• Facebook, Instagram services restored after widespread outages

    More than half a million users across the globe reported issues earlier in the day, with many saying they were booted out of the social media platforms and unable to log back in. The most frequently reported problems by users were with logging into the Facebook app and issues with...
  • Australian media hits back as Facebook scraps news deals

    Meta said on Friday it would scrap the Facebook News tab in Australia and would not renew deals with news publishers worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The social media giant said its decision to pull the plug on the news deal was based on people not going to Facebook...
  • Facebook parent Meta to stop paying Australian news media

    Meta had previously announced it would not renew content deals with news publishers in the United States, Britain, France and Germany. The social media giant had been pushed into paying for news by governments hoping to level the media playing field and support struggling news firms.
  • Meta chief discusses AI risks with Japan PM during Asia tour

    The 39-year-old mixed business with pleasure while in Japan, going skiing with his family and learning about sword-making from a master craftsman. Zuckerberg arrived in Seoul on a private flight on Tuesday night for the second leg of his Asia trip and is expected to meet South Korean President Yoon...
  • EU excuses Apple and Microsoft products from tougher tech curbs

    Brussels, Belgium - Apple's iMessage and Microsoft's Bing search engine got a reprieve from tougher EU rules curbing how tech titans do business, the European Commission said on Tuesday. From next month, the world's biggest digital firms, identified as "gatekeepers" by the EU, must comply with strict do's and don'ts under...
  • Egypt forms review team on restoring pyramid after outcry

    Cairo, Egypt - Egypt's antiquities ministry said on Saturday it was setting up a committee to review the restoration of Giza's Menkaure Pyramid after a public outcry over the project. A week ago, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, posted a Facebook video showing workers setting blocks...
  • Most markets advance after tech titans fuel Wall Street surge

    Shares in Amazon, Apple and Facebook owner Meta all climbed during Thursday's session. All three companies were due to report results after the market closed
  • Cairo arts center razed for Old City makeover

    Cairo, Egypt - Nestled in the heart of the historic capital here, a cultural center synonymous with the city's art scene has been razed, the latest heritage site torn down for contentious development projects. Authorities have been aggressively remaking parts of Cairo, a longtime cultural beacon of the Arab world, to...
  • Rights group slams Meta for silencing pro-Palestinian voices

    "Meta's censorship of content in support of Palestine adds insult to injury at a time of unspeakable atrocities and repression already stifling Palestinians' expression," said Deborah Brown, acting associate director of HRW's technology and human rights division. On Tuesday, Meta's independent oversight board had already criticized the social media titan...
  • X users report global outage: monitoring site

    With no way to post on X, social media users published updates about the outage on rivals including Facebook, Threads, and Reddit. The platform resumed service for users in multiple countries shortly after 0640 GMT. At the outage's peak, Downdetector indicated that about 67,000 US users reported problems.
  • Vietnam TikTok entrepreneurs turn job losses into livestream gains

    Bac Giang, Vietnam - Vi Thi Anh spent half a decade doing monotonous low-paid work in industrial hubs near Vietnam's capital Hanoi, assembling mobile phones for global electronics companies including Samsung. Then she discovered she could earn vastly more hawking food products to thousands of followers as one of the country's...
  • Meta encrypting Messenger and Facebook chats

    Ramped up defenses against snooping that include disappearing messages come as the US company defends against lawsuits accusing it of being misleading about safety at its family of apps and of being a "breeding ground" for predators who target children. Meta worked closely with outside experts, academics, advocates, and governments...
  • Meta releases advertisement-free plan for users in Europe

    "To comply with evolving European regulations, we are introducing a new subscription option in the EU, EEA (European Economic Area) and Switzerland," it said in a statement.
  • Meta quarterly profit jumps but it sees volatility in ad market

    The number of people using Facebook monthly rose slightly to 3.05 billion in a year-over-year comparison while monthly active users of Meta's "family" of apps was 3.96 billion in a 7 percent increase from the same quarter in 2022, the company reported. Meta had suffered a rough 2022 amid a...
  • Israeli Arabs face arrests and sackings as Gaza war escalates

    Abir Bakr, a lawyer for Palestinian singer Dalal Abu Amneh who was arrested briefly four days ago, told AFP her client "went to the police station to file a complaint after she received hundreds of messages in both English and Arabic threatening her and her family with death".
  • Tech firms struggle as Israel-Gaza falsehoods explode

    While major world events typically trigger a deluge of falsehoods, researchers say the scale and speed with which misinformation proliferated online following the weekend's deadly assault on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas was unlike ever before. The conflict, experts say, offers a grim case study of the diminished...
  • X removes headlines from news articles shared by users

    The changes brought a good deal of criticism, journalist Tom Warren of The Verge website posting on X: "It's the latest in a long line of dumb changes on this platform."
  • Libya resumes flights to Italy after nearly 10 years of EU ban

    Tripoli, Libya - A Rome-bound aircraft departed on Saturday from Libya's capital, restarting flights to Italy after a nearly decade-long suspension due to an EU ban, authorities in Tripoli said. The European Union in 2014 halted flights operated by Libyan airlines and banned them from entering member states' airspace, as the...
  • Apple, Facebook among tech giants to face tough new EU curbs

    The European Commission, the EU's powerful antitrust body, named 22 "core platform" services belonging to five US tech behemoths identified as "gatekeepers" -- Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft -- and China's ByteDance. The services included Apple's App Store; Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp; Google's YouTube video platform and...
  • Nobel Foundation withdraws invitation to Russia, Belarus envoys

    Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook that the foundation should support efforts to isolate Russia and Belarus as "millions of Ukrainians suffer from an unprovoked war and the Russian regime is not punished for its crimes". Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also said he disagreed with the...
  • All eyes on tech firms as strict EU digital rules come into effect

    The landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) compels tech companies to better police content to protect European users against disinformation and hate speech. And it also demands the firms are more transparent about their services, algorithms and how ads are targeted. "These systemic platforms play a very, very important role in...
  • Google unveils changes before strict EU rules kick in

    EU rules will apply from Friday to Google, alongside 18 other large social media platforms and websites including Meta-owned Instagram, Twitter (rebranded as X) and TikTok, forcing the companies to better police content, or face the risk of billions of euros in fines. Among the Google products listed were YouTube,...
  • Facebook and Instagram users in Europe to have greater viewing control

    One of the changes announced by Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, includes giving European users of Facebook and Instagram the option to view different types of content not based on profiling, a requirement under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).
  • Norway to fine Meta $100,000 a day for flouting user data ban

    Oslo, Norway - Norway's data protection agency said Tuesday it would start fining Facebook and Instagram owner Meta nearly $100,000 per day for defying a ban on using users' personal information to target ads. The Norwegian watchdog, Datatilsynet, said Meta would be fined one million kroner ($97,000) per day, starting August...
  • Meta to seek user permission for targeted advertisement

    European regulators in January had dismissed the previous legal basis -- "legitimate interest" -- Meta had used to justify gathering users' personal data for targeted advertising.
  • Meta posts big earnings

    It posted a profit of US$7.8bn in the recently ended quarter.
  • Norway threatens $100,000 daily fine on Meta over use of personal data

    The Norwegian watchdog, Datatilsynet, said Meta uses information such as the location of users, the content they like and their posts for marketing purposes. "The Norwegian Data Protection Authority considers that the practice of Meta is illegal and is therefore imposing a temporary ban of behavioural advertising on Facebook and...
  • Twitter has lost half its advertising revenue, says Musk

    Twitter owner Elon Musk said Saturday that the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last October has lost roughly half of its advertising revenue. "We're still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load," the billionaire said in a post, responding to...
  • Facebook hands US users controls over fact-checked content

    For years, Facebook's algorithm automatically moved posts lower in the feed if they were flagged by one of the platform's third-party fact-checking partners, including AFP, reducing the visibility of false or misleading content. Under a new "content reduced by fact-checking" option that now appears in Facebook's settings, users have flexibility...
  • Hours after Threads takes off, Elon Musk threatens lawsuit

    Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of the world's biggest social media platforms, despite its struggles. Zuckerberg's latest move against Musk further heightened the rivalry between the two multibillionaires.
  • Meta launches Twitter rival Threads, 10m sign-ups in first few hours

    More than 10 million people have signed up to Threads, Meta's rival to Twitter, within the first few hours of its launch, the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 2300 GMT on Wednesday, and will run with...
  • Twitter undergoes complex changes as Meta all set to unveil rival app

    PARIS, FRANCE- Elon Musk spent the weekend further alienating Twitter users with more drastic changes to the social media giant, and he is facing a new challenge as tech nemesis Mark Zuckerberg prepares to launch a rival app this week. Zuckerberg's Meta group, which owns Facebook, has listed a new app...
  • Facebook owner Meta to launch Twitter-like ‘Threads’ app

    Thread's launch comes after a period of uncertainty at Twitter since Tesla owner Elon Musk took over in October, with the billionaire restructuring the company, firing thousands and placing many features behind a subscription paywall. Threads will enable users to "connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love...
  • Musk, Zuckerberg seek cage fight to settle differences

    Months after Musk took over Twitter, Zuckerberg's Meta hinted it was planning to launch its own text-based social media platform - essentially a direct rival.
  • Meta fined record $1.3bn over EU user data transfer to US

    Meta said it was "disappointed to have been singled out" and the ruling was "flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies". "We intend to appeal both the decision's substance and its orders including the fine," Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg and chief legal...
  • BT to axe 55,000 employees

    BT employs 130,000 staff, including contractors.
  • Iranians take up homegrown apps as Western apps are banned

    Iranians are accustomed to using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to evade restrictions and access prohibited websites or apps, including the US-owned Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The authorities went as far as imposing total internet blackouts during the protests that erupted after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, following...
  • China-based networks sowing disinformation in West: Meta

    The network's social media accounts -- which ranged from Facebook to YouTube, Telegram and Twitter -- pushed content focusing on incendiary political issues in Europe and the United States, according to Meta. While Meta had taken down some of the accounts, much of the networks' content remains online.
  • TikTok parent firm ByteDance’s founder lost $17bn in 2022

    ByteDance's success in China's highly competitive internet sector has been largely thanks to its popular short video app Douyin.
  • Italy to investigate Meta over music copyright violations

    Meta is accused of exploiting its dominant position in the market "by asking SIAE to accept an inadequate economic offer, but without providing the appropriate information to assess its actual fairness," the watchdog said.
  • German anti-cartel watchdog puts Apple under surveillance

    Products like the hugely successful iPhone meant Apple presided over a "wide-ranging digital ecosystem which is of great importance to competition" in Germany and worldwide, Federal Cartel Office chief Andreas Mundt said in a statement.
  • Germany ponders monitoring Microsoft over anti-competitive practices

    Berlin, Germany - Germany's anti-cartel watchdog said Tuesday it was examining if it needed to place US giant Microsoft under close watch for any possible abuse. The Federal Cartel Office said it was taking a first step to see if Microsoft is of "paramount significance across markets". If this is found...
  • Meta confirms it is working on potential Twitter rival

    SAN FRANCISCO, US - Facebook owner Meta is working on a new "text sharing" social media platform, it said Friday, in a project seen as a potential rival to embattled Twitter. Since billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter in October, the influential website has suffered outages, layoffs and seen advertisers flee...
  • Facebook, Instagram roll out paid subscription in Australia, New Zealand

    Facing a drop in advertising revenues, parent company Meta is piloting a subscription in Australia and New Zealand before it appears in larger markets. But ahead of the launch, ordinary users seemed less than keen to hand over money to a company that already makes vast sums from their data.
  • Meta launches paid subscription, for whom and why?

    And their posts, photos and videos will have a higher profile than those of non-subscribers by appearing atop search results, commentaries and recommendations. Meta is also promising new creative functionalities. Meta Verified will be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand this week before coming to markets in the United...
  • Google, Apple disappoint as tech earnings hit by gloom

    Google parent Alphabet's revenue of $76 billion in its fourth quarter and profit of $13.6 billion were below what it made in the same period a year earlier, with share prices falling more than 3 percent in after-market trade. The tech titans posted earnings as shares in Meta skyrocketed a...
  • Meta to disallow ads targeted at teens based on gender

    The company formerly known as Facebook is facing increasing pressure and fines to curb its practice of delivering narrowly targeted ads to its users, a practice that brings in billions of dollars in revenue from advertisers every year.
  • Facebook agrees to pay $725m to settle privacy suit

    Facebook parent Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running lawsuit that accused the social network of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users' private data. The amount was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday. Facebook has not admitted any wrongdoing as part...
  • France fines Microsoft 60 million euros over advertising cookies

    The French regulator said that after investigations it found that "when users visited this site, cookies were deposited on their terminal without their consent, while these cookies were used, among others, for advertising purposes." It also "observed that there was no button allowing to refuse the deposit of cookies as...
  • Amazon confirms it has begun laying off employees

    US media have previously reported that the platform and its various branches will lay off about 10,000 employees. Amazon did not confirm the figure, but he said that the process had begun and would continue early next year. The first teams affected were those dealing with the brand's electronic devices...