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Meta to face lawsuits as states' claim it hooked kids to social media

The social media companies also face hundreds of lawsuits by public school districts alleging the platforms have created a public nuisance

Decoded: WhatsApp 2021 privacy policy is back to haunt Meta over CCI probe

A probe into the matter has concluded that WhatsApp and Meta violated competition law by abusing their dominant position in the market

PwC India collaborates with Meta to expand open-source AI solutions

PwC India has announced a collaboration with Meta to expand and scale its open-source AI solutions to enterprises and citizen services on Meta's Llama models. This collaboration will promote the adoption of the Llama open-source platform and help PwC develop innovative solutions powered by Generative AI (GenAI) on a global scale, the consultancy firm said in a release. In light of the Indian government's announcement to launch the IndiaAI Mission and its investment in building a robust AI ecosystem, the moment is ideal for businesses to harness the potential of GenAI, it added. "With Llama Models, we see a unique opportunity to democratise this technology across industries, and drive innovation while solving real-world challenges. Together, we aspire to create a more digitally enabled future for our clients and our communities - to create value and drive meaningful change at scale," Sanjeev Krishan, Chairperson of PwC India, said. The collaboration will help PwC India and Meta to .

Social media users in Europe get forum to challenge content decisions

Social media users in the European Union will soon have a new forum to challenge decisions by platforms to remove posts and videos for breaking their rules or leave up others that may violate them. An out of court dispute settlement body named the Appeals Centre Europe said Tuesday it has been certified by Irish regulators to act as a referee on content moderation disputes across the 27-nation EU, starting with cases involving Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. The centre is similar to Meta's Oversight Board, a quasi-independent body set up in 2020 that acts like a supreme court for thorny decisions about content moderation issues on Facebook, Instagram and Threads submitted by users around the world. Under the EU's digital rulebook known as the Digital Services Act, or DSA, tech companies and social media platforms are required to work with dispute settlement bodies and comply with any decisions they make. EU officials in Brussels wanted to give EU citizens a way to challenge any ...

Meta announces 'Movie Gen' AI model: What is it, how it works, and more

Movie Gen AI model can generate videos of up to 16 seconds in 1080p resolution and also produce background audio for videos, said Meta

Meta unveils AI tool that can generate, edit videos based on text prompts

Meta's product, Movie Gen, can create a new video up to 16 seconds long based on a text prompt. It can also use such prompts to generate audio for or edit an existing video

Meta must limit data use for targeted advertising, rules top EU court

Schrems took his grievance to an Austrian court, saying he had been targeted by advertisements as a result of Meta's personalised advertising based on processing personal data

Mark Zuckerberg replaces Jeff Bezos as second richest person in the world

Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook (now rebranded as Meta) in 2004. Meta also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, two highly successful communication platforms

CIA makes it easier, safer for potential informants to share tips

The CIA wants to make it easier -- and safer -- for people in Iran, China and North Korea to share information with the US's premier spy agency. The agency on Wednesday posted online instructions in Korean, Mandarin and Farsi detailing steps that potential informants can take to contact US intelligence officials without putting themselves in danger. The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the Internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user's identity. The CIA posted similar instructions in Russian two years ago following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "People are trying to reach out to us from around the world and we are offering them instructions for how to do that safely," the agency said in a statement. "Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we're open for business." The tips, presented in ...

Meta, Australian banks show progress on taking down 'celeb bait' scam ads

The scams use images of famous people, often generated by artificial intelligence, to trick consumers into giving money to non-existent investment schemes

Amazon wins partial dismissal of US antitrust lawsuit for illegal monopoly

Last year, the FTC alleged Amazon.com, which has 1 billion items in its online superstore, was using an algorithm that pushed up prices US households paid by more than $1 billion

Meta looks to expand production of mixed reality headsets in Vietnam

Meta also said it would soon begin testing Meta AI in Vietnamese, having started its Business AI for Messenger testing in the country in June, with its full launch by the end of this year

Mark Zuckerberg enters $200 billion club, becomes world's fourth-richest

Mark Zuckerberg's rapid climb in wealth is largely fuelled by his 13 per cent stake in Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp

Meta launches 'most advanced' glasses. Will they replace smartphones?

Meta cites a range of reasons for why Orion are the world's most advanced glasses, such as their miniaturised technology with large fields of view and holographic displays

EU hits Meta with $102 mn privacy fine over 2019 password security lapse

Meta was punished Friday with a fine worth more than USD 100 million from the social media giant's European Union privacy regulator over a security lapse involving passwords for Facebook users. The Irish Data Protection Commission said it slapped the US tech company with the 91 million euro (USD 101.6 million) penalty following an investigation. The watchdog started investigating in 2019 after it was notified by Meta that some passwords had been inadvertently stored internally in plain text, which means they weren't encrypted and it was possible for employees to search for them. Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said it's widely accepted that user passwords should not be stored in plain text, "considering the risks of abuse. Meta said a security review found that a subset of Facebook users' passwords were temporarily logged in a readable format. We took immediate action to fix this error, and there is no evidence that these passwords were abused or accessed improperly, the company

Meta Connect: Meta AI now has voice and can analyse and edit shared images

In addition to new Meta AI features, Meta is now testing AI-generated content on Instagram and Facebook feeds, tailored to users' interests and "current trends"

Meta Connect: Orion AR glasses, cheaper Quest 3S headset, and more unveiled

Meta at its Connect 2024 showcase said that the Orion glasses are its most advanced AR glasses, featuring transparent lenses that do not obstruct visuals while interacting with a virtual overlay

WhatsApp to introduce chat bubble and background customisation with themes

WhatsApp is reportedly working on 11 chat themes for Android, offering different colours and wallpapers

Facebook owner Meta bans Russia state media over 'foreign interference'

Meta said it's banning Russia state media organisation from its social media platforms, alleging that the outlets used deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow's propaganda. The announcement drew a rebuke from the Kremlin on Tuesday. The company, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said late Monday that it will roll out the ban over the next few days in an escalation of its efforts to counter Russia's covert influence operations. After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity," Meta said in a prepared statement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lashed out, saying that such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable, and that Meta with these actions are discrediting themselves. We have an extremely negative attitude towards this. And this, of course, complicates the prospects for normalizing ou

Kara Swisher's memoir offers vivid, unflattering sketches of tech moguls

The book is well written and the author has managed to take the reader on an entertaining gallop across the tech landscape