TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan is planning to tighten regulation of tech giants like Google and Facebook after an expert panel called for better oversight on competition and privacy, an official said Thursday. Japan has followed in the footsteps of other countries in scrutinizing the dominant role played by the world’s largest information technology companies, including Big Four tech firms Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. The government has now issued a report based on expert […]
Tag: Facebook
Zuckerberg defends Facebook in new data breach controversy
by Dmitry ZAKS Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg pushed back Wednesday against emails showing the social media giant offering Netflix and other popular apps preferential access to people’s data even after it had tightened its privacy rules. A British parliamentary committee investigating whether the social media behemoth was being used to manipulate the results of elections published 250 pages of internal Facebook documents earlier Wednesday. They show executives holding […]
Zuckerberg defends Facebook in new data breach controversy
by Dmitry ZAKS Agence France Presse LONDON, United States (AFP) — Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg pushed back Wednesday against emails showing the social media giant offering Netflix and other popular apps preferential access to people’s data even after it had tightened its privacy rules. A British parliamentary committee investigating whether the social media behemoth was being used to manipulate the results of elections published 250 pages of internal Facebook documents earlier Wednesday. They show executives […]
Facebook mulled charging for access to user data
by Glenn Chapman Agence France Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Wednesday said it considered charging application makers to access data at the social network. Such a move would have been a major shift away from the policy of not selling Facebook members’ information, which the social network has stressed in the face of criticism alleging it is more interested in making money than protecting privacy. “To be clear, Facebook has never […]
Facebook says services tripped up by server problem
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Facebook said Tuesday users had trouble accessing the social network and its other applications such as Instagram for a chunk of the day due to a server software problem. It was the second instance in the past two weeks in which technical issues appeared to affect access to Facebook. “Earlier today, a server configuration caused intermittent problems across all apps globally, creating a degraded experience for users,” a Facebook spokesperson […]
Facebook to launch independent body for calls on content
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook announced Thursday it is creating an independent body to make potentially precedent-setting calls on what content should be yanked from the social network. The announcement came as Facebook reported it has ramped up its ability to quickly detect “hate speech” and other posts violating community rules, with the leading social network under pressure from regulators in various countries and activists to root out abusive and inappropriate content. “I […]
Facebook shuts more accounts aimed at political meddling
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Tuesday said it shut down more accounts aimed at influencing the US midterm election and that it is exploring a possible link to Russia. “As we’ve continued to investigate, we detected and removed some additional Facebook and Instagram accounts,” head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in an update posted at the social network. While stressing the challenge of identifying the culprits, he noted that a website […]
Facebook quarterly profit climbs 9 percent to $5.14 bn
by Glenn CHAPMAN Agence France Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook reported Tuesday that its quarterly profit climbed in the recently ended quarter, but the world’s leading social network — mired in a spate of controversies — gained fewer users than analysts had expected. The company said profit had climbed nine percent to $5.14 billion on revenue that leaped 33 percent to $13.7 billion in the quarter that ended September 30. The number […]
Facebook simplifies Messenger app
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its Messenger smartphone app in an effort to simplify the service for its 1.3 billion monthly global users. The social network began rolling out a redesigned version featuring three tabs instead of nine, saying it was “going back to its roots” seven years after the standalone app’s launch. “We build one feature after another; they’re piling up,” Messenger chief Stan Chudnovsky said […]
Japan orders Facebook to improve data protection
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The Japanese government on Monday ordered Facebook to improve protection of users’ personal information following data breaches affecting tens of millions of people worldwide. Facebook said early this month that hackers accessed the personal data of 29 million users in a breach at the world’s leading social network first disclosed late September. The company had originally said up to 50 million accounts were affected in a cyber-attack that exploited a trio […]
Facebook launches ‘war room’ to combat manipulation
by Julie CHARPENTRAT Agence France-Presse MENLO PARK, United States (AFP) — In Facebook’s “War Room,” a nondescript space adorned with American and Brazilian flags, a team of 20 people monitors computer screens for signs of suspicious activity. The freshly launched unit at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters in California is the nerve center for the fight against misinformation and manipulation of the largest social network by foreign actors trying to influence elections in the United States […]
Facebook says no sign recent hack spread to other apps
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Tuesday said hackers who stole digital keys to tens of millions of accounts appear not to have tampered with third-party applications linked to the social network. Facebook engineers analyzed logs of outside applications and found no sign of trouble, according to product management vice president Guy Rosen. “That investigation has so far found no evidence that the attackers accessed any apps using Facebook Login,” Rosen said in […]





