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Tag: Meta

  • US Agencies Request the Most User Data From Big Tech, Apple Complies the Most

    US Agencies Request the Most User Data From Big Tech, Apple Complies the Most

    Americans concerned about their user data falling into the hands of foreign governments may want to look closer to home.

    According to new research by VPN provider SurfShark, the US government makes the most requests for user data from Big Tech companies than any other jurisdiction in the world. The company analyzed data requests to Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft by “government agencies of 177 countries between 2013 and 2021.”

    The US came in first with 2,451,077 account requests, more than four times the number of Germany, the number two country on the list. In fact, the US made more requests than all of Europe, including the UK, which collectively came in under 2 million.

    While the US and EU were responsible for a combined total of 60% of all data requests, the US “made 8 times more requests than the global average (87.9/100k).”

    The number of accounts being accessed is also growing, with a five-times increase in requests from 2013 to 2021. The US alone saw a 348% increase during the time frame, and the scope and purpose of the requests are expanding.

    “Besides requesting data from technology companies, authorities are now exploring more ways to monitor and tackle crime through online services. For instance, the EU is considering a regulation that would require internet service providers to detect, report, and remove abuse-related content,” says Gabriele Kaveckyte, Privacy Counsel at Surfshark. “On one hand, introducing such new measures could help solve serious criminal cases, but civil society organizations expressed their concerns of encouraging surveillance techniques which may later be used, for example, to track down political rivals.”

    The report also sheds light on which companies comply the most versus which ones push back against requests. For all of its privacy-oriented marketing — “what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone” — Apple complies with data requests more than any other company, handing it over 82% of the time.

    In contrast, Meta complies 72% of the time, and Google does 71% of the time. Microsoft, on the other hand, pushes back the most among Big Tech companies, only handing data over 68% of the time.

    The findings may also put a dent in US efforts to ban TikTok and other foreign apps under the guise of protecting user privacy and data.

  • Meta’s Blue Checkmark Verified Program Is Now Available…Sort Of

    Meta’s Blue Checkmark Verified Program Is Now Available…Sort Of

    Meta is launching its Verified program, adopting a feature that Twitter has long been known for.

    Verified badges, seen as little blue checkmarks, give users a measure of confidence that a person is who they say they are. Twitter has had the feature for years, although it has undergone some changes under Elon Musk’s leadership.

    Meta is now rolling out its own verification system, giving users the option to sign up on a waitlist to receive their Verified badge.

    Get started with the verification process. Activate your Meta Verified subscription for $14.99 USD/month (iOS/Android) or $11.99 USD/month on the web (Facebook only). It is currently available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand for people 18 years or older and is not yet available in all places or for businesses.

  • Meta Is Laying Off Another 10,000, Touts ‘Year of Efficiency’

    Meta Is Laying Off Another 10,000, Touts ‘Year of Efficiency’

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the company is laying off an additional 10,000 employees and closing additional open roles.

    Meta laid off 11,000 in November, the biggest layoff of 2022. Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Meta planned another round of layoffs, which Zuckerberg has just announced:

    With less hiring, I’ve made the difficult decision to further reduce the size of our recruiting team. We will let recruiting team members know tomorrow whether they’re impacted. We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May. In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes. Our timelines for international teams will also look different, and local leaders will follow up with more details. Overall, we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired.

    Zuckerberg says the hiring freezes will be lifted once the company’s reorganization is complete:

    After restructuring, we plan to lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group. Other relevant efficiency timelines include targeting this summer to complete our analysis from our hybrid work year of learning so we can further refine our distributed work model. We also aim to have a steady stream of developer productivity enhancements and process improvements throughout the year.

    A major focus of the company’s efforts is reducing the various layers of management, streamlining and flattening the company’s communication:

    In our Year of Efficiency, we will make our organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management. As part of this, we will ask many managers to become individual contributors. We’ll also have individual contributors report into almost every level — not just the bottom — so information flow between people doing the work and management will be faster.

    Meta’s image has already been tarnished, in the eyes of its employees, after its first round of layoffs. Many blame Zuckerberg and his obsession with the metaverse. Laying off another 10,000 employees is not likely to improve that perception.

  • Meta May Build a Twitter Alternative

    Meta May Build a Twitter Alternative

    Meta may be looking to build a Twitter alternative, taking advantage of the turmoil surrounding the company since Elon Musk’s takeover.

    Meta and Twitter are two of the biggest and oldest social media platforms. Twitter was recently purchased by Musk and has been in a near-constant state of turmoil since. Meta evidently sees an opportunity to capitalize on Twitter’s troubles and offer an alternative.

    “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates,” the company told BBC News.

    “We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”

    Only time will tell if Meta launches a Twitter rival. If it does, however, it would be well-poised to significant traction.

  • VC Keith Rabois: Tech Layoffs Result of ‘Vanity Hiring’

    VC Keith Rabois: Tech Layoffs Result of ‘Vanity Hiring’

    Venture capitalist Keith Rabois has harsh words for Silicon Valley, saying the recent layoffs resulted from a “vanity metric” of hiring.

    Rabois is one of the “PayPal Mafia,” the group of tech execs that spent their early years at PayPal before going on to found successful companies of their own. Rabois was at the payment company at the same time as Elon Musk, another member of the group.

    Rabois told Business Insider that many of Silicon Valley’s top companies, such as Google and Meta, were hiring for looks rather than out of a true need.

    “All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,” he said.

    “There’s nothing for these people to do — they’re really — it’s all fake work,” he added. “Now that’s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.”

    While it doesn’t seem like a good idea to hire unneeded personnel, Rabois said at least part of the motivation was to prevent talent from being picked up by other companies. This was especially true of Google, which led to a slew of engineers that were happy to “be entitled, sit at their desks, and do nothing.”

    In contrast, Rabois had high praise for Elon Musk and how he has run Twitter since buying it.

    “People are watching Elon and Twitter and he’s clearly setting an example — maybe it’s an extreme example,” Rabois told Insider.

    Rabois is one of the few with praise for Musk. Since taking over Twitter, Musk has laid off thousands and stoked one controversy after another. The company has also experienced a major uptick in outages, likely the result of its reduced technical staff.

    Despite the controversy Musk is generating, Rabois isn’t the only one who thinks his methods may catch on. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently said in an interview with Insider that “every CEO in Silicon Valley has looked at what Elon Musk has done and has asked themselves, ‘Do they need to unleash their own Elon within them?’”

  • Meta Plans a Second Round of Layoffs This Week

    Meta Plans a Second Round of Layoffs This Week

    Meta is preparing for another round of layoffs, with the company reportedly dropping the bad news this week.

    Meta engaged in a massive round of layoffs in late 2022, letting some 11,000 employees go. Rumors have been building for weeks that the company planned another round of layoffs, even going so far as to give thousands poor performance reviews, in what many believed was a precursor.

    According to Bloomberg, the next round of layoffs could hit as soon as this week and will likely impact thousands of additional employees.

    Meta’s image and reputation have already been tarnished by its layoffs. Employees have become increasingly disillusioned with the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership in particular. Zuckerberg is seen, both in and outside the company, as being obsessed with the metaverse.

    This obsession has led some employees to believe Zuckerberg will ultimately cause the death of the company.

    “The Metaverse will be our slow death,” one user, identifying as a senior software developer, posted on the anonymous forum Blind late last year. “Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the meta-verse.”

    When the company announced its first round of 11,000 layoffs, Zuckerberg took responsibility for the action.

    “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” he said at the time. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”

    With another round of layoffs looming, it’s a safe bet the angst at Meta is about to get a lot worse, and the company’s image will continue to suffer.

  • Meta Plans to Lay Off More Personnel

    Meta Plans to Lay Off More Personnel

    Meta appears to be moving forward with plans to lay off additional personnel despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicating the contrary.

    Meta laid off 11,000 employees in late 2022, marking the biggest layoffs of the year among tech firms. According to The Washington Post, Zuckerberg framed the layoffs as a necessary step to “minimize the chance of having to do broad layoffs like this for the foreseeable future.”

    “I obviously can’t sit here and promise you that nothing will happen in the future because it’s a very volatile environment,” he added. “But what I can say is that for where we are right now, that’s what I foresee.”

    Unfortunately, according to the Post, Meta appears to be preparing for another major round of layoffs, despite Zuckerberg’s assurances. The company is having its lawyers, financial experts, executives, and human resources personnel devise a plan that would reorganize the company and possibly lead to thousands of jobs being cut.

    Part of leadership’s goal is to flatten the corporate hierarchy, reducing the path between Zuckerberg and the company’s interns. The move will see some team leaders taking on lower-level roles. The Post’s sources said the company expects some of the individuals whose roles have changed to eventually resign, naturally reducing the company’s headcount through attrition.

    The Post’s report confirms other rumors regarding the company’s plans. Meta recently gave thousands of its employees the second-lowest review possible, raising concerns it was laying the groundwork for another round of layoffs.

    Meta’s actions also appear to be a concerted effort to streamline its operations and return to the startup-style way of operating it enjoyed before becoming a multi-billion dollar corporation. The company has recently taken fire for its ‘self-sabotaging’ behavior by none other than legendary developer John Carmack.

    “We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort,” Carmack wrote when he departed the company in December. “There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy.”

    “I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it,” he added.

  • Meta Is Testing ‘Meta Verified’ Service

    Meta Is Testing ‘Meta Verified’ Service

    Meta is taking on Twitter Blue, testing a “Meta Verified” service that would allow content creators to distinguish themselves.

    The company, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, made the announcement Sunday:

    To help up-and-coming creators grow their presence and build community faster, today Mark Zuckerberg announced that we’ll begin testing a new offering called Meta Verified, a subscription bundle on Instagram and Facebook that includes a verified badge that authenticates your account with government ID, proactive account protection, access to account support, and increased visibility and reach. We’re starting with a gradual test in Australia and New Zealand later this week to learn what’s most valuable, and we hope to bring Meta Verified to the rest of the world soon.

    The new service will give creators a verified badge; better protection against impersonation; better reach and visibility; live support; and exclusive features to help verified creators reach their audience.

    The price starts at $11.99, with a $3 extra charge to subscribe on iOS or Android:

    Meta Verified is available for direct purchase on Instagram or Facebook in Australia and New Zealand starting later this week. People can purchase a monthly subscription for (USD) 11.99 on the web and (USD) 14.99 on iOS and Android.

  • Meta May Be Prepping for More Layoffs, Giving Thousands Poor Reviews

    Meta May Be Prepping for More Layoffs, Giving Thousands Poor Reviews

    Meta may be prepping to lay off thousands more employees after giving them poor performance reviews.

    Meta has already laid off 11,000 employees, the largest number for a single company in 2022. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the company may be preparing to add to that number, giving some 10% of its employees a “meets most” rating. Of the company’s five performance ratings, “meets most” is the second-lowest, with “meets some” being the lowest. Very few of the lowest ratings are ever given, however.

    Meta has repeatedly signaled its intention to drastically cut costs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that goal once again in a recent discussion with investors.

    “We’re working on flattening our org structure and removing some layers of middle management to make decisions faster as well as deploying AI tools to help our engineers be more productive,” Zuckerberg said.

    Employees have already expressed their frustration with Zuckerberg over his management of the company, especially his near-obsessive focus on the metaverse. The frustration is driven in no small part by the fact that Meta is continuing to pour billions into metaverse development, despite its mass layoffs.

    If the company does engage in another major round, it’s a sure bet confidence in Zuckerberg’s leadership will hit an all-time low.

  • Instagram’s Live Shopping Is Shutting Down March 16

    Instagram’s Live Shopping Is Shutting Down March 16

    Instagram has notified users that its Live Shopping feature is shutting down, effective March 16, 2023.

    Meta has been cutting costs and streamlining its focus amid an economic downturn that has impacted the tech industry harder than most. Shopping is one area the company is cutting back, and Instagram’s Live Shopping is no exception.

    The company outlined the changes in a help page:

    Beginning on March 16, 2023, you will no longer be able to tag products in live broadcasts on Instagram. This change will help us focus on products and features that provide the most value to our users.

    You will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences for people and businesses across feed, stories, Reels, ads and more.

    Other live broadcasting features will be unaffected, including the ability to schedule a live broadcast, to invite guests to join your live broadcast, and to hold a live Q&A.

  • Meta’s Dual-Camera Smartwatch May Not Be Dead After All

    Meta’s Dual-Camera Smartwatch May Not Be Dead After All

    Rumors of the demise of Meta’s dual-camera smartwatch may be greatly exaggerated, with a new leak suggesting the project is very much alive.

    Reports surfaced that Meta (then Facebook) had been working on their own version of a smartwatch for roughly two years. The watch had two cameras, with one of them being pressed against the wrist, which could be used once the watch was taken off. In mid-2022, however, new reports indicated that Meta had abandoned the project.

    Leaker Kuba Wojciechowski says the project is very much alive, and has been contacted by an anonymous source that provided details and pictures.

    While many will no doubt love the idea of a smartwatch and camera that’s tightly integrated with their Facebook and Instagram accounts, many others will see this as a nightmare scenario. Given Meta’s long history of privacy abuses, it’s hard to image the potential for even more abuses with a device like this.

  • Home Depot Canada Caught Giving Customer Data to Meta

    Home Depot Canada Caught Giving Customer Data to Meta

    Home Depot is in hot water, with its Canadian division sharing customer data with Meta without the proper consent.

    The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) found that Home Depot of Canada had been sharing customers’ e-receipt information with Meta. The information included email and in-store purchases.

    “As businesses increasingly look to deliver services electronically, they must carefully consider any consequential uses of personal information, which may require additional consent,” Commissioner Philippe Dufresne said.

    “In this case, it is unlikely that Home Depot customers would have expected that their personal information would be shared with a third party social media platform simply because they opted for an electronic receipt. As Canada marks Data Privacy Week, it is the perfect time to remind companies that they must obtain valid consent at the point of sale to engage in this type of business activity.”

    The OPC’s investigation showed the behavior had been going on since at least 2018. Meta evidently used the info to compare users’ purchases with the Home Depot ads showing in their Facebook feeds, providing information regarding the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

    Home Depot defended its action by saying it relied on “implied consent” and that its privacy policy was available for all to read. That policy says the company may use “de-identified information for internal business purposes, such as marketing, customer service, and business analytics” and that it “may share information for business purposes,” such as “with third parties.”

    Thankfully, the OPC didn’t buy the Home Depot’s defense.

    “The explanations provided in its policies were ultimately insufficient to support meaningful consent,” Commissioner Dufresne said.

    “When customers were prompted to provide their email address, they were never informed that their information would be shared with Meta by Home Depot, or how it could be used by either company. This information would have been material to a customer’s decision about whether or not to obtain an e-receipt.”

    The OPC also did not buy Home Depot’s explanation that it didn’t expressly ask for consent in an effort to avoid causing “consent fatigue” among consumers.

    “Consumers need clear information at key transaction points, empowering them to make decisions about how their personal information should be used,” Commissioner Dufresne said. “Consent fatigue is not a valid reason for failing to obtain meaningful consent. Many customers would be surprised, as the complainant was in this case, to learn that their personal information had been shared with a third party like Facebook without their knowledge and consent.”

    As we have stated at WPN many times before, it’s completely understandable when free services use consumer information as a way to offset the cost of offering those free services. When consumers are paying for a product or service, however, there is absolutely no excuse for then collecting and monetizing the consumer’s information.

    In this case, the only thing more insulting than Home Depot’s actions was its lame justification of those actions. Thankfully, the OPC saw right through Home Depot’s arguments.

  • Working in the Metaverse Is a Miserable Experience

    Working in the Metaverse Is a Miserable Experience

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg may be enamored with the metaverse, but people who have to work in it have a decidedly different view.

    Meta has been heavily investing in the metaverse, the next generation of immersive virtual and augmented reality. Zuckerberg has a vision of what he wants the metaverse to be, one that’s reminiscent of something straight out of Ready Player One.

    Individuals actually trying to work in the metaverse are not so thrilled, citing issues and irritations that constantly get in the way.

    “I am totally immersed in the metaverse, have a big headset on, and then I need to take off the Oculus, look on my phone for the two-factor authentication code that’s been sent to my phone, then memorize the number, put my headset back on, and try to key it in,” a junior manager at Accenture told Slate.

    “But when you take off the Oculus it automatically goes to sleep mode, and I was trying to navigate the back-and-forth.”

    Similarly, an Accenture manager told Slate that “over the past year, when our company rolled out a bunch of Oculus headsets to a large population to see how we might self-adopt the technology. I feel like we were guinea pigs in how the metaverse might be applied to more of a workplace social setting.”

    Read more: Oculus Founder Says Meta’s Metaverse Is Like ‘Project Car’ That’s ‘Not Good’

    In addition to the logistic issues involved in integrating the metaverse into a corporate workflow, there are also the physical limitations of the tech, with some users struggling to deal with debilitating side effects.

    For example, Congress recently refused additional funds to secure more Microsoft HoloLens combat goggles for the US Army. Despite the Army’s desire to integrate the AR goggles, tests showed 80% of soldiers experienced “mission-affecting physical impairments” after less than three hours of use.

    Accenture evidently experienced similar issues, with some individuals struggling with motion sickness. Still others struggled with learning new VR social customs, such as how close to stand to other individuals. There were also issues with the VR models not offering enough options to properly represent users.

    “The body shapes that were available in the [AltspaceVR app] didn’t have characters that had breasts,” the Accenture manager told Slate.

    Only time will tell if Meta’s vision ultimately achieves success, although many are unconvinced. One major meta investor has already urged the company to scale back the $10 to $15 billion a year it is investing in the metaverse.

    “The company has announced investments of $10–15B per year into a metaverse project that largely includes AR / VR / immersive 3D / Horizon World and that it may take 10 years to yield results,” the investor wrote. “An estimated $100B+ investment in an unknown future is super-sized and terrifying, even by Silicon Valley standards.”

  • US Supreme Court Allows WhatsApp Case Against Pegasus’ NSO Group

    US Supreme Court Allows WhatsApp Case Against Pegasus’ NSO Group

    The US Supreme Court has shot down the NSO Group’s attempt to gain immunity from lawsuits over its Pegasus spyware.

    NSO Group maintained that it only sold the Pegasus software to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, but was revealed to have sold it to authoritarian regimes as well. As a result, Pegasus spyware was used to hack phones and spy on journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats.

    NSO Group has since faced a plethora of lawsuits and has tried to avoid them by arguing it should receive immunity since it was working on behalf of foreign governments.

    According to Reuters, the Supreme Court has shot down that argument, upholding a decision of a lower court that NSO Group does not qualify for immunity. The Biden administration had urged the court to arrive at this decision, pointing out that the State Department had never given a private company sovereign immunity.

    As a result of the decision, WhatsApp’s case against NSO Group is free to proceed. WIth the precedent established, other cases will likely be free to proceed as well.

    WhatsApp parent Meta welcomed the decision.

    “NSO’s spyware has enabled cyberattacks targeting human rights activists, journalists and government officials,” Meta said. “We firmly believe that their operations violate U.S. law and they must be held to account for their unlawful operations.”

  • Meta Fined Another $414 Million Over Online Ads

    Meta Fined Another $414 Million Over Online Ads

    The European Union has once again fined Meta, this time to the tune of $414 million, over forcing ads on individuals.

    Meta uses its user agreement contracts to force individuals to accept ads based on their activity. According The Wall Street Journal, EU regulators have determined that Meta cannot force users to accept the ads, and that users should have the ability to opt out of them.

    As part of the decision, the EU is fining Meta $414 million and giving the company three months to make the necessary adjustments and stop forcing behavioral ads on its users.

    Meta has already said it disagrees with the decision and will appeal the decision and fine.

    “We strongly believe our approach respects GDPR, and we’re therefore disappointed by these decisions,” a spokesman said.

    Should the decision and fine be upheld, it will be a major shift in online advertising for companies within the EU bloc.

  • John Carmack Pens Damning Memo Announcing His Departure From Meta

    John Carmack Pens Damning Memo Announcing His Departure From Meta

    Game developer legend John Carmack is leaving Meta, slamming the company in a damning memo that is sure to make waves.

    John Carmack joined Oculus in 2013 and served as CTO until 2019 when he stepped down to focus on research and development. He joined Meta when it purchased Oculus but is now departing that company with harsh words regarding its management.

    According to Business Insider, Carmack posted a memo to the company’s internal Workplace forum, castigating Meta for its mismanagement.

    “We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort,” Carmack wrote. “There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy.”

    “I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it,” he added.

    Meta, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has already been facing growing criticism over its heavy focus on the metaverse. One major Meta investor has publicly called on the company to scale back its metaverse investment, saying it has lost its focus and “has drifted into the land of excess.”

    Similarly, the Oculus founder likened Zuckerberg’s metaverse obsession to a “project car,” one’s that’s “not good” at this stage.

    Even Meta’s own employees are saying that “the Metaverse will be our slow death,” and that “Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the meta-verse.”

    Carmack’s departure and scathing condemnation of the company could well serve as a rallying cry for more critics and put increased pressure on Zuckerberg and company to deliver the goods or move on.

    Here’s Carmack’s memo in its entirety, courtesy of Insider:

    This is the end of my decade in VR. I have mixed feelings.

    Quest 2 is almost exactly what I wanted to see from the beginning – mobile hardware, inside out tracking, optional PC streaming, 4k (ish) screen, cost effective. Despite all the complaints I have about our software, millions of people are still getting value out of it. We have a good product. It is successful, and successful products make the world a better place. It all could have happened a bit faster and been going better if different decisions had been made, but we built something pretty close to The Right Thing.

    The issue is our efficiency.

    Some will ask why I care how the progress is happening, as long as it is happening?

    If I am trying to sway others, I would say that an org that has only known inefficiency is ill prepared for the inevitable competition and/or belt tightening, but really, it is the more personal pain of seeing a 5% GPU utilization number in production. I am offended by it.

    [edit: I was being overly poetic here, as several people have missed the intention. As a systems optimization person, I care deeply about efficiency. When you work hard at optimization for most of your life, seeing something that is grossly inefficient hurts your soul. I was likening observing our organization’s performance to seeing a tragically low number on a profiling tool.]

    We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort. There is no way to sugar coat this; I think out organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy. Some may scoff and contend we are doing just fine, but others will laugh and say “Half? Ha! I’m at quarter efficiency!”

    It has been a struggle for me. I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently ot persuasive enough. A good Fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover.

    This was admittedly self-inflicted – I could have moved to Menlo Park after the Oculus acquisition and tried to wage battles with generations of leadership, but I was busy programming, and I assumed I would hate it, be bad at it, and probably lose anyway.

    Enough complaining. I wearied of the fight and have my own startup to run, but the fight is still winnable! VR can bring value to most of the people in the world, and no company is better positioned to do it than Meta. Maybe it is actually possible to get there by just plowing ahead with current practices, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

    Make better decisions and fill your products with “Give a Damn!”

  • Meta Sued for Fanning Ethiopian Civil War and Inciting Violence

    Meta Sued for Fanning Ethiopian Civil War and Inciting Violence

    Meta is facing an all-new $2 billion lawsuit, one for allegedly fanning the flames of the Ethiopian civil war and inciting violence in the country.

    Meta, formerly Facebook, has long been criticized for the algorithms it uses to push and promote content, claiming it harms users by promoting harmful content that feeds misinformation and fans violence. At least one group is going all-out to hold the company responsible, filing a $2 billion lawsuit, according to Forbes.

    One of the major factors was the death of Professor Meareg Amare Abrha, who was shot and killed after he was named in Facebook posts and accused of stealing equipment from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar University. Some of the posts called for the professor’s death and disclosed the location of his neighborhood. To make matters worse, the professor’s son says some of the hateful posts were still visible on Facebook as recently as a week ago.

    As a result of the situation, human rights group Foxglove has joined the fight and is launching a lawsuit in an effort to force Facebook to change its algorithm.

    “The Professor’s tragedy, sadly, is one of thousands. Across the world, we’ve seen how Facebook’s design has fanned the flames of hatred and violence. We’ve seen it in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India and even in the US, where viral incitement helped spur the January 6 Capitol riots,” says Foxglove in a statement.

    “Today we are proud to be supporting the launch of a major new case demanding fundamental change to Facebook’s algorithm, prioritising the safety of the 500 million people who live in Eastern and Southern Africa over Mark Zuckerberg’s profits.”

    The case could have profound implications for Meta’s business and could force the company to make changes it has so far resisted making.

  • Facebook Threatens to Remove US News Over Journalism Bill

    Facebook Threatens to Remove US News Over Journalism Bill

    Facebook is once again threatening to remove news from its platform, this time in the US in response to a journalism bill before Congress.

    Congress proposed the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) with bipartisan support. The bill would provide a way for news publishers to negotiate with Facebook, Google, and other online platforms for access to and distribution of their content, according to The Verge.

    As it has done with Australia and Canada, Facebook is threatening to pull US news from its platform if the bill goes through.

    Andy Stone, Meta’s head of policy communications, tweeted about the company’s response to the bill.

    “If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscription. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act fails to recognize the key fact: publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line — not the other way around. No company should be forced to pay for content users don’t want to see and that’s not a meaningful source of revenue. Put simply: the government creating a cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidize other private entities is a terrible precedent for all American businesses.”

    Ultimately, despite its bluster, Facebook ultimately backed down in the face of Australia’s similar bill, making it unlikely Facebook will follow through on its threats in the US.

  • Meta Fined $277 Million for Failing to Prevent Data Scraping

    Meta Fined $277 Million for Failing to Prevent Data Scraping

    Ireland is once again slapping Meta with a hefty fine, this time to the tune of $277 million for failing to protect user data from scraping.

    Data scraping is the process of using automated methods and scripts to collect data from a website. The data may be publicly available or require access. News of the scraping breach first broke in early 2021, although the actual incident occurred prior to 2020. In all, some 533,000,000 Facebook accounts were impacted.

    Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has now levied the third-largest fine against Meta, saying the company did not do enough to protect its users’ data and prevent personal information, phone numbers, email addresses, and more from being scraped.

    According to Independent.ie, some 1.3 million Irish Facebook accounts were impacted. Some of the impacted accounts included “gardai, sitting judges, prison officers, social workers, journalists and others.” The breach also coincides with a spike in scam attempts across the EU and Ireland.

    “The material issues in this inquiry concerned questions of compliance with the GDPR obligation for data protection by design and default,” the DPC said in a statement. “The DPC examined the implementation of technical and organisational measures pursuant to Article 25 [of] GDPR.”

    The investigation was evidently started last year, after news of the breach.

    “The DPC commenced this inquiry on 14 April 2021, on foot of media reports into the discovery of a collated dataset of Facebook personal data that had been made available on the internet,” the DPC statement said.

    “The scope of the inquiry concerned an examination and assessment of Facebook Search, Facebook Messenger Contact Importer and Instagram Contact Importer tools in relation to processing carried out by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited during the period between 25 May 2018 and September 2019.”

    To make matters worse, Facebook apparently is not interested in accepting full responsibility for the incident or fully committing to preventing such incidents in the future. In fact, as we previously covered at WPN, Facebook accidentally sent a memo to a journalist in which the company complained about the negative coverage it was receiving over the breach.

    In the memo, the company also outlined its goals moving forward, including efforts to “normalize the fact that this activity happens regularly.”

    Thankfully, Ireland’s DPC doesn’t believe data scrapping should be accepted as ‘normal’ and is holding Meta’s feet to the fire.

  • Meta Employees: ‘Zuckerberg Will Single-Handedly Kill’ the Company

    Meta Employees: ‘Zuckerberg Will Single-Handedly Kill’ the Company

    Meta employees are speaking up about CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse obsession, saying he will kill the company.

    It’s no secret that Zuckerberg is obsessed with the metaverse. According to a new report by Business Insider, Meta employees are pushing back against Zuckerberg’s obsession, saying the CEO will lead the company into irrelevance and ultimately kill it.

    “The Metaverse will be our slow death,” one user, identifying as a senior software developer, posted on the anonymous forum Blind. “Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the meta-verse.” 

    Another poster took issue with Zuckerberg’s control, saying his “gut feeling” overrides everything else.

    Read more: Major Meta Investor Urges Company to Scale Back Metaverse Investments

    “Poor leadership is on track to sink this ship,” wrote the individual, who identified as a senior technical program manager. Their listed “cons” included: “No accountability at and above Director level. VPs and Directors are here to just milk the company without adding any value.”

    “I thought it was a data-driven company but actually it is one man’s gut feeling and emotions-driven,” they added. “Nobody can overwrite his decision.”

    Another employee, who identified as an engineer, was overall complimentary of the company but still said, “Zuck is leading this company in the wrong direction.”

    The internal angst is understandable, given Meta’s current situation. The company recently laid off 11,000 employees, the biggest lay-off in its history and the biggest in 2022. Some employees blamed the lay-offs on the company’s investment in the metaverse at a time when its core business is taking a major hit.

    Zuckerberg has committed to investing a whopping $10 to $15 billion per year for ten years in an effort to make the metaverse a reality. So far, the results have been less than impressive, with a major investor calling for the company to scale back and Meta even looking to Microsoft to help it make the metaverse more interesting and useful.

  • Meta’s Image Tarnished With Employees Angry Over Layoffs

    Meta’s Image Tarnished With Employees Angry Over Layoffs

    Meta’s image as a coveted place to work has taken a major hit, with employees disillusioned and angry over this week’s layoffs.

    Meta has always been a top spot to work in Silicon Valley, but the company announced it would lay off some 11,000 employees this week. The layoffs impacted virtually every department, but the one thing it didn’t impact is Meta’s investment in Zuckerberg’s pet project: the metaverse.

    According to Business Insider, employees are disillusioned, confused, and angry with the layoffs.

    “People really didn’t expect layoffs at that scale, even after the news,” said one employee who was not laid off. “Going above 10,000 was definitely more than I had in mind, and more than people had in mind.”

    “Class act as always,” one laid-off employee said sarcastically of Zuckerberg’s announcement. “Least it was on brand.”

    Read more: Major Meta Investor Urges Company to Scale Back Metaverse Investments

    Some employees wasted no time blaming Zuckerberg’s obsession with the metaverse for creating the circumstances that led to so many being laid off.

    “I certainly feel negatively towards him, and I’m sure many more people feel the same,” one impacted worker said. “There’s too much focus on metaverse and Reality Labs.”

    What’s more, the company’s focus on the metaverse seems to be at the exclusion of other company divisions, including ones that are currently growth drivers. For example, despite Zuckerberg repeatedly touting the importance of Facebook’s TikTok-like Reels and calling it a growth driver, one employee estimates as much as 70% of product marketing managers were laid off.

    “Honestly I’m more shocked than anything,” the person added. “It was pretty much a PMM and ‘Business Team’ bloodbath.”

    In a competitive tech scene, the ability to attract top talent is often the major differentiating factor between successful ventures and failures. Meta may have just shot itself in the foot and crippled its ability to attract that top talent in the future.