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Digital-ad downturn may complicate life for Google, Facebook

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writers Demand for digital-ad is shriveling after a decade of explosive growth amid the pandemic-fueled downturn. That could complicate things for Google and Facebook, who for the first time may have to contend with revenues that are actually shrinking. With consumers mostly at home and unemployment soaring, […]

Facebook to label national origin of popular posts

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook said Wednesday it will label posts from popular accounts with their geographic origin in an attempt to curb political misinformation by foreign-based pages that mimic legitimate groups and political parties. The new policy will apply to popular pages about elections, entertainment and other topics […]

Facebook invests in India telecom giant Jio for e-commerce

By RISHABH R. JAIN Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Facebook says it plans to invest $5.7 billion in India’s telecom giant Reliance Jio. The investment will give Facebook a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms, the digital technologies and app developing division of Reliance Industries. Reliance Jio has the highest number of customers in the […]

Australia to make Google and Facebook pay for news content

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Global digital platforms Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for news content in Australia, the government said Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic causes a collapse in advertising revenue. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would release in late July draft […]

Facebook to warn users who 'liked' coronavirus hoaxes

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press Facebook will soon let you know if you shared or interacted with dangerous coronavirus misinformation on the site, the latest in a string of aggressive efforts the social media giant is taking to contain an outbreak of viral falsehoods. The new notice will be sent to users […]

Facebook bug wrongly deleted authentic coronavirus news

By The Associated Press undefined Facebook said a bug in its anti-spam system temporarily blocked the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus. Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, said on Twitter Tuesday that the company was working on a fix for the problem. Users complained that links to news stories about […]

Facebook drops Trump ads after Pelosi cites census confusion

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press Facebook on Thursday began taking down ads for the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump that direct people to a survey labeled a “census,” hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said people would confuse it with the once-a-decade head count. Facebook said in a statement that it […]

Facebook bans ads with false claims about new virus

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook said Wednesday that it is banning ads that make false claims about products tied to the new coronavirus. The social network said it is removing ads that feature a product and imply a limited supply, seeking create a “sense of urgency” in their mention […]

Insider Q&A: Facebook VP of Messenger discusses privacy

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — At Facebook, Stan Chudnovsky oversees the Messenger chat app that’s used by well over 1 billion people each month. He’s playing a key role in helping Facebook integrate that app with its other chat tools, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct. The massive project has already gotten […]

Unique Illinois privacy law leads to $550M Facebook deal

By KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Adam Pezen, Carlo Licata and Nimesh Patel are among millions of people who have been tagged in Facebook photos at some point in the past decade, sometimes at the suggestion of an automated tagging feature powered by facial recognition technology. It was their Illinois addresses, though, that […]