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A person who works with the group, American Edge Project, told CNBC that the $34 million was from Facebook. A Meta spokesman declined to comment and referred CNBC to American Edge instead. The person who works with American Edge told CNBC that the $4 million was also entirely from Facebook. American Edge launched a wave of TV and digital ads from late 2020 through 2021, taking on antitrust proposals. American Edge spent over $5 million between TV and digital ads in 2021, according to data from AdImpact.

☆ How Elon Musk upended Twitter and his own reputation in 6 months as CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

But it’s not clear just how and when Musk might return Twitter to growth. Musk’s primary plan to grow Twitter’s business through an overhauled subscription strategy has resulted in much chaos but only a limited number of actual subscriptions. In the process, Musk has also upended his own reputation. Disrupting the digital town squareFor years, what differentiated Twitter from other social platforms was that it served as a central hub for real-time news. Tesla (TSLA) shareholders recently complained to the company’s board that Musk appears “overcommitted.”“His reputation has been diminished significantly with Twitter … and once you lose it, it’s very difficult to recover,” Klepper said.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg says people spent 24% more time on Instagram after Meta launched AI-powered Reels
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta reported revenue growth in the first quarter, reversing three consecutive quarters of decline. Mark Zuckerberg is crediting higher engagement in Instagram Reels for part of this growth. Zuckerberg said time spent on Instagram has risen by 24% since the company launched the product. On an earnings call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that time spent on Instagram had risen by 24% since the company launched its short-form video product Reels — a TikTok challenger. Meta also reported a net profit of $5.7 billion during the quarter, a 24% drop year-over-year — partly due to the company's restructuring.

☆ AI chatbots like ChatGPT appear to be leaving product reviews on Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Some Amazon users appear to be employing AI chatbots to write product reviews, CNBC first reported. CNBC conducted a search on Amazon product reviews and found many that said they weren't written by humans. Similar Amazon reviews that contained the phrase "as an AI language model" also appear on a LED aquarium light, waist trimmer, and children's workbook. These reviews may be the next frontier of fake Amazon product reviews, an issue that Amazon has dealt with in the past. While the AI-generated reviews still appear on the site, the Amazon spokesperson said that it will remove product reviews it deems fake.

☆ Morning Bid: Tech tally in focus, China alarms Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Otherwise, a packed earnings season dominates this week's investment radar as more than a third of S&P500 companies report. Including Intel (INTC.O), those five tech stocks have accounted for two-thirds of the S&P500's gains this year - with the Artificial Intelligence craze sparked by the emergence of ChatGPT adding a new non-cyclical attraction to the sector. But before markets get a taste of Q1 tech profits, the reverberations from last month's banking blow-up are still being absorbed. European stocks were slightly negative and U.S. stock futures also marginally in the red ahead of Wall Street's open. The dollar was mixed - up against Asian currencies but off against European currencies amid hawkish European Central Bank soundings on interest rates.

☆ Artificial intelligence will make Big Tech even bigger. Something needs to be done about the power imbalance, researchers warn
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She asked if the company was selling unregistered securities (which is typically illegal, by the way — here's what it means). Big Tech + AI = even bigger tech. So Big Tech companies are best-positioned to gain even more power as artificial intelligence technology — like ChatGPT — gets further developed. Something needs to be done about this power imbalance, researchers warn. My teammate Emilia David breaks down the AI power imbalance and highlights some proposed solutions in her latest story.

☆ Claim your piece of the $725 million Facebook settlement if you used the platform during the last 15 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Current or former Facebook users can now submit a claim to a $725 million class action settlement. Facebook agreed to the settlement for allegedly sharing user data with Cambridge Analytica. Current or former Facebook users can submit claims through a website for the lawsuit by the August 25 deadline. A screenshot of some of the questions for current or former Facebook users to answer to receive part of a $725 million settlement. The firm used a personality quiz to obtain information about users and the people with whom they associated on Facebook.

☆ Here's how to claim your piece of a $725 million settlement if you used Facebook during the last 15 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

☆ You can now apply for your share of a $725 million Facebook data privacy settlement. Here’s how
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Facebook users who had an active account at any point between May 2007 and December 2022 can now apply to receive a piece of parent company Meta’s $725 million settlement related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The California judge overseeing the case granted preliminary approval of the settlement late last month, and Facebook users can now apply for a cash payment as part of a settlement. The claim form — which requires a few personal details and information about a user’s Facebook account — can be filled out online or printed and submitted by mail. It’s not yet clear how much each settlement payment will be. “Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program.

☆ How to apply for your share of Facebook's $725 million settlement in privacy suit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Facebook users complained of an issue that saw random comments made to celebrity Pages appear in their own Feed. Facebook users have until August to claim their share of a $725 million class-action settlement of a lawsuit alleging privacy violations by the social media company, a new website reveals. The lawsuit was prompted in 2018 after Facebook disclosed information of 87 million users was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. "We pursued a settlement as it's in the best interest of our community and shareholders," a company spokesperson said at the time. Facebook users can make a claim by visiting Facebookuserprivacysettlement.com and entering their name, address, email address and confirming they lived in the U.S. and were active on Facebook between the aforementioned dates.

☆ Why MLM Sales 'Huns' Get so Much Hate on Reddit, TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Aimee Pearcy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Over the past few years, MLM companies have been under increased scrutiny. MLM companies largely appeal to those who are disconnected and looking for a way to get on solid financial footingAt first, Stimson felt optimistic. And a 2018 AARP survey found that just 25% of MLM participants made a profit. US direct-sales companies, which include MLM companies, earned $42.7 billion in retail sales in 2021, according to the Direct Selling Association — a 21% increase from 2019. And two-thirds of MLM participants said that "knowing what they know now, they would not join the same MLM company again."

☆ How Larry Page's flying-car company of the future turned into a stunning failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Although I'm currently pretty homesick and jet lagged, I'm blessed with "the life-changing magic of working from home." One worker told my colleague Rebecca Knight how remote work transformed her life and how returning to the office has killed company morale. The stunning failure of Google founder Larry Page's flying-car company. In April 2022, company morale plummeted when it axed one of its most promising projects, those former insiders say. The company put together a thorough document to help managers navigate pay-related conversations with employees, and Insider got a look.

☆ Humans have to get in the way of AI to make it more responsible
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Humans are key to responsible AI. Calls to pause AI development centered around the need to make sure we were building responsible AI. But some Big Tech companies laid off responsible AI employees as part of the great cost-cutting sweeping the industry, possibly undermining the greatest tool against unfettered, unchecked AI. Those moves come right as society has come to understand what can happen if AI escapes its guardrails, making AI ethics more important than ever. Here's why humans will help bring responsible AI to fruition.

☆ Jack Teixeira's alleged Discord leaks show why the US should not give Top Secret clearances to 21-year-olds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Nevertheless, that looks to be the US intelligence community's approach to handling classified information. The tangled views of Jack Teixeira, who was indicted Friday in connection with leaking hundreds of classified documents to a private Discord server, are still coming into focus. There are classified phone systems, email systems, fiber optic cables, and a Wikipedia clone. Aside from the question of how many people have access to secrets, it's also worth considering how many of those supposed secrets belong on classified systems at all. Who was tracking the whereabouts of the volume of secret files he appears to have sent to the printer?

☆ 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.

☆ Meta's layoffs are affecting customer service and leaving influencers and businesses on Instagram and Facebook in the lurch, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Meta's mass layoffs have affected over 20,000 employees, including its customer support teams. One Instagram influencer told CNBC that her requests for support are going "into the void." The layoffs, which saw thousands of employees leave the company, affected staff in Meta's client support and customer experience and communities teams, former staff told CNBC. The company declined to provide comment to CNBC but provided the outlet with examples of its investment in customer service in recent years. The company has started building a customer service division, Bloomberg reported last year.

☆ Meta's job cuts are gutting customer service, leaving influencers and businesses with nobody to call
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

As part of the company's two rounds of layoffs, equaling roughly 21,000 job cuts, Meta gutted wide swaths of its customer service operation, leaving influencers and businesses with nobody to contact about their accounts. CNBC spoke with influencers, small businesses and Meta account managers as well as a half-dozen former contractors and former Meta employees about the deterioration in customer service at the company since the job cuts began in November. Holliday said it appears that the only people who get customer service are those who represent a company that's spending heavily on advertising. However, some influencers say Facebook has had such poor customer service that there's no reason to pay for it. After all the problems she's experienced, Karlova questions whether Meta will be able to provide better customer service.

☆ A father whose 6-year-old son died was flooded with anti-vaxxer harassment. When a commenter baselessly claimed he killed his son, Facebook said he could 'hide' the comment 'if he didn't like it.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Billy Ball lost his 6-year-old son due to a rare medical condition in January. Facebook and Twitter often took no action when the comments were reported, Ball said. But the father's social media feeds soon devolved into a cesspool of conspiracy theorists baselessly claiming that Ball killed his son by getting him vaccinated for COVID-19. One Facebook user managed to find his private account and commented on a random post that was a few years old. Ball reported the comment and, on March 2, received a message from Facebook support that told him that the comment did not violate "Community Standards."

☆ Trump campaign uses newly restored Facebook page to fundraise off indictment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The archive shows at least three different Trump campaign fundraising ads that leverage the indictment. The Facebook ads, run through Trump's page, say they were paid for by the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee. The political action committee raises money for the Trump campaign and Save America, the former president's leadership PAC. The Facebook ad archive shows a majority of those who have seen that Friday fundraising ad alone are men and women over the age of 65. A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment when asked how much the former president's campaign has raised since the indictment.

☆ Tech Companies Are Ruining Their Apps, Websites, Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Ed Zitron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Google, Amazon, Meta, and other tech companies have monetized confusion, constantly testing how much they can interfere with and manipulate users. Abandoning the core productIn the 2000s and early 2010s, tech companies actually produced new, interesting products. This fueled Silicon Valley's explosive growth: Companies saw their valuations soar, revenue growth was exponential, and new users were joining by the boatload. There are ways to integrate new technology into a core product that doesn't end in disaster. Netflix was able to iterate on their core product — letting people watch movies — in a way that actually made that experience better.

☆ Social Media Platforms Are Asking Users for Money. They Probably Don’t Mean You.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Social-media companies are finally asking users to pay up. As of last month, the option to pay for Facebook’s new subscription service will run you nearly $12 a month in some countries despite co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s 2010 declaration that his social-media network will always be free. Facebook parent Meta Platforms is also rolling out an optional subscription service for its photo sharing app, Instagram. Snap Inc. has added a subscription service for Snapchat. Elon Musk’s Twitter, bleeding cash, recently upgraded its legacy subscription service, Blue, and LinkedIn has had subscription offerings for well over 15 years.

☆ The average TikTok user in the US is an adult 'well past college age,' CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the average TikTok user in the US is "an adult well past college age." Over 60% of Gen Z adults use TikTok daily, a 2023 report from Morning Consult found. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew revealed this week that the app's average user in the US is "an adult well past college." Now, it's estimated that over 60% of Gen Z adults use TikTok daily, compared to over 20% of US adults who use the app daily, according to a January 2023 data research report from Morning Consult.

The NYSE FANG+ index is headed for its best week in one year. Semiconductor maker AMD is up 17.8% week to date, headed for its best week since July 24, 2020, when AMD jumped 26.1%. Facebook-parent Meta advanced 12.3% this week, on pace for its best week since Feb. 3, when the social media stock gained 22.9%. AMD 5D mountain AMD shares 5-day Microsoft shares are 11.4% higher week to date, headed for its best week since Nov 11, 2022 when the Xbox maker jumped 11.6%. Amazon shares are up 10% this week, headed for its best week since Jan. 13, when AMZN soared 14%.

☆ YouTube lifts restrictions on Trump's account
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google -owned YouTube will allow former President Donald Trump's account to post new videos as of Friday, lifting restrictions put in place following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In 2021, then-YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said Trump's restrictions would be lifted when it believed the risk of real-world violence had subsided. The account was not terminated from the site, but could not upload new videos under the restrictions. The company also noted that Trump's posts on YouTube tend to differ from those on other platforms, often including reuploads from news networks. As of Friday, Trump's YouTube account has more than 2.6 million subscribers.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: BuzzFeed, First Republic, Meta and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)BuzzFeed — Share of the internet media company lost about 10% on a weak first-quarter revenue outlook. Buzzfeed expects first-quarter revenue of $61-$67 million, compared to expectations of $83.6 million, according to FactSet. Meta Platforms — Meta shares gained 6% after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday the social media company plans to cut 10,000 employees. First Republic , PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance Bancorp , Comerica — Regional banks rallied sharply Tuesday after being hit hard last Friday and Monday. Shares of San Francisco-based First Republic rose about 50%, while PacWest jumped more than 60% and Western Alliance Bancorp gained more than 40%.

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