by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Reports, Markets, Social Media, World
Washington : Facebook is negotiating a multi-billion dollar fine with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the social media giant’s past privacy practices.
According to a report in The Washington Post on Thursday, the specific amount is yet to be determined but it would be the largest fine the FTC has ever levied on a tech company.
“If talks break down, the FTC could take the matter to court in what would likely be a bruising legal fight,” said the report.
Facebook confirmed it was in discussions with the FTC but declined to comment further.
The largest fine ever imposed by the FTC to safeguard consumers’ data was a $22.5 million penalty that Google paid in 2012.
The FTC opened its probe into Facebook in March 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that breached the privacy of 87 million users came into light.
“Facebook faces a moment of reckoning and the only way it will come is through an FTC order with severe penalties and other sanctions that stop this kind of privacy misconduct going forward,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) was quoted as saying.
Consumer advocates have urged the FTC to fine Facebook exceeding $2 billion.
Washington DC’s top prosecutor Karl Racine has also sued Facebook in the first significant US move to punish the firm for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook is currently being probed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FTC and the Department of Justice.
In the UK, the company was fined 500,000 pounds over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the maximum fine the British data regulator can impose.
Bigger trouble may arise from the Irish data protection regulator, which is investigating Facebook for multiple admissions of security flaws, in what is being seen as the first major test of Europe’s new privacy rules as dictated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology, World
Moscow : Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor has said that it will punish Twitter and Facebook if they decline to move the database of Russian users to Russia.
“The companies will either have to localise the databases within a certain period of time, which I suppose will be about nine months, or they will be punished,” Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.
He expects Twitter and Facebook representatives to meet with Roskomnadzor officials in Moscow by the end of February to discuss the issue.
Russian legislation requires Internet service providers to store and process personal data of Russians on the territory of Russia.
Roskomnadzor has the right to impose fines on or even block Internet companies for their violations.
In December, it fined Google 500,000 rubles (around USD 7,625) for failing to remove search links to banned information.
Last year, Roskomnadzor attempted to block instant messaging app Telegram in Russia due to its refusal to provide user data, but failed for technical reasons.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Markets, Social Media, Technology
New Delhi : With the general elections just months away in India, Facebook on Monday added five new partners including the India Today Group to its third-party fact-checking programme aimed at reducing the spread of false news on its platform.
With the addition of the new partners, Facebook has expanded the programme to three new languages.
The new partners – India Today Group, Vishvas.news, Factly, Newsmobile and Fact Crescendo – will review news stories on Facebook for facts, and rate their accuracy starting on Monday, Facebook said.
Along with its existing partners BOOM Live and AFP, the Facebook partners will be doing fact checking in six languages including English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi.
“We are excited to announce new partners including some leading traditional media to our fact checking programme in India. We are committed to fighting the spread of false news on Facebook, especially ahead of the 2019 general election campaign season,” Manish Khanduri, News Partnership Head, Facebook India, said in a statement.
When a fact-checker rates a story as false, the social network shows it lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution.
The social media giant warned that Pages and domains that repeatedly share false news will also see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetise and advertise removed.
“In our past experience, once a story is rated as false, we’ve been able to reduce its distribution by 80 per cent,” Facebook said.
Facebook recently introduced the ability for checkers to review photos and videos to help identify and take action against more types of misinformation.
Although false news does not violate its community standards, it may still be removed if it violates Facebook’s policies in other categories, such as spam, hate speech or fake accounts.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate Jobs, Employment, Markets, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology, World
San Francisco : Facebook will now incentivise its 36,000 employees on how they are contributing to social causes and helping the company tackle issues like spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platform.
Going beyond metrics like user growth and product quality to decide on employee bonuses, the social media giant will now see how the workers reflect the company’s updated priorities for 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a meeting at his headquarters on Tuesday, a day after Facebook celebrated its 15th anniversary.
“Previously, Facebook’s employee bonus formula was based on six factors, including user growth, increased sharing by users, and improvements in product quality. Now the company is adjusting its bonus calculations to better reflect its updated goals,” said a Fortune report.
Those updated goals include making progress on the social issues Facebook is facing, building services that improve people’s lives, supporting businesses and being more transparent about the role Facebook plays in the world.
“Over the past two years, we’ve fundamentally changed how we run Facebook. This particular change is designed to ensure that we are incentivising people to keep making progress on the major social issues facing the internet and our company,” the company said in a statement.
Zuckerberg in his New Year statement had said that his personal challenge for 2019 will be to “host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society — the opportunities, the challenges, the hopes, and the anxieties”.
“We’ve fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we’re investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect,” he said after Facebook on January 30 announced record revenue of $16.91 billion in the fourth quarter ending December 31.
Facebook now has a monthly active user base of 2.32 billion and daily active users base of 1.52 billion.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Finding Customers, Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : Despite facing intense scrutiny over data privacy, Facebook stock rose 12 per cent after it logged a record revenue of $16.91 billion — up from $12.97 billion in the year-ago period — in the fourth quarter that ended December 31.
The social media giant now has 2.32 billion monthly active users (MAUs) globally — an increase of 9 per cent (year-over-year) — and 1.52 billion daily active users (DAUs), also an increase of 9 per cent, the company said in a statement late Wednesday.
“Our community and business continue to grow. We’ve fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we’re investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO.
Facebook reported $6.88 billion in net income which amounts to $2.38 a share — up from $1.44 a share in the year-ago period. The full year revenue stood at $55.8 billion — up from $40.6 billion in 2017.
Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 93 per cent of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018, up from approximately 89 per cent of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2017.
“We estimate that around 2.7 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger each month, and more than 2 billion people use at least one of our family of services every day on average,” said the company that added 1 million daily users in Canada and the US.
Capital expenditures were $4.37 billion and $13.92 billion for the fourth quarter and full year 2018, respectively.
—IANS
