America Pac is targeting users interested in the Boy Scouts of America, Kelsey Grammer, Kid Rock and Joe Rogan Elon Musk’s Pac is spending far more on ads on Facebook and YouTube than on X, Musk’s own social network. America Pac paid $201,000 to run dozens of ads on X, formerly Twitter, during the past three months. However, it spent $3m on thousands of advertisements on Facebook and Instagram in roughly the same time period. Musk founded the pro-Donald Trump Pac in July and has funded it to the tune of $75m, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Continue reading...

Oversight Board says parent company Meta has ‘serious questions’ to answer over two posts allowed to remain online Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta must answer “serious questions” about its handling of anti-immigration material, according to the company’s content watchdog, as it opened an investigation into two Facebook posts. The Oversight Board is investigating Meta’s decision to keep the posts online after acknowledging that it receives a significant number of complaints from users over content that shares anti-immigrant views. Continue reading...

Facebook and Instagram owner reportedly dismisses about 24 workers for abusing $25 meal credit system Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has reportedly fired about 24 staff at its Los Angeles offices for using their $25 meal credits to buy items such as toothpaste, laundry detergent and wine glasses. The tech firm, which is worth £1.2tn and also owns the messaging platform WhatsApp, is said to have dismissed workers last week after an investigation discovered staff had been abusing the system, including to send food home when they were not in the office. Continue reading...

Tech companies aren’t transparent about what they do with our photos – we asked experts about best baby-pic practices Welcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. If you’d like to skip to a section about a particular risk you’re trying to protect your child against, click the “Jump to” menu at the top of this article. Last week’s column covered how to opt yourself out of tech companies using your posts to train artificial intelligence. You’ve got the cutest baby ever, and you want the world to know it. But you’re also worried about what might happen to your baby’s picture once you release it into the nebulous world of the internet. Should you post it? Continue reading...

The assistant, which has sparked privacy concerns, can also be accessed on £299 Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has launched its artificial intelligence assistant in the UK, alongside AI-boosted sunglasses modelled by Mark Zuckerberg. Meta’s AI assistant, which can generate text and images, is now available on its social media platforms in the UK and Brazil, having already been launched in the US and Australia. Continue reading...

Meta’s new Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (Fire) tool to work with seven banks in a bid to tackle scams * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australians could see fewer deepfake images of celebrities being hauled off in handcuffs, or promoting a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment on Facebook, after Meta launched a new one-stop shop for banks to share information on scams that has blocked 8,000 pages and 9,000 celebrity scams in its first six months of operation. From January to August 2024, Australians reported $43.4m in losses from scams on social media to Scamwatch, with close to $30m relating to fake investment scams. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg’s new revamp is a far cry from the zip-up hoodies and suits emblematic of earlier eras of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg is revamping his public image with new threads. With a trio of bold shirts worn in recent appearances, he’s communicating that he came, he saw, he conquered and he will win again at any cost. The fits might be sick, but we would do well to beware. During a live, packed-auditorium podcast interview last week, the CEO of Meta wore a drop-shouldered black shirt reading “pathei mathos”, Greek for “learning through suffering”. At his 40th birthday party in May, he donned a black tee with the motto “Carthago delenda est,” which translates from Latin to “Carthage must be destroyed.” He wore a black shirt with black text that read “Aut Zuck aut nihil” during Meta’s Connect product demonstration on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg is embracing both AI and full-on imperial monomania. As for petty gripes about elections and teen mental health, so what? The good news is that Mark Zuckerberg has become bored of looking like an answer to the AI prompt “efit of a teen villain”. The bad? While the Meta overlord has grown out the Caesar hairstyle that has sustained him since 2016, he is now leaning in to open imperial monomania. This week’s Meta Connect conference saw Mark take the stage in a T-shirt reading Aut Zuck Aut Nihil. Either Zuck Or Nothing. The original was Aut Caesar Aut Nihil and was enthusiastically adopted as a motto by one of the worst Borgias (tough field) … but look, I’m sure it’s ironic. Mark’s such a gifted ironist. We’ll get to the magic glasses and AI feedspam he was pushing at this week’s event in a minute – but before we do, let’s recap. Easily the most significant thing Mark Zuckerberg has said this year was that he isn’t sorry any more – in fact, that he wished he’d never said sorry for most of what he’d ever said sorry for. I paraphrase only slightly. A couple of weeks ago, Zuckerberg appeared on stage for a podcast and called Facebook’s willingness to offer stakes-free apologies for things he wasn’t to blame for – like election manipulation or the effect of social media on teen mental health – “a 20-year mistake”. Continue reading...

Though the message has been shared by many users, including celebrities, it offers no copyright or privacy protection The “Goodbye Meta AI” message, which purports to protect the user from having the likes of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp use their accounts as an AI training camp, has become an increasingly common feature on timelines. It has been shared by actors and sports stars – including James McAvoy, Ashley Tisdale and Tom Brady – as well as hundreds of thousands of others. But why – and what effect, if any, will it have? Continue reading...

Meta’s global affairs chief points to ‘behavioural issue’ around child safety tools on the social media platforms Parents do not use parental controls on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta’s Nick Clegg, with adults failing to embrace the 50 child safety tools the company has introduced in recent years. Meta’s global affairs chief said there was a “behavioural issue” around using the tools, after admitting they were being ignored by parents. Regulatory pressure is building on tech companies to protect children from harmful content, with the Australian government announcing plans this week to ban younger teenagers from accessing social media. Continue reading...