Page 6 - Metaverse

US Supreme Court allows multibillion-dollar class action against Meta

The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place. The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward. Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016. Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say. Meta already has paid a USD 5.1 billion fine and reached

No inherent conflict between competition, data protection laws, says CCI

The Competition Act supplements data protection regulations by placing heightened responsibilities on dominant firms and there is no inherent conflict or repugnancy between the two laws, according to fair trade watchdog CCI. Besides, the regulator has said a broader view of the concept of user data is crucial in analysing data-related competition concerns in digital markets. The observations are part of the Competition Commission of India's 156-page order imposing a Rs 213.14 crore penalty on social media major Meta for unfair business ways with respect to WhatsApp privacy policy update done in 2021. Elucidating about user data in digital markets, CCI said data-related practices might violate data protection laws but they can also be seen as the imposition of unfair terms under competition law. "This overlap creates a point of intersection between data protection and competition law, with each addressing different aspects of harm. Further, while data protection laws primarily focus

Meta to appeal US court orders allowing suits over social media addiction

In the states' case, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided with 34 attorneys general who filed claims over allegedly harmful effects of the Facebook and Instagram platforms

EU slaps Meta with 800 mn euro fine over 'abusive' Marketplace practices

European Union regulators hit Facebook parent Meta with a fine of nearly 800 million euros on Thursday for what they call abusive practices involving its Marketplace online classified ads business. The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, issued the 797.72 million euro ($841 million) penalty after its long-running investigation found that the company abused its dominant position and engaged in anti-competitive behaviour. Brussels had accused Meta of distorting competition by tying its online classified ad business to its social network, automatically exposing Facebook users to Marketplace whether they want it or not" and shutting out competitors. It was also concerned that Meta was imposing unfair trading conditions with a terms of service that authorised the company to use ad-related data generated from competitors who advertise on Facebook or Instagram to benefit Marketplace. Meta said in a statement that the decision fails to .

S Korea fines Meta $15 mn for illegally collecting info from Facebook users

South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers. It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information. Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022. It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers. South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, politic

China adapts Meta's AI model for military use amid US security concerns

The research signals that military analysts within China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are exploring open-source LLMs, especially those from Meta, as potential tools for defence-related application

Meta building AI search engine to cut reliance on Google, Bing: Report

Meta's web crawler will provide conversational answers to users about current events on Meta AI, the company's chatbot on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, according to the report

'Mental health crisis': Meta, Google & TikTok to face addiction claims

The ruling Thursday by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, follows a contrasting June 7 decision by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in favour of the companies

Govt asks Meta, X to share data on hoax bomb-threat calls: Report

Taking hoax bomb-threat messages and calls seriously, the government has started identifying those behind the menace and asked social media platforms like Meta and X to share data on such messages, sources said. The government has also asked top multinational technology conglomerates to cooperate with it in helping identifying those behind such hoax calls, saying this involves public good. Top sources said the government has traced some people who were behind hoax bomb-threat calls targeting airlines and that action is being taken accordingly. The government sources did not provide any further details on where these hoax calls and messages came from and who were behind those. "The government has told social media companies Meta and X to share data pertaining to such hoax calls and messages made on their platforms targeting several airlines and asked them to cooperate," a senior official said. "They will have to cooperate and provide data since this involves public good at large," h

India holds immense potential in shaping future of AI: Meta's Yann LeCun

LeCun also said that AI won't take over humans, but will amplify human intelligence

Celeb-bait ads make Meta turn to facial recognition tech to combat scams

Global launch to help with faster account recovery

Meta launches initiative with Centre to empower Indians against scams

Kicking off the national campaign, Meta has released an educational film featuring Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana

Meta lays off employees across units at WhatsApp, Instagram, Reality Labs

These terminations are separate from the team restructurings and took place last week

Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, turns nail artist for daughter, video goes viral

Mark Zuckerberg shared a touching video on Instagram where he could be seen painting his daughter's nails while using Meta's Quest 3S headset, proudly showcasing his "dad skills"

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

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

The consultancy firm stated that the collaboration would help PwC India and Meta "democratise" Generative AI (GenAI) and make it more accessible to businesses by jointly building

Google defends ad tech as safe, says it's competitive with Meta, Amazon

In a federal antitrust trial, enforcers allege that Google has monopolised the technology used to buy and sell website ads

AI Alliance adds 7 Indian members including Infosys, AI4Bharat & Sarvam AI

Founded in 2023, the group aims to promote open, safe, and responsible artificial intelligence practices globally

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

Instagram rolls out teen accounts with parental controls as scrutiny mounts

Users of such accounts can only be messaged and tagged by accounts they follow or are already connected to, while sensitive content settings will be dialed to the most restrictive available