Tag: FACEBOOK

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-Top News USA

Trump slams Facebook as ‘enemy of the people’

Meta shares also retreated 1.2% on Friday following a post by Trump on Truth Social where the former president blasted Facebook as “a true Enemy of the People!”…reports Asian Lite News

Facebook once again finds itself in the crosshairs of former President Donald Trump. And that’s making some traders on Wall Street nervous.

Meta Platforms (META), the owner of Facebook and one of the stars of the recent market rally, fell about 4% on Monday after Trump called into CNBC and labeled Facebook “an enemy of the people.”

Meta shares also retreated 1.2% on Friday following a post by Trump on Truth Social where the former president blasted Facebook as “a true Enemy of the People!”

Meta’s market valuation has dropped by more than $60 billion since Trump’s attacks began Thursday evening. No major news appeared to drive the Meta selloff, other than the condemnation from the former – and possibly future – president of the United States.

“It has everything to do with the comments from former President Trump,” Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson, told CNN. “Facebook has gone through waves of being dragged into the political debate – and it never bodes well for them.” Trump surprised many last week by reversing his stance on TikTok and coming out against the TikTok ban that many in Congress – including many Republicans – are pushing for.

Why? Well, Trump argues that banning TikTok would help Facebook, a company the former president has a long history of battling with.

“The thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media,” Trump told CNBC Monday morning before US markets opened. Facebook imposed a two-year ban on Trump in the wake of the Jan 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Meta reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in February 2023.

“I think Facebook has been very dishonest. I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections,” Trump said.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Investors are clearly taking notice of the attacks from Trump. At one point, Meta shares were down about 5% Monday, leaving them on track for the worst day since December 2022. Luria, the D.A. Davidson analyst, said Trump’s comments raise concerns about Facebook becoming a target of Washington once again.

“When a presidential candidate refers to them as the enemy of the people, that really brings them back into the center of the debate – where they haven’t been for a few years,” Luria said.

Specifically, Luria said Trump, if elected president, could pressure Facebook by making it harder for Meta to make acquisitions in the future. The company’s prior acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have been central to its growth.

“If it can’t buy the next great thing in the future, it will have trouble competing,” Luria said. “There are pretty impactful things a president can do, not to mention using the power of the podium to limit a company’s attractiveness to a certain voter base.” Of course, Trump himself is very much involved in social media.

US regulators recently gave the green light to a controversial merger between Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group and a blank-check company. If approved by shareholders later this month, Trump would own a dominant stake in the newly-public company that could be worth billions.

The full House is set to vote this week on a bill that would give TikTok roughly five months to separate from its China-linked parent company or else app stores in the United States would be banned from hosting the app on their platforms. President Joe Biden has said he is prepared to sign the TikTok bill into law if it passes Congress.

ALSO READ-Trump will not give a penny to Ukraine, says Orban

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-Top News Media World News

No More Facebook News, Meta Ceases Payments

Facebook meta.(photo:Pixabay.com)

In early April, the company will kill Facebook News, a dedicated tab for news content, in the US and Australia….reports Asian Lite News

Meta has announced not to enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content in Australia, France and Germany, and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future.

In early April, the company will kill Facebook News, a dedicated tab for news content, in the US and Australia.

Facebook News was deprecated in the UK, France and Germany last year.

“People will still be able to view news on Facebook in feed in these countries, and publishers will continue to have access to their Facebook accounts and Pages, where they can post their news article links and content,” the company said in a statement.

This update does not impact the existing agreements the company has in relation to Facebook News with news publishers in Australia, France and Germany until they expire.

“This is part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most,” Meta said.

The number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US has dropped by over 80 per cent last year.

“As we previously shared in 2023, news makes up less than 3 per cent of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, and is a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people,” said the company.

News organisations can still leverage products like Reels and ads system to reach broader audiences and drive people to their website, “where they keep 100 per cent of the revenue derived from outbound links on Facebook”.’

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Categories
COVID-19 Social Media

‘Facebook failed to control Covid misinformation’

Although both had large page networks, anti-vaccine content producers more effectively coordinated content delivery across pages, groups, and users’ news feeds…reports Asian Lite News

The Covid-19 vaccine misinformation policies of Facebook, the world’s largest social media platform, were not effective in combating misinformation and its overall design is more to blame for this rather than just algorithms, a new study has revealed.

The study, led by researchers at the George Washington University in the US and published in the journal Science Advances, found that Facebook’s efforts were undermined by the core design features of the platform itself.

“To effectively tackle misinformation and other online harms, we need to move beyond content and algorithms to also focus on design and architecture,” said David Broniatowski, lead study author and an associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering.

The results show that removing content or changing algorithms can be ineffective if it doesn’t change what the platform is designed to do — enabling community members to connect over common interests — in this case, vaccine hesitancy — and find information that they are motivated to seek out, he explained.

The researchers found that while Facebook expended significant effort to remove a lot of anti-vaccine content during the Covid-19 pandemic, overall engagement with anti-vaccine content did not decrease beyond prior trends — and, in some cases, even increased.

“This finding… is incredibly concerning. It shows the difficulty that we face as a society in removing health misinformation from public spaces,” said Lorien Abroms, study author and a professor of public health.

In the content that was not removed, there was an increase in links to off-platform, low credibility sites and links to misinformation on “alternative” social media platforms like Gab and Rumble, especially in anti-vaccine groups.

In addition, remaining anti-vaccine content on Facebook became more — not less — misinformative, containing sensationalist false claims about vaccine side effects that were often too new to be fact-checked in real time.

There was also “collateral damage,” say the researchers, as pro-vaccine content may have also been removed as a result of the platform’s policies and, overall, vaccine-related content became more politically polarised.

Furthermore, anti-vaccine content producers used the platform more effectively than pro-vaccine content producers, the authors wrote.

Although both had large page networks, anti-vaccine content producers more effectively coordinated content delivery across pages, groups, and users’ news feeds.

Even when Facebook tweaked its algorithms and removed content and accounts to combat vaccine misinformation, the researchers say the architecture of the platform pushed back.

The social media platform designers could promote public health and safety by working collaboratively to develop a set of “building codes” for their platforms that are informed by scientific evidence to reduce online harms, the study suggested.

ALSO READ-Meta overhauls Facebook fact-check controls for US users

Categories
-Top News Social Media USA

Trump’s Facebook and Instagram pages restored

Former US President Donald Trump.(photo:Instagram)

Trump’s last post on Facebook before the suspension called for people to leave the Capitol…reports Asian Lite News

Facebook and Instagram pages belonging to former US President Donald Trump have been restored. Andy Stone, policy communications director at Meta, has confirmed the development, NBC News reported.

The reinstatement had been expected after Facebook’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg in January said that the suspension will be lifted, as per the news report. Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram were suspended by Meta after January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The ban was announced initially as an indefinite ban that included the last two weeks of his presidency, as per the NBC News report. The ban on Trump’s account was later formally extended for two years.

At the time of writing this news article, Trump has not shared any new posts on his Facebook or Instagram accounts. His last Instagram post, dated January 6, 2021, promoted the “Save America” march where he would encourage his supporters to march on the Capitol.

While sharing the post on Instagram, Trump in the caption wrote, “I will be speaking at the SAVE AMERICA Rally tomorrow on the Ellipse at 11 AM Eastern. Arrive early – door open at 7 AM Eastern. Big Crowds!”

Trump’s last post on Facebook before the suspension called for people to leave the Capitol. In the post on Facebook, Trump stated, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order — respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

Recently, former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was also restored. Twitter reinstated Trump’s account after Elon Musk took over as the CEO of the microblogging platform. Musk had put up a poll asking users of the microblogging site to vote on whether to reinstate Trump’s Twitter account.

Former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account had been banned since January 8, 2021. Trump has not yet shared any tweets on Twitter. However, he continues to post on Truth Social, the Twitter-like platform he founded. (ANI)

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Categories
-Top News Social Media USA

Trump is back on Facebook after 2 year ban

Former US President Donald Trump.(photo:Instagram)

Meta, on January 7, 2021, suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021…reports Asian Lite News

At last a happy news for former US President Donald Trump that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced that it will be reinstating Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks.

The announcement was made by Meta’s President of Global Affairs Meta Nick Clegg in a blog post on Wednesday.

Meta, on January 7, 2021, suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances. The normal state of affairs is that the public should be able to hear from a former President of the US, and a declared candidate for that office again, on our platforms,” Clegg elaborated in the blog post.

“Like any other Facebook or Instagram user, Mr Trump is subject to our Community Standards. In light of his violations, he now also faces heightened penalties for repeat offences – penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol,” he added.

Clegg also said that Meta is reinstating Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, however, with new guardrails in place to “deter repeat offences”.

“We know that any decision we make on this issue will be fiercely criticised. Reasonable people will disagree over whether it is the right decision. But a decision had to be made, so we have tried to make it as best we can in a way that is consistent with our values and the process we established…,” he asserted.

ALSO READ-Trump’s tax returns to be released after long fight

Categories
-Top News

Facebook lays off 12K employees: Report

Facebook. (File Photo: IANS)

At its peak, Meta’s stock price approached $380 per share. But in the last year, the company share price has nosedived 60 per cent…reports Asian Lite News

Meta is reportedly conducting ‘quiet layoffs’ at Facebook that may lead to thousands of job cuts — at least 12,000 or about 15 per cent of its workforce.

According to a report in Insider, the senior executives are in the process of executing “quiet layoffs” of underperforming workers.

Several employees told Insider that as much as 15 per cent of the workforce could be cut within the next few weeks. This means that some 12,000 employees could be out of jobs soon.

“It might look like they are moving on, but the reality is they are being forced out,” the employee told Insider.

Facebook employees are bracing for layoffs for months since the social networking giant announced a hiring freeze.

At its peak, Meta’s stock price approached $380 per share. But in the last year, the company share price has nosedived 60 per cent.

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear that the social network is freezing hiring across the board, warning that more layoffs are in the pipeline.

According to reports, Zuckerberg made these comments during an internal call to employees.

Zuckerberg mentioned during the last Meta earnings call that “Our plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year. Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas.”

In May, Zuckerberg announced a hiring freeze affecting certain segments of Meta.

However, he has now expanded the hiring freeze across departments and verticals.

Facebook’s parent company Meta is currently reducing staff to cut costs amid the economic downturn, apparently putting some of them on traditional 30 to 60 days “lists” to find a new role within the company or leave.

Meta has a “long practice” where employees whose roles are eliminated are subject to termination if they can’t find a new job internally within a month.

As Big Tech companies lay off employees and freeze new hirings, Zuckerberg said in July that the company’s plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year.

Admitting that the social network has entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business, Zuckerberg said that many “teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company”.

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Categories
-Top News Media

Facebook losing its grip in US

It even once stayed out of the Top 10 for as long as 37 consecutive days in 2022, the firm noted, up from just two consecutive days in 2021…reports Asian Lite News

Meta-owned Facebook has been struggling to maintain its position among the Top 10 apps on the US App Store this year, says a new report.

According to an analysis of iPhone App Store data, as younger consumers shift to newer social networking experiences like TikTok and now BeReal, the tech giant’s app has lost traction in the App Store’s Top Charts, reports TechCrunch.

As per the report, last year, Facebook only fell out of the Top 10 free iPhone apps in the US seven times. But in 2022, that figure has already soared to 97 — an indication that Facebook may be losing ground as new apps push their way into the App Store’s top rankings.

For a more direct comparison, Facebook’s app fell out of the App Store’s Top 10 apps just six times during the first half of 2021. In the first half of 2022, however, it has dropped out of this grouping a total of 59 times, per data provided to TechCrunch by app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

It even once stayed out of the Top 10 for as long as 37 consecutive days in 2022, the firm noted, up from just two consecutive days in 2021.

Additional analysis provided by another App Store data provider, data.ai, formerly App Annie, also supported this conclusion — though it found the app dropped out of the Top 10 on iPhone in the US only 4 times throughout 2021, compared with 110 days in 2022 so far.

It found Facebook’s drop-off times this year were mainly concentrated in April, May and June. April was Facebook’s worst month so far, as the app’s rank fell into the 30s on April 18, and then reached as low as No. 44 on April 21.

Notably, this was around when BeReal was climbing the App Store’s Top Charts, breaking into the Top 5.

Currently, BeReal is the No. 1 non-gaming app on the US App Store.

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Categories
-Top News Business

Meta posts first-ever revenue drop

Meta partners Entrepreneurial Nation initiative to upskill startups and SMBs

Outgoing COO Sheryl Sandberg blamed the revenue loss on the decreasing value of the Euro…reports Asian Lite News

Facebook has reported loss in revenue in the June quarter for the first time since going public in 2007, predicting that growth in the third quarter could fall even more.

Facebook reported a 1 per cent drop in revenue to $28.8 billion, a 1 per cent decrease from $29.07 billion in the second quarter of 2021.

The shares dropped 3.8 per cent in extended trading late on Wednesday.

Overall, Meta’s profit fell 36 per cent to $6.7 billion in the quarter.

The Reality Labs division behind the Metaverse dream project lost $2.8 billion in the April-June period,

“It was good to see a positive trajectory on our engagement trends this quarter coming from products like Reels and our investments in AI,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO.

“We’re putting increased energy and focus around our key company priorities that unlock both near and long term opportunities for Meta and the people and businesses that use our services,” he announced.

Outgoing COO Sheryl Sandberg blamed the revenue loss on the decreasing value of the Euro.

“Foreign exchange trends had a significant impact in Q2, in particular the depreciation of the Euro relative to the dollar,” Sandberg told analysts during the earnings call.

“On a constant currency basis, we would have seen 3% revenue growth year over year.”

The company expects third quarter 2022 total revenue to be in the range of $26-28.5 billion.

“This outlook reflects a continuation of the weak advertising demand environment we experienced throughout the second quarter, which we believe is being driven by broader macroeconomic uncertainty,” Meta informed.

Facebook reported daily active users (DAUs) at 1.97 billion on average for June, an increase of 3 per cent year-over-year.

The monthly active users (MAUs) were 2.93 billion, an increase of 1 per cent.

Meta now has 83,553 employees, an increase of 32 per cent year-over-year.

The social network said that from November 1, current Chief Financial Officer David Wehner will take on a new role as Meta’s first Chief Strategy Officer, where he will oversee the company’s strategy and corporate development.

Susan Li, Meta’s current Vice President of Finance, will be promoted and serve as Meta’s Chief Financial Officer.

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Categories
-Top News ASEAN News

Indonesia threatens to block social media giants

The digital giants are given time until Wednesday to complete the registration for licensing….reports Asian Lite News

The Indonesian authorities are set to block social media applications and online sites including Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp in several days if they fail to register with the country’s Ministry of Communications and Informatics.

The digital giants are given time until Wednesday to complete the registration for licensing. Otherwise, the ministry will name them illegal and unlawful in the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We have warned all local and foreign tech companies, including online services, sites, and application providers, many times that they have to register if they do not want to risk being blocked. We have given them time since six months ago,” the ministry’s Director General for Information Applications Semuel Abrijani told reporters on Tuesday.

The registration is part of the country’s new regulation starting from January 2022, saying all tech platforms must secure licenses to be able to operate. The regulation will allow the authorities to order the platforms to take down any contents considered unlawful, inappropriate and “disturb public order,” within four hours if deemed urgent, and 24 hours if not.

The Indonesian government is currently trying to reduce the spreading of misinformation and hoaxes, particularly ahead of the country’s general election in 2024.

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Categories
-Top News India News

Meta removes 24.6 million bad content in India

Meta partners Entrepreneurial Nation initiative to upskill startups and SMBs

For Instagram, the company received 1,150 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism, and it responded to 100 per cent of those 1,150 reports….reports Asian Lite News

Meta (formerly Facebook) took down 24.6 million pieces of content across 13 policies for Facebook and over 2.7 million pieces of content across 12 policies for Instagram in the month of March, in accordance with the IT Rules 2021.

Between March 1-31, Meta received 656 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism for Facebook, and responded to 100 per cent of those reports.

“Of these incoming reports, we provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 556 cases,” Meta said in its compliance report.

For Instagram, the company received 1,150 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism, and it responded to 100 per cent of those 1,150 reports.

Of these reports, Meta provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 556 cases.

“Of the other 594 reports where specialised review was needed, we reviewed content as per our policies, and we took action on 20 reports in total,” the company informed.

“The report describes our efforts to remove harmful content from Facebook and Instagram and demonstrate our continued commitment to making Facebook and Instagram safe and inclusive,” said the company.

“We use a combination of Artificial Intelligence, reports from our community and review by our teams to identify and review content against our policies,” it added.

Meta actioned a huge 14.9 million spam content, 2.5 million violent and graphic content and 2.1 million content related to adult nudity and sexual activity, among others.

“We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) and take action for going against our standards,” it said.

In February, Meta took down 21.2 million pieces of content across 13 policies for Facebook and over 2.4 million pieces of content across 12 policies for Instagram.

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Monday said that it banned over 18 lakh bad accounts in India in the month of March in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021.

Under the new IT Rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports.

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