Facebook plans to change its name - The Verge

Social media giant Facebook Inc is planning to rebrand itself with a new name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, the Verge reported on Tuesday, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about the name change at the company's annual Connect conference on Oct. 28, but it could be unveiled sooner, the Verge reported.

A metaverse refers to shared virtual world environments, which people can access via the internet. The term can refer to digital spaces, which are made more lifelike by the use of virtual reality or augmented reality.

The rebranding would likely position Facebook's social media app as one of many products under a parent company, which will oversee groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and more, the report added.

Facebook said it does not comment on rumor or speculation. (Reporting by Shivam Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Anil D'Silva)

-reuters-

Facebook offers $100-M to help virus-hit news media

Facebook said Monday it was donating $100 million to support news organizations globally hurting from the coronavirus pandemic, citing the need for reliable information about the crisis.

"The news industry is working under extraordinary conditions to keep people informed during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Facebook's news partnerships director, Campbell Brown.

"At a time when journalism is needed more than ever, ad revenues are declining due to the economic impact of the virus. Local journalists are being hit especially hard, even as people turn to them for critical information to keep their friends, families and communities safe."

The new funding includes $25 million in emergency grants for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million for additional marketing efforts "to move money over to news organizations around the world," according to a statement.

Facebook said it will offer grants "to publishers most in need in the hardest hit countries."

The move comes amid growing concerns of cutbacks and closures of news organizations hit by lockdowns and a massive slump in advertising resulting from the health crisis.

In recent months Facebook and Google have stepped up efforts to help news organizations, following criticism that their dominance of online advertising has made it difficult for media to profit from digital operations.

Facebook has also supported fact-checking operations with AFP and other media companies, including Reuters and the Associated Press, under which content rated false is downgraded in news feeds so that fewer people see it.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook ‘big’ project on journalism set for this week

Facebook is set to make a "big announcement" this week aimed at supporting news and journalism, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday.

Zuckerberg, appearing at a congressional hearing on its digital coin Libra, said during questioning that the leading social network is moving forward on a project "supporting high-quality journalism."

The comments appeared to refer to Facebook's planned "News Tab" which will be a separate section that includes articles from professional news organizations.

"Later in this week we have a big announcement coming up on news and journalism," he told lawmakers, describing this as "a new product that is supporting high quality journalism."

This will feature "high quality news, not just social content," according to Zuckerberg.

Facebook last week confirmed that it would include content from News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

While the hearing was focusing on the digital currency plan, Zuckerberg faced an array of questions on other topics including data protection, deepfake videos and the spread of child pornography.

Facebook is expected to pay some of the news organizations that will contribute to the News Tab but has yet to disclose full details.

The company has said a human team will select relevant, reliable breaking and top news stories for the tab and the number of publishers involved will grow over time.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook beats Wall Street's revenue estimates, shares rise

Facebook Inc shares rose after the bell on Wednesday after the social network reported revenue that beat Wall Street estimates, showing no initial impact on its lucrative ad business from a scandal over the handling of personal data.

Shares traded up 4.6 percent at $167, paring a month-long decline that began with Facebook's disclosure in March that consultancy Cambridge Analytica had harvested data belonging to millions of users.

Facebook's quarterly profit also beat analysts' estimates, as a 49 percent jump in quarterly revenue slightly outpaced a 39 percent rise in expenses from a year earlier. The mobile ad business grew on a major push to add more video content.

Facebook said monthly active users in the first quarter rose to 2.2 billion, up 13 percent from a year earlier and matching expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The results are a bright spot for the world's largest social network amid months of negative headlines about the company's handling of personal information, its role in elections and its fueling of violence in developing countries.

Facebook, which generates revenue primarily by selling advertising personalized to its users, has demonstrated for several quarters how resilient its business model can be as long as users keep coming back to scroll through its News Feed and watch its videos.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement that Facebook was "investing to make sure our services are used for good."

Net income attributable to Facebook shareholders rose in the first quarter to $4.99 billion, or $1.69 per share, from $3.06 billion, or $1.04 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $1.35 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total revenue was $11.97 billion, above the analyst estimate of $11.41 billion.

Tighter regulation could make Facebook's ads less lucrative by reducing the kinds of data it can use to personalize and target ads to users, although Facebook's size means it could also be well positioned to cope with regulations.

Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google together dominate the internet ad business worldwide. Facebook is expected to take 18 percent of global digital ad revenue this year, compared with Google's 31 percent, according to research firm eMarketer.

Facebook said it ended the first quarter with 27,742 employees, an increase of 48 percent from a year earlier.

The company said it was increasing the amount of money authorized to repurchase shares by an additional $9 billion. It had initially authorized repurchases up to $6 billion.

Facebook shares closed at $185.09 on March 16, the day that the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke after the bell on a Friday. In the days immediately afterward, the company lost more than $50 billion in market value.

Even if the company's flagship social network, Facebook, suffers large reputational damage among users or advertisers, it still owns three more of the most popular smartphone apps in the world: Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook removes accounts advertising stolen identities

Facebook Inc. has removed a number of accounts and pages that advertised and sold social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and alleged credit card numbers of dozens of people, following a report by news website Motherboard.

"Posts containing information like social security numbers or credit card information are not allowed on Facebook, and we remove this material when we become aware of it," a Facebook spokesman said on Tuesday.

A Google search still pulls up a few public Facebook posts that offer to sell personal details including credit card numbers.

Hackers have advertised databases of private information on the social platform and Motherboard reported on Tuesday that Facebook has held stolen identities and social security numbers for years.

The report said at least some of the data in these posts appeared real. The news website said it was able to confirm the first four digits of the social security numbers, names, addresses, and dates of birth for four people whose data appears in a post from July 2014.

Shares of Facebook were down 3.9 percent at $159.32.

Last week, Facebook deleted almost 120 private discussion groups of more than 300,000 members, after being alerted by a report from journalist Brian Krebs that the groups flagrantly promoted a host of illicit activities, including spamming, wire fraud, account takeovers, and phony tax refunds.

The biggest collection of groups banned were those promoting the sale and use of stolen credit and debit card accounts, and the next largest collection of groups included those facilitating takeovers for online accounts such Amazon, Google, Netflix, and PayPal, the report said.

Tech companies are under intense scrutiny about how they protect customer data after Facebook was embroiled in a huge scandal where millions of users' data were improperly accessed by a political consultancy.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

#ZuckerBowl without a clear winner as Facebook hearings end

WASHINGTON - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg emerged largely unscathed Wednesday from 2 days of high-stakes hearings that saw US lawmakers grill the billionaire over how the online giant feeds users' data to advertisers and chide him over privacy rights.

The marathon 10 hours of questioning was one of the biggest spectacles in Congress in recent memory, followed blow by blow on social media under the hashtags #ZuckerBowl and #ZuckUnderOath.

Channeling public anger over data privacy lapses -- including most spectacularly the leak of personal information from 87 million Facebook users to a political consultant -- lawmakers in both House and Senate raised the specter of regulations to bring online firms to heel.

The 33-year-old CEO conceded that some regulation of social media companies is "inevitable," while offering a laundry list of reform pledges at Facebook and vowing to improve privacy and security.

But he stiffly defended Facebook's business model -- specifically the way it uses data and postings from the 2.2 billion users of its free platform -- calling it necessary to attract ad revenue the $480 billion company depends on.

In the wake of the massive leak of user information to Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, Zuckerberg reiterated that the company had shut down the pipeline that allowed data -- including his own -- to slip without consent into the hands of third parties.

A day earlier Zuckerberg took personal responsibility for the data breach.

Yet in his testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he was also steadfast in arguing that Facebook's users themselves are choosing to make their data available, and that the company's "opt-in" provisions offered them sufficient control.

"Every time that a person chooses to share something on Facebook, they're proactively going to the service and choosing that they want to share a photo, write a message to someone."

"Every time there is a control right there," Zuckerberg said.

'REAL TRUST GAP' 

Zuckerberg faced tougher questions from House lawmakers over Facebook's stance than during Tuesday's 5-hour session in the Senate, where his defense of data sharing was weakly challenged.

"It strikes me that there's a real trust gap here. Why should we trust you?" asked Democratic Representative Mike Doyle.

"The only way we're going to close this trust gap is through legislation that creates and empowers a sufficiently resourced expert oversight agency, with rule-making authority to protect the digital privacy and ensure that companies protect our users' data."

A PATH FORWARD 

Some analysts said Zuckerberg's appearance suggests a new path forward for social media under closer scrutiny.

"Zuckerberg's testimony demonstrated that the company has matured over the last decade, in particular in his acknowledgement that Facebook is responsible for the content shared on its platform," said University of Delaware communications professor Dannagal Young. 

"Acknowledging responsibility for the content shared on the platform changes how Facebook ought to engage in gate-keeping and fact-checking, and how the government might go about regulating the industry."

Syracuse University professor Jennifer Grygiel called the hearings "an important milestone."

"This is a first step in the process of writing much needed regulation," she said.

"It is clear from congressional testimony that self-regulation alone is not working and that regulatory oversight is needed in the United States in order to ensure safe social media."

'GLARING GAPS' IN UNDERSTANDING 

Noting that a European data protection standard due to come into effect on May 25 was more stringent than what was currently in place at Facebook, Zuckerberg suggested it could serve as a rough model for US rules in the future.

Facebook is implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standard for European users next month, and some of its rules will be extended to US and other users later, he confirmed.

"The GDPR requires us to do a few more things and we are going to extend that to the world," he said.

By one measure, Zuckerberg succeeded in his Washington appearance. Facebook shares rose five percent on Tuesday and added another 0.78 percent Wednesday in what was seen as a sign of confidence in the company after steep losses in recent weeks.

"To me, he came across as very conciliatory, especially when he took full responsibility for the mistakes of his company," said Jessica Vitak, head of the University of Maryland's Privacy and Education Research Lab.

"This seems to be a relatively new approach for the company and I believe at least in part responding to critique of Facebook's slow and somewhat tone-deaf response to prior breaches that have led to user outrage."

Others noted however that lawmakers had demonstrated little knowledge of how Facebook works -- potentially complicating any regulatory effort.

"Perhaps the most important revelation of Zuckerberg's testimony are the glaring gaps in our lawmakers' understanding of the internal logic and business model of Facebook," Young said.

"No one is going to be able to sufficiently regulate' Facebook until lawmakers are adequately educated about how it works."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook CEO says his own data was shared with Cambridge Analytica

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday told lawmakers that his own personal data was included in that of 87 million or so Facebook users that were improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

But he pushed back on congress members' suggestions that users do not have enough control of their data on Facebook in the wake of the privacy scandal at the world's largest social media network.

"Every time that someone chooses to share something on Facebook ... there is a control. Right there. Not buried in the settings somewhere but right there," the 33-year-old internet magnate told the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.

Once again wearing a dark suit instead of his usual gray T-shirt, the hearing was Zuckerberg's second in two days. On Tuesday, he took questions for nearly five hours in a U.S. Senate hearing without making any further promises to support new legislation or change how the social network does business, foiling attempts by senators to pin him down.

Investors were impressed with his initial performance. Shares in Facebook posted their biggest daily gain in nearly two years on Tuesday, closing up 4.5 percent. They were down 0.7 percent in early trading on Wednesday.

Facebook has been consumed by turmoil for nearly a month, since it came to light that millions of users' personal information were wrongly harvested from the website by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that has counted U.S. President Donald Trump's election campaign among its clients.

Zuckerberg faced broad concerns from members of Congress about how Facebook shares user data.

"How can consumers have control over their data when Facebook does not have control over the data?" asked Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce committee.

The latest estimate of affected users is up to 87 million.

Patience with the social network had already worn thin among users, advertisers and investors after the company said last year that Russia used Facebook for years to try to sway U.S. politics, an allegation Moscow denies.

Lawmakers have sought assurances that Facebook can effectively police itself, and few came away from Tuesday's hearing expressing confidence in the social network.

"I don't want to vote to have to regulate Facebook, but by God, I will," Republican Senator John Kennedy told Zuckerberg on Tuesday. "A lot of that depends on you."

Zuckerberg deflected requests to support specific legislation. Pressed repeatedly by Democratic Senator Ed Markey to endorse a proposed law that would require companies to get people's permission before sharing personal information, Zuckerberg agreed to further talks.

"In principle, I think that makes sense, and the details matter, and I look forward to having our team work with you on fleshing that out," Zuckerberg said.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz and David Shepardson in Washington and David Ingram in San Francisco Editing by Bill Rigby and Susan Thomas)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook to offer 'clearer' terms on privacy, data use

WASHINGTON - Facebook said Wednesday it is updating its terms on privacy and data sharing to give users a clearer picture of how the social network handles personal information.

The move by Facebook follows a firestorm over the hijacking of personal information on tens of millions of users by a political consulting firm which sparked a raft of investigations worldwide.

"We're not asking for new rights to collect, use or share your data on Facebook," said a statement by Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan and deputy general counsel Ashlie Beringer.

"We're also not changing any of the privacy choices you've made in the past."

Facebook is under intense pressure to fix the problems which led to the harvesting of some 50 million user profiles by Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm working on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

The company has already unveiled several measures aimed at improving privacy and transparency, but chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said it may take several years to address all the issues raised in the scandal.

Egan and Beringer said that with the new terms of service, "we explain how we use data and why it's needed to customize the posts and ads you see, as well as the groups, friends and pages we suggest."

They wrote that "we will never sell your information to anyone" and impose "strict restrictions on how our partners can use and disclose data."

The statement said the new terms will offer better information on how Facebook advertising operates as well.

"You have control over the ads you see, and we don't share your information with advertisers," the statement said.

"Our data policy explains more about how we decide which ads to show you."

Egan and Beringer said Facebook will go further in explaining how it gathers information from phones and other devices.

"People have asked to see all the information we collect from the devices they use and whether we respect the settings on your mobile device (the short answer: we do)," they wrote.

Users may offer feedback on the new policy for seven days before Facebook finalizes the new rules and asks its members to accept them.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook needs 'a few years' to fix problems: Zuckerberg

WASHINGTON - Facebook will likely need "a few years" to fix the problems uncovered by the revelations on the hijacking of private user data, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview released Monday.

Speaking to the news site Vox, Zuckerberg defended the company's business model and shot back at criticism of the social networking giant from Apple CEO Tim Cook last week.

Zuckerberg maintained that one of Facebook's problems was that it was "idealistic," focusing on the positive aspects of connecting people and that "we didn’t spend enough time investing in, or thinking through, some of the downside uses of the tools."

"I think now people are appropriately focused on some of the risks and downsides as well," he said.

"I think we will dig through this hole, but it will take a few years. I wish I could solve all these issues in 3 months or 6 months, but I just think the reality is that solving some of these questions is just going to take a longer period of time."

Zuckerberg also fired back at comments last week from Cook, who argued that Facebook got into trouble because of a business model focused on monetizing people's data.

"I find that argument -- that if you're not paying that somehow we can't care about you, to be extremely glib. And not at all aligned with the truth," he said.

"The reality here is that if you want to build a service that helps connect everyone in the world, then there are a lot of people who can't afford to pay. And therefore, as with a lot of media, having an advertising-supported model is the only rational model."

The interview was the latest by the Facebook chief aimed at blunting the impact of a scandal over the harvesting of personal data on 50 million users by a political firm linked to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have launched investigations into the mishandling of user data and have been seeking Zuckerberg's testimony.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

As Facebook scandal mushrooms, Zuckerberg vows to 'step up'

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg vowed Wednesday to "step up" to fix problems at the social media giant, as it fights a snowballing scandal over the hijacking of personal data from millions of its users.

"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg said, in his first public comments on the harvesting of Facebook user data by a British firm linked to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

Writing on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg announced new steps to rein in the leakage of data to outside developers and third-party apps, while giving users more control over their information through a special toolbar.

Zuckerberg said measures had been in place since 2014 to prevent precisely the sort of abuse revealed at the weekend.

"But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it," he said.

The scandal erupted when a whistleblower revealed that British data consultant Cambridge Analytica (CA) had created psychological profiles on 50 million Facebook users via a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.

The app was downloaded by 270,000 people, but also scooped up their friends' data without consent -- as was possible under Facebook's rules at the time.

Facebook says it discovered last week that CA may not have deleted the data as it certified.

"This was a breach of trust between Kogan, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook," Zuckerberg wrote. "But it was also a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it."

"We need to fix that."

PROBE BY SPECIAL COUNSEL 

Zuckerberg's admission follows another day of damaging accusations against the world's biggest social network as calls mounted for investigations on both sides of the Atlantic.

Max Schrems, a Vienna-Based activist who has brought online data protection cases before European courts, told AFP he complained to the Irish Data Protection Authority in 2011 about the controversial data harvesting methods.

Schrems also recounted a seven-hour meeting with Facebook representatives the following year to discuss concerns around apps operating in this fashion, but said they said they saw no problems with their policies.

"They explicitly said that in their view, by using the platform you consent to a situation where other people can install an app and gather your data," Schrems said.

ABC News reported meanwhile special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, was looking at Cambridge Analytica's role in the Trump effort.

Citing anonymous sources, ABC said several digital experts who worked on Trump's campaign have held closed-door interviews with Mueller's team. 

The British firm has maintained it did not use Facebook data in the Trump campaign, but its now-suspended CEO boasted in secret recordings that his company was deeply involved in the race.

#DELETEFACEBOOK 

The data scandal has ratcheted up the pressure on Facebook -- already under fire for allowing fake news to proliferate on its platform during the US presidential election.

'We can't be arbiter of truth': Why Facebook won't shut down fake news
A movement to quit the social network gathered momentum, while a handful of lawsuits emerged which could turn into class actions -- in a costly distraction for the company.

One of those calling it quits was a high-profile co-founder of the WhatsApp messaging service acquired by Facebook in 2014.

"It is time. #deletefacebook," Brian Acton said in a tweet protesting the social media giant's handling of the crisis.

Both Facebook and CA have denied wrongdoing, as attention focused increasingly on Kogan, the inventor of the controversial app -- personality survey dubbed This Is Your Digital Life.

But Kogan said in an interview he was "stunned" by the allegations against him, claiming CA had assured him his activities were above board.

"I'm being basically used as a scapegoat by both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica," he told the BBC. "We thought we were acting perfectly appropriately. "

The University of Cambridge psychologist said CA had approached him to do the work, and that he did not know how the firm would use the data collected with his app.

European Union officials have called for an urgent investigation while British, US and EU lawmakers have asked Zuckerberg to give evidence.

Responding to Zuckerberg's comments Wednesday, US Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts was the latest lawmaker to call on Zuckerberg to appear.

"You need to come to Congress and testify to this under oath," Markey tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has urged Facebook and CA to cooperate with the national information commissioner's probe.

"The allegations are clearly very concerning," she told MPs.

"People need to have confidence in how their personal data is being used."

Facebook shares steadied Wednesday, gaining 0.74 percent after steep declines this week that wiped out some $50 billion in market value.

But questions abounded on the future of Facebook, which has grown from a startup in a Harvard dorm room to become one of the world's most powerful companies.

Analyst Brian Wieser at Pivotal Research said Facebook "is exhibiting signs of systemic mismanagement," possibly from growing too fast.

"Investors now have to consider whether or not the company will conclude that it has grown in a manner that has proven to be untenable," Wieser said in a research note.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

CEO Zuckerberg sets 2018 goal: 'fix' Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday his goal for 2018 was to put the business he co-founded on a more solid footing, a break with his longstanding practice of setting a purely personal annual goal.

"The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do," Zuckerberg, at 33 one of the world's wealthiest people, wrote in a post on the No. 1 social media network.

In past years, his New Year's resolutions have included learning Mandarin, reading two books a month and traveling to US states he had not yet visited.

This year, his post described Facebook as standing at a crossroads that required his attention. He cited the spread of hate speech on social media, use of Facebook by Russia and other countries to disseminate propaganda and criticism that the platform can be an addictive waste of time.

A new law in Germany requires social networks such as Facebook and Twitter Inc to remove online hate speech or face fines. In the United States, lawmakers have criticized Facebook for failing to prevent Russian operatives from using its platform to meddle in the 2016 US elections.

In addition, ex-Facebook executives have publicly questioned whether using the network leads to unhealthy behaviors.

Zuckerberg said his "personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues." He added that the pledge "may not seem like a personal challenge on its face," but that he would learn a lot. He did not say what he would do.

"We won't prevent all mistakes or abuse," he wrote, "but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools."

The issues Zuckerberg mentioned have created public relations and regulatory challenges, but have not made much of a dent on Facebook's bottom line. The social network reported $16 billion in net income on $36 billion in sales during the 12 months that ended on Sept. 30.

Shares on Thursday traded at $184.94, up 0.1 percent.

source: news.abs-cbn.com