Category Archives: Facebook

Twitter and Google join Facebook in tightening rules on US election claims

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Platforms will target unverified claims of election rigging and premature results declarations

Premature claims of victory will be blocked from Twitter and Google in the run-up to November’s US presidential election, as both companies follow Facebook in trying to fight the prospect of a stolen vote.

Under its new rules, Twitter will treat as harmful misinformation any tweet which makes false claims about election rigging, or prematurely claims to announce the election results.

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Facebook blocks livestream of assisted dying campaigner’s death

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Terminally ill French man is told his plan was blocked because it could promote self-harm

Facebook has blocked a terminally ill French campaigner for assisted dying from livestreaming his own death.

Alain Cocq, who has been suffering for 34 years from a rare and incurable degenerative disease, has stopped taking food, drink or medicine, and says he wants his death to be seen to help persuade French authorities to lift a ban on medically assisted suicide.

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Russian agency created fake leftwing news outlet with fictional editors, Facebook says

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Internet Research Agency also hired real, unwitting freelance reporters in operation Facebook has removed

The Russian agency that interfered in the 2016 US election created a fake leftwing news publication, staffed it with fake editors with AI-generated photos and hired real freelance reporters as part of a fresh influence operation detected and removed by Facebook, the company said on Tuesday.

The latest operation by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) was still in its early stages when it was detected thanks to a tip from the FBI, according to Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher. The network had 13 accounts and two pages, with about 14,000 total followers.

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Facebook threatens to block Australians from sharing news in battle over landmark media law

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Digital giant says it will stop users of Facebook and Instagram sharing local and international news if new law proposed by competition watchdog is approved

Facebook will block Australians from sharing news if a landmark plan to make digital platforms pay for news content becomes law, the digital giant has warned.

The sharing of personal content between family and friends will not be affected and neither will the sharing of news by Facebook users outside of Australia, the social network said.

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UK to drop ‘Facebook tax’ in favour of post-Brexit trade deal

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Recently introduced tax would have raised £500m, helping to reduce Britain’s huge Covid bill

The UK government is preparing to drop a recently introduced tax on global technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, due to fears that the so-called “Facebook tax” could jeopardise a post-Brexit trade deal.

Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning to ditch the digital services tax which was expected to generate about £500m to help pay towards the huge cost of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Facebook restricts more than 10,000 QAnon and US militia groups

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Move is part of a broad Facebook policy shift toward movements with links to violence such as baseless internet conspiracy Qanon

Facebook has taken down or restricted more than 10,000 groups, pages and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon, US-based militia groups, and organizations that promote violent acts at protests. The moves are the result of a shift in the company’s policy toward movements with links to violence that do not meet the criteria for an outright ban.

Facebook will still allow people to post content that supports these movements, but “will restrict their ability to organize” on the platform by removing them from recommendation algorithms, reducing their ranking in news feed and search results, and prohibiting them from using features such as fundraising and advertising, the company said. Facebook will also remove pages, groups and accounts that discuss violence, and said it will study the terminology and symbolism that groups typically use to disguise their intent.

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Facebook and other tech giants ‘too big to fail’

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Researchers call for new regulations to protect users, and society, in case of collapse

Like banks in the 2008 financial crisis, Facebook and other tech giants are “too big to fail”, according to research from Oxford University that calls for new regulations to protect users, and society, in the event of a possible collapse.

In their paper, published in the Internet Policy Review journal on Tuesday, Carl Öhmana and Nikita Aggarwal argue that the world’s biggest technology companies are unlikely to suddenly go out of business – but the world is unprepared for what would happen if they did.

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Revealed: QAnon Facebook groups are growing at a rapid pace around the world

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Guardian investigation finds the Facebook communities are gaining followers as Twitter cracks down on QAnon content

New and established QAnon groups on Facebook are growing at a rapid pace and helping to spread the baseless and dangerous conspiracy theory to new countries around the world, a Guardian investigation has found.

The Guardian has documented more than 170 QAnon groups, pages and accounts across Facebook and Instagram with more than 4.5 million aggregate followers. The Guardian has also documented dedicated communities for QAnon followers in at least 15 countries on Facebook.

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Prince Harry hits out at social media for creating ‘crisis of hate’

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Duke of Sussex urges advertisers to demand companies do more to curb hate speech online

Prince Harry has hit out at social media companies for creating a “crisis of hate” and called for “meaningful digital reform” after an unprecedented advertiser boycott of Facebook.

In an opinion piece for the US business magazine Fast Company, the Duke of Sussex revealed that he and his wife, Meghan, had begun campaigning for change in social media “a little over four weeks ago”.

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Facebook removes Trump post for spreading false information on Covid

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Post included video in which Trump wrongly said that children were ‘almost immune’ from illness

Facebook has removed a post from Donald Trump’s page for spreading false information about the coronavirus, a first for the social company that has been harshly criticized for repeatedly allowing the president to break its content rules.

The post included video of Trump falsely asserting that children were “almost immune from Covid-19” during an appearance on Fox News. There is evidence to suggest that children who contract Covid-19 generally experience milder symptoms than adults do. However, they are not immune, and some children have become severely ill or died from the disease.

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New York unveils landmark antitrust bill that makes it easier to sue tech giants

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The legislation comes as a federal panel is investigating the market power of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google

New York state is introducing a bill that would make it easier to sue big tech companies for alleged abuses of their monopoly powers.

New York is America’s financial center and one of its most important tech hubs. If successfully passed, the law could serve as a model for future legislation across the country. It also comes as a federal committee is conducting an anti-trust investigation into tech giants amid concerns that their unmatched market power is suppressing competition.

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‘Too much power’: Congress grills top tech CEOs in combative antitrust hearing

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The US’s top tech bosses were told they have “too much power”, are censoring political speech, spreading fake news and “killing” the engines of the American economy, at a combative congressional hearing on Wednesday.

The historic hearing in Washington saw Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google’s parent Alphabet appear before members of the House judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee and face intense questioning from lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

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Chief rabbi accuses Facebook and Twitter of complicity in antisemitism

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Ephraim Mirvis joins 48-hour boycott after grime musician Wiley’s antisemitic tirade

The UK’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, has accused Facebook and Twitter of complicity in antisemitism through inaction as he urged both platforms to do more to tackle hate speech after an antisemitic tirade last week from the grime musician Wiley.

In a letter to the technology companies’ chief executives, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Mirvis said “the woeful lack of responsible leadership … cannot be allowed to stand.

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‘Too big to fail’: why even a historic ad boycott won’t change Facebook

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The company has survived previous seemingly existential crises with little damage to its monarchical structure

On the evening of 13 July 2013, a few hours after George Zimmerman was acquitted over the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Alicia Garza logged on to her Facebook account and typed a phrase that would change the world: “#blacklivesmatter”. A few minutes later, she posted again: “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.”

That Facebook played a small role in the inception of a movement that may have become the largest in US history is the kind of story that the embattled company likes to point to when it makes its case that it does more good than harm. CEO Mark Zuckerberg boasted of the hashtag’s origin on Facebook in October 2019, when he delivered a speech about his view of free expression at Georgetown University.

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Facebook decisions led to serious setbacks for civil rights – report

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Two-year audit praises some decisions but criticises lack of action over Trump posts

Facebook’s decisions over the last nine months have resulted in “serious setbacks for civil rights,” according to the damning conclusion of a two-year-long audit commissioned by the social network to review its impact on the world.

The final report, which focuses primarily on decisions made since June 2019, praises Facebook’s move to ban American advertisers from using its tools for housing and employment discrimination, and the company’s belated decision to ban explicit support for white nationalism.

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‘Disappointing’ Zuckerberg meeting fails to yield results, say Facebook boycott organizers

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Civil rights groups say company did not commit to concrete plan to address hate speech and misinformation

The organizers behind a major advertiser boycott of Facebook have called a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg and other executives “disappointing”, saying the company failed to commit to concrete solutions for addressing hate speech and misinformation on the platform.

Officials at Facebook, including Zuckerberg, the CEO, and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, met with members of the coalition of civil rights groups over video chat for an hour on Tuesday to discuss the largest boycott in Facebook history, which has gained the support of more than 1,000 of its advertisers, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks.

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Extend US Facebook boycott to Europe, campaigners urge

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Calls follow Mark Zuckerberg’s dismissal of anti-hate-speech campaign in meeting with staff

Campaigners are calling for an advertising boycott of Facebook in the US to be extended to Europe, after its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, dismissed the effects of the campaign in a meeting with staff.

A growing number of companies have halted advertising on Facebook after criticism that the platform was not doing enough to counter hate speech on its sites.

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New Zealand’s Stuff newspaper group joins Facebook boycott as ‘experiment’

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Company says it has ‘paused’ its relationship with the social media company as part of global movement against hate speech

New Zealand’s largest newspaper group has temporarily quit Facebook in a bold “experiment” aligning itself with a global boycott of the social media site, which has been condemned for failing to crack down on escalating hate speech.

Stuff is the biggest news media website in New Zealand and owns dozens of newspapers around the country, employing more than 400 journalists.

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Third of advertisers may boycott Facebook in hate speech revolt

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‘Stop Hate for Profit’ campaign gathers momentum as ad boycott spreads outside US

Almost a third of advertisers are considering joining a month-long boycott of Facebook as the social network struggles to convince advertisers that it is doing enough to fight hate speech on its platform.

The unprecedented corporate snub has been revealed in survey by the World Federation of Advertisers, whose big-spending members control nearly $100bn (£81bn) in spending.

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How hate speech campaigners found Facebook’s weak spot

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The social network’s crisis has been a long time in the making and shows no sign of going away

It took less than two hours for Facebook to react and it did so for good reason.

At 5pm on Friday, Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers, with a portfolio of products that ranges from Marmite to Vaseline, suddenly announced it was pulling all adverts from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the US.

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