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☆ Meta's stock just wrapped up its ninth straight monthly gain as Wall Street cheers cost cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In this article META Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTMark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta Platforms, in July 2021. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesA year ago, Meta's stock was in the midst of a nosedive as Wall Street grew concerned that threats to the business were increasingly existential. Despite slipping on Monday, Meta's stock climbed 11% in July, wrapping up its ninth straight month of gains, by far the longest such stretch since Facebook's IPO in 2012. watch nowMeta has been the second-best performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, behind only Nvidia . Then came the cost cuts and Zuckerberg's promise early this year that 2023 would be the "year of efficiency."

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Dietsch, Mark Zuckerberg's, Zuckerberg, Frances Haugen, Haugen's Organizations: Meta, Getty, Facebook, Nvidia, Apple, Nurphoto Locations: Ukraine, Russia, China

☆ The strange, improbable rise of Mark Zuckerberg 3.0
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +27 min

In early July, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the latest and perhaps most consequential product in Meta's history: a new model of Mark Zuckerberg. Silicon Valley Zuck was a husband and father with a legacy to build and protect at all costs. Silicon Valley Zuck was suddenly faced with something he'd never dealt with before, shrinking revenue. Still clinging to his persona as Silicon Valley Zuck, Zuckerberg engaged in an all-out media blitz to hawk his vision for the metaverse. They were the sort of people Harvard Zuck would have scoffed at and Silicon Valley Zuck would have gently ignored.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg, Clark Kent, TikTok, Sheryl Sandberg, Mike Schroepfer, Wall, McKinsey Zuck, Rogan, Meta, Harvard Zuck, —, Priscilla Chan, Ray's, pullover, Harvard Zuck —, Dianna, Mick, McDougall, Paul Sakuma, Zuckerberg's, Apple, Facebook, he'd, That's, Frances Haugen, Chris Cox, Zuck, Zach Gibson, Meta's, Sandberg, Marne Levine, who'd, Javier Olivan, he's, bode, Bain, Maher Saba, Lori Goler, He's, He'd, Katie Harbath, it's, Andrew Bosworth, Bosworth, Mark Zuckerberg McKinsey Zuck, Mark Shmulik, Bernstein, Augustus, Julius Caesar, Kali Hays Organizations: Meta, Menlo, Harvard, Apple, McKinsey, Business, Facebook, Cambridge, Capitol, Labs, Menlo Park, Q, Bain & Company, Reality Labs, Wall, Mark Zuckerberg McKinsey, Phillips Exeter Academy, Tech, Twitter Locations: California, Hawaii, United States, Davos, Silicon, contrition, Meta, verbiage, Harvard, Rome

☆ Twitter is rebranding to X. Here are 5 more tech companies that controversially changed their names or faced backlash.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Here are five more tech companies which changed their names — some controversially, and others leading to success. From The Facebook to Facebook, then MetaMark Zuckerberg at Harvard University, three months after The Facebook was created. But the business plan was first written for a company called Cadabra, as in a magician's "Abracadabra." Before Twitter became X, X.com became PayPalPeter Thiel, left, and Elon Musk, right, hold VISA credit cards branded with the X.com company logo on October 20, 2000. Paul Sakuma/APElon Musk cofounded the online payment company X.com in 1999 before it merged with Peter Thiel's Confinity a year later.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Rick Friedman, Sean Parker, Justin Timberlake, Zuckerberg, that's, Frances Haugen, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Martin Magunia, Brin, Sundar Pichai, Mike Krieger, Kevin Systrom, Stephen Chernin Instagram, Andreessen Horowitz, Krieger, Systrom, Instagram, Jeff Bezos, Evan Agostini, —, Bezos, Mackenzie Scott, X.com, PayPal Peter Thiel, Paul Sakuma, AP Elon Musk, Peter Thiel's Confinity, Jimmy Soni's, Thiel, Walter Isaacson Organizations: Twitter, PayPal, Morning, Facebook, Harvard University, Meta, VR, Reality Labs, Google, Getty, Stanford, Microsoft, REUTERS, Baseline Ventures, Stanford University, Inc, Amazon, AP Elon, eBay Locations: Burbn

☆ Meta whistleblower says 'tens of millions' could die in the coming years if social media isn't overhauled
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

She told The Sunday Times that "tens of millions" will die if social media isn't overhauled. With a new memoir, Haugen says she's trying to change society's understanding of social media. Frances Haugen, the Meta whistleblower, told The Sunday Times that "tens of millions" will die if social media isn't overhauled. Now, Haugen has written a memoir in which she says social media is still damaging due to a continued lack of transparency, The Washington Post reported. And Haugen believes that the only way to change that is to overhaul our understanding of social media.

Persons: Frances Haugen, isn't, Haugen, she's, Meta, Instagram, — Haugen Organizations: Sunday Times, Facebook, Wall, Washington Post, United Nations, Meta Locations: India, Myanmar, British

☆ Elon Musk pulled Twitter from the EU's anti-disinformation agreement and continues to troll with alt-right memes and dogwhistles. It could be a sign he'll close the site to Europe completely.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

European Commissioner Thierry Breton said Twitter pulled out of the EU's disinformation agreement. The law, which establishes requirements for monitoring and flagging disinformation, would make the now voluntary agreement mandatory for large social media sites. "Twitter leaves EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation. Politico reported Breton had previously warned Musk that Twitter could be banned from the EU if it fails to abide by the rules. While Musk has withdrawn Twitter from the EU disinformation agreement, he continues to troll by posting content that skirts the lines of potentially being flagged under the DSA and another EU content policy regarding hate speech.

The number of Twitter mobile app downloads actually declined 18% in February to 14.05 million from 17.2 million in January. Meanwhile, Twitter had 14.9 million app downloads in April, which is a 2% increase from the 14.6 million downloads it accumulated in March. Musk's Twitter makeover has sparked new interest in decentralized social networks. Elon Musk's Twitter is facing new competition from a rival called Bluesky, a so-called decentralized communications app that is backed by Twitter co-founder and twice-former CEO, Jack Dorsey. The front-end apps built atop these decentralized platforms are often clunky, not professional-looking or easy to use.

☆ Summer movie preview 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Dan Heching | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —Most moviegoers can pinpoint one summer movie – or perhaps, a summer of movies – in their formative years that really and truly cemented their love for going to the cinema, whether it be 1975’s “Jaws,” “E.T. And while streaming has clearly siphoned off part of the audience, particularly for more serious films, what we think of as “summer movies” still have the potential to rake in cash just like the old days. (CNN and DC are both part of the same parent company, Warner Bros. Courtesy Warner Bros. PicturesInitially meant for streaming platforms, this vehicle will herald the cinematic arrival of DC Studios’ first Latino superhero, played by Xolo Maridueña of “Cobra Kai” and “Parenthood” fame. If the fast-paced trailer is any indication, the movie looks sure to whisk those dog days of summer doldrums away quite nicely.

☆ Facebook depends on local partners to flag hateful content. In Ethiopia, those partners say they were ignored.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Tekendra Parmar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Trusted partners say warnings were ignoredInsider spoke with six current and former trusted partners from Ethiopia who said that Facebook routinely ignored their pleas to take down content that they deemed hateful or likely to incite violence. Some of the trusted partners declined to be named because they've faced death threats and fear for their own safety. Multiple trusted partners in Ethiopia said hate speech is still proliferating on the platform. Rafiq Copeland, a senior adviser at InterNews, one of Meta's longest-standing trusted partners globally, told Insider that the core complaints of trusted partners in Ethiopia have come up in other Rest of World countries. Even in Addis Ababa, it seemed that everyone knew about the Facebook posts, and many people now saw him as a traitor.

☆ TikTok went big at SXSW and creators discussed building lasting businesses. Here are 3 takeaways that I left Austin with.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Creators gathered at Meta's Austin, TX offices for a series of talks hosted by the Asian Creator House. Whether creators were talking about pay transparency, or startups were pitching their products as solutions, creator monetization was an ongoing conversation at SXSW. "More and more creators are being transparent as to how much they're making," said Monica Ravichandran, creator and Collective Voice staffer. At the Asian Creator House, led by Always Be Creating cofounders Justin Nguyen and Jerry Won, creator pay and business building were also top of mind. But on the brand and marketing side of SXSW, AI wasn't a potent topic, according to Influencer's Penchin.

☆ SXSW may be in Texas, but Silicon Valley Bank's implosion is casting an uneasy cloud over the tech festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As the South by Southwest tech conference began in Austin on Friday, Silicon Valley Bank failed. The annual festival is known for attracting hundreds of startup founders and tech investors. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. Later on Friday, Lessin shared an Instagram story post showing her SVB credit card being declined while she traveled to SXSW. "It seems likely that if the government does not step in to stop the contagion kicked off by SVB's bank run, we will see more regional (or even large) banks fail," Haugen told Insider.

☆ Nick Clegg led Meta's decision to reinstate Trump to Facebook and Instagram. Here's how the former UK deputy prime minister charmed his way into Mark Zuckerberg's inner circle.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Philip Webster | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

Nick Clegg has risen quickly to become one of Mark Zuckerberg's closest confidants at Meta. Clegg, a former UK deputy prime minister, led the decision to reinstate Donald Trump to Facebook. It was updated on February 16, 2022 following the news that Nick Clegg had been promoted to the role of President for Global Affairs. In a challenging economic climate, the Lib Dems and their Conservative coalition partners voted to raise tuition fees. Nick Clegg (left) and Chris Huhne appearing on the BBC's "The Andrew Marr Show" in October 2007.

Instagram gives you more control over what you see. Instagram on Thursday launched a new set of features that helps you manage what you see in your feed and silence notifications. The new settings include Quiet mode, which allows users to set a customized schedule to silence Instagram notifications and auto-respond to direct messages (DMs). Instagram announced parental controls in 2021, but the platform is now taking steps to allow further control over user feeds — and to give parents more insight into their children's Instagram habits. Among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, according to the report, 13% of British users and 6% of American users connected the issue back to Instagram.

☆ Seattle public schools blame tech giants for social media harm in lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The lawsuit says the companies' actions have been a substantial factor in causing a youth mental health crisis. Students with mental health issues perform worse, causing schools to take steps including training teachers to identify and address such symptoms, hire trained personnel, and create additional resources to warn students about the dangers of social media, the complaint said. In 2021, U.S. lawmakers accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of pushing for higher profits at the expense of children's mental health following testimony by whistleblower Frances Haugen. "We make money from ads, and advertisers consistently tell us they don't want their ads next to harmful or angry content. And I don't know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed."

☆ Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says if Elon Musk wants Twitter to be a public square, he should make its algorithms open source
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has discussed Elon Musk's plans for Twitter. Musk has previously discussed making Twitter a "town square" where vital matters could be debated. Musk had previously discussed making Twitter a digital town square "where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated." Musk wants Twitter to also be the "most accurate source of information about the world." The whistleblower previously said the company wouldn't be able to recover until CEO Mark Zuckerberg stepped down.

☆ More social media regulation is coming in 2023, members of Congress say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Days after Congress passed a bipartisan spending bill banning TikTok from government devices, legislators and advocates say they are looking to further regulate social media companies in the New Year. "We're seeing troubling data about the corrosive impact of constant social media use, particularly on young men and women here in America." Haugen said she thinks most people are unaware of how far behind the U.S. is when it comes to social media regulation. "This is like we're back in 1965, we don't have seatbelt laws yet," she told NBC's "Meet the Press." Klobuchar said on Sunday that things are only going to change with social media companies when Americans decide they have had enough.

☆ Remote Workers Are Blowing the Whistle, Employees Exposing Companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Britta Lokting | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The Securities and Exchange Commission — which implemented a whistleblower program in 2011 and where Haugen and others have sent documents — has received a historic jump in complaints over the past few years. How remote work sparked a flood of whistleblowersAs the pandemic spread and workers retreated to their makeshift home offices, employees began to reconsider their relationship with work. MacGann, the Uber whistleblower, told Politico that it wasn't until the pandemic that he "had time on his hands" to really ponder his decision to come forward about the ride-hailing company's treatment of workers. Remote work, she explained, helps to remove some of those barriers to whistleblowing. In addition to the record-breaking number of tips, the SEC whistleblowing program awarded $229 million in 103 cases this year.

☆ TikTok may push potentially harmful content to teens within minutes, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —TikTok may surface potentially harmful content related to suicide and eating disorders to teenagers within minutes of them creating an account, a new study suggests, likely adding to growing scrutiny of the app’s impact on its youngest users. The CCDH said the app recommended videos about body image and mental health about every 39 seconds within a 30-minute period. TikTok said it continues to roll out new safeguards for its users, including ways to filter out mature or “potentially problematic” videos. TikTok said it does not allow content depicting, promoting, normalizing, or glorifying activities that could lead to suicide or self-harm. Still, the CCDH says more needs to be done to restrict specific content on TikTok and bolster protections for young users.

☆ Meta lawsuit: An Ethiopian professor was murdered by a mob. Son alleges Facebook fueled the violence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The case is a constitutional petition filed in Kenya’s High Court, which has jurisdiction over the issue, as Facebook’s content moderation operation hub for much of east and south Africa is located in Nairobi. “They have suffered human rights violations as a result of the Respondent failing to take down Facebook posts that violated the bill of rights even after making reports to the Respondent,” reads the complaint. The legal filing alleges that Facebook has failed to invest adequately in content moderation in countries across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, particularly from its hub in Nairobi. In a statement to CNN, Meta did not directly respond to the lawsuit:“We have strict rules which outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. Last year, whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, told the US Senate that the platform’s algorithm was “literally fanning ethnic violence” in Ethiopia.

☆ Meta oversight board urges changes to VIP moderation system
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON — Facebook parent Meta’s quasi-independent oversight board said Tuesday that an internal system that exempted high-profile users, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, from some or all of its content moderation rules needs a major overhaul. For content posted by American users, the average decision took 12 days, and for Afghanistan and Syria, it was 17 days. “If users included due to their commercial importance frequently post violating content, they should no longer benefit from special protection,” the board said. The board upheld Facebook’s decision to ban Trump last year out of concern he incited violence leading to the riot on the U.S. Capitol. But it said the company failed to mention the cross-check system in its request for a ruling.

☆ Meta Oversight Board calls for overhaul of controversial 'cross-check' system for VIPs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Katie Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Cross-check "prioritizes users of commercial value to Meta and as structured does not meet Meta's human rights responsibilities and company values," Oversight Board director Thomas Hughes said in a statement announcing the decision. The board had been reviewing the cross-check program since last year, when whistleblower Frances Haugen exposed the extent of the system by leaking internal company documents to the Wall Street Journal. The board at the time of the report rebuked Meta for not being "fully forthcoming" in its disclosures about cross-check. The Oversight Board's policy recommendations are not binding, but Meta is required to respond to them, normally within 60 days. A spokeswoman for the Oversight Board said the company had asked for and received an extension in this case, so it would have 90 days to respond.

☆ Meta's Oversight Board criticizes Facebook's special program for VIP users
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Meta told the Oversight Board that it "does have a system that blocks some enforcement actions outside of the cross-check system." For most users, content moderation on Facebook and Instagram was historically straightforward. But for a privileged few, the cross-check program activated a different, more human process. It wasn't clear who made a decision to fast-track a content review process to global leadership. In the report, Meta's Oversight Board provided over two dozen recommendations on fixes to the cross-check program.

☆ A guide to parental controls on social media
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN Business —A little over a year ago, social media companies were put on notice for how they protect, or fail to protect, their youngest users. The four social networks have since introduced more tools and parental control options aimed at better protecting younger users. But some lawmakers, social media experts and psychologists say the new solutions are still limited, and more needs to be done. For now, guardians must learn how to use the parental controls while also being mindful that teens can often circumvent those tools. In addition to parental controls, the app restricts access to some features to younger users, such as Live and direct messaging.

An image of new Twitter owner Elon Musk is seen surrounded by Twitter logos in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland on 08 November, 2022. "We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern," an FTC spokesperson said in a statement. Since then, other executives have announced their departures, including most recently Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner. According to internal communications obtained by CNBC, three execs involved in information security, privacy and compliance all resigned in recent days, including Kissner. Under that order, Twitter agreed to install an enhanced privacy program and information security program with specific requirements.

☆ Facebook said an Indian publication, The Wire, used faked documents in an investigation. Now the publication is taking the stories down. Here's a timeline of the escalating conflict.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Facebook claims a series of reports by an Indian news site, The Wire, were based on faked documents. On Tuesday, an expert The Wire used in a story denied publicly that he commented in any way to the publication. Stone responded on Twitter saying, "as it's been clear from the outset @thewire_in's stories are based on fabrications." Varadarajan wrote on Twitter that the email account The Wire uses, a protonmail.com address, had been "hacked via the hacking of a MacBook." Kumar of The Wire deactivated his Twitter account.

☆ Facebook whistleblower, former defense and intel officials form group to fix social media
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A Facebook whistleblower, two former U.S. defense secretaries, several past lawmakers and intelligence chiefs are forming a new group to address the harmful impacts social media can have on kids, communities and national security. The council said it aims to drive bipartisan conversation around tech in Washington, D.C., and across the country, elevate nonpartisan voices like parents and pediatricians, and advance effective solutions to reform social media. Haugen said the issues stemming from social media are truly bipartisan in nature, which could be made more clear by avoiding framing them as issues of content moderation. Many conservatives are skeptical of content moderation because they believe platforms can use it to censor certain viewpoints, though mainstream platforms have repeatedly denied they do so. Haugen said she sees content moderation as largely a "distraction from the real path forward, which is around product design, safety by design, transparency."

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