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☆ Facebook Oversight Board recommends overhaul of controversial content moderation process for VIPs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN Business —After a yearlong review, Meta’s Oversight Board on Tuesday said the company’s controversial system that applies a different content moderation process for posts from VIPs is set up to “satisfy business concerns” and risks doing harm to everyday users. The company in response requested that the Oversight Board review the cross-check system. Meta says that the program helps address “false negatives” where content is removed despite not breaking any of its rules for key users. As part of a wide-ranging advisory for restructuring cross-check, the Oversight Board raised concerns that by delaying removal of potentially violative content by cross-check users pending additional review, the company could be allowing the content to cause harm. For the sake of transparency, “Meta should measure, audit, and publish key metrics around its cross-check program so it can tell whether the program is working effectively,” the board said.

☆ Uruguay beats Ghana in grudge rematch but is eliminated from World Cup after South Korea shocks Portugal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Matias Grez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

However, the breakthrough never came and Uruguay exits the World Cup at the group stage for the first time since 2002. No love lostMake no mistake, this fixture was one of the biggest grudge matches at the Qatar World Cup. Then, seemingly in the blink of an eye, it was 2-0 and Ghana’s World Cup hopes were once again evaporating against Uruguay. The Black Stars did at least begin the second half with more energy, as Osman Bukari flashed a shot across the goal inside the opening 60 seconds. Luis Suárez made himself a villain in Ghana for his role in their epic clash at the 2010 World Cup.

☆ Japan reaches World Cup knockout stages with hotly debated goal after ball appeared to go out of play
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Japan reached the World Cup knockout stages for the fourth time on Thursday – by what appeared to be a matter of millimeters. But it’s Japan’s second goal that has been a topic of fierce debate in the aftermath of the game, specifically regarding whether the ball crossed the goal line before Kaoru Mitoma’s cutback pass to Ao Tanaka. Tanaka’s bundled goal was initially ruled out after the linesman flagged that the ball had gone out of play. 🧐 pic.twitter.com/cVXur9vMJ1 — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) December 1, 2022“That Japan goal almost defied physics. pic.twitter.com/mzF7YXnQiX — Nick Levett (@nlevett) December 1, 2022The goal means Japan will play Croatia in the knockout stages on Monday, while Spain plays Morocco on Tuesday.

☆ Florida woman sues Kraft for $5M, saying Velveeta shells & cheese takes longer to prepare than packaging claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Joseph Lamour | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

On Nov. 18, Florida resident Amanda Ramirez sued the Kraft Heinz Company for at least $5 million over what she claims is deceptive and fraudulent packaging. Ramirez says that since Kraft’s Velveeta Shells & Cheese Microwavable Shell Pasta takes longer than 3-and-a-half minutes to prepare even though its packing states “ready in 3½ minutes,” that constitutes fraud. What the plaintiff focuses on is the fifth instruction, “cheese sauce will thicken upon standing” which they say constitutes a longer “ready” time than the packaging claims. “Consumers seeing ‘ready in 3½ minutes’ will believe it represents the total amount of time it takes to prepare the Product,” the suit reads. “However, the directions outlined above show that 3-and-a-half minutes is just the length of time to complete one of several steps.

☆ Irish watchdog fines Meta 265M euros in latest privacy case
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The Data Protection Commission said Meta Platforms infringed sections of the EU rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, that require technical and organizational measures aimed at protecting user data. The company said it had “cooperated fully” with the Irish watchdog. “We made changes to our systems during the time in question, including removing the ability to scrape our features in this way using phone numbers,” Meta said in a statement. Meta was fined 17 million euro fines in March for its handling of a dozen data breach notifications. Last year, the watchdog fined Meta’s chat service WhatsApp 225 million euros for violating rules on sharing people’s data with other Meta companies.

☆ Facebook Parent Meta Fined $276 Million in Europe for Data-Scraping Leak
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Sam Schechner | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A top European regulator fined Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. 265 million euros, equivalent to about $276 million, for not better safeguarding more than half a billion users’ phone numbers and other information from so-called data scrapers. The fine issued Monday by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, Meta’s main privacy regulator in the European Union, is the latest indication of how authorities in the region are becoming more aggressive in applying the bloc’s privacy law to large technology companies.

☆ Protests in China send a chill through global markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The protests had an immediate impact on global markets, and raised questions about the path forward for China’s increasingly sluggish economy. The protests began Friday after 10 people were killed in a fire in China’s Xinjiang province, where Covid lockdown restrictions reportedly hindered first responders from reaching the blaze. Step down, Communist Party!”Meanwhile, the prospect of social upheaval in the world’s second-biggest economy has sent a chill through global markets. Oil prices dropped sharply as investors feared that surging Covid cases and protests in China would sap demand from one of the world’s largest oil consumers. To fix its economy, China needs to ease lockdowns to allow its people to get back to their lives.

CNN —The label on a cup of Velveeta’s microwaveable mac and cheese says the meal only takes three and a half minutes to prepare. Amanda Ramirez, of Hialeah, has filed a proposed $5 million class action lawsuit against Kraft Heinz Foods Company alleging the food producer’s Velveeta Shells & Cheese takes longer than advertised to prepare, court documents show. The additional steps mean it’s impossible for the mac and cheese to be ready in just three and a half minutes, according to the complaint. Kraft Heinz Foods Company dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous” in a statement. “We are aware of this frivolous lawsuit and will strongly defend against the allegations in the complaint,” a Kraft Heinz Foods Company spokesperson told CNN Monday.

☆ Irish regulator fines Meta $275 million for violations of Europe’s data privacy law
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN Business —Meta has been fined roughly $275 million by Ireland’s data privacy regulator for failing to prevent hackers from siphoning off personal information from more than 500 million Facebook users in a 2019 data leak. Since the fall of 2021, Ireland’s DPC has slapped Meta with 912 million euros in fines, going after the social media titan and its other subsidiaries, Instagram and WhatsApp, for alleged violations of Europe’s signature data privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Earlier this fall, Meta was hit with a 405 million euro fine over Instagram’s handling of children’s data, the second-largest GDPR fine in history. Other enforcement actions, in March 2022 and September 2021, led to fines of 17 million euros and 225 million euros, respectively. “Protecting the privacy and security of people’s data is fundamental to how our business works,” Meta said in Monday’s statement.

☆ Elon Musk has upended Twitter’s business. Here’s how he could fix it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The Tesla CEO has previously said he “hates advertising” and, as Twitter’s owner, professed a desire to make the company more reliant on subscription revenue than advertising dollars. Twitter has always struggled to turn its outsized influence in media, politics, and culture into a highly successful advertising business. Twitter’s advertising business has long been smaller than that of rivals like Facebook, in part because it didn’t offer the same level of user targeting. To successfully overhaul Twitter into a thriving subscription business would be to buck the trend of many other media properties that have struggled with the model. Twitter’s ad woesWhether he likes advertising or not, the business made up 90% of Twitter’s revenue prior to Musk’s takeover and replacing it won’t be an immediate shift.

CNN —Former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been reinstated on the platform. The account, which Twitter banned following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was restored after Twitter CEO and new owner Elon Musk posted a poll on Twitter on Friday night asking the platform’s users if Trump should be reinstated. Asked on Saturday what he thought of Musk purchasing Twitter and his own future on the platform, Trump praised Musk but questioned whether the site would survive its current crises. It may make it, it may not make it.”Still, Trump said he liked Musk and “liked that he bought (Twitter. Soon after Trump’s Twitter ban, he was also restricted from Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, which could also restore his accounts as soon as January 2023.

☆ Testing Meta’s Quest Pro VR headset with CNBC Technology Executive Council members
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Susan Caminiti | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Much of this vision hinges on Meta's $1,500 Quest Pro headset, which went on sale last month. The new virtual reality headset has some noted improvements over the mass consumer $400 Quest 2 headset model (which will remain on sale, though a Quest 3 is expected next year) — notably better sound and sensors. The Quest Pro can track your eyes and face, so your avatar can make the same faces that you do. Meta is betting that businesses, not consumers, are going to be the first big market for the Pro headset. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., demonstrates the Meta Quest Pro during the virtual Meta Connect event in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.

☆ Facebook Parent Meta Sees Executive Exodus in India
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Newley Purnell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Three of Meta Platforms Inc.’s top executives in India have departed the company in recent weeks, with the Facebook parent changing the country’s reporting structure amid its first broad global restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter. The India head of Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service, Abhijit Bose , and Meta’s India public policy director, Rajiv Aggarwal, have resigned, a Meta spokeswoman said Wednesday. Their exits follow the departure announced earlier this month of Meta’s India head, Ajit Mohan .

☆ Kraft Heinz turns to gimmicks and nostalgia to revive its ‘dusty’ brands
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Because they’re incredible.”More than half of Kraft Heinz’s business comes from just eight brands — the aforementioned three, plus Kraft Mac and Cheese, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Heinz, Lunchables and Ore-Ida. For Kraft Heinz, which is relying on Patricio to execute a comeback, there’s a lot on the line. So we have more loyalty.”For that reason, Kraft Heinz has leaned in to promoting its legacy brands — and with sometimes outrageous marketing. Kraft HeinzOther Kraft Heinz brands have also used attention-grabbing marketing campaigns. Kraft Heinz’s brands now have a presence on gaming platforms like Roblox, in addition to social media channels and other platforms.

☆ Weight loss startups offer access to new drugs, but do they provide good care?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Darius Tahir | Kaiser Health News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Now a wave of startups offer access to a new category of drugs coupled with intensive behavioral coaching online. These patients pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, to access new drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, along with online coaching to encourage healthy habits. (That price includes generic drugs, but not the newer GLP-1 agonists, like Wegovy.) The firms say they’re on the vanguard of weight care, both citing the influence of biology and other scientific factors as key ingredients to their approaches. Found said older generics like zonisamide are more accessible than the GLP-1 agonists advertised on social media and their own website.

☆ 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.

☆ U.S. judge hearing FTC case against Facebook won't quash subpoena for Sequoia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FILE PHOTO: Facebook app logo is seen in this illustration taken, August 22, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge hearing a big antitrust case against Meta’s Facebook declined on Thursday to quash a subpoena that the government had sent to Sequoia Capital seeking its analyses of Instagram and WhatsApp before they were acquired by Meta. The Federal Trade Commission, which has filed a lawsuit asking the judge to force Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, had sought depositions of one current and one former Sequoia executive. The FTC filed a lawsuit in 2020 asking a court to undo then-Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. It said that the company acted illegally to maintain its social network monopoly.

☆ Analysis: Silicon Valley's greatest minds misread pandemic demand. Now their employees are paying for it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN Business —In the early months of the pandemic, Facebook only grew bigger and more central to our lives. On Wednesday, however, Zuckerberg reversed course and laid off more than 11,000 employees, marking the most significant cuts in the company’s history. In a memo to staff, Zuckerberg coughed up some of the hardest words in the English language. The Federal Reserve maintained near-zero interest rates at the time, giving tech companies easier access to capital. And private and public market valuations for tech companies only seemed to go higher.

☆ Premarket stocks: The 5 biggest takeaways from earnings season
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Earnings have been strong: So far, S&P 500 earnings growth has been better than expected. We also saw solid earnings from Apple (AAPL) and record profits from oil giants Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM). Companies are beating earnings estimates for the third quarter by 1.8% in aggregate, according to FactSet data. More than 50 S&P 500 companies have lowered earnings per share expectations for the fourth quarter, according to FactSet data. Fourth quarter earnings per share predictions have been revised down by 4.3% since October 1, according to Bank of America analysts.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered words of appreciation and encouragement to outgoing employees as he eliminated their jobs Wednesday, according to a recording of a video call he held to explain his decision. NBC News obtained a portion of the call in which Zuckerberg praised their work and said it was difficult to cut so many jobs. The layoffs affected about 11,000 people, or 13% of the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. A Meta employee affected by Wednesday’s mass layoffs provided the video to NBC News. Though he accepted responsibility for the layoffs, Zuckerberg’s authority over Meta has never been in question.

☆ Meta to lay off 11,000 employees, as Zuckerberg says he is 'accountable for missteps'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN Business —Facebook parent company Meta on Wednesday said it is laying off 11,000 employees, marking the most significant job cuts in the tech giant’s history. The job cuts come as Meta confronts a range of challenges to its core business and makes an uncertain and costly bet on pivoting to the metaverse. “Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post to employees. “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” Zuckerberg wrote in his post Wednesday. “At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth,” Zuckerberg wrote Wednesday.

☆ Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg Says He Is Accountable as Company Preps for Mass Layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jeff Horwitz | Sam Schechner | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta Platforms Inc. will begin laying off employees on Wednesday morning, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told hundreds of executives on Tuesday. The coming cuts are expected to total many thousands of employees and will likely be the largest of the year to date in the tech sector, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

☆ Meta said to be planning significant layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN Business —Facebook-parent Meta is said to be planning the first significant layoffs in its history as the company grapples with a shrinking business and fears of a looming recession. Meta has a headcount of more than 87,000, according to a September SEC filing. Once boasting a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion last year, Meta is now valued at about $250 billion. (After reports of the job cuts, Meta’s stock opened more than 5% higher on Monday morning.) Meta is far from the only tech company said to be rethinking staffing.

☆ Facebook Parent Meta Is Preparing to Notify Employees of Large-Scale Layoffs This Week
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jeff Horwitz | Salvador Rodriguez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta’s planned layoffs would be the first broad head-count reductions to occur in the company’s 18-year history. Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in what could be the largest round in a recent spate of tech job cuts after the industry’s rapid growth during the pandemic. The layoffs are expected to affect many thousands of employees and an announcement is planned to come as soon as Wednesday, according to the people. Meta reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. Company officials already told employees to cancel nonessential travel beginning this week, the people said.

☆ Arsenal: Cautious optimism surrounds resurgence with fans uniting behind Mikel Arteta
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The men’s team sits atop the English Premier League, with a manager full of ideas and a fearless new generation breaking through into the first team. Arteta’s Arsenal now leads Manchester City in the Premier League – a team that is touted for greatness – and shows very little signs of slowing down. He took his shirt off, swore at the Arsenal fans and stormed down the tunnel in what looked to be his last act as a player for the club. The realistic expectation, then, is not necessarily to win the Premier League title but to cement itself back in the Champions League. The Premier League will pause for over a month as many of Arsenal’s players will travel to the Gulf nation to join their respective teams.

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