Meta boss regrets bowing to government power and says he would not make the same
choices today
The Meta boss, Mark Zuckerberg, has said he regrets bowing to what he claims was
pressure from the US government to censor posts about Covid on Facebook and
Instagram during the pandemic.
Zuckerberg said senior White House officials in Joe Biden’s administration
“repeatedly pressured” Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to
“censor certain Covid-19 content” during the pandemic.
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Tag - Social networking
Facebook founder shares photo of sculpture of Priscilla Chan, rendered in green
with a large silver cloak
Mark Zuckerberg has raised eyebrows by commissioning a giant sculpture of his
wife, Priscilla Chan.
In a photo of the statue, posted to Instagram, the Facebook CEO and co-founder
said he was “bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your
wife”.
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Stock price grew around 5%, which revealed the company outperformed analysts’
expectations for its second quarter
Meta’s shares rose in after-hours trading on Wednesday off the back of a strong
earnings report that comes as the company is spending heavily on AI tools.
The company’s stock price grew around 5% following the report, which revealed
the company outperformed analysts’ expectations for its second quarter.
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Result of Guardian Australia experiment aligns with research showing social
media automatically delivers troubling content to young men, largely without
oversight
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How do the algorithms of Facebook and Instagram affect what you see in your news
feed? To find out, Guardian Australia unleashed them on a completely blank
smartphone linked to a virgin email address.
Three months later, without any input, they were riddled with sexist and
misogynistic content.
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Meta says it would remove content ‘attacking “Zionists” when it is not
explicitly about the political movement’
Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it would start taking down more posts that target
“Zionists” when the term is used to refer to Jewish people and Israelis rather
than representing supporters of the political movement.
The Facebook and Instagram parent said in a blog post it would remove content
“attacking ‘Zionists’ when it is not explicitly about the political movement”
and uses antisemitic stereotypes or threatens harm through intimidation or
violence directed against Jews or Israelis.
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Company says it has ‘never thought about news’ as a way to counter misleading
content on Facebook and Instagram despite evidence to the contrary
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Meta has claimed news is not the antidote to misinformation and disinformation
spreading on Facebook and Instagram, as the company continues to push back
against being forced to pay media companies for news in Australia.
Meta announced in March it would not enter into new agreements with media
companies to pay for news following the end of contracts signed in 2021 under
the Morrison government’s news media bargaining code.
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On its 15th anniversary, the creators of FarmVille reflect on the compulsive
cartoon farm sim that paved the way for a data-driven world
Facebook users of a certain age may remember a particularly forlorn farm animal
popping up in their feeds during the platform’s heyday. The lonely cow would
wander into FarmVille players’ pastures with its face twisted into a frown and
its eyes shimmering with tears. “She feels very sad and needs a new home,” an
accompanying caption read, asking you to adopt the cow or message your friends
for help. Ignore the cow’s plea and it would presumably be left friendless and
foodless. Message your friends about it, and you’d be accelerating the spread of
one of the biggest online crazes of the 2010s.
Released 15 years ago, FarmVille was nothing short of a phenomenon. More than
18,000 players gave it a go on its first day, rising to 1 million by its fourth.
At its peak in 2010, more than 80 million users logged in monthly to plant
crops, tend animals and harvest goods for coins to spend on decorations.
Celebrities professed their obsession, McDonald’s created a farm for a
promotion, and long before artists released music on Fortnite, Lady Gaga debuted
songs from her sophomore album through the cartoon farm sim. Not bad for a game
that was stitched together in five weeks.
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