Search results for "misinformation"

Congress asks tech companies for Jan. 6 records

A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection has requested that telecommunications and social media companies preserve the personal communications of hundreds of people who may have somehow been connected to the attack. It’s a sweeping public demand from Congress that is rare, if not unprecedented, in its breadth and could put the […]

Washington’s probe leads to new Twitter feature

On Tuesday, Twitter announced plans to seek users’ judiciousness to further implement control over misinformation by launching a test of its latest feature that will allow users to report misleading posts. Following Washington’s pressure to go the extra mile to force the platform to contain possible misinformation, users will be reporting dishonest information through the […]

Some praise, some doubts as Facebook rolls out a prayer tool

Facebook already asks for your thoughts. Now it wants your prayers. The social media giant has rolled out a new prayer request feature, a tool embraced by some religious leaders as a cutting-edge way to engage the faithful online. Others are eyeing it warily as they weigh its usefulness against the privacy and security concerns […]

Facebook removes anti-vax Russian disinformation campaigns

Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has removed 65 and 243 Facebook and Instagram accounts respectively that were involved in anti-vax disinformation campaigns operating from Russia.  The Big Tech company highlighted in its report that accounts originated in Russia targeted audiences primarily in India, Latin America, and to a lesser extent, the U.S.   Facebook’s investigation found links between this campaign and Fazze, a subsidiary of a U.K-registered marketing firm AdNow, whose operations were […]

FTC official raps Facebook for booting political ads probe

A senior Federal Trade Commission official is criticizing Facebook’s move to shut down the personal accounts of two academic researchers and terminate their probe into misinformation spread through political ads on the social network. Facebook wrongly used a 2019 data-privacy settlement with the FTC to justify shutting down the New York University researchers’ accounts this […]

Facebook vs. NYU academics: Who’s in the wrong?

A new controversy is looming over Facebook, as it’s involving academic researchers over their use of unauthorized data from the platform.  The multinational tech company suspended the accounts of academics from New York University’s Ad Observatory Project on Tuesday due to privacy concerns.  Facebook product management director Mike Clark explained the reason behind the unprecedented move, citing that the accounts from the project were disabled “to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people’s […]

Twitter looks to champion accurate information

Social media platforms have the power to turn fiction into facts.   Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and several other platforms function as a powerful distributing machine for data. Thus, with great power comes great responsibility, and Twitter is staking a step further to ensure its power is in the right hands.  In a blog post, the micro-blogging platform officially announced […]

Facebook profits top $10B as its CEO exalts the 'metaverse'

Concerns about a revenue growth slowdown pushed Facebook’s shares lower in after-hours trading Wednesday, not long after the company reported that its second-quarter profits doubled thanks to a massive increase in advertising revenue. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg set his sights far beyond the second half of 2021, exalting what he sees as the next phase […]

Facebook profits soar but its success might be short-lived

Facebook’s success is rapidly taking flight; however, it’s about to face serious challenges on multiple fronts.   The company’s revenue grew 56 percent year-on-year (YoY) in the second quarter, amounting to $29 billion, according to a statement published on Wednesday.  Facebook’s savvy marketing strategy and technological advancement managed to double its quarterly profit to almost $10.4 billion, $8.7 billion more than what analysts estimated.  If this isn’t impressive enough, then take […]