facebook News

Many people are deleting their Facebook accounts in the wake of the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the private data of 50 million Facebook users was collected and used to help the Trump and Brexit campaigns in 2016.  If you add third-party tracking, fake news, trolling, data theft and other potential risks associated with […]

Facebook is doing away with its disputed flags to help its members spot fake news. The system, Facebook News Feed product designer Jeff Smith said, simply was not working as the social networking firm had hoped. “After a year of testing and learning, we’re making a change to how we alert people when they see […]

Governments are increasingly seeking more and more user data from Facebook. The social networking company, in its latest Transparency Report, revealed that requests had risen globally by 21 percent — rising from 64,279 to 78,890 in the past six months. The U.S., in the past, has always submitted the most requests for user data and that did […]

Facebook is on the defensive after being criticized by scientists for changing the way people interact and socialize. The social networking firm, in a blog post, addressed concerns published by various scientific researchers that Facebook and other forms of social media isolate people from one another and, in many cases, replace real human interaction. Other […]

Facebook went on the defensive today, after derogatory comments about social media from investor and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya went public. Palihapitiya, while speaking recently at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, said the state of social media, particularly Facebook, “really bums me out.” He told the audience he feels”tremendous guilt” for helping to shape […]

Facebook is testing out some new ways to help you be more social. The social network has taken its inspiration from the long forgotten poke button to offer users new ways to greet one another. Users in Canada, the U.K., Australia, Columbia, France and Thailand can now send friends a wave, hug, wink, poke or high five. […]

Facebook is rolling out a parent-controlled version of its Messenger app for young children. Messenger Kids, which is available in preview mode in the U.S., is a standalone app for children’s tablets or Smartphones. The app is controlled from a parent’s Facebook account via the Messenger Kids Controls panel and gives parents the ability to […]

By Julia Angwin, ProPublica Facebook said it would temporarily stop advertisers from being able to exclude viewers by race while it studies the use of its ad targeting system. “Until we can better ensure that our tools will not be used inappropriately, we are disabling the option that permits advertisers to exclude multicultural affinity segments […]

Facebook is stepping up its efforts to get its members help if they are contemplating suicide. The social network is now using artificial intelligence (AI) worldwide to find posts or live videos in which someone is expressing suicidal thoughts. The goal of using AI is to find a suicidal post much quicker than waiting for friends […]

By Julia Angwin, Ariana Tobin and Madeleine Varner, ProPublica In February, Facebook said it would step up enforcement of its prohibition against discrimination in advertising for housing, employment or credit. But our tests showed a significant lapse in the company’s monitoring of the rental market. Last week, ProPublica bought dozens of rental housing ads on Facebook, but asked that they […]