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☆ PETA: Animal rights organization criticizes trainer for parading racehorse in pub
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A leading animal rights organization has criticized an Irish racehorse trainer for parading his winning steed in a pub earlier this week. On Monday, John “Shark” Hanlon posted a video on Twitter of him leading US Grand National winner Hewick into a pub as part of the horse’s homecoming celebrations. Hewick had won the lucrative race – with a prize purse of $500,000 – in New Jersey on October 15 before returning to Ireland. The video shows Hanlon walking into the busy pub with the seven-year-old horse before customers fell quiet and started taking pictures. The horse is now demanding respect across Europe and is being lined up for some big races next year, including the UK Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup.

One year and billions of dollars later, the so-called metaverse still feels years away, if it ever manifests at all. And Meta’s flagship social VR app Horizon Worlds can feel like a ghost town (albeit a ghost town with laser tag). Meta’s latest headset, the Quest Pro, is its first effort at combining the immersiveness of VR with the real world. The VR headset market is still tiny compared to, say, an established gadget market like console video games. A visitor to the 2022 Tokyo Game Show tests the Meta Quest 2 VR headset.

☆ Elon Musk owning Twitter should give everyone pause
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Seth Fiegerman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk, the mercurial billionaire, had agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion the month before only to begin raising doubts about the deal soon after. Now, Musk joins the list of rich, white men who single-handedly control social platforms that collectively reach and shape the lives of billions of people around the world. And Musk, who will reportedly have “absolute control over Twitter” according to a shareholders’ agreement, promises to be uniquely disruptive. To those in the first camp, Musk serving as the sole decider at Twitter may be cause for celebration. Elon Musk is a conglomerate, and each arm of his empire potentially gives him more leverage, real or imagined, in advocating for the others.

☆ Meta shares drop 12% on weak fourth-quarter forecast and earnings miss
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | Jonathan Vanian Is A Technology Reporter For Cnbc.Com | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Meta shares plummeted in extended trading on Wednesday after Facebook’s parent issued a weak forecast for the fourth quarter and came up well short of Wall Street’s expectations for earnings. Meta is contending with a broad slowdown in online ad spending, challenges from Apple’s iOS privacy update and increased competition from TikTok. Add it up, and Meta is expected to post its third straight quarter of declining sales for the year. The company said revenue for the fourth quarter will be $30 billion to $32.5 billion. Meta earnings summary Earnings per share (EPS): $1.64 vs $1.89 expected, according to Refinitiv$1.64 vs $1.89 expected, according to Refinitiv Revenue : $27.71 billion vs. $27.38 billion expected, according to Refinitiv: $27.71 billion vs. $27.38 billion expected, according to Refinitiv Daily Active Users (DAUs) : 1.98 billion vs 1.98 billion expected, according to StreetAccount: 1.98 billion vs 1.98 billion expected, according to StreetAccount Monthly Active Users (MAUs) : 2.96 billion vs 2.94 billion expected, according to StreetAccount: 2.96 billion vs 2.94 billion expected, according to StreetAccount Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $9.41 vs. $9.83 expected, according to StreetAccountThe Facebook parent’s operating margin, or the profits left after accounting for costs to run the business, sank to 20% from 36% a year earlier.

☆ Facebook’s rules ban promoting weapons. Some gun sellers are running ads anyway.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Gun retailers are running ads promoting firearms for sale on Facebook and Instagram, a tech industry watchdog said Wednesday in a report that shows apparent holes in how the apps enforce their own rules against ads that promote the use or sale of weapons. The company declined to comment on specific ads until it had seen the full report, which the Tech Transparency Project provided to NBC News ahead of releasing it. Tech Transparency ProjectMeta relies largely on automated systems to review ads, and it has some human reviewers. Tech Transparency ProjectGun ads have tripped up Facebook and Instagram for years, according to outside investigations. Facebook lets buyers and sellers violate its rules 10 times before they’re kicked off, The Washington Post reported in June.

☆ Meta’s Reverse Darkens Mark Zuckerberg’s Dream
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Mark Zuckerberg wants to sell the world on his “amazing” $1,500 virtual-reality headset. Meta Platforms said Wednesday that its revenue fell 4% year on year in the third quarter—its second consecutive quarter of annual declines—while net income fell 52%. For the fourth quarter, the company formerly known as Facebook is forecasting revenue to fall ever further annually with the midpoint of its outlook implying a drop of about 7%. Meanwhile, although Meta claims to be making changes across the board to operate more efficiently, its expense projection for the full year remains little changed. Beyond that, the company said it expects operating losses for its Reality Labs division, which houses its metaverse ambitions, to grow significantly next year.

☆ Facebook Parent Meta’s Earnings Fall Short as Revenue Decline Accelerates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Salvador Rodriguez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta is grappling with a digital-ad market in upheaval from surging inflation and other factors. Facebook parent Meta Platforms posted its second revenue decline in a row, as the social-media giant wrestles with a vortex of challenging business conditions that have combined to shave more than half a trillion dollars from its market value so far this year. The company reported quarterly revenue of $27.7 billion, down more than 4% from a year ago, after posting a 1% decrease last quarter. Meta’s share price fell more than 5% on Wednesday, amid a broad selloff of tech shares, and is now trading at a price last seen in 2017.

☆ Meta’s spending splurge starts to look troubling
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Last year, existing operations generated enough cash to justify the spending spree. If results slip – and the third quarter suggests they could – spending will become a problem. Mark Zuckerberg’s company posted operating income of $5.6 billion, almost half of what it was in the third quarter of 2021, as margins also declined considerably. Last year’s $59 billion in operating cash flow underpinned Zuckerberg’s bold initiative. The company said that daily active users grew to nearly 2 billion, a 3% increase year-on-year.

☆ Meta posts second-ever quarterly revenue decline and hints at cost cutting efforts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

For the three months ended in September, Meta (FB) posted revenue of $27.7 billion, down 4% year-over-year and slightly above Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The Facebook parent company posted its first-ever quarterly revenue decline during the June quarter. The company reported net income of nearly $4.4 billion — less than half the amount it made during the same period in the prior year and below analysts’ projections. Meta reported having 2.96 billion monthly active users on its core Facebook app at the end of the quarter, up 2% year-over-year. “We are holding some teams at in terms of headcount, shrinking others and investing headcount growth only in our highest priorities,” Wehner said.

☆ Fintech Marqeta pushes into banking for next growth phase
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Marqeta logo is seen on a smartphone in front of displayed stock graph in this illustration picture taken June 9, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationOct 24 (Reuters) - Marqeta, a fintech company focused on payments services, is launching a suite of new banking products in a major push to deepen its relationships with customers which include Coinbase, Uber and DoorDash. Coinbase and Branch, a company aimed at facilitating payments for contractors, are already using Marqeta’s new banking services, Marqeta said in a release. Coinbase has “seen many benefits from the flexibility of Marqeta's banking as a service tools,” Sanchan Saxena, vice president of retail product at the crypto exchange, said in a statement. Most of the new banking features are already up and running and Marqeta expects all products to be operational by the end of this year.

☆ Meta Investor Urges CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Slash Staff and Cut Costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Meghan Bobrowsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg spoke during the virtual Meta Connect event in New York this month. An investment firm said in an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg on Monday that Meta Platforms Inc. should slash staff and pare back its metaverse ambitions, in a sign of rising discontent among shareholders. Altimeter Capital Chief Executive Brad Gerstner wrote that Mr. Zuckerberg needs to take drastic steps to streamline Meta’s operations and address a steep drop in the share price.

☆ Meta oversight board can now apply warning screens on content
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 20 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) independent oversight board said on Thursday that starting this month it can decide on applying warning screens, marking content as "disturbing" or "sensitive". The board, which already has the ability to review user appeals to remove content, said it would be able to make binding decisions to apply a warning screen when "leaving up or restoring qualifying content", including to photos and videos. Separately in its quarterly transparency report, the board said it received 347,000 appeals from Facebook and Instagram users around the world during the second quarter ended June 30. "This demonstrates the ongoing demand from users to appeal Meta’s content moderation decisions to an independent body." The oversight board, which includes academics, rights experts and lawyers, was created by the company to rule on a small slice of thorny content moderation appeals, but it can also advise on site policies.

☆ Meta refuses to give up on campaign to disqualify FTC chair
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Her previous expressions of her policy views about alleged big tech monopolists, Boasberg said, did not require Khan’s recusal under the standard for federal prosecutors. (The petition and stay motion are not in the FTC docket but are exhibits in the preliminary injunction case.) We know this from an Oct. 6 letter from the FTC to Weil Gotshal in the administrative proceeding. Remember, Meta is not asking Davila to order Khan off either the preliminary injunction case or the administrative proceeding. We’ll know more about whether the stratagem accomplished anything when the preliminary injunction case goes to a hearing in December.

☆ An antitrust battle over GIFs could be a wake-up call for Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But a long-running legal battle over who can control access to them, culminating this week in a rare defeat for Meta (META), the parent of Facebook, could have major ramifications for Big Tech regulation. On Tuesday, UK regulators forced Meta to unwind its 2020 purchase of Giphy, one of the largest searchable internet libraries of GIFs. “The Citadel may have been breached,” said Joel Mitnick, an antitrust attorney at the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. The company said this week that it will continue to explore acquisitions despite the UK ruling. And US courts don’t typically take foreign antitrust rulings into account; their job is to interpret US law.

☆ Tech earnings are coming and they probably won’t be pretty
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB)-parent Meta, Microsoft (MSFT), Twitter (TWTR) and Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL) will each report earnings results the following week. “People probably should be bracing themselves for these results,” said Scott Kessler, technology global sector lead at research firm Third Bridge Group. Rampant inflation is eating away at consumers’ paychecks and reducing their ability to spend freely on tech products and services. To make matters worse, tech companies must also confront the growing strength of the US dollar, which is currently trading at its highest level in two decades. Many of the issues currently weighing on tech companies are unlikely to let up anytime soon, which is why industry watchers will be paying close attention to the guidance these companies offer for the rest of 2022.

☆ Meta says it will sell Giphy to comply with UK breakup order
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN Business —Facebook-parent Meta plans to sell off Giphy, an online search tool for animated images, after the UK government said it would force the tech giant to unwind its acquisition of the service. For years, critics have accused the tech industry’s biggest players of seeking out “killer acquisitions” of smaller companies. In the United States, the alleged “buy-or-bury” strategy is at the center of a federal lawsuit aimed at forcing Meta to spin off WhatsApp and Instagram. The breakup attempt by the Federal Trade Commission could go to trial in 2024. The FTC has also sued to block Meta’s acquisition of a virtual reality technology company known as Within Unlimited, arguing that the deal could give Meta further power to establish a “virtual reality empire.”Meta is fighting both lawsuits.

Nearly a year after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta Platforms in a bet-the-company move on the metaverse, internal documents show the transition grappling with glitchy technology, uninterested users and a lack of clarity about what it will take to succeed. While Mr. Zuckerberg has said the transition to a more immersive online experience will take years, the company’s flagship metaverse offering for consumers, Horizon Worlds, is falling short of internal performance expectations.

☆ Meta’s Facebook Says Its New VR Headset Could Replace Workers’ PCs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Salvador Rodriguez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Facebook parent Meta Platforms stated its ambition to go after the professional computing market on Tuesday with the announcement of its most advanced virtual reality headset to date, the Quest Pro, saying it could be a better way to work than a personal computer. Along with the new device, which costs around $1,500, Meta also announced partnerships with Microsoft and Zoom Video Communications that will make the company’s VR headsets more useful in hybrid-work scenarios.

☆ Meta unveils its much-hyped Quest Pro mixed reality headset
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Meta Platforms unveiled its Quest Pro virtual and mixed reality headset on Tuesday, marking a milestone for Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s break into the higher-end market for extended reality computing devices. The Quest Pro features several upgrades over Meta’s existing Quest 2 headset, which overwhelmingly dominates the consumer virtual reality market. For fully immersive virtual reality, Meta has added tracking sensors to the Quest Pro that can replicate users’ eye movements and facial expressions, creating a sense that avatars are making eye contact. Meta is pitching the Quest Pro as a productivity device, aimed at designers, architects and other creative professionals. For now, that means the Quest Pro stops short of enabling the complex commercial applications Meta has suggested it wants its metaverse tech to support.

☆ Meta’s Facebook Takes Aim at Workers’ PCs With New VR Headset
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Salvador Rodriguez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Facebook parent Meta Platforms stated its ambition to go after the professional computing market on Tuesday with the announcement of its most advanced virtual reality headset to date, the Quest Pro, saying it could be a better way to work than a personal computer. Along with the new device, which costs around $1,500, Meta also announced partnerships with Microsoft and Zoom Video Communications that are expected to make the company’s VR headsets more useful in hybrid-work scenarios.

☆ Meta’s newest VR headset is impressive. Here’s why you probably won’t buy it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Rachel Metz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN Business —Meta’s newest virtual-reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro, is a slick, powerful device. Buyers can pre-order the Quest Pro as of Tuesday, and it will ship out on October 25. Meta's latest VR headset, the Quest Pro, is aimed at business users and costs $1500. Updated hand controllersThe headset is also more of a mixed-reality headset than a VR headset, as it isn’t meant to block out all ambient light all the time. The Quest Pro headset has sensors that can track your eyes and facial expressions.

☆ Meta’s headset makeover yields a $1,500 toy in search of a purpose
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

On Tuesday, Meta unveiled its latest effort in that mission, the Meta Quest Pro headset. But it costs $1,500 — nearly four times that of the company’s cheapest Quest 2 headset. Wages are up an estimated 5% this year in manufacturing — that’s not keeping up with inflation, but it is in line with the national average. “But by and large our manufacturing jobs today are high tech.”Bottom line: The labor story in America remains one where the narrative of recent history doesn’t quite hold. In most downturns, we’ve seen manufacturing decline, giving it a bad rap as a job that’s going extinct.

☆ Meta calls out India's The Wire, says it published stories based on fabricated documents
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Meta has publicly made the very serious charge that The Wire irresponsibly published two widely circulated articles based on fabricated documents, and The Wire has responded by digging its heels entirely into the sand. The dispute began on Monday when The Wire published what appeared to be an explosive story: that a top official in India’s ruling party effectively had the ability to unilaterally scrub posts from Instagram. Later that day, however, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone poured cold water on it. The outlet said that it had obtained an email where Stone appeared to privately acknowledge the documents were authentic. Others piled on by pointing out red flags with the supposed Stone email.

☆ Trustbusters’ metaverse gambit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only one making risky gambits in the metaverse. On Friday, trustbusters at the Federal Trade Commission pared back their arguments against Meta Platforms’ (META.O) acquisition of virtual reality app maker Within. The agency run by Lina Khan stepped back from initial arguments that Meta’s Beat Saber game competes directly against Within’s Supernatural fitness app. That was always an odd stretching of definitions that both limited the market to a thin slice of virtual reality and at the same time included wildly disparate apps. That resembles arguments against the 2015 merger of sterilization companies Steris and Synergy – a case the FTC lost.

☆ Rohingya seek reparations from Facebook for role in massacre
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

But some very narrow minded and very nationalist types escalated hate against Rohingya on Facebook,” he said. Instead, Meta’s algorithms “proactively amplified and promoted content” on Facebook, which incited violent hatred against the Rohingya beginning as early as 2012. And they are asking Meta to pay reparations for its role in the violent repression of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, which the U.S. declared a genocide earlier this year. “These algorithms are really dangerous to our human rights. The Rohingya refugees are seeking unspecified reparations from the Menlo Park, California-based social media giant for its role in perpetuating genocide.

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