Page 7 - Metaverse

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

MeitY urges swift removal of fake content by intermediaries after HC order

The Bombay High Court ordered the deletion of false information following the circulation of fake videos featuring NSE's MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan

Meta, Telangana govt partnership for e-gov, citizen svcs leveraging AI tech

Social media giant Meta on Thursday announced a two-year partnership with the Telangana government aimed at enhancing e-governance and citizen services using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. According to a release, the strategic partnership will empower public officials and citizens with the latest emerging technologies like AI to enhance e-governance and citizen services. "Advancing ongoing efforts to foster innovation in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Meta today announced a two-year partnership with the Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications (IT, E&C), Government of Telangana," the release said. Meta will partner with the Telangana government to enable deployment of e-governance solutions leveraging Meta's open-source generative AI technologies including the latest 'Llama 3.1 model'. This will be focused towards transforming various aspects of public service delivery and e-governance, along with enhancing efficiency and ...

Meta AI alerts Lucknow police, saves woman from committing suicide

Social media company Meta AI saved the life of a woman who was attempting to commit suicide here, as she was allegedly upset over being abandoned by her husband, a police official said. The police have arrested the 23-year-old husband of the woman. According to the police, the woman, 21, was going to commit suicide. She made a video with a noose around her neck and posted it on social media. While the video was going viral, the Social Media Centre of the office of the Directorate General of Police received an alert from Meta and the police became active. They immediately reached the spot after locating the village and stopped the girl from committing suicide. ACP Mohanlalganj Rajneesh Verma told PTI Videos, "On Saturday, around noon, an alert was received from Meta AI at the Social Media Centre of the office of the Director General of Police that a young woman was hanging from a noose. Immediately acting on the information, a police team reached the spot and rescued her safely." W