Category Archives: Facebook

Naked protesters condemn nipple censorship at Facebook headquarters

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Demonstrators cover bodies with stickers to ensure nipples on display are ‘male’, in line with Facebook policy

Some were hairy. Some were pointy. Some were dark brown, some a pale pink. But the hundreds of nipples on display in front of Facebook’s New York City headquarters on Sunday were technically “male”, despite some being on female protesters.

More than 100 people lay nude on the sidewalk to call for a change to the company’s censorship policies. The action, called #wethenipple, was organized by the artist Spencer Tunick and the National Coalition Against Censorship.

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Facebook refuses to delete fake Pelosi video spread by Trump supporters

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Footage of House speaker deliberately slowed down to make her appear drunk or ill

Facebook says it will continue to host a video of Nancy Pelosi that has been edited to give the impression that the Democratic House speaker is drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting its struggle to deal with disinformation.

The viral clip shows Pelosi – who has publicly angered Donald Trump in recent days – speaking at an event, but it has been slowed down to give the impression she is slurring her words. Several versions of the clip appeared to be circulating.

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Real v fake: debunking the ‘drunk’ Nancy Pelosi footage – video

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Footage of the Democratic House Speaker was edited to make her appear drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting social media's struggle to deal with disinformation. Compare the original footage with the viral clip

• Facebook refuses to delete fake Pelosi video spread by Trump supporters

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Far-right Facebook groups ‘spreading hate to millions in Europe’

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Avaaz uncovers 500 accounts using fake news to spread white supremacy message

A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.

Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and salvage its reputation, has already taken down accounts with about 6 million followers before voting in the European elections begins on Thursday. It was still investigating hundreds of other accounts with an additional 26 million followers, Avaaz said.

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Leaders and tech firms pledge to tackle extremist violence online

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Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron met companies and G7 nations in Paris for Christchurch Call summit

World leaders and heads of global technology companies have pledged at a Paris summit to tackle terrorist and extremist violence online in what they described as an “unprecedented agreement”.

Wednesday’s event, organised two months to the day since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, drew up a “plan of action” to be adopted by countries and companies to prevent extreme material going viral on the internet.

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Louis Farrakhan denies antisemitism – then refers to ‘Satanic Jews’

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  • Nation of Islam leader speaks in Chicago after Facebook ban
  • Christian and Jewish leaders in city condemn invitation

In a speech denying allegations of antisemitism, misogyny and homophobia after Facebook banned him from the social media platform, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan referred to “Satanic Jews”.

Related: Facebook bans Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and other far-right figures

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Facebook’s Zuckerberg announces privacy overhaul: ‘We don’t have the strongest reputation’

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At annual F8 developer conference, CEO focuses on ‘sense of intimacy’ and unveils plans for payments tools

Even Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t keep a straight face.

The Facebook founder and chief executive repeatedly broke out in laughter as he announced a product roadmap for his company’s new “privacy-focused social platform” at its annual developer conference, F8, in San Jose on Tuesday.

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Facebook could have 4.9bn dead users by 2100, study finds

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Deceased may outnumber the living if current growth rates continue, raising questions about what happens to our data

Facebook may eventually have more dead users than living ones.

If Facebook continues to grow at its current rate, the site could have 4.9 billion deceased members by 2100, according to a study by Oxford researchers. Even if growth had stopped entirely last year, the study finds, Facebook would be looking at about 1.4 billion dead members by 2100. By 2070, in that scenario, the dead would already outnumber the living.

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Canada says Facebook broke privacy laws and ‘refused to act responsibly’

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Top watchdog promises to force change following Cambridge Analytica scandal as New York announces new investigation

Facebook broke Canadian privacy laws when it collected the information of some 600,000 citizens, a top watchdog in the country said on Thursday, pledging to seek a court order to force the social media company to change its practices.

Canada’s privacy commissioner, Daniel Therrien, made his comments while releasing the results of an investigation, opened a year ago, into a data sharing scandal involving Facebook and the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

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Sri Lanka’s social media blackout reflects sense that online dangers outweigh benefits

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Features that make Facebook so useful for spreading information have also made it potentially dangerous

The Sri Lankan government’s decision to block all social media sites in the wake of Sunday’s deadly attacks is emblematic of just how much US-based technology companies’ failure to rein in misinformation, extremism and incitement to violence has come to outweigh the claimed benefits of social media.

Sri Lanka’s government moved to block Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – all owned by Facebook – on Sunday out of concern that “false news reports … spreading through social media” could lead to violence. The services will be suspended until investigations into the blasts that killed more than 200 people are concluded, the government said. Non-Facebook social media services including YouTube and Viber have also been suspended, but Facebook and WhatsApp are the dominant platforms in the country.

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Facebook bans far-right groups including BNP, EDL and Britain First

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Number of organisations and individuals permanently banned for being ‘dangerous’

Years after the company first dismissed fears it was empowering extremists, Facebook has permanently banned a number of far-right organisations and individuals including the British National party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and Britain First .

The ban, which came into effect at midday on Thursday, extends beyond the groups and individuals specifically cited as hate organisations: posts and other content that “expresses praise or support” for them will also be banned, as will users who coordinate support for the groups.

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Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users report outages

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Thousands having difficulty accessing social networks, says tracking site

Facebook was inaccessible to some users on Sunday, according to Downdetector, a website that monitors outages.

The site showed there had been more than 7,700 incidents of people reporting issues with Facebook at its peak.

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Facebook spent $22.6m to keep Mark Zuckerberg safe last year

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Security costs for the tech billionaire and his family more than doubled last year, as an outcry over Facebook’s practices grew

Facebook more than doubled the money it spent on top executive Mark Zuckerberg’s security in 2018 to $22.6m, a regulatory filing has showed.

Zuckerberg drew a base salary of $1 for the past three years, and his “other” compensation was listed at $22.6m, most of which was for his personal security.

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Toyota distances itself from Liberal ads falsely claiming Labor wants to tax cars

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The ads use Facebook functionality to target users with an interest in particular car brands, including Toyota Hilux utes

Toyota has said that it was not consulted on a Liberal party campaign that uses targeted Facebook ads to falsely claim Bill Shorten wants to tax popular car brands including the Toyota Hilux and other utility vehicles.

“Toyota Australia were not consulted on the use of the HiLux in government materials.”

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Facebook to use AI to stop telling users to say hi to dead friends

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Algorithmic features have sent suggestions to wish happy birthday to those who’ve died

Facebook has promised to use artificial intelligence to stop suggesting users invite their dead friends to parties.

The site’s freshly emotionally intelligent AI is part of a rash of changes to how Facebook handles “memorialised” accounts – pages whose owner has been reported deceased, but that are kept on the social network in their memory.

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British woman faces jail in Dubai for ‘insulting’ ex-husband’s new wife on Facebook

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Laleh Shahravesh was arrested in March and faces up to two years in jail, according to campaign group

A British woman is facing two years in jail in Dubai for allegedly using disparaging language about her ex-husband’s new wife on Facebook, campaigners have claimed.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, of Richmond, south-west London, was arrested together with her teenage daughter at Dubai airport in March. She faces up to two years in jail and a fine of £50,000 for two Facebook posts she made while living in the UK in 2016, according to the Detained In Dubai campaign group.

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Facebook are ‘morally bankrupt liars’ says New Zealand’s privacy commissioner

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John Edwards calls out social media giant after Christchurch attack for refusing to accept responsibility for harm

New Zealand’s privacy commissioner has lashed out at social media giant Facebook in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, calling the company “morally bankrupt pathological liars”.

The commissioner used his personal Twitter page to lambast the social network, which has also drawn the ire of prime minister Jacinda Ardern for hosting a livestream of the attacks that left 50 dead, which was then copied and shared all over the internet.

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Australia passes social media law penalising platforms for violent content

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Labor supports legislation in response to Christchurch shooting that threatens jail for executives, despite media companies’ concerns

The Australian parliament has passed legislation to crack down on violent videos on social media, despite furious reaction from the tech industry, media companies and legal experts.

The Labor opposition combined with the ruling Liberal-National Coalition to pass the law on Thursday, despite warning it won’t allow prosecution of social media executives as promised by the government. Tech giants expressed the opposite concern that it may criminalise anyone in their companies for a failure to remove violent material.

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IMF warns that tech giants stifle innovation and threaten stability

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Fund report calls for profits to be targeted by a tougher international tax regime

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the market power exercised by a small number of global companies threatens to stifle innovation and make it harder for central banks to deal with recessions.

Adding its contribution to the growing public debate about the corporate power exercised by the US tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook, the IMF said it would be concerned if there was any further increase in the clout of already dominant firms.

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Facebook stored hundreds of millions of passwords unprotected

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Company admits to mistake and says it has no evidence of abuse – but the risk was huge

Facebook mistakenly stored “hundreds of millions” of passwords in plaintext, unprotected by any encryption, the company has admitted.

The mistake, which led to user passwords being kept in Facebook’s internal servers in an insecure way, affects “hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users, tens of millions of other Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users”, according to the social networking site. Facebook Lite is a version of Facebook created for use in nations where mobile data is unaffordable or unavailable.

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