A Battle Over the Safety of Iowa's Corn Is Unfolding on Facebook
If you’re in Iowa, it may be time to arm up. It’s beginning to look like an all-out war is brewing online over the security of your corn.
Facebook Settles Shareholder Lawsuit Out of Court Just Days Before Trial
This Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg was expected to testify in court for the second time this year. His testimony might have helped determine if he and his company had breached their fiduciary duty to minority shareholders. But according to the Delaware Court of Chancery, the case has been canceled and settled out of court.…
Facebook Used an 'I Will Rape You' Image to Invite Users to Instagram
This is getting absolutely nuts. Just a week after Facebook got busted for allowing advertisers to target topics like “Jew haters” and “How to burn Jews,” a reporter found that the company used an image that said “I will rape you” to invite her friends to Instagram. There was a death threat in there, too.
Facebook Pledges to Share Russian Political Ads With Congress [Updated]
Facebook will share political ads linked to a Russian troll farm with Congress, in a reversal of its earlier claim that it could not share the ads because of its obligation to protect user privacy.
Here Are the First Hints of How Facebook Plans to Read Your Thoughts
Back in April, at Facebook’s annual developer conference, the company announced an ambitious—and very creepy!—plan to read its users’ minds. Facebook’s secretive hardware R&D division, Building 8, planned to develop its own “brain-to-computer interface” hardware that would allow a user to send words straight from her…
Why Mark Zuckerberg Is Headed to Court, Explained
On or shortly after this Tuesday in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, the founder and CEO of Facebook will take the stand for the second time this year. Unlike the intellectual property case against Zenimax that forced Facebook to cough up $500 million, Mark Zuckerberg stands to lose some of the control he’s maintained…
Mark Zuckerberg Is Still Pissed That We Know About His Army of Handlers
Facebook founder and NASCAR enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg likes a lot of things. He likes Facebook. He likes being in charge of Facebook. He even likes talking about how much he likes being in charge of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg does not, however, like it when reporters publish embarrassing but true details about how he…
Report: Peter Thiel Up for Key Intelligence Position, Wants to Limit Google's Power
According to a long-in-the-works report from Vanity Fair, Peter Thiel is in discussions to head what one insider described as the “only meaningful executive-branch oversight of the intelligence community.” Numerous officials, including Steve Bannon, confirmed this, and one of Thiel’s chief concerns is reportedly the…
Congress Wants New Rules for Online Political Advertising After Russian Facebook Ads
Democrats in the House and Senate are pushing the Federal Election Commission to develop new rules governing political advertising on social media after Facebook revealed that Russian trolls routinely purchased ads on its platform during the 2016 election cycle.
How Star Wars Is Expanding Its Online Presence With a New Science-Based Show
The Star Wars movies may get all the big headlines, but theaters are far from the only place the franchise is expanding. Official online video content has been growing in recent years and that continues today with the launch of a brand new show—one that highlights the power of Star Wars beyond just storytelling.
Why Do Facebook’s Algorithms Keep Abetting Racism? [Updated]
Call it algorithmic ignorance. Or maybe, algorithmic idiocy. On Thursday, Pro Publica uncovered that Facebook’s ad targeting system, which groups users together based on profile data, offered to sell ads targeting a demographic of Facebook users that self-reported as “Jew Haters.”
How Facebook Tricks You Into Trusting Algorithms
Mark Zuckerberg disingenuously poses as a friendly critic of algorithms. That’s how he implicitly contrasts Facebook with his rivals across the way at Google. Over in Larry Page’s shop, the algorithm is king, a cold, pulseless ruler. There’s not a trace of life force in its recommendations and very little apparent…
Facebook's 'Fake News' Solution Isn't Going to Solve the Problem
Ever since the term was popularized by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump—and subsequently appropriated by Democrats—the stupid controversy over “fake news” has become a swirling vortex of pointlessness that refuses to go all the way down the drain. Now everyone’s calling legitimate articles and opinion pieces…
If a Sketchy Russian Ad Network Promotes a Facebook Event, Will Anyone Show Up?
Last week, news broke a network of fake Russian trolls bought at least $100,000 in ads from Facebook between June 2015 and May 2017. The ads were sometimes politically themed and potentially reached tens of millions of Americans, raising questions about possible links to increasingly well-evidenced allegations of…
Senator Calls on Facebook to Release Political Ads Russians Spent $100K On
Social media companies need to start being more transparent about their roles in the U.S. presidential election, Sen. Mark Warner told reporters today. Twitter will need to explain to Congress how its platform was used by Russian trolls attempting to influence the U.S. presidential election, and Facebook ought to make…
Even Facebook’s Fact-Checkers Are Unhappy With Facebook’s Fact-Checking Process
Facebook outsourced its fake news problem, and it appears the company isn’t keeping its fact-checkers fully satisfied. According to a report from Politico, third-party fact-checkers want more internal data from Facebook both on how impactful their work is on the platform and also on which stories they should…
Russian Trolls Spent $100,000 on Facebook Ads Around the Election
Facebook announced today that it sold $100,000 worth of ads to a sketchy network of fake Russian accounts between June 2015 to May 2017, a period spanning the 2016 election cycle. The ads often mentioned particular political issues, like LGBT rights or gun control, but rarely mentioned a specific political candidate…
Finally, a Place to Watch Viral Garbage on the Internet
Facebook’s new platform for original programming, Watch, is now available for everyone in the US. Is it going to have the likes of YouTube or Hulu shaking in its boots? As it stands, nope. Extremely nope.
Instagram Done Got Hacked
Instagram, Facebook’s hotter, snootier subsidiary, may have a massive data breach on its hands.
