Those who pay for the subscriptions would not see ads while Meta would also continue to offer free versions of the apps with ads in the EU…reports Asian Lite News
Meta is reportedly planning to charge $14 for accessing an ad-free Instagram or Facebook in Europe where users will have an option to pay the fee or agree to see personalised ads.
If users in Europe want to access both Instagram and Facebook, they can get the combo for $17 per month, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Meta is reportedly pitching the pricing to EU regulators who want Mark Zuckerberg to stop using personal data to target ads at European citizens without their consent. “The bloc’s users could have three options by the end of this month: pay up, use for free but agree to personalized ads, or quit, with the latter looking very tempting,” the report mentioned.
Those who pay for the subscriptions would not see ads while Meta would also continue to offer free versions of the apps with ads in the EU. Meta has been forced by the EU to ask permission from its users before showing them targeted advertising, after a series of regulatory rulings challenged its financial strategy.
Reports surfaced earlier this year that Meta is testing a new subscription service that would let Facebook and Instagram users pay for a verified account. Meta is also working on generative AI chatbot called ‘Gen AI Personas’ for younger users.
According to reports, the AI chatbot “would come in multiple personas geared towards engaging young users with more colourful behaviour”.
Meta partners Entrepreneurial Nation initiative to upskill startups and SMBs
The Russian court ruling will come into effect immediately but will not affect WhatsApp….reports Asian Lite News
A Moscow court has ruled to ban Facebook and Instagram in Russia, labelling the parent company of the two social networks Meta Platforms Inc. as “extremist”.
In its ruling on Monday, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia said that the lawsuit was aimed at protecting Russians from “a violation of their rights”, reports Xinhua news agency.
“Meta has violated its own rules by allowing posts with violent speeches towards the Russian military and has ignored more than 4,500 requests to remove fake information on Russia’s special military operation and calls for unauthorised rallies,” the prosecutors said.
The court ruling will come into effect immediately but will not affect WhatsApp.
Under the ruling, Russian media must now declare Meta an “extremist” organisation whenever it is mentioned, said a BBC report.
The designation must now be specified every time Meta is mentioned in the media, according to Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media.
Meta is also banned from doing business in Russia as the Prosecutor General’s Office and Russia’s Federal Security Service accused the social media giant of acting against Moscow and its armed forces.
Facebook has been blocked in Russia since March 4.
Meta said that BellTroX is based in India and sells what’s known as ‘hacking for hire’ services….reports Asian Lite News
IT company BellTroX InfoTech Services, based at Netaji Subhash Place in Shakurpur area of East Delhi, is back in news as Meta has removed 400 Facebook accounts linked to the India-based ‘hack-for-hire’ firm — known for social engineering and to send malicious links to hack influential people around the globe.
Hiding under the radar for some time after its activities were exposed last year, BellTroX InfoTech Services targeted advocacy groups and journalists, elected and senior government officials, hedge funds and multiple industries on the six continents, creating ripples among the powers-that-be.
In June last year, Citizen Lab, a laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy of the University of Toronto, broke the story around BelltroX and its ‘hack-for-hire’ activities.
Meta said that BellTroX is based in India and sells what’s known as ‘hacking for hire’ services.
“We removed about 400 Facebook accounts, the vast majority of which were inactive for years, linked to BellTroX and used for reconnaissance, social engineering and to send malicious links,” Meta said.
“Its activity on our platform was limited and sporadic between 2013 to 2019, after which it paused,” Meta added in a blog post late on Thursday.
“BellTroX operated fake accounts to impersonate a politician and pose as journalists and environmental activists in an attempt to social-engineer its targets to solicit information, including their email addresses, likely for phishing attacks at a later stage,” the social network added.
This activity, based on the exact same playbook, re-started in 2021 with a small number of accounts impersonating journalists and media personalities to send phishing links and solicit the targets’ email addresses.
“Among those targeted were lawyers, doctors, activists, and members of the clergy in countries, including Australia, Angola, Saudi Arabia, and Iceland,” Meta informed.
Following an investigation by researchers at Citizen Lab and Facebook’s new parent company, Meta, seven surveillance-for-hire groups in total have been banned from using the social media giant’s platforms to target other users.
Last year, Citizen Lab, as part of its multi-year ‘Dark Basin’ investigation, collaborated with consumer cybersecurity brand NortonLifeLock and unearthed numerous technical links between the campaigns and individuals associated with BellTroX.
BellTroX, owned by Sumit Gupta who was indicted in California in 2015 for his role in a similar hack-for-hire scheme, targeted government officials in Europe and well-known investors in the US.
The ‘hack-for-hire’ organisation extensively targeted American nonprofits, including organisations working on a campaign called #ExxonKnew, which asserted that ExxonMobil hid information about climate change for decades.
“In at least one case, Dark Basin repurposed a stolen internal email to re-target other individuals. This incident led us to conclude that Dark Basin had some success in gaining access to the email accounts of one or more advocacy groups,” said the report.
BellTroX employees sent phishing emails masquerading as targets’ colleagues and friends. The individuals that Dark Basin chose to target showed that it had a deep knowledge of informal organisational hierarchies (masquerading as individuals with greater authority than the target).
“We concluded that Dark Basin operators were likely provided with detailed instructions not only about whom to target, but what kinds of messages specific targets might be responsive to,” the report had said.
Researchers at University of Southern California found that Facebook’s ad delivery system biased against women…reports Asian Lite News
The ad delivery system of Facebook is biased towards women, showing them different job listings than it shows to men, a new study has revealed.
Researchers at University of Southern California found that Facebook’s ad delivery system discriminates against women, reports The Verge.
The team of researchers bought ads on Facebook for delivery driver job listings that had similar qualification requirements but for different companies.
The findings showed that Facebook targeted the Instacart delivery job to more women and the Domino’s delivery job to more men.
According to the researchers, Instacart has more female drivers but Domino’s has more male drivers.
“Facebook’s ad delivery can result in skew of job ad delivery by gender beyond what can be legally justified by possible differences in qualifications,” the researchers wrote, “thus strengthening the previously raised arguments that Facebook’s ad delivery algorithms may be in violation of anti-discrimination laws.”
In a similar experiment on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, the researchers found that the professional networking platform showed the Domino’s listing to as many women as it showed the Instacart ad.
A Facbeek spokesperson said in a sttaement that their system takes into account “many signals to try and serve people ads they will be most interested in, but we understand the concerns raised in the report”.
“We’ve taken meaningful steps to address issues of discrimination in ads and have teams working on ads fairness today. We’re continuing to work closely with the civil rights community, regulators, and academics on these important matters,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
This is not the first time Facebook has faced allegations over gender bias in its algorithms.
In 2017, a joint investigation by US-based non-profit organisation ProPublica and The New York Times found companies like Verizon, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook place recruitment ads limited to particular age groups.
Another ProPublica probe found that Facebook allowed housing advertisers to target audiences by race and exclude minorities, raising questions about whether the company is in compliance with federal fair housing rules that prohibit such discrimination.
Facebook, however, called it a “technical failure”.
