Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices
Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged the country’s public to remove the messaging app WhatsApp from their smart phones, alleging without offering any evidence the app gathered user information to send to Israel. WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, which means a service provider in the middle can't read messages. WhatsApp says it does not track users' precise location and does not track personal messages. Iran had banned WhatsApp in 2022 following mass protests. It lifted the ban late last year.
Meta eliminates fact-checking in latest bow to Trump
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta says it’s scrapping its third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with “community notes” written by users similar to the model used by Elon Musk’s social platform X. The company said Tuesday it is ending the program because expert fact checkers have their own biases and too much content gets fact checked. Incoming President Donald Trump said the changes at Meta “probably” came because of his threats against chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg. The Meta announcement comes on the four-year anniversary of Zuckerberg banning Trump from his platforms after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Australia bans social media for children under 16
The Australian Parliament has passed a social media ban for young children in a world-first law. The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation. The Senate passed the bill with amendments on Thursday and the House endorsed those amendments on Friday The platforms have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the legislation had been “rushed.”
Australia bans social media for children under 16
The Australian Parliament has passed a social media ban for young children in a world-first law. The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation. The Senate passed the bill with amendments on Thursday and the House endorsed those amendments on Friday The platforms have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the legislation had been “rushed.”
Multibillion-dollar class action may proceed against Meta, Supreme Court says
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.The justices heard arguments in November in Meta’s bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place. The high court dismissed the company’s appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward. Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users’ personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Brazil data regulator bans Meta from mining data to train AI models
Brazil’s national data protection authority determined on Tuesday that Meta cannot use data originating in the country to train its artificial intelligence. Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms recently updated its privacy policy to enable the company to start feeding people’s public posts into training AI systems. The agency’s decision stems from “the imminent risk of serious and irreparable or difficult-to-repair damage to the fundamental rights of the affected data subjects,” it said in the nation’s official gazette. It established a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,820) for non-compliance.
Project Ghostbusters: Facebook Accused of Using Your Phone to Wiretap Snapchat
Unsealed court filings reveal Meta's secret plan, "Project Ghostbusters," to acquire valuable intel about Snapchat through its users' devices.
Meta Plans to Grow Threads By Ramming Its Posts to Facebook
Meta introduced a similar carousel into Instagram feeds this past August, and its been an insufferable experience using the platform ever since.
All the red flags in the Threads privacy policy
Meta's Twitter rival launched in over 100 countries today—but not in the EU
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