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Facebook whistleblower comes forward, urges for strong regulations

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, revealed during an interview with CBS News’ 60 minutes that she’s the one leaking confidential internal documents to media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal.  “The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for […]

Facebook Messenger welcomes Instagram users for group chats

Facebook Messenger surprised users this morning with a new feature; cross-app group chats. Just last year, the tech giant introduced cross-app messaging between Messenger and Instagram. However, the feature is being upgraded to allow users to start group chats while having the leverage to add Instagram and Messenger contacts.  Additional features have also been upgraded, including polls in Instagram DMs, which build off an existing […]

Take a look at Facebook’s internal research over mental health on teens

Ever wondered what Facebook’s internal research looks like?  Well, the social media giant has just released the internal research regarding the effect Instagram has on teenager’s mental health, which was heavily dissected by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) earlier this month.  The WSJ originally claimed that Facebook is aware that “Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage” of teens, particularly teenage girls,” yet buried the issue under the rug.  In […]

Facebook responds to WSJ’s Facebook Files series

After The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a sweeping report regarding Instagram’s harmful impact on teenage girls, Instagram’s parent company Facebook is finally speaking up nearly two weeks later.  Pratiti Raychoudhury, Vice President and Head of Research at Facebook posted on Facebook’s Newsroom statements clearing out misconceptions, describing WSJ’s portrayal of their internal research as “not accurate,” noting that WSJ journalists poorly interpreted the […]

Facebook footed $13 billion bill on security since 2016, report finds

Facebook publicized that since 2016 the social network mogul invested over $13 billion by onboarding 40,000 new staffers to endorse the platform’s security and safety measures, following a series of leaks by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Weeks after the Wall Street Journal’s “The Facebook Files” were published, the social media giant went back over to the […]

Facebook’s Oversight Board demands answers on celebrity rules

Facebook’s oversight board said on Tuesday that it will set in motion an urgent examination process to inspect whether the social networking platform is mitigating posts for famous personages, leading to a direct content rules breach, according to Wall Street inquiry. Facebook’s oversight board is an independent group assigned by the platform to observe its moderation policies […]

Facebook hits back at accusations claiming it ignored platform-wide issues

Facebook is pushing back against claims made by The Wall Street Journal, describing the content of the reports as “deliberate mischaracterizations” and “conferred egregiously false motives to Facebook’s leadership and employees.” It’s becoming a lot more difficult for people to believe that Facebook is contributing more good than harm, after The Wall Street Journal published […]

Facebook is aware of its harm to teenagers, company documents find

Facebook is under renewed scrutiny after the Wall Street Journal published a report on Tuesday revealing that the tech giant’s own research on Instagram has found that the photo-sharing app it also owns, causes major harm to teenage girls. Apparently, Facebook is fully conscious of the harm its causing, but it’s choosing to stay silent. […]

Facebook rolls out Marketplace service across Sub-Saharan Africa

Facebook announced on Tuesday the launch of its Marketplace service to 37 countries and territories across Sub-Saharan Africa. The service is considered as a convenient destination where people can discover, buy, and sell items from others in their local communities, simply by tapping on the Marketplace icon to browse and search for items, or filter […]

Facebook shuts down yet another research project into its algorithms

AlgorithmWatch, a Berlin-based non-profit organization exploring Instagram’s algorithm and data sets, got “bullied” by Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, into seizing the project and erasing the data it collected. In a blog post published on Friday, AlgorithmWatch researchers explained that they’re “committed to evaluating and shedding light on algorithmic decision-making processes that have social relevance.” The […]