. There is no change at all in our policies on hate speech as far as the Russian people are concerned,” he added.

Facebook temporarily allows posts on Ukraine war calling for violence against invading Russians or Putin’s death

Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.

The social media company is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to internal emails to its content moderators.

“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

The calls for the leaders’ deaths will be allowed unless they contain other targets or have two indicators of credibility, such as the location or method, one email said, in a recent change to the company’s rules on violence and incitement.

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