Facebook announces changing parent company name to ‘Meta’

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to keep names under rebranding

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced the parent company's name is being changed to "Meta" to represent a future beyond just its troubled social network.

The new handle comes as the social media giant tries to fend off one its worst crises yet and pivot to its ambitions for the "metaverse" virtual reality version of the internet that the tech giant sees as the future.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will keep their names under the rebranding.

"We've learned a lot from struggling with social issues and living under closed platforms, and now it is time to take everything that we've learned and help build the next chapter," Zuckerberg said during an annual developers conference.

"I am proud to announce that starting today, our company is now Meta. Our mission remains the same, still about bringing people together, our apps and their brands, they're not changing," he added.

Facebook critics pounced last week on a report that leaked the rebranding plans, arguing the company was aiming to distract from recent scandals and controversy.

An activist group calling itself The Real Facebook Oversight Board has warned that major industries like oil and tobacco had rebranded to "deflect attention" from their problems.

"Facebook thinks that a rebrand can help them change the subject," the group said last week, adding the "real issue" was the need for oversight and regulation.

Facebook has just announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build the "metaverse," with Zuckerberg emerging as a leading promoter of the concept.

- Crisis mode -

The social media giant has been battling a fresh crisis since former employee Frances Haugen leaked reams of internal studies showing executives knew of their sites' potential for harm, prompting a renewed US push for regulation.

Facebook has been hit by major crises previously, but the current view behind the curtain of the insular company has fueled a frenzy of scathing reports and scrutiny from US regulators.

"Good faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that what we are seeing is a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company," Zuckerberg said in an earnings call on Monday.

The Washington Post last month suggested that Facebook's interest in the metaverse is "part of a broader push to rehabilitate the company's reputation with policymakers and reposition Facebook to shape the regulation of next-wave Internet technologies."

Google rebranded itself as Alphabet in a corporate reconfiguration in 2015, but the online search and ad powerhouse remains its defining unit despite other operations such as Waymo self-driving cars and Verily life sciences.

Agence France-Presse

Facebook rolls out news feeds with less politics

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Facebook said Wednesday it began rolling out news feeds with less political subject matter in line with a plan outlined by chief Mark Zuckerberg to reduce inflammatory content.

The leading social network said it would begin testing the change "for a small percentage of people" in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia this week, and the United States in the coming weeks. 

"During these initial tests we'll explore a variety of ways to rank political content in people's feeds using different signals, and then decide on the approaches we'll use going forward," product management director Aastha Gupta said.

The change won't affect information about the Covid-19 pandemic and content from global health organizations or from official government agencies.

"As Mark Zuckerberg mentioned on our recent earnings call, one common piece of feedback we hear is that people don't want political content to take over their News Feed," Gupta said.

"Over the next few months, we'll work to better understand peoples' varied preferences for political content and test a number of approaches based on those insights."

and manipulation, notably during election periods.

Zuckerberg said last month Facebook is seeking to "turn down the temperature" on its sprawling platform by reducing the kind of divisive and inflammatory political talk it has long hosted.

He said the social media giant will no longer recommend politics-themed groups to users and was working on ways to reduce the amount of political content served up in users' news feeds by its automated systems.

"We're still going to enable people to engage in political groups and discussions if they want to," Zuckerberg said last month.

Agence France-Presse

Pakistan says Facebook to help in fight against polio

Pakistan says Facebook will help the country in its fight against polio after authorities blamed anti-vaccine content posted last year on the social network site for a leap in the number of cases.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio has not been eradicated, but a years-long effort began to show fruit with a major drop in cases from 2016.

By 2018 just 12 cases had been recorded, but to the dismay of Pakistani authorities and the World Health Organization, that number soared to 136 last year. 

Pakistani officials quickly tied the surge to a slew of fake news reports and videos claiming many children had been killed by the vaccine that garnered thousands of views and shares on social media. 

They called on Facebook do more to remove harmful anti-vaccine content from the site, saying it was jeopardizing eradication initiatives and putting the lives of polio workers at risk. 

Health authorities later said Facebook had removed dozens such videos.

This week a delegation from the company visited Islamabad and reaffirmed their commitment to the campaign, a Pakistani government statement said. 

"We stand behind the national and global efforts to create a polio-free world and will continue to support these efforts," Rafael Frankel, a Facebook regional director, was quoted as saying in a statement released by Pakistan's ministry of health.

Dr Zafar Mirza, a Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on health, highlighted the importance of communicating correct health information online and stressed "the need to counter harmful content on social media".

Facebook did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

Vaccination campaigns have faced stubborn resistance for years in Pakistan, with many refusing to have their children inoculated because of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Islamist opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the CIA organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al Qaeda's former leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

As Pakistan tries to reach its goal of eliminating polio, the growing global movement against vaccinations, fuelled by social media, has presented a new challenge.

Afghanistan and Nigeria are the two other countries where the disease has not been entirely eradicated, although the latter is expected to be declared polio-free later this year.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook plugs booming business version into Portal

MENLO PARK — Facebook said Tuesday its Portal smart screens would be incorporated in its Workplace social network for businesses, which has grown to more than 3 million paid users.

Workplace paid users grew by more than 50 percent in the past eight months, the company said as it kicked off its second annual Flow conference at a hotel in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park.

The Workplace platform was launched three years ago as a separate, private social network tailored for companies with tools for productivity and collaboration on the job.

Workplace rivals includes services fielded by Slack, Salesforce and Microsoft, which aim to foster better collaboration and eliminate dependence on overloaded email inboxes.

Workplace is separate from Facebook's main social network and is intended as a platform to connect everyone in a company, from counter or warehouse workers to chief executives, according to executives.

Workplace claimed that a differentiator from its competitors is that it connects all employees in businesses no matter their roles, even if their only computing device is a smartphone.

An array of new features unveiled by Workplace at the gathering were tailored to trends of employees collaborating and coordinating using video and mobile devices.

A new "Workplace on Portal" app enticed employees to use the Facebook smart screens to get jobs done, while automatic video captioning capabilities were added and video quality heightened.

"The future of work is going to be about breaking down barriers -- geographic, departmental, linguistic and more," Workplace said in a release.

"This means we need technology that can connect everyone, wherever they are."

Facebook last month unveiled second-generation Portal smart screens, touting them as a way to stay connected to loved ones at the leading social network.

The new app was putting the internet-linked smart screens and their handy features to work.

"We're making it easier for these employees to do great work by helping them to connect to their organizations through mobile in a secure way," said Workplace vice president Karandeep Anand.

"We're also excited to offer rich video features that enable all employees to be more connected and collaborative."

Features added to enhance the business social network included tools for learning, surveys, setting goals, and showing appreciation to co-workers.

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Facebook to pay record $5 billion US fine over privacy violations

WASHINGTON - Facebook Inc will pay a record-breaking $5 billion fine to resolve a government probe into its privacy practices and the social media giant will restructure its approach to privacy, the US Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.

The FTC voted 3-2 along party lines to adopt the settlement, which requires court approval, even as Democrats said the settlement did not go far enough or require a large enough fine.

"Despite repeated promises to its billions of users worldwide that they could control how personal information is shared Facebook undermined consumers' choices," said FTC Chairman Joe Simons, a Republican, in a statement.

But Democratic FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra said the penalty provided "blanket immunity" for Facebook executives "and no real restraints on Facebook's business model" and does "not fix the core problems that led to these violations."

Facebook declined to comment ahead of the settlement's public release.

The FTC said that Facebook's data policy was deceptive to "tens of millions" of people who used Facebook's facial recognition tool and also violated its rules against deceptive practices when it did not disclose phone numbers collected to enable a security feature would be used for advertising.

Under the settlement, Facebook's board will create an independent privacy committee that removes "unfettered control by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over decisions affecting user privacy."
Facebook also agreed to exercise greater oversight over third-party apps.

Chopra and Democratic FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, who opposed the settlement, said the $5 billion penalty may be less than Facebook's gains from violating users' privacy.

"Until we address Facebook's core financial incentives for risking our personal privacy and national security, we will not be able to prevent these problems from happening again," Chopra said.

The FTC Republican majority argued the settlement "significantly diminishes Mr. Zuckerberg's power -- something no government agency, anywhere in the world, has thus far accomplished."

The Republican commissioners led by Simons said if the FTC had gone to court "it is highly unlikely that any judge would have imposed a civil penalty even remotely close to this one."

They called the settlement -- in light of what the FTC might have been able to win in a court fight -- "a complete home run."

The Republican majority noted that Zuckerberg and other company executives will have to sign quarterly certifications attesting to the company's privacy practices.

The FTC said Zuckerberg or others filing a false certification could face civil and criminal penalties.

Facebook also is barred from asking for email passwords to other services when consumers sign up.

Facebook is barred from using telephone numbers obtained in a security feature, like two-factor authentication, for advertising and must get user consent if it plans to use data from facial recognition technology.

FTC DECIDED TO SETTLE PROBE

The settlement stems from the company's alleged violations of a 2012 FTC settlement order over privacy issues.

Slaughter said the FTC should have taken Facebook and Zuckerberg to court.

Slaughter also criticized the FTC's decision to grant Facebook and its executives a release from liability for any claims that prior to June 12, 2019 it violated the FTC 2012 settlement as "far too broad" and said the FTC failed "to impose any substantive restrictions on Facebook's collection and use of data from or about users."

Chopra added that by "settling the commission -- and the public -- may never find out what Facebook knows... It is difficult to conclude that the commission got the better end of the bargain."

The FTC has been investigating allegations Facebook inappropriately shared information belonging to 87 million users with the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

The FTC also said Wednesday that Cambridge's former CEO Alexander Nix and former app developer Aleksandr Kogan, who worked with the company, had agreed to a settlement with the FTC that will restrict how they conduct business in the future.

The settlement comes a day after the US Justice Department said on Tuesday it was opening a broad investigation of major digital technology firms into whether they engage in anti-competitive practices, the strongest sign the Trump administration is stepping up its scrutiny of Big Tech.

The review will look into "whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers," the Justice Department said in a statement.

The Justice Department did not identify specific companies but said the review would consider concerns raised about "search, social media, and some retail services online" -- an apparent reference to Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc, and potentially Apple Inc . 

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook's call for global internet regulation sparks debate

WASHINGTON -- Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg's call for "globally harmonized" online regulation raises questions about how internet platforms can deal with concerns about misinformation and abusive content while remaining open to free speech.

Here are key questions about the latest proposal from Facebook:

What is Facebook seeking?

The leading social network wants a single set of rules on content to avoid running afoul of national requirements to remove "hate speech" or inappropriate content, kicking responsibility to a to-be-determined entity to avoid being accused of censorship.

Zuckerberg said in a weekend post that "a common global framework" rather than country-by-country regulation "will ensure that the internet does not get fractured, entrepreneurs can build products that serve everyone, and everyone gets the same protections."

The Facebook chief says that the US and other countries "should build on the protections" offered in Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but stopped short of offering specifics. He did say any plan should not require data to be stored locally, "which would make it more vulnerable to unwarranted access."

The latest proposals appear to go a step beyond Zuckerberg's call last year for a "supreme court" to make decisions on questionable content.

Analysts say Facebook desperately wants to avoid being the final arbiter for what is allowed or removed -- which would put the platform in a difficult position each time there is controversy.

"Zuckerberg understands there is deep public concern about social media and digital platforms," said Darrell West, director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation.

"By calling for some global regulations, he is acknowledging that reality, but seeking to direct regulation in unobtrusive ways. He is hoping for mild reforms that don't disrupt the Facebook business model and endanger ad revenues."

Adam Chiara, a professor of communication at the University of Hartford, said regulations may end up helping giants like Facebook which have the resources to comply.

"Other smaller tech companies may not have the means to adhere to strict regulation," Chiara said. 

"So in a sense, strict regulation could, ironically, be good for Facebook now since they had years to build an empire with little oversight."

How could a global system work?

Internet regulations vary considerably by country, with what is considered hate speech in some countries is protected in the US and elsewhere.

Similarly, there are vast differences on how private user data is collected and used is different parts of the world, with GDPR rules among the strictest.

Lee McKnight, a Syracuse University professor of information studies, said some activists for more than a decade have been calling for a global convention of sorts that could set rules for online content.

"These platforms transcend individual nation states, so there is a logic to addressing them globally," said McKnight, who argued for a system like the international Law of the Sea.

"However, to implement anything like that could be a decade-long process -- if they had started 10 or 15 years ago we would be in a better spot today."

It would be challenging to harmonize rules while enabling Facebook and other online firms to use "targeted" advertising, which is the business model for these companies.

"A good start would be a federal privacy line United States," said 

Nuala O'Connor, president of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a digital rights group, says a good start would be passage of an internet privacy law in the United States.

"At present the US has been only a marginal player in the conversation around global data protection law, and should come to the table with a meaningful, comprehensive approach that allows new technologies to flourish, while ensuring that the digital dignity of the individual is protected."

What happens next?

Skeptics say Facebook is seeking to buy time amid calls for tougher regulation in the US and elsewhere -- with some calls to break up major tech firms and other activists questioning whether they should maintain immunity from liability for content posted by users.

"Zuckerberg's comments were not surprising given the mounting public pressure and looming fines and penalties," said David Carroll, a professor at the Parsons School of Art & Design of The New School who follows social media.

"Feels like it's a good strategy to soften the blow."

Others say Facebook is just now beginning to address, on a global scale, the difficult issues of privacy and content moderation.

"It's not just a problem of one company," said Anjana Susarla, a professor of information systems at Michigan State University.

"Maybe we cannot resolve all those issues but we need to establish some framework and Mark Zuckerberg has taken the first step."

McKnight said it would be too cumbersome for governments to try to come together on regulations, and that there is no real alternative to social platforms monitoring in compliance with laws around the world.

"They have to enforce the rules. It will be a pain for them but they are making profits on this," McKnight said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook down in PH, parts of the world

MANILA--Facebook users in several parts of the world reported the social network was inaccessible late Wednesday and early morning Thursday.

The tech giant said it is working to fix the problem.

"We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps," Facebook said in a statement.

The Facebook outage map by downdetector.com shows the Philippines, Malaysia, Mexico, and the United States among those that experienced the glitch.

The hashtag #facebookdown quickly topped Twitter's trending topics worldwide.

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Facebook expanding fact-checking in India before election

MUMBAI, India -- Facebook Inc said on Monday it is expanding its fact-checking network in India ahead of the country's general election due by May, taking another step to quell the spread of misinformation in its biggest market by users.

Facebook has added 5 new partners including the India Today Group, a leading local media house, to its fact-checker network taking the total number of such partners to 7, Menlo Park, California-based Facebook said in a statement.

Facebook Inc last week said it is toughening up the rules governing political advertisements in India to create more transparency ahead of the country's general election.

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Facebook restructures kids team in quest for youth

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook on Thursday announced it had restructured its team devoted to products or features designed to increase the social network's appeal to younger generations.

Nascent projects such as a "LOL" platform for funny memes were taken off the board at the "youth team," which shifted focus to more promising products such as a Messenger Kids app launched more than a year ago, according to the leading social network.

"The Youth team has restructured in order to match top business priorities, including increasing our investment in Messenger Kids," Facebook said in response to an AFP inquiry.

Facebook in December 2017 introduced a version of its Messenger application designed to let young children connect with others under parental supervision. No in-app purchases are allowed.

The social media giant said at the time that it created the app, available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Thailand, because many children were going online without safeguards.

"We found that there was a need for a video chat and messaging app that lets kids connect with the people they love while putting parents in complete control," product management lead Jennifer Billock said in a blog post marking the app's one year anniversary.

"We conducted parent roundtables in each country and have continued gathering feedback from parents and outside experts."

Facebook's rules require that children be at least 13 to create an account, but many are believed to get around the restrictions.

California-based Facebook has been working to attract and keep young internet users being lured away from the social network by apps such as photo- and video-oriented Snapchat.

Facebook said the reorganization of the team was not related to recent controversy regarding a research app that paid users, including teens, to track their smartphone activity as part of an effort to glean more data that could help the social network's competition efforts.

The youth team was not involved with the research project nor did it use any of the data collected, according to Facebook.

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Two top executives leave Facebook public relations team

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two of Facebook's top executives in its public relations team are leaving the company, stepping away after the most tumultuous period in the history of the social networking giant.

Caryn Marooney put out word on Wednesday that she was quitting her job as leader of Facebook's communications group after 8 years at the social network and that she was working with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on finding a replacement.

Marooney wrote on her Facebook page that "it's time to get back to my roots" but also noted that "I have more faith in Facebook than ever."

Meanwhile, vice president of global communications and public affairs Debbie Frost confirmed that she told the company a while ago she was resigning, with plans to leave Facebook in March after nearly 11 years on the team. 

The departures come with Facebook, following a period of extraordinary growth, under fire in many parts of the world over privacy and data security and for failing to curb manipulation of the platform.

Marooney wrote however: "There is so much good happening on Facebook and the entire family of apps every day. And for our challenges -- we have plans in place and the right people working on them."

Zuckerberg marked the 15th anniversary of Facebook this week with a message saying he sees the social network largely as a "positive" force for society.

Zuckerberg has acknowledged that Facebook needs to do more to restore trust, and ferret out misinformation and abuse, and on Monday repeated his pledge to spend more "on safety and security."

Late last year, outgoing head of Facebook's communications team Elliot Schrage took responsibility for the controversial hiring of a conservative consulting firm accused of using "black ops" style techniques, acknowledging critics including investor George Soros were targeted.

Facebook stumbled from one mess to another last year as it grappled with the continuing fallout from Russia's use of the platform to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which user data was harnessed in a bid to help candidate Donald Trump, and a huge security breach involving millions of accounts.

British former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, a leading anti-Brexit advocate, was hired as the new head of global affairs and communications at the California-based company.

"With Nick Clegg settled in at Facebook, this felt like the right time to start the transition," Marooney said of timing her departure.

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New York Times pokes Zuckerberg with anniversary video

SAN FRANCISCO - The New York Times used one of Facebook's tactics to poke at the social network by sharing a nostalgic anniversary video spotlighting its stumbles.

The video lasting slightly less than two minutes congratulates Mark Zuckerberg for turning Facebook into an online behemoth and becoming wealthy in the process, but spends most of its time playfully flipping through virtual cards recounting its troubles with privacy, hacking, hate speech, violence and more.

"Happy Birthday, Facebook! 15 years today -- and what a rollercoaster it has been," read the message released Monday on the newspaper’s opinion page and on Twitter, in the style of Facebook compilation videos.

"We created a friendship anniversary video for Mark Zuckerberg to mark the day."

The video logged some 375,000 views and was shared by others on Twitter more than 3,000 times within hours of being tweeted.

The compilation included a series of barbs at Zuckerberg, with screenshots reading, "You seem to like giving your users' data way," and "Well, at least you haven't done too badly," noting his net worth of $55 billion.

Zuckerberg on Monday marked the embattled social network's 15th anniversary with a posted message saying that he sees Facebook as a largely "positive" force for society, even as the leading social network faces a wave of criticism over issues of manipulation, misinformation, abuse and other social ills.

Zuckerberg has acknowledged that Facebook needs to do more to restore trust, and ferret out misinformation and abuse, and on Monday repeated his pledge to spend more "on safety and security."

His comments came 15 years after he and classmates at Harvard University founded what was known as "the facebook" and began a mission described by Zuckerberg as connecting the world.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Zuckerberg sees 'positive' force of Facebook despite firestorm

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mark Zuckerberg said Monday he saw Facebook as a largely "positive" force for society as the embattled social network marked its 15th anniversary.

Even as Facebook is facing a wave of criticism over issues of manipulation, misinformation, abuse and other social ills, Zuckerberg said it would be a mistake "to overly emphasize the negative" impacts of social media and the internet.

The Facebook co-founder and chief executive said he saw profound social changes "as networks of people connected via the internet replace traditional hierarchies and reshape institutions from government to business to media."

In a post on his Facebook page, he argued that "while any rapid social change creates uncertainty, I believe what we're seeing is people having more power, and a long term trend reshaping society to be more open and accountable over time."

He said Facebook and other social networks have fundamentally changed how people interact with their communities and institutions.

"I'll never forget how right after we launched News Feed, we saw millions of people organize marches against violence in Colombia. We saw communities come together to do viral fundraiser," he wrote.

Zuckerberg added: "If the last 15 years were about people building these new networks and starting to see their impact, then the next 15 years will be about people using their power to remake society in ways that have the potential to be profoundly positive for decades to come."

Facebook has seen unprecedented success by amassing more than 2.3 billion people worldwide who actively use the social network to share updates, obtain information and connect with new people.

Despite the wave of scandals, Facebook took in a record $22 billion profit for 2018 as revenues surged to $55 billion.

Zuckerberg has acknowledged that Facebook needs to do more to restore trust, and ferret out misinformation and abuse, and on Monday repeated his pledge to spend more "on safety and security."

His comments come 15 years after he and classmates at Harvard University founded what was known as "the facebook" and began a mission described by Zuckerberg as connecting the world.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook at 15: a titan with grown-up woes

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fifteen years after its founding, Facebook has made strides toward Mark Zuckerberg's goal of connecting the world. But it has also made some huge missteps that have turned some of its cheerleaders into vocal detractors.

The online social network founded on February 4, 2004 in Zuckerberg's Harvard University dorm heads into adolescence with the grown-up burdens of being held accountable for its behavior and playing in a world where people may not always have the purest intentions.

Facebook has seen unprecedented success by amassing more than 2.3 billion people worldwide who actively use the platform to share updates, obtain information and connect with new people.

But it has also been battered by criticism that it was more focused on growth than protecting users or thwarting deception, bullying and harassment.

"This is a very powerful company that has created an addictive product that many people are dependent on," said author and analyst Josh Bernoff.

"Because of that, there is tremendous responsibility."

Facebook was hammered last year by a series of scandals over data protection and privacy and concerns that the leading social network had been manipulated by foreign interests for political purposes.

It has faced increasing scrutiny on how it collects vast amounts of personal data from users, and how it shares that information with partners to deliver targeted advertising. 

'CONFRONTING MATURITY'

"After the challenges of 2018, it is no longer lauded for its innovation. It is scrutinized and criticized for its every move," eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.

"Facebook at age 15 is confronting maturity. It's no longer just an upstart company."

Facebook is second only to colossus Google in worldwide digital ad revenue and is the owner of some of the most widely used smartphone apps.

The platform is behind free, stand-alone smartphone apps Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, each of which has more than a billion users.

Zuckerberg, 34, recently renewed his defense of the social network's business model, adamant that Facebook did not sell user data.

The social network makes money from targeting ads based on what it learns about users, keeping the service free, he said.

Bernoff saw Zuckerberg's latest defense as contending that Facebook is here to help people, and thus can be trusted.

"We have learned in capitalism that when companies get a lot of power and say they are doing what is best for you, we need to scrutinize them more," Bernoff said.

If history is an indicator, then Facebook's true threat could be a lifestyle shift to a different way of interacting with computers.

Bernoff questioned whether Facebook was positioning itself for the rise of smart speakers using the likes of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

"The future is going to be increasingly related to voice, and to companies and individuals interacting through artificially intelligent agents," Bernoff said.

"As people change the way they interact with the world, there is no guarantee Facebook will have a place there."

He doubted whether people would turn away from Facebook due to trust issues, arguing that consumers are willing to trade a huge amount of data for a modicum of convenience.

Despite the wave of scandals, Facebook took in a record $22 billion profit for 2018 as revenues surged to $55 billion. 

MOTIVATED TROLLS

Facebook has acknowledged it needs to do more to restore trust, and ferret out misinformation and abuse.

It now has more than 30,000 people "working on safety" and invests billions of dollars in security, according to Zuckerberg.

"The trolls have a financial incentive to pervert the way Facebook works, and it is costly for Facebook to prevent that," Bernoff said.

And while Zuckerberg has connected the developed world, there is a lot of the planet he has yet to get onto the social network.

According to eMarketer, 46.7 percent of internet users, or slightly more than 23 percent of the world's total population, use the core Facebook app any given month.

"Facebook will need to make international growth a bigger priority this year and in the coming years," Williamson said.

Facebook also needs to be a leader in undermining manipulation and fake news, protecting user data and keeping up with consumers' changing communications preferences, according to the analyst.

Zuckerberg's personal goal for 2019 is to convene a series of public forums on how technology can better serve society.

"I'm going to put myself out there more than I've been comfortable with and engage more in some of these debates about the future, the tradeoffs we face, and where we want to go," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post outlining his goals.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook back up after Americas service interruption

WASHINGTON -- Facebook users in the Americas were able to get back onto their profiles Monday afternoon, after the social media network went down briefly across some parts of the region.

The internet giant, which has 2.25 billion global users, did not immediately give a reason for the temporary service interruption, which struck around 1800 GMT (2 a.m. Tuesday in Manila).

Users from the east coast of the US, to Canada, Los Angeles and some parts of South America, including Uruguay, reported being presented with an error message for several minutes as they tried to access Facebook -- the world's largest social network.

"Sorry, something went wrong. We're working on it and we'll get it fixed as soon as we can," it read.

The incident saw Facebook's share price drop before recovering slightly.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Britain hits Facebook with maximum fine over data scandal

LONDON - Britain's data watchdog on Thursday levied the maximum possible fine of 500,000 pounds ($644,000) against Facebook Inc. for failing to protect the privacy of its users in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The Information Commissioner's Office said its probe found that from 2007 to 2014, Facebook processed the personal information of users unfairly by giving application developers access to their information without informed consent.

"Facebook failed to sufficiently protect the privacy of its users before, during and after the unlawful processing of this data," said Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner. "A company of its size and expertise should have known better and it should have done better."

Facebook is struggling with security issues following its April admission that data on up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign of Donald Trump.

==Kyodo

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Japan orders Facebook to improve data protection

TOKYO - The Japanese government on Monday ordered Facebook to improve protection of users' personal information following data breaches affecting tens of millions of people worldwide.

Facebook said early this month that hackers accessed the personal data of 29 million users in a breach at the world's leading social network first disclosed late September.

The company had originally said up to 50 million accounts were affected in a cyberattack that exploited a trio of software flaws to steal "access tokens" that enable people to automatically log back onto the platform.

Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission on Monday demanded the social media giant investigate why the personal data was hacked and draw up preventive measures.

Facebook told Japanese authorities the 29 million people hacked in the latest attack may include Japanese users, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga has said.

Facebook also acknowledged earlier this year that tens of millions of users had their personal data hijacked by Cambridge Analytica, a British political firm which worked for Donald Trump in 2016.

Up to 100,000 Facebook users may have been affected in Japan in that scandal, the commission said.

"It is the first time that the commission, which investigated the data leak with British authorities, has issued warnings to Facebook," an official told AFP.

The commission also ordered Facebook to communicate better with users and respond to them promptly, for example when they request their accounts be deleted.

Facebook pledged to "promptly inform users if the platform was inappropriately used and cooperate with the commission and other countries' regulators" on its website.

source: neews.abs-cbn.com

Facebook says hackers accessed data of 29 million users

Facebook said Friday that hackers accessed personal data of 29 million users in a breach at the world's leading social network disclosed late last month.

The company had originally said up to 50 million accounts were affected in a cyberattack that exploited a trio of software flaws to steal "access tokens" that enable people to automatically log back onto the platform.

"We now know that fewer people were impacted than we originally thought," Facebook vice president of product management Guy Rosen said in an online post.

The hackers -- whose identities are still a mystery -- accessed the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of 15 million users, he said.

For another 14 million people, the attack was potentially more damaging.

Cyberattackers accessed that data plus additional information including gender, religion, hometown, birth date, and places they had recently "checked in" to as visiting, according to Facebook.

No data was accessed in the accounts of the remaining one million people whose "access tokens" were stolen, according to Rosen.

The attack did not affect Facebook-owned Messenger, Messenger Kids, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Pages, payments, third-party apps, or advertising or developer accounts, the company says.

- 'Vulnerability' in the code -

Facebook said engineers discovered a breach on September 25 and had it patched two days later.

That breach allegedly related to a "view as" feature -- described as a privacy tool to let users see how their profiles look to other people. That function has been disabled for the time being as a precaution.

"It's clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook's code," said Rosen.

"We've fixed the vulnerability and informed law enforcement."

Facebook reset the 50 million accounts it thought could have been affected, meaning users will need to sign back in using passwords.

The breach was the latest privacy embarrassment for Facebook, which earlier this year acknowledged that tens of millions of users had their personal data hijacked by Cambridge Analytica, a political firm working for Donald Trump in 2016.

"We face constant attacks from people who want to take over accounts or steal information around the world," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on his own Facebook page when the breach was disclosed.

"While I'm glad we found this, fixed the vulnerability, and secured the accounts that may be at risk, the reality is we need to continue developing new tools to prevent this from happening in the first place."

Facebook said it took a precautionary step of resetting "access tokens" for another 40 million accounts which had accessed the "view as" function. Those users will need to log back in to Facebook.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook seeing growth in business network Workplace

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook on Tuesday hosted its first global summit spotlighting a growing Workplace platform launched two years ago as a private social network for businesses.

While Facebook would not disclose exact figures, it said Workplace -- a rival to collaboration services like Slack, Salesforce, and Microsoft -- has been a hit and that ranks of users have doubled in the past eight to 10 months.

The list of companies using Workplace included Walmart, Starbucks, Spotify, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic.

"It is growing very fast," Workplace by Facebook vice president Julien Codorniou told AFP.

"We started with big companies, because that is where we found traction. It is a very good niche."

Workplace is a separate operation from Facebook's main social network and is intended as a platform to connect everyone in a company, from counter or warehouse workers to chief executives, according to Codorniou.

Workplace claimed that a difference from its competitors is that it connects all employees in businesses no matter their roles, even if their only computing device is a smartphone.

"That really resonates with a new generation," Codorniou said of Workplace's "democratic" nature.

"Millennials want to know who they work for and understand the culture of the company."

He cited cases of top company executives using Workplace to get feedback from workers at all levels, bringing a small company feel to big operations.

Workplace is rolled out to everyone in companies, which then pay $3 monthly for each active user.

NO 'CANDY CRUSH'

The software-as-a-service business began as an internal collaboration platform used at Facebook and was launched as its own business in 2016.

Workplace is used by 30,000 companies and has its main office in London, according to Codorniou.

Interaction with the platform plays off how people use Facebook, and Workplace adopts innovations from the leading social network. But, it is billed as a completely separate product.

"This is coming from Facebook Inc., but has nothing to do with Facebook," he said.

"You cannot play 'Candy Crush' on Workplace, but people ask. We just take what makes sense."

The conference was used to announce new Workplace features including a version of Facebook safety check designed as a way for companies to quickly determine the status and well-being of workers in event of disaster or tragedy.

Workplace also introduced the ability to have group voice or video chats with people routinely worked with outside a company.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Woman sues Facebook, claims site enabled sex trafficking

A Texas woman, claiming that she was raped, beaten and sex trafficked at the age of 15 by a pimp who posed as a Facebook "friend," has filed suit against the social network, alleging its executives knew minors were being lured into the sex trade on their platform.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court papers filed in Harris County District Court in Houston on Monday, also named as defendants the now-shuttered classified ads website Backpage.com and its founders.

Facebook did not respond to a request by Reuters for comment.

Attorneys for Backpage.com and the former employees named in the lawsuit as defendants also did not return calls for comment.

According to the lawsuit, the woman was "friended" on Facebook in 2012 by a user who appeared to know several of her real-life friends. The man messaged her through Facebook, according to the lawsuit, which was seen by Reuters.

The lawsuit alleges that at one point following an argument with her mother, the trafficker offered to console her, but after picking her up from her home he beat and raped her and took pictures that were posted on Backpage.com.

The lawsuit says Facebook did not do enough to verify the user's identity, which the lawsuit said was false, and that Jane Doe was never warned that sex traffickers were operating on the social media network.

The plaintiff's attorneys, David Harris and Louie Cook of the law firm Sico Hoelscher Harris LLP in Houston, did not reply to requests for comment.

Backpage.com was shut down by authorities earlier this year after a Justice Department investigation into allegations that the website was used primarily to sell sex.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook admits phone numbers may be used to target ads

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook on Thursday confirmed that advertisers were privy to phone numbers given by members of the social network for enhanced security.

A study by two US universities, first reported by news website Gizmodo, found that phone numbers given to Facebook for two-factor authentication were also used to target advertising.

Two-factor authentication is intended to enhance security by requiring a second step, such as entering codes sent via text messages, as well as passwords to get into accounts.

Phone numbers added to profiles, for security purposes, or for messaging were potential fodder for advertisers, according to the study.

"These findings hold despite all the relevant privacy controls on our test accounts being set to their most private settings," researchers said in the study, which looked at ways advertisers can get personally identifying information (PII) from Facebook or its WhatsApp and Messenger services.

Contact lists uploaded to Facebook platforms could be mined for personal information, meaning that people could unintentionally help advertisers target their friends.

"Most worrisome, we found that phone numbers uploaded as part of syncing contacts -- that were never owned by a user and never listed on their account - were in fact used to enable PII-based advertising," researchers said in the study.

The study supported concerns that Facebook uses "shadow" sources of data not given to the social network for the purpose of sharing to make money on advertising.

"We use the information people provide to offer a better, more personalized experience on Facebook, including ads," a spokeswoman said in response to an AFP inquiry about the study findings.

"We are clear about how we use the information we collect, including the contact information that people upload or add to their own accounts."

Facebook is grappling with the worst crisis in its history, vilified for not more zealously guarding the information that users share.

The Silicon Valley-based internet colossus faced intense global scrutiny over the mass harvesting of personal data by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy that worked for Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.

The company has admitted up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked in the scandal.

source: news.abs-cbn.com