Page 27 - Facebook

Meta gears up for fine and ban in clash over EU-US data transfers

The Irish Data Protection Commission, the main EU privacy watchdog in charge of Meta's Facebook, will announce the decision next month, the company said in its quarterly report

Facebook parent Meta posts solid Q1 results, revenue up 3%; stock soars

Facebook parent company Meta's first-quarter results surpassed Wall Street's modest expectations on both profit and revenue, sending its stock soaring in after-hours trading. Meta also reported that the monthly user base of its flagship platform Facebook inched close to 3 billion. Meta Platforms Inc. said Wednesday it earned $5.71 billion, or $2.20 per share, in the January-March period. That's down 19% from $7.47 billion, or $2.72 per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 3% to $28.65 billion from $27.91 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $2.02 per share on revenue of $27.67 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Meta said it has substantially completed layoffs it first announced in 2022. It announced a second round of layoffs in March. Shares of the Menlo Park, California-based company rose $18.97, or 9.1%, to $228.37 in after-hours trading.

WhatsApp is now getting a feature Telegram has had for long. Details here

Telegram's 'Channels' feature has made it a useful tool for various individuals or organisations, and now Meta-owned WhatsApp is going to emulate it

Google, Meta, other Big Tech cos face UK crackdown as govt unveils new law

A new Digital Markets Unit in the nation's antitrust regulator will have powers imposing additional obligations on some of Silicon Valley's biggest companies

Facebook's $725 mn settlement: Users in the US can apply to claim money

A $725 million settlement was approved by a California judge between Meta and Facebook users

Fresh layoffs begin at Meta globally, technical employees most hit

Meta (formerly Facebook) has kicked off a fresh round of layoffs, handing over pink slips to employees with technical backgrounds globally

Meta prepares more layoffs across its platforms for 'greater efficiency'

Meta already cut about 13% of its workforce, or about 11,000 jobs, in November. It also extended a hiring freeze through the first quarter

Align with govt's vision to keep women, youth safe from harm: Irani to Meta

Companies like Meta should align with the central govt's vision to keep people, especially women and youth, safe online across cities and towns in India, Union Minister Smriti Irani said

WhatsApp's new feature to allow users share status updates to FB Stories

Meta-owned WhatsApp is reportedly developing a new feature, which will allow users to share their status updates to Facebook stories without leaving WhatsApp

Nothing innovative solution presented by NUE applicants, says RBI

Six New Umbrella Entity (NUE) hopefuls, including Facebook, Google and Amazon, have failed to present any innovative solution due to which efforts to build an alternative to the NPCI have not moved ahead, the RBI said on Thursday. A total of six consortiums which had the global tech majors teaming up with local entities including Axis Bank and ICICI Bank had applied in 2021 for the NUE licence. "Of the proposals that we have received, we did not quite see any innovative or infrastructural solution that had come up," Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar told reporters when asked about progress on the front. He said the RBI has had a look at the applications, and reminded that the central bank's objective was to get some innovations into the digital payments system which is already functioning well with efforts like Unified Payments Interface. "We wanted to bring in new ideas. We did not want something which is either incremental or a substitute of existing ideas or technologies," Sankar ..

Meta's artificial intelligence model can now make videos and illustrations

Meta's tool spins up surrealist videos from text prompts, another generates children's book illustrations from prose

Meta's Facebook to let you play games during video calls on Messenger

The tech giant said that there are 14 free-to-play games available in Messenger video calls on iOS, Android, and the web, with no installs required

Meta pauses hirings after mass layoffs, no longer listing remote positions

After laying off 21,000 employees in two job cut rounds, Meta is further looking to cut costs, and has reportedly plans to lower bonus payouts for some workers in its 'Year of Efficiency'

In a bid to cut costs, Meta looking to trim employee bonus payouts

After laying off 21,000 employees in two job cut rounds, Meta (formerly Facebook) is further looking to cut costs, and has reportedly plans lower bonus payouts for some workers

Meta 'optimistic and excited' about India, says Sandhya Devanathan

Amid the grim global economic scenario, social media platform Facebook's parent firm Meta sees resilience in India although it will not be immune to international events and the company is optimistic about the prospects in the country, company country Head and Vice-President, Sandhya Devanathan said on Tuesday. The company will continue to develop India specific products and innovations to tap the huge opportunity provided by digitisation here, she said while speaking at the Times Network India Digital Fest here. "The news is grim, isn't it? Like anytime you see there's a bank failing, be it SVB or Credit Suisse, interest rates are rising that causes more turmoil in the market, capital markets (are) drying up, VC funding drying up... So, I think the macroeconomic situation suddenly certainly looks grim," she said. She was responding to a query on the impact of global economic downturn and the drying up of funds and investments in the start-up ecosystem and the Indian tech sector. "

65% from 85%: Bonus slashed for Meta Platforms staff, says report

Meta gave thousands of employees subpar ratings in its most recent round of performance reviews, WSJ reported

Meta Platforms Inc sued by its home county over social media addiction

Issues around social media addiction were highlighted at a Congressional hearing Thursday

German group sues Facebook owner Meta over death threats on social network

A prominent German environmental group said Wednesday that it's suing Facebook's parent company Meta over persistent death threats posted on the social network against its staff. Environmental Action Germany, known by its German acronym DUH, says Meta has been unwilling to stop the threats of violence regularly directed at DUH director Juergen Resch and others in a Facebook group with more than 50,000 members. DUH has conducted high-profile campaigns demanding that German cities enforce air quality rules by banning certain heavily polluting vehicles. Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. German lawmaker Renate Kuenast won a case against Facebook last year forcing the company to remove fake quotes attributed to her from its site and pay damages. Facebook is appealing the ruling.

Meta rolling out its paid verification in US for Instagram, Facebook users

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company is rolling out its paid subscription plan for Facebook and Instagram to users based in the US

Microsoft AI Bing's new feature lets users share chat responses on Facebook

Tech giant Microsoft has introduced a new feature which allows users to share AI-powered Bing chat responses with others on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, email or using a persistent link