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A group of 26 Meta employees has sued the company, claiming it used artificial intelligence systems to select people for layoffs, disproportionately targeting those on medical, parental or family leave. They are among the 8,000 employees, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, Meta said it would lay off in May. The lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in Oakland, California, claims the company used internal AI systems, keystroke and activity-monitoring data, AI token-usage dashboards and algorithmically assisted performance rankings, among other methods, to determine who would be laid off. Many of these scores and ratings "by design, cannot be accumulated by an employee who is on protected medical or family leave, or whose output is reduced by a disability," the lawsuit says. Meta, according to the lawsuit, did not account for protected leave when taking employees' scores into account and "did not pause the system for the individualised, leave- and accommodation-neutral review
Meta's reply to the government notice over child sexual abuse material (CSAM) ads on Instagram has been received by Meity and is being examined, IT Secretary S Krishnan said on Monday, adding that appropriate action will be taken after examination. The government had issued a stern notice to Meta recently on Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram. MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) had ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting and facilitating access to CSEAM, and demanded a detailed explanation bound to a deadline. Within a few days of the notice, Meta outlined its efforts to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) across its apps, highlighting AI-powered detection and large-scale enforcement actions, and, in a blogpost, promised to continue investment in technology and resources to keep young people safe and strengthen its ad review processes. Krishnan said Monday that Meta's reply to the
Meta-owned WhatsApp has submitted its reply to the government's notice on the "username" feature and the response is being examined, sources said on Thursday. The Centre issued a notice to Meta last Wednesday, questioning the proposed username feature on WhatsApp, flagging concerns that it could materially increase incidents of online fraud, phishing, digital-arrest scams and impersonation attacks. The username feature essentially allows people on the messaging platform to communicate without sharing their phone numbers. The Centre had also directed the platform not to launch the feature until consultations on the issue were completed "to the satisfaction of the government". Subsequently, WhatsApp had sought some more time to submit its response on the "username" feature and assured the government that it would not roll it out in India until discussions were complete. The sources told PTI that WhatsApp's reply has indeed been received by the information technology ministry and the
The government has issued a stern notice to Meta on Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram, sources said on Sunday. The government has issued the notice on Saturday evening. "MeitY has ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting and facilitating access to CSEAM," the source said. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has also demanded a detailed explanation within 7 days.
Meta-owned WhatsApp has come out with a detailed set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the controversial username feature, outlining details on how it plans to address concerns around impersonation, scams and unwanted contact as users begin reserving usernames. The FAQs come amid the Centre's notice to Meta flagging concerns over potential fraud and impersonation risks, and warning against a roll out of the feature till consultations on the issue are completed "to the satisfaction of the government". Put simply, the new feature will allow users to create unique usernames that can be used for connecting on WhatsApp without sharing phone numbers. The FAQs say usernames will be optional, cannot be searched by strangers, and that users can add an additional 'username key' requiring both the username and the key before someone can contact them. WhatsApp said well-known names, including those of public figures, celebrities, government entities and Meta-verified accounts, have been