Tours Facebook, talks COD and tries VR
The Mac Life releases a video of McGregor touring the Facebook office before undertaking various media duties. He then tries virtual reality gaming.
This is completely outside of the fight world. I didn’t think I would get on the front cover of a UFC video game. I saw a lot of things, but I didn’t see video games. But I’m happy to be here. I get approached all the time with roles and all this stuff. Not many of them are interesting but this one was definitely of interest to me so I went with it and it’s been good. It’s such a big game. I play a good load of games, but there’s only two games I actually really play that I’ve been obsessed with: The UFC game and Call of Duty. Now I’m in both of them. It’s very surreal.
Won’t censor Trump despite employee protest
Zuckerberg decides not to censor Trump’s posts on Facebook, despite employees petitioning for the removal of posts as ‘hate speech’. The decision has prompted employees across the company to complain on Facebook’s internal messaging service and in person to Zuckerberg and other managers that it was bending the site’s rules for Trump. Some employees who review content on Facebook threatened to quit. Facebook:
In the weeks ahead, we’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest—even if they might otherwise violate our standards.
Trump campaign:
Facebook has never contacted us about employee complaints and has never removed a post. We are not concerned about the liberal Clinton elites who are so intolerant of conservative ideas that they would seek to censor the Trump campaign’s enormously successful Facebook engagement.
Germany: Facebook should take initiative to remove racist, violent content
Germany’s interior minister visits Facebook’s offices in Berlin and said it should be more proactive in removing forbidden content from its social network platform. The German government has been critical of Facebook in the past. Political leaders and regulators have complained the world’s largest social network, with 1.6 billion monthly users, had been slow to respond to hate speech and anti-immigrant messages. De Maizier:
Facebook should take down racist content or calls for violence from its pages on its own initiative even if it hasn’t yet received a complaint.
Automates trending news
Facebook changes its trending news feature to an automated solution, which the company says will eliminate bias caused by human curation.
Our goal is to enable Trending for as many people as possible, which would be hard to do if we relied solely on summarizing topics by hand. A more algorithmically driven process allows us to scale Trending to cover more topics and make it available to more people globally over time. This is something we always hoped to do but we are making these changes sooner given the feedback we got from the Facebook community earlier this year. the potential for bias, the Company says it will no longer rely on editors to write descriptions for the topics and would instead show users the topic and how many people are discussing it.
WhatsApp, Facebook to share data
Facebook announces that WhatsApp will start sharing users phone numbers with Facebook. The company says the change will allow for more relevant advertisements and friend recommendations. It is WhatsApp’s first update to its privacy policy since it was acquired by Facebook. WhatsApp will also explore ways for businesses to send messages using its platform over the next several months.
Launches Lifestage
Facebook releases an iPhone app, called Lifestage, that allows teens to watch clips about the lives of their classmates. Anyone can download the app, although seeing profiles of other users is reserved for those 21 years of age or younger. The social network allows users to make video clips to describe likes, peeves, dance styles, and other aspects of their character. The app is designed by Facebook product manager Michael Sayman, who is 19 years old.
Back in 2004, Facebook was all about ‘who I am’. I could post my relationship status. I could share what my favourite music was. And it was all about expressing myself. Today as Facebook has grown into so much more, we see the opportunity to explore that concept of ‘who I am’ once again, but for Generation Z in 2016.
Improves ‘real names’ policy
In a letter sent to organizations, Facebook says it is testing ways to improve its ‘real names’ policy, with changes coming in December.
Facebook users do not have to use their real names, but must use the name that they use in real-life. Some organizations fear that some users, including domestic abuse victims and those in the LGBT community, may face harassment if forced to use their legal name. Those looking to confirm their identity, without government-issued IDs, for instance, will have space to explain their situation to Facebook and, those looking to report users they think are using an improper identity, are being asked for evidence.
We want to reduce the number of people and to make it easier for people to confirm their name if necessary… It’s a balance to get this right — we want to find a line that minimizes bullying but maximises the potential for people to be their authentic selves on Facebook.
Warns users of nation-state intrusions
Facebook starts notifying users if it believes their accounts have been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state. Whenever a user’s account is accessed by a new device or browser, the company will send a security code to the account owner’s phone to verify that only the account user is trying to access the account.
The security of people’s accounts is paramount at Facebook, which is why we constantly monitor for potentially malicious activity and offer many options to proactively secure your account. Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state.
Reactions
Facebook starts testing “reactions,” which extend the site’s “like button” functions with new options : Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad and Angry. Keeping with Zuckerberg’s wishes, there is no “Dislike” button. The test is currently limited to users in Ireland and Spain. Zuckerberg:
For many years though, people have asked us to add a “dislike” button. Not every moment is a good moment, and sometimes you just want a way to express empathy. These are important moments where you need the power to share more than ever, and a Like might not be the best way to express yourself. Reactions gives you new ways to express love, awe, humor and sadness. It’s not a dislike button, but it does give you the power to easily express sorrow and empathy — in addition to delight and warmth.
Photo doodling
Facebook launches a feature for its photo-editing suite of tools that gives you the ability to scribble right on a photo before publishing it to the social network.
Developing dislike button
Zuckerberg says Facebook will roll out a button that lets users dislike comments and posts.
I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years. Today is a special day because today is the day I can say we’re working on it and shipping it.
Zuckerberg said the initial interface for Facebook didn’t allow for a dislike button because he didn’t want it to become a Reddit-like forum where posts and comments get upvoted and downvoted.
That isn’t what we’re here to build in the world. What they really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment.
Expands Internet.org
Facebook expands the free basic mobile internet service, saying it will help billions of people without internet, mostly from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It now allows any mobile operator to develop under the platform. The service has brought over 9 million people online over the past year with more than half of the users end up paying to access the wider web within 30 days. Source:
This is really a customer acquisition tool for mobile operators where the benefit to them of offering a very light amount of free data is to bring on more paying subscribers to their networks.
Must hand over NY user info
A state appeals court says Facebook cannot challenge search warrants used by New York prosecutors in 2013 to get information from the site on hundreds of users suspected of Social Security fraud, including police officers and firefighters who allegedly feigned illness in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The court rules the warrants can only be challenged by the individual defendants. Prosecutors said Facebook pages showed public employees who claimed to be disabled riding jet skis, playing golf and participating in martial arts events. Prosecutors have secured nearly $25 million from people who were targets in the probe. DA spokesperson:
In many cases, evidence on their Facebook accounts directly contradicted the lies the defendants told to the Social Security Administration.
Facebook is considering an appeal.
Tests online stores
Facebook is testing a feature that allows some small and medium businesses to sell products through their pages. Users can browse products on the company Facebook profile pages and either buy directly from their facebook page or be redirected to the company’s website. The feature is being tried in both mobile and desktop sites.
Valued at $250 billion
Facebook is valued at over $250 billion just three years after its IPO, the fastest company to reach that benchmark in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. It is now the ninth largest company in the S&P 500.
Teen flies to Morocco to meet FB boyfriend
Rebecca Arthur, 17, from Connecticut is reported missing after flying to Morocco to meet, Simo El Adala, her Facebook boyfriend. Police have taken a missing person report and have appealed to the public to come up with any information they know.
Only seven black people hired in 2013
The social network company reveals that more than half of its US staff are white, with the proportion dropping slightly from 57% to 55%. The proportion of Asian employees increased by 2% to 36%, but the shares of hispanic and black people or those of “two or more races” remain flat at 4%, 2% and 3% respectively. Facebook’s senior leadership has 73% filled by white people. Facebook also made little progress increasing the proportion of female employees, 68% of its global employees are male – a decrease of 1%. Among its employees working on its core technology 84% are male, down from 85% last year. Facebook hired an additional seven black people out of an overall headcount increase of 1,231 in 2013. At that time Facebook employed just 45 black staff out of a total US workforce of 4,263. There are no black people in senior management.
Privacy investigation
The European Union is investigating the transfer of data from European Facebook users to advertisers in the United States. If found against, Facebook could face fines and be forced to change their privacy settings. French data protection regulator:
Obviously, there are privacy issues, this investigation is only to determine the extent.
‘Amber Alert’ system introduced
Facebook Canada release a system to send out notices and photos to assist in child abduction cases. A similar system has been working for the past four months in the United States.
[We hope that] the new system would help turn the social network community in Canada into one big neighbourhood watch.
Introduces Instant Articles
Facebook introduces the inclusion of articles by selected publishers inside the Facebook iOS app. Publishers include The Atlantic, BBC, BuzzFeed, Bild, The Guardian, National Geographic, NBC, Spiegel, and The New York Times. Not all pieces from these publishers will be distributed as an Instant Article at first. Pubnlishers will receive 100$% of ad revenues on their own ads, or 70% of ad revbenue when Facebook sells ads on their behalf. The app allows sharing of articles to Pinterest and Twitter. Product Manager:
Along with a faster experience, Instant Articles introduces a suite of interactive features that allow publishers to bring their stories to life in new ways. Zoom in and explore high-resolution photos by tilting your phone. Watch auto-play videos come alive as you scroll through stories. Explore interactive maps, listen to audio captions, and even like and comment on individual parts of an article in-line.