Facebook

To help Facebook users better distinguish satire media from real news in the future, the social medium is now introducing a matching marker. Facebook announced the feature on Wednesday, rolling it out only in the U.S. for now.Satire, officials and fans

Posts that originate from officials, fan pages and satire pages will also be marked as such in the future. Some users seem to fall for contributions from satirical magazines like "The Onion" in particular, as they imitate the tone of real news media. Last year, such markings were already introduced for state-controlled media.

Facebook ran its first public beta test of Hotline — a web-based Q&A platform that seems like it was dreamed up as the platform’s answer to the current voice chat app craze started by Clubhouse.

Creators will address an audience of users, who will then be able to respond by asking questions with either text or audio. Unlike Clubhouse - which is strictly an audio-only platform - Hotline users will have the option to turn their cameras on during events, adding a visual element to an otherwise voice-dominated experience.

The details of over 500 million different Facebook accounts have been found on a website available for hackers.

When first reported by Business Insider, it is said that the information may be a couple of years old.

The information available includes phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses

Unlike the Clubhouse rivals being built by Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn believes its audio networking feature will be differentiated because it will be connected with users' professional identity, not just a social profile. This focus on creators puts LinkedIn on a competitive footing in terms of expanding its own Clubhouse rival, compared with other efforts by Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, or Discord - all of which have their own audio-based networking features in various stages of development at this time.

The Brazilian Central Bank granted on March 30th operating authorizations that allow the carrying out of bank transfers by WhatsApp. According to the model authorized by the Central Bank, WhatsApp will only initiate transactions between customer accounts at the financial institutions in which they are account holders. Also, according to the BC, transactions can be made from the date when WhatsApp makes the functionality available to the customer and the rate charged for the bank transaction will be defined by the application. In a press release, the Central Bank estimated that the measure could lead to a reduction in the costs of financial transactions.

Facebook has frozen the page of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a company spokesperson said, after the leader was accused of violating the platform's policies about the spread of Covid-19 misinformation.

A spokesperson for the company also told the AFP news agency that a video from Maduro's page had been removed "for violating our policies against misinformation about Covid-19 that is likely to put people at risk for harm".

Linktree, one of the most popular “link in bio” services with more than 12 million users, announced today it had raised $45 million in Series B funding. The Sydney, Australia-based startup latest funding will be used on tools that make social commerce easier.

Founded in 2016, Linktree is used for bio links by Shopify, Facebook, TikTok, YSL, HBO and Major League Baseball, and celebrities like Jonathan Van Ness, Jamie Oliver and Pharrell.

A popular Polish writer is facing a potential sentence of up to three years in prison for calling Polish President Andrzej Duda a "moron" on social media.

Jakub Zulczyk wrote on Facebook on Monday that a district prosecutor in Warsaw had filed an indictment against him based on an article in the penal code that makes it a crime to insult the head of state.

Duda's spokesman, Blazej Spychalski, told the Interia news site Tuesday that neither the president nor his office were parties in the matter and had made no request for the writer to be charged.

The LAPD sexual assault division launched an investigation into an allegation of rape made against actor Armie Hammer. A 24-year-old woman, identified only as Effie, has come forward, alleging Hammer violently raped her for over four hours in Los Angeles on April 24, 2017. Effie and Hammer met on Facebook when she was 20 and were in an on-and-off relationship between 2016 and 2020, during which Hammer allegedly abused her "mentally, emotionally and sexually."

"During those four hours, I tried to get away, but he wouldn’t let me. I thought he was going to kill me. Then [he] left with no concern for my well-being," she said Thursday during a press conference.

Hammer has denied the allegations, and his attorney stated that all his relationships "have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory" and that Effie's "own correspondence with Mr Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations."

Facebook is building a version of the photo-sharing tool Instagram specifically for children under the age of 13, an effort to get its popular products into the hands of the next generation of internet users. Instagram, bought by Facebook almost a decade ago for $1 billion, has become one of its most popular products at a time when its main social networking property has failed to resonate with some younger users.

The new project will be overseen by the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri and led by Vice President Pavni Diwanji. BuzzFeed notes that Instagram had just this week published a blog post addressing bullying among its younger teenage users. "To address this challenge, we're developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help us keep teens safer and apply new age-appropriate features."

According to documents obtained by The Washington Post from an internal investigation at Facebook, 111 users were responsible for half of all anti-vaccination content on the U.S. part of Facebook. Besides, there might be a significant overlap between communities that are sceptical of vaccines and those affiliated with QAnon.

Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever has stated that "Public health experts have made it clear that tackling vaccine hesitancy is a top priority in the COVID response, which is why we’ve launched a global campaign that has already connected 2 billion people to reliable information from health experts and remove false claims about COVID and vaccines,"

Facebook is teaming up with News Corp Australia with a three-year partnership that was announced on Monday. It will allow content from much of Rupert Murdoch's local media empire to be featured on Facebook. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The agreement adds to a stream of new partnerships News Corp has signed in Australia in recent weeks.

In a statement Monday, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson alluded to the firm's longtime battle, arguing that "Rupert and [co-chairman] Lachlan Murdoch led a global debate while others in our industry were silent or supine."

Facebook has announced that it is working closely with "national and global health authorities" to help its users "get credible information, get vaccinated and come back together safely." The company further added it will add labels o all Covid-19 vaccine posts "to show additional information from the World Health Organization."

Russia's media regulator says it will block Twitter if it does not remove 'illegal' content. The measures will only apply to images and video, not text. The regulator cites 2,569 cases of users inciting minors to commit suicide and 149 cases of child pornography.

In December, the Russian Parliament's lower house passed two bills that would give the state greater power to punish Facebook and Twitter companies.

Twitter announced new features: With the so-called Super Follows, exclusive content is coming to the platform for which users can pay money. But that is not all.

Until now, Twitter has been a fairly public platform - anyone and everyone can read everything, regardless of whether they have an account themselves. At this year's Virtual Analyst Day, the short message service has now announced a partial departure from this course. In addition, a communities feature is being planned that is reminiscent of the well-known Facebook groups.

Australia's government has passed a new law that will require tech giants such as Facebook and Google to pay publishers for using their news content. Market regulator Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) publishers have had little negotiating power until now because they are so reliant on tech monopolies like Google and Facebook.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and communications minister Paul Fletcher announced on Tuesday a compromise had been reached as the legislation that would force Facebook and Google to pay news publishers for content was being debated in the Senate. Frydenberg said Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg had told him the ban would end "in the coming days" after the pair talked.

Australian authorities will introduce four further amendments, including one that means the government may not apply the code to Facebook if it can demonstrate a "significant contribution" to local journalism.

The proposed law was also seen by some as heavily influenced by the lobbying operations of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp - which owns many of Australia's major newspapers.

The Australian government in Canberra announced on Sunday that it will no longer run ads on Facebook. The announcement came at the launch of Australia's vaccination campaign against the coronavirus. Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government would advertise vaccinations on the internet, just not on Facebook.

The dispute is triggered by a planned law to regulate the digital news market. The bill had been passed by the Australian lower house last week. The Senate is scheduled to vote on it by the end of this week.

Facebook is coming under increasing pressure over its dispute with the Australian government. Canada announced similar action against the platform as Australia. Canadian Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault sharply criticized Facebook and stressed that his country will not be brought to its knees. The occasion is the company's decision to block all news content in Australia

Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Jack Dorsey will testify in a hearing on misinformation and disinformation on online platforms before US House lawmakers on March 25.

"Whether it be falsehoods about the Covid-19 vaccine or debunked claims of election fraud, these online platforms have allowed misinformation to spread, intensifying national crises with real-life, grim consequences for public health and safety," so the Committee's chairs. "For far too long, big tech has failed to acknowledge the role they’ve played in fomenting and elevating blatantly false information to its online audiences. Industry self-regulation has failed. We must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation."