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☆ Meta's news ban is preventing Canadians from sharing vital information about the wildfires ripping through western Canada
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Katie Hawkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Now, residents say the ban has prevented people from sharing vital news as wildfires tear through western Canada. Canadians say Meta's news ban is having tangible consequences as they try to share news about a series of devastating wildfires prompting evacuations in Northwest Territories and British Columbia. Here, residents are posting copied-and-pasted versions of news articles and live reported updates to circumvent the ban and continue sharing vital information about the wildfires. As of August 19, there are more than 200 active wildfires in the Northwest Territories. A Meta spokesperson told Insider in a statement that people in Canada can still use other features to share information about the wildfires.

Persons: Meta, Pascale St, Onge, Poul Osted, Osted Organizations: Canada's, Meta, Google, Facebook, Heritage, Northwest, CBC Locations: Canada, Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Yellowknife, Yellowknife —, Kelowna

☆ Meta's updated RTO mandate is as strict as Amazon's, with a few unique rules. Here are all the key details.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Kali Hays | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The company is putting in place detailed and mandatory rules for in-office and remote work. See new rules on badge tracking, monthly evaluations, and remote workers only allowed in-office a few days per quarter. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg used to say remote work was the way of the future . Meta's guidelines appear to be tailored specifically to avoid remote workers having their cake, and eating it, too. Both will be evaluated monthly, for in-office and remote workers, and employees found to be non-compliant will be notified.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Lori Goler, Meta, Andy Jassy, Zuckerberg, Kali Hays, Hugh Langley Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Google, Employees, Twitter Locations: khays

☆ Gen Z eats fast food like no other generation. From a love for spicy food to constant snacking, these are 8 traits that define their dining habits.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rebhun said that El Pollo Loco's work with influencers "without a doubt" drove customers to the brand. Dickey said that Dickey's work with influencers – in particular those involved with food and sport – was "directly in response to millennial and Gen Z." "Any lingering traditional media that we do," like TV commercials, radio spots, and out-of-home ads, is "all for boomers and Gen X," she added. Execs told Insider it was "leveraging youth culture," including music, sport, influencers, and TikTok, to create an image of a "Gen Z-esque aspirational lifestyle." Wendy's has also been working with sports, gaming, and music companies to lure in Gen Zers, Loredo said.

Persons: Dickey, Rebhun, influencers, Carl Loredo, influencers –, Gen, Wingstop, Execs, Chipotle's Perdue, Zers, influencers Alexis Frost, Keith Lee, Chipotle, Wendy's, Loredo Organizations: El, El Pollo, Twitter Locations: Fortnite

☆ Mark Zuckerberg said its Threads community is 'on the trajectory I expect' despite its plummeting daily user base
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Zuckerberg said its Threads user base is "on the trajectory I expect" despite many users leaving already. The Meta chief said it has been a "good week for Threads" in a post on the text-based app. Mark Zuckerberg said it has been a "good week" for Meta's new social network Threads in spite of its daily active user base plummeting since its launch. The data showed it had 8 million users at the end of July, down from a high of 44 million days after Threads launched on July 5. Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post: "A good week for Threads.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Instagram, Adam Mosseri, Meta didn't

☆ Wall Street analysts become even more bullish on Meta after its latest earnings report
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Meta has had a breakout year in 2023 — and Wall Street analysts think the stock has even further room to grow after company's latest quarterly report. The new target price implies more than 25% upside from Wednesday's close. Bank of America analyst Justin Post also increased his price target on Meta shares to $375 from $350. META YTD mountain Meta shares in 2023 Meanwhile, UBS hiked its price target to $400 from $335, implying 34% further upside. He reiterated his overweight rating while lifting his price target to $425 from $300, one of the highest on the Street.

Persons: Meta, Morgan Stanley, Brian Novak, Novak, Justin Post, Goldman Sachs, Eric Sheridan, Sheridan, Wells, Ken Gawrelski, Gawrelski, Stephen Ju, Ju, UBS's Lloyd Walmsley, Walmsley, Doug Anmuth, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Wall Street, Meta, Bank of America, Citi, Reality Labs, UBS, Credit Suisse Locations: opex

☆ Twitter rebrands to 'X' as Elon Musk loses iconic bird logo
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter has officially rebranded to "X" after owner Elon Musk changed its iconic bird logo on Monday, marking the latest major shift since his takeover of the social media platform. Twitter's world-renowned bird logo was transformed into an X, however. Asked if the logo would change in a Twitter Spaces audio chat, he said "yes," telling an unknown speaker: "We're cutting the Twitter logo off the building with blow torches." The shift from bird imagery to an "X" is the latest sweeping change since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last year. The latest changes come as the social media giant continues to face competition from Meta's new app, Threads, which launched earlier this month.

Persons: Elon Musk, Porte, Musk, adieu Organizations: SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, Viva Technology, Porte de, Sunday, Musk, PayPal, Help Locations: Paris, France

☆ Llamas don't drink much water. Meta's new AI version is damn thirsty.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Meta just released a big new AI model called Llama 2. Meta didn't disclose how much water it used to train this AI model. Ren took that and looked at how efficient Meta data centers are when it comes to using energy and water. That yielded his estimate, which he said is almost double the water footprint of Meta's previous big AI model, Llama 1, which came out earlier this year. Meta's data centers used just over 5 million cubic meters of water in 2021.

Persons: Meta, Shaolei Ren, Ren, He's, didn't Organizations: Alpaca Association, UC Riverside, Meta Locations: Arizona

☆ Meta's new 'open source' AI isn't so open after all
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Kali Hays | Rosalie Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Open Source Initiative is concerned by Meta's improper labeling. These standards are maintained by the nonprofit Open Source Initiative (OSI), which also reviews whether software licenses can be approved as open source. Open source in AIThe OSI is currently leading a series of meetings and debates and accepting proposals to formally define what open source means when it comes to AI and the machine learning it uses. According to the OSI's Open Source Definition, an open source software license "shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources." Companies like MongoDB, Redis, Confluent, and Elastic, which have long maintained open source software, changed their software licenses to restrict companies like Amazon from selling their software (which would be possible with a true open source license).

Persons: Meta, Stefano Maffulli, Maffulli, it's, Kali Hays, Rosalie Chan Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Initiative, OSI, Apple, Twitter Locations: US, China, Meta, khays

☆ Meta tells managers promotions will be harder to get, less frequent, and won't be based on team size as much
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Kali Hays | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Managers at Meta have for years been promoted based on the size of the team they built. With an ongoing slowdown in hiring at the company, managers will simply not be able to hire as much as they have in previous years. Another worker commented that taking away team size as a promotion metric means "a manager's career is just up to their ability to navigate politics from now on." For example, to become an engineering manager a person had to show they previously "accumulated" the right size team as a high-level engineer, as Insider previously reported. The new decision to promote fewer managers will make the reduction in Meta's management ranks more permanent.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg's, Maher Saba, Mark Zuckerberg, Saba, Headcount, Zuckerberg, It's, Kali Hays, Hugh Langley Organizations: Meta, Facebook, . Company, Twitter Locations: khays

☆ Microsoft goes beyond OpenAI, makes Meta's new A.I. model available to Azure customers
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

But Microsoft is making clear that it's not strictly an OpenAI shop when it comes to generative AI. On Tuesday at its Inspire conference, the company said it's making Meta's new AI large language model, dubbed Llama 2, available on its Azure cloud computing service. Meta said in a blog post that Microsoft is its "preferred partner" for its Llama 2 software, which is available for free for companies and researchers. "Meta and Microsoft share a commitment to democratizing AI and its benefits and we are excited that Meta is taking an open approach with Llama 2," Microsoft said. Llama 2 will also be available through Amazon Web Services and Hugging Face, a popular service used by AI researchers.

Persons: Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman Organizations: Microsoft, Inspire, Companies, Meta, Amazon Web Services, OpenAI Locations: OpenAI

☆ You may have downloaded the wrong Threads. A four-year-old app with the same name has seen a surge in popularity since Instagram launched its Twitter clone.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Gabriel Rivera | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Earlier this month, Meta launched its Twitter-like app Threads, which already has over 100 million users. The "other" Threads has added disclaimers to its website and on the App Store. If you accidentally downloaded the wrong Threads app, you're not alone. Meta launched its wannabe "Twitter Killer" app, which it calls Threads, earlier this month, prompting millions of people to rush to the App Store. But it's not the only app that's growing: Some people appear to have downloaded the wrong Threads app.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Adam Mosseri, it's, Threads.com, haven't, Rousseau Kazi, he's, Meta, Kazi, Zuckerberg, Mosseri Organizations: Meta, TechCrunch, Google, Big Tech, Elon, Facebook Locations: Data.ai, Spain, Italy, Germany

☆ U.S. lawmakers extend social media investigation to Meta's Threads
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The letter, obtained exclusively by CNBC, is an early indication of the added spotlight Meta's newest product could bring to the company in Washington. "Indeed, Threads raises serious, specific concerns because it has been marketed as rival of ElonMusk's Twitter, which has faced political persecution from the Biden Administration followingMusk's commitment to free speech," Jordan wrote. On July 4, a federal judge in Louisiana granted in part a preliminary injunction in that suit that barred several Biden administration officials from meeting with social media companies to encourage them to remove or delete posts. It also prevented those officials from even flagging certain kinds of social media posts to the companies to encourage their removal or suppression. On Friday, an appeals court agreed to put a temporary pause on the preliminary injunction, meaning government flagging of social media posts could resume until the court further considers the case.

Persons: Jim Jordan, Jerrold Nadler, John Durham, Mark Zuckerberg, Biden, Elon Musk, Jordan, Twitter, Meta Organizations: CNBC, Twitter, Meta, Elon, Wall, Federal Trade Commission, Biden, State Department, Facebook, Washington Post, Apple, Google, Microsoft Locations: Ohio, Rayburn, Washington, Missouri, Louisiana

☆ Elon Musk's scheme to pay big Twitter accounts is rewarding his favorite trolls but probably won't entice major creators
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Lindsay Dodgson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Twitter announced Thursday it would start sharing ad revenue with some creators. Elon Musk has started sharing Twitter's ad revenue with a handful of accounts, hoping to incentivize the best creators to put their content on his platform. Twitter announced Thursday that creators would now be eligible to some of the company's ad revenue, "to help people earn a living directly" on the platform. But on the rare occasion Donaldson reveals how much ad revenue he makes, it is surprisingly little. Ad revenue traditionally aids smaller accounts who don't have their own brand deals — YouTube monetization is open to anyone with 1,000 subscribers.

Persons: Twitter, Elon Musk, Taylor Lorenz, Andrew Tate, Ian Miles Cheong, Rogan O'Handley, Tate, Wokeness, He's, It's, Linette Lopez, Paul, — Jimmy Donaldson, MrBeast —, Donaldson, Honey Organizations: Morning, Twitter, Washington Post, YouTube, CSGO Lotto Locations: Romania, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter's

☆ Meta's new Threads app gained an 'unprecedented' 150 million downloads in under two weeks. Now it has to keep users happy.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

With 150 million downloads, Threads set a new record for app growth far surpassing Pokémon Go. Threads has kept about 100 million active users a week, according to a data research firm. Instagram Threads continued to set a growth record into its second week, surpassing 150 million downloads of the app. 100 million active users a week is about one-fifth of the user base of Twitter, Data.ai added. When Zuckerberg posted on Sunday about hitting 100 million sign-ups, that meant Threads had seen an average of 20 million sign-ups each day.

Persons: Pokémon, Randy Nelson, Nelson, Data.ai, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Cox, I've, Zuckerberg, Cox, Andrew Bosworth, Naomi Gleit, Charles Organizations: Twitter, Meta, Elon, CNBC Locations: Niantic, India, Brazil, US, Mexico, Japan

☆ Meta's VP of Metaverse says 'the metaverse hype is dead,' but that's OK
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Haley Tenore | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta's VP of Metaverse said the hype cycle for the metaverse is dead, but that's okay. The metaverse team can "put their heads down and build" the experiences, Vishal Shah told Fortune. "I think the metaverse hype is dead. People access Meta's metaverse apps through the company's Quest lineup of headsets, but Apple recently announced the $3,499 Vision Pro headset. Interestingly enough, Apple is avoiding the term metaverse in favor of "spatial computing."

Persons: Metaverse, Vishal Shah, Fortune, Shah, Mark Zuckerberg's, Mark Zuckerberg, NOAH BERGER, Zuckerberg, Kali Hays, Ashley Stewart, Meta, Tim Cook, Greg Joswiak, Andrew, Boz, Bosworth Organizations: Morning, Tech, Facebook, Meta, Getty Images, Anadolu Agency, Getty, The Washington Post, Apple, Wall Street Journal Locations: Utah, Menlo

☆ TD Cowen upgrades Meta as social media stock enters second half of 'Year of Efficiency'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

TD Cowen has joined the bullish majority on Meta with just half of the social media company's "Year of Efficiency" in the rearview mirror. Analyst John Blackledge upgraded the Facebook parent's stock to outperform from market perform and raised his price target to $345 from $220. META 5Y mountain Meta shares over the last five years Blackledge said Wall Street will likely need to raise estimates, pointing to potential monetization growth in Reels. A Cowen survey shows Reels has grown engagement and helped raised overall time spent on Instagram. Cowen raised revenue and earnings estimates by 8% and 7%, respectively, on average over the next five years and is above consensus estimates for both second quarter and full-year earnings.

Persons: TD Cowen, John Blackledge, mgmt, Blackledge, Cowen, Mark Zuckerberg, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter Locations: Wednesday's

☆ Elon Musk reportedly wants new features for Twitter as Threads rivalry heats up
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter is facing competition from Meta's new Twitter clone called Threads. Elon Musk might be starting to feel the heat of Mark Zuckerberg's new Twitter clone, Threads. According to Platformer's Zoë Schiffer, the Tesla CEO sent an email telling staff that Twitter needs to launch better features faster than ever. The Twitter clone has benefitted from its link to Instagram, which allows it to access the app's 2 billion-plus user base. Over at Twitter, Musk and new CEO Linda Yaccarino have been trying to play down reports that Twitter's traffic has taken a recent hit.

Persons: Elon Musk, Platformer's Zoë Schiffer, Elon, Mark Zuckerberg's, Musk's, Meta, Instagram, Adam Mosseri, Linda Yaccarino, Yaccarino Organizations: Twitter

☆ Here's what data you can expect to give up by joining Threads
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Sebastian Cahill | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Threads collects various types of user data, including online habits and general location. Threads, Meta's competitor for Twitter, has already registered millions of users — but the app collects more data than unwary internet surfers might realize. Without full control of which third parties are collecting data and what they can do with that data, users can't be entirely sure where their data or what data will be stored around the internet. "Our apps receive whatever information you share in the app - including the categories of data listed in the App Store. "Meta's privacy policy, and the Threads supplementary privacy policy, are the best resources to understand how Threads uses and collects data."

Persons: that's Organizations: Meta, Twitter, Facebook, CBS, Drexel University Locations: Nebraska

☆ As Twitter continues to implode, advertisers pin their hopes on Threads
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Advertisers are eagerly watching how Meta's new Threads messaging app develops over the next few months as they look for a new social channel to reach consumers while Twitter continues to struggle. Meta is currently more focused on building the core Threads product as opposed to monetizing the app, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said in various interviews and a post on Threads. "It's the most instant onboarding experience I've ever experienced in the history of my career, and my entire career has been in social," Tipograph said. Although it was easy for current Instagram users to create Threads accounts, he said, it's unclear how active they will be on the service. Since Threads is so new, it's unclear which kind of audience Threads is attracting, Tipograph said.

Persons: Natasha Blumenkron, Elon Musk, Blumenkron, Adam Mosseri, Mosseri, Rachel Tipograph, MikMak, Linda Yaccarino, Tipograph, It's, I've, Tal Jacobson, Jacobson, Instagram's Mosseri, Brian Wieser, Wieser, Angelo Carusone, Instagram, Carusone, Musk, Nick Fuentes, antisemite, isn't Organizations: Twitter, CNBC, Tesla, Meta, Perion, Companies, Media Matters, America, Media, Free Press, Tech, Facebook Locations: Instagram

☆ 'Shark Tank' investor Kevin O'Leary warns small businesses are battling a cash crunch - and a funding crisis is looming
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Kevin O'Leary warned the Fed's rate hikes are hammering America's small businesses. "We've got a real crisis coming here, there's no cash for small businesses," O'Leary said. "You can't say that about small business anymore. "I'm here on the hill today in Washington talking to everybody I can about the problems I've got in just getting working capital for small businesses," he said. "I have never, ever seen anything like this," O'Leary told CNBC after Meta's new social-media platform racked up 100 million sign-ups in five days.

Persons: Kevin O'Leary, O'Leary, We've, that's, I've Organizations: Service, Fox Business, Capitol, CAC, CNBC Locations: Wall, Silicon, Washington

☆ Mark Zuckerberg's Threads is a fad that won't last, tech analyst predicts: 'I'd rather eat broccoli for the full day than be on Threads'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Interest in Meta's Threads app won't last, Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives said. The analyst said he'd rather "eat broccoli for the full day" than use the Twitter rival. The app will have to change its news feed and address concerns about censorship to stay relevant, Ives said. Twitter might not have anything to worry about after all — at least when it comes to longterm competition from Meta's new Threads app, according to Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives. The tech analyst said in a previous interview with Yahoo Finance that he'd "rather eat broccoli for the full day than be on Threads" after experimenting with the app for about six to seven hours.

Persons: Dan Ives, he'd, Ives, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg's, Zuckerberg, Musk, Walter Isaacson Organizations: Morning, Twitter, Yahoo Finance

☆ Meta's social media apps back up after brief outage - Downdetector.com
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram logos are displayed in this illustration taken October 4, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoJuly 10 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' (META.O) social media apps Instagram and Facebook, messaging app WhatsApp and Twitter-rival Threads were all back up after a brief outage affecting thousands of users on Monday, according to Downdetector.com. At the peak of the outage, lasting over an hour, over 14,000 users reported issues with accessing Instagram, while around 7,000 and 2,700 users faced issues with Facebook and WhatsApp, respectively. Meta's newest offering Threads also experienced an outage, with about 470 users reporting problems accessing the app. The outage could have affected a larger number of users.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Meta, Savyata Mishra, Jyoti Narayan, Vinay Dwivedi, Krishna Chandra Organizations: REUTERS, Facebook, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ 'I have never, ever seen anything like this' - Kevin O'Leary says Twitter rival Threads is showing unprecedented growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Kevin O'Leary praised user growth on Meta's new Threads app, which seeks to take on Twitter. "I have never, ever seen anything like this," O'Leary told CNBC on Monday evening. "I have never, ever seen anything like this," O'Leary told CNBC on Monday evening. It's similar to Elon Musk's Twitter, which has since threatened to sue Meta over the app. With Threads' growing audience, O'Leary predicted that small businesses will eventually be seeing higher returns on ad expenditures.

Persons: Kevin O'Leary, O'Leary, Mark Zuckerberg, —, Elon, Zuckerberg, Musk Organizations: Twitter, CNBC, Service, Meta, CAC Locations: Wall, Silicon, Europe

☆ Threads beat ChatGPT to 100 million users but the AI app is way more consequential
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zuck can be happy: Threads reached 100 million users faster than ChatGPT. Mark Zuckerberg had cause to celebrate over the weekend as Meta's newest app, Threads, passed the 100 million user milestone less than a week after its launch. The would-be Twitter competitor is now the fastest-growing app ever, beating ChatGPT, the generative AI chatbot that corporate America hasn't stopped talking about all year. But its leap to 100 million users had a massive jumpstart thanks to its integration with Instagram, whose billion-plus users are actively encouraged to download the new app if they fancy adding a new social-media timesuck onto their devices. ChatGPT, released to the public November 30, surpassed the 100 million user milestone in January.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, ChatGPT, America hasn't, Elon, Zuckerberg, Musk's, Insider's Kali Hays, Musk, That's Organizations: America, Twitter Locations: GPT

☆ This chart should worry Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter's traffic rank has been declining since January, according to a graph by Cloudflare's CEO. Elon Musk's takeover of the social media app has led to whiplash for users experiencing its changes. Meta's new competing Threads app reached 100 million users within days of launching. Predictions about Twitter's waning appeal have been a recurring theme of discourse around the app since Elon Musk took over last fall. Now, not only has Twitter threatened legal action against Meta over Threads, Musk has also tweeted the idea of a "literal dick measuring contest" against Zuckerberg.

Persons: Elon, whiplash, Elon Musk, Cloudflare's, Matthew Prince –, –, Prince, Twitter, Cloudflare, David Belson, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Musk Organizations: Elon Musk's, Elon, Twitter Locations: .

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