Business & Tech

Biden Campaign Calls Out Facebook For Allowing 'Claptrap' From Trump About Mail-In Ballots to Continue Being Posted

Once again the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump Jr. in particular, are spreading misinformation about Democrats trying to flood the election with bogus or duplicate ballots, via a campaign ad, and the Biden campaign is calling Facebook out for allowing this to be amplified.

Business & Tech

Facebook Employee Raises Powered by ‘Really Dangerous’ Algorithm That Favors Angry Posts

Employee raises at Facebook depend on engagement, and newly leaked private Zuckerberg recordings show the Groups algorithm prioritizes enragement.

Business & Tech

Celebrities Are Taking a Day Off of Instagram and Facebook to Protest Hate Speech and Yeah That Should Work

Kim Kardashian West, Jennifer Lawrence, and Sacha Baron Cohen are among the celebrities leading a charge to boycott Facebook and Instagram for a day. But is a one-day boycott really sending a message that a monthslong boycott by high-paying advertisers hasn't?

Business & Tech

Facebook Says It Will 'Restrict' Political Ads In the Last Week Before Election, Fact-Check When Trump Tries to Declare Victory Early

Admitting that the platform could play a role in destroying democracy as we know it, Facebook says it will limit or restrict new political ads in the week leading up to the election in November.

Business & Tech

Twitter Says It Is Adding 'Context' to Trending Topics; Facebook and Google at War With Australian Government

Ahead of the latest U.S. election, Twitter is responding to criticism that one of its defining features, the Trending Topics sidebar, tends to promote misinformation and conspiracies.

Business & Tech

Facebook (Finally) Removes Racial Ad Targeting

After four years of scandals over targeting users by race — including a white users only option — Facebook has very quietly removed the racial targeting option for advertisements.

Business & Tech

Will TikTok Youth Rock the Vote? Or Will Conservatives Game Facebook to Win Trump Another Four Years?

Right-wingers have already won the fight to dominate Facebook engagement, but rival social media upstarts could blaze a new path, or go down in flames of election misinformation.

Business & Tech

Facebook Gets Heat For Not Removing ‘Kenosha Guard’ Militia Page Before Shootings

Two users flagged a militia group's page for inciting violence in Wisconsin, but Facebook did not take the page down until after two people were killed Tuesday night.

Business & Tech

Facebook Mulls 'Kill Switch' For Political Ads To Prevent Trump From Contesting Election Results

Facebook is doing some disaster planning for the days and weeks after the election, given that all signs point to Donald Trump attempting to hold on to power by questioning the results of the election — should he, god willing, lose.

Business & Tech

Far-Right Boogaloo Movement Evaded Facebook Ban In Pretty Much One Single Day

It took all of one day for the disaffected bros of the alt-right to beat their Facebook ban, as all they had to do was adopt new and different keywords.

Business & Tech

While National Economy Tanked Last Quarter, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook Made Bank

Despite a historic economic downturn in which the American economy contracted more than it ever has in one quarter, four big tech companies — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook — saw huge profits and extremely healthy second quarters.

SF News

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Remove Video of 'Doctors' Who Were Denouncing Masks, Promoting Hydroxychloroquine

A video of some doctors broadcasting from in front of the Supreme Court building and making spurious claims about the COVID-19 pandemic — which the president of course retweeted — has been removed by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube citing their policies on misinformation.

SF Politics

Facebook Loophole Allows Climate Change Deniers to Have a Misinformation Field Day

By labeling blatant lies as “opinion,” fossil fuel industry pundits have found “a loophole that you can drive a Mack truck through.”

Business & Tech

Facebook Gets More Bad News Via Final, Scathing Report From Yearslong Civil Rights Audit

Facebook has repeatedly failed the civil rights community and had a "deeply troubling" response to the ongoing problem of President Trump's posts, according to a final report from a two-year-long civil rights audit.

Business & Tech

Zuckerberg and Sandberg Blasted For Delivering 'Same Old Talking Points' In Meeting With Ad Boycott Organizers

Facebook's CEO and COO, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, "expect[ed] an A for attendance" just for agreeing to meet directly with civil rights groups that have spurred a massive boycott by major advertisers, according to one meeting attendee.

Business & Tech

Senators Call Out Facebook's Role in Amplifying Extremism Just As Company Bans More Boogaloo Accounts

Facebook announced that it was removing more groups associated with the antigovernment Boogaloo movement just as three Democratic senators sent a letter to the company calling out its poor track record on racial justice, tamping down hate, and giving voice to far-right extremists.

Business & Tech

Lo and Behold, Zuckerberg Decides to Slap Labels On Trump's Lies Just As Unilever and Major Advertisers Revolt

Zuck just announced that Facebook will — after months of mush-mouthed justifications otherwise — begin to label posts by politicians that spread misinformation or otherwise violate Facebook policies.

Business & Tech

Local Attorney Sues Facebook for Blocking His Account Over and Over Again

After the fifth time Facebook classified his sardonic jokes as hate speech and shut down his account, a gadfly Bay Area lawyer tries to zing Zuckerberg’s algorithm.

Business & Tech

Facebook Is — A Little Late — Banning the Term 'Boogaloo' and Shutting Down Affiliated Groups

Facebook seems to be learning about these fringe groups along with the rest of the country in the wake of several violent incidents — including two fatal shootings in Oakland and Santa Cruz.

Business & Tech

Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walk-Out To Protest Zuckerberg's Handling of Trump

Mark Zuckerberg may have a mutiny on his hands this week as a significant number of Facebook employees are reportedly protesting the company's stance on President Trump and the inflammatory messages he has cross-posted on both Facebook and Twitter.

Business & Tech

Trump Issues Order to Punish Twitter for Fact-Checking Him; Zuckerberg Says They Shouldn't Be Fact-Checking Him

Once again social media platforms are getting dragged onto center stage in the 2020 election, and if President Trump had his way, he'd like to unleash the full wrath of the federal government's regulatory powers on them to keep them doing his bidding.

Business & Tech

Protesters to Project Messages About Disinformation On Facebook's SF Offices

A protest action is planned for Tuesday evening that will bring projected messages onto 181 Fremont Street, the tower that is home to Facebook and Instagram's SF offices.

Business & Tech

Facebook Agrees to Pay $52 Million to Settle Class-Action Suit Brought By Moderators With PTSD

Facebook is settling a lawsuit brought by third-party content moderators who say they were traumatized after being exposed to graphic imagery of violence, child sex, and more working for Facebook.

Business & Tech

Facebook Hastily Launches a Zoom Video Conferencing Copycat

Since Mark Zuckerberg cannot stand seeing another tech company enjoy major growth, Facebook is Zoom-bombing the current reigning champion of video conference platforms.

Business & Tech

Facebook Launches County-by-County Coronavirus Symptom Reporting Tool

In an effort to help get ahead of potential hot spots, Facebook has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to produce a county-by-county map of the U.S. showing the percent of the population reporting coronavirus symptoms.