The world’s largest social network has more than 2 billion daily users, and is expanding rapidly around the world. Led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook undergirds much of the world’s communication online, both through its flagship app and its subsidiaries Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Despite huge financial success, Facebook is also confronted with questions about data privacy, hate speech on the platform, and concerns that frequent social media use can lead to unhappiness. The Verge publishes a nightly newsletter about Facebook and democracy, subscribe here.
Companies across the tech industry have been laying off staff and reducing hiring after explosive growth during the pandemic.
Meta is making sweeping changes to its moderation policies ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
During Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings call today, Mark Zuckerberg kept dropping hints about big plans for Facebook. He’s focused on making it more “culturally influential.” He even suggested that some changes could hurt the business in the short term. The goal is to “get back to how Facebook was used back in the day.” So, more of stalking your classmates and less AI Shrimp Jesus?
Law professor Kate Klonick explains what Big Tech’s Trump appeasement is really about.
Mark Zuckerberg “blamed his former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook” when pledging support to Trump advisors late last year, according to the New York Times.
Here’s Verge alum Casey Newton commenting in his Platfomer newsletter:
[it] comes a few days after Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan that companies need more “masculine energy.” And for women in the workplace, few forms of masculine energy are more familiar than a top executive blaming a woman for the fallout of programs and policies that he agreed to and oversaw.
Sounds about right for someone that’s “constitutionally bitchmade,” eh Liz?
[Platformer]
404 Media reports that trans and non-binary pride chat themes were “retired” this week and announcements scrubbed from the web — just as Meta is allowing more hate speech.
“Messenger is committed to building the safest private messaging experience that gives the growing LBGTQ+ community and its allies a trusted space to open up with confidence,” one announcement read. To borrow Mark Zuckerberg’s own words: sounds like virtue signaling.
Leaked training documents obtained by The Intercept offer more details about Meta’s updated Hateful Conduct rules. Specific examples of speech Meta allows include “Immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of shit,” “Jews are flat out greedier than Christians,” and “Trans people are immoral.”
404 Media has updates from unnamed employees on how the moderation changes have been received:
“The entire thread of comments shared is dissent toward the new policy, save for one leader repeating Zuckerberg talking points. I’d call the mood shock and disbelief,” they added. “It’s embarrassment and shame that feels self-inflicted, different than mistakes the company has made in the past.”
Oh, and as for Joel Kaplan’s More Speech and Fewer Mistakes, Meta is already answering an “error” that blanked out search results for “LGBT” and “Trans.”
Poor Mark Zuckerberg. Imagine calling the 2024 election a “cultural tipping point” for “prioritizing speech” and then the guy who got elected starts bragging about how he threatened you into self-censorship. At least Trump won’t throw him in jail?
After user outrage, Meta is deleting its small army of AI bot profiles in order to fix a bug that removed the ability to block the accounts. As I reported earlier today, the bots have been around since 2023, but many users just discovered them in the last few days following news coverage and social media posts.
The Irish Data Protection Commission announced the fine following an investigation into a data breach that affected 29 million Facebook users. The incident stemmed from an exploit of Facebook’s video upload feature, allowing hackers to obtain users’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more.
Meta, which has already faced several fines from the DPC, plans to appeal the decision, according to the Associated Press.
[Data Protection Commission]
In the coming days, Instagram and Facebook users within the bloc will be given the choice to receive “less personalized ads” that are full-screen and temporarily unskippable, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The offering, which Meta says is likely to negatively impact its business, follows pressure from European Union regulators who opposed users having to pay to avoid targeted ads.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people. There’ll be no penalties for users.”
Legislation will be introduced this month and would come into force 12 months after ratification.
Forbes reports that advertisers have paid Meta more than $1 million to place hundreds of ads promoting lies about the upcoming presidential election. The ads are running despite Meta’s own rules against election misinformation, including posts that “call into question the legitimacy of an upcoming or ongoing election.”
A t-shirt company is running thousands of ads claiming to donate a portion of sales to Trump, Harris, and other political causes, 404 reports. In reality, the company appears to be based abroad — which means it’s either lying about making campaign contributions, or illegally making campaign contributions.
While campaigning for the US Senate in 2021, Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance filmed a Facebook Live using his smartphone’s selfie camera, which mirrored the image, and therefore his campaign signs.
That can be fixed, but Vance’s idea — rotating the phone — is not it. (I recommend waiting a moment to turn on the volume, unless you’re a fan of TikTok’s text-to-speech voices.)
