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Tag: facebook

Facebook Could Be Held Accountable For Its Actions By Congress In 3 Ways
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TECHNOLOGY

Facebook Could Be Held Accountable For Its Actions By Congress In 3 Ways

Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University; Bhaskar Chakravorti, Tufts University, and Ryan Calo, University of Washington Facebook may have changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms, but that won’t end its troubles - nor efforts to rein in the social media company’s business practices. Lawmakers are pondering new ways to regulate Facebook, whose CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote in 2019 that he welcomed new “rules governing the internet.” With that in mind, we asked three experts on social media, technology policy and global business to offer one specific action the government could take about Meta’s Facebook service. Let users control more of their data Anjana Susarla, Professor of Information Systems, Michigan State University Social media sites like Facebook are designed for constant ...
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Facebook Blocking Access To Data About How Much Of A Misinformation Problem There Is And Who Is Affected
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IN OTHER NEWS, SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook Blocking Access To Data About How Much Of A Misinformation Problem There Is And Who Is Affected

Ethan Zuckerman, University of Massachusetts Amherst Leaked internal documents suggest Facebook – which recently renamed itself Meta – is doing far worse than it claims at minimizing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on the Facebook social media platform. Online misinformation about the virus and vaccines is a major concern. In one study, survey respondents who got some or all of their news from Facebook were significantly more likely to resist the COVID-19 vaccine than those who got their news from mainstream media sources. As a researcher who studies social and civic media, I believe it’s critically important to understand how misinformation spreads online. But this is easier said than done. Simply counting instances of misinformation found on a social media platform leaves two key ques...
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Facebook’s Smart Glasses – Are They Smart About Security And Privacy?
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TECHNOLOGY

Facebook’s Smart Glasses – Are They Smart About Security And Privacy?

Apu Kapadia, Indiana University Facebook’s recently announced Ray-Ban Stories glasses, which have two cameras and three microphones built in, are in the news again. Facebook has kicked off a worldwide project dubbed Ego4D to research new uses for smart glasses. Ray-Ban Stories glasses capture audio and video so wearers can record their experiences and interactions. The research project aims to add augmented reality features to the glasses, potentially including facial recognition and other artificial intelligence technologies that could provide wearers with a wealth of information, including the ability to get answers to questions like “Where did I leave my keys?” Several other technology companies like Google, Microsoft, Snap, Vuzix and Lenovo have also been experimenting with version...
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Under New Surveillance Laws Facebook Or Twitter Posts Can Now Be Quietly Modified By The Government
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SOCIAL MEDIA, VIDEO REELS

Under New Surveillance Laws Facebook Or Twitter Posts Can Now Be Quietly Modified By The Government

James Jin Kang, Edith Cowan University and Jumana Abu-Khalaf, Edith Cowan University A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security. The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes. The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill has insufficient safeguards for free speech and press fre...
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For Making Social Media Safer For Teens Facebook’s Own Internal Documents Offer A Blueprint
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SOCIAL MEDIA

For Making Social Media Safer For Teens Facebook’s Own Internal Documents Offer A Blueprint

Jean Twenge, San Diego State University Right at the time social media became popular, teen mental health began to falter. Between 2010 and 2019, rates of depression and loneliness doubled in the U.S. and globally, suicide rates soared for teens in the U.S. and emergency room admissions for self-harm tripled among U.S. 10- to 14-year-old girls. Social scientists like myself have been warning for years that the ubiquity of social media might be at the root of the growing mental health crisis for teens. Yet when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked during a congressional hearing in March to acknowledge the connection between social media and these troubling mental health trends, he replied, “I don’t think that the research is conclusive on that.” Just six months later, The Wall Street J...
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How Facebook’s Algorithms Are Dangerous And Can Manipulate You – Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen Testified
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BUSINESS, VIDEO REELS

How Facebook’s Algorithms Are Dangerous And Can Manipulate You – Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen Testified

Filippo Menczer, Indiana University Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen testified before the U.S. Senate on Oct. 5, 2021, that the company’s social media platforms “harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.” Haugen was the primary source for a Wall Street Journal exposé on the company. She called Facebook’s algorithms dangerous, said Facebook executives were aware of the threat but put profits before people, and called on Congress to regulate the company. Social media platforms rely heavily on people’s behavior to decide on the content that you see. In particular, they watch for content that people respond to or “engage” with by liking, commenting and sharing. Troll farms, organizations that spread provocative content, exploit this by copying high-engagement con...
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The Unprecedented Facebook Outage – The Few Clues Point To A Problem Caused From Within
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SOCIAL MEDIA

The Unprecedented Facebook Outage – The Few Clues Point To A Problem Caused From Within

David Tuffley, Griffith University Suddenly and inexplicably, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus services were gone. And it was no local disturbance. In a blog post, Downdetector.com, a major monitoring service for online outages, called it the largest global outage it had ever recorded — with 10.6 million reports from around the world. The outage had an especially massive knock-on effect on individuals and businesses around the world that rely on Whatsapp to communicate with friends, family, colleagues and customers. It took Facebook nearly six hours to get services back online, albeit slowly at first. Ironically, the outage was so pervasive Facebook had to resort to using Twitter, its rival platform, to get updates out into the world. The internet and its outwardly v...
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The Outage And Scandals Test Facebook’s Users Frenemy Relationship
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SOCIAL MEDIA

The Outage And Scandals Test Facebook’s Users Frenemy Relationship

Elizabeth Stoycheff, Wayne State University When Facebook was down for most of the day on Oct. 4, 2021, did you miss it, were you relieved or some of both? Social scientists have compiled an expansive body of research that shows how people have come to develop a love-hate relationship with the social media giant with nearly 3 billion users. Many users have felt their relationship with the platform devolve into a messy codependence, mired by ambiguity and mistrust. For others, reliance on the platform is taken for granted, if occassionally appreciated in moments of pandemic isolation. And then there are the revelations that the company has been lying about applying its rules differently to important people, knowingly harming teen girls and having a big vaccine misinformation problem. Add...
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Who May Be In Hot Water With The SEC – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
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IN OTHER NEWS

Who May Be In Hot Water With The SEC – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg

Jena Martin, West Virginia University The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that Facebook treats users’ posts differently depending on their wealth, privilege and status. That and other findings based on internal Facebook documents may be troubling enough, but the social network’s bigger problem could be the Securities and Exchange Commission. The documents suggest Facebook presented different, contradictory versions of these policies in public and private. From a securities regulation standpoint, any big lie could potentially defraud investors and invite an investigation – especially when the company involved is Facebook. I’m a legal scholar who spent five years as an enforcement attorney at the SEC, the agency that protects investors and regulates securities. Let me explain secur...
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