What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Facebook, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Facebook

Facebook85 posts
Latest News view > Click for Biography view
21 Apr, 2015

Friendlier News Feed

Announcement0 Comments

Facebook announce three changes to the content that is displayed in users news feed. The changes will increase the amount of content from close friends in users feed.

The first is improving the experience for people who don’t have a lot of content available to see. Previously, we had rules in place to prevent you from seeing multiple posts from the same source in a row. With this update, we are relaxing this rule…The second update tries to ensure that content posted directly by the friends you care about, such as photos, videos, status updates or links, will be higher up in News Feed so you are less likely to miss it. If you like to read news or interact with posts from pages you care about, you will still see that content in News Feed…Lastly, many people have told us they don’t enjoy seeing stories about their friends liking or commenting on a post. This update will make these stories appear lower down in News Feed or not at all, so you are more likely to see the stuff you care about directly from friends and the pages you have liked.

14 Apr, 2015

Facebook AMA

Interview0 Comments

Zuckerberg holds an “Ask Me Anything” session where he answers questions from celebrities such as Shakira and Richard Branson, as well as ordinary Facebook users. Questions include: how Facebook will connect the world better; how he sees technology helping the disadvantaged; how many hours he works a week, and requests to see pictures of his dog, Beast.

11 Apr, 2015

Claims bug made it track nonusers

Makes Statement0 Comments

Facebook releases a blog post about its investigation into claims that it tracked users without their consent, acknowledging the collection of nonusers’ data.

The report gets it wrong multiple times in asserting how Facebook uses information to provide our service to more than a billion people around the world…We don’t [track non-users], and this is not our practice. However, the researchers did find a bug that may have sent cookies to some people when they weren’t on Facebook. This was not our intention—a fix for this is already under way…Our practice is not to place cookies on the browsers of people who have visited sites with Social Plugins but who have never visited Facebook.com to sign up for an account. The authors identified a few instances when cookies may have been placed, and we began to address those inadvertent cases as soon as they were brought to our attention.

31 Mar, 2015

Tracks non-users

Makes Statement0 Comments

A report by the Belgian Privacy Commission says that Facebook is tracking non-users by placing cookies — a common way to track people’s browsing habits on the Web — on “some” people’s browsers, even if they had never visited Facebook.com. The researchers hold that Facebook is collecting data from users who have logged out of their accounts or opted out of tracking altogether, monitoring them through the social buttons (social plug-ins) used to share third-party content, and placing cookies on users and non-users who visit websites that are owned by the facebook.com domain.

It is important to note that tracking of non-users initiates even if one does not visit the Facebook homepage. In principle, any page belonging to the facebook.com domain will result in the placement of a long-term, identifying cookie (e.g., an event page, a shop page, fan page …)

Facebook responds:

Virtually all websites, including Facebook, legally use cookies to offer their services. Cookies have been an industry standard for more than 15 years. If people want to opt out of seeing advertising based on the websites they visit and apps they use, they opt out through the EDAA, whose principles and opt out we and more than 100 other companies comply with. Facebook takes this commitment one step further: when you use the EDAA opt out, we opt you out on all devices you use and you won’t see ads based on the websites and apps you use…We’re disappointed that the authors of this opinion and the Belgian DPA, who we understand commissioned it, have declined to meet with us or clarify the inaccurate information about this and other topics. We remain willing to engage with them and hope they will be prepared to correct their work in due course.

16 Mar, 2015

Curbs hate speech, terror support, nudity

Announcement0 Comments

The Company says it will take down “graphic images when they are shared for sadistic pleasure or to celebrate or glorify violence,” and that it will not tolerate “supporting or praising leaders [criminal or terrorist] organizations, or condoning their violent activities.”

Nudity will banned except for images of breastfeeding, art or discussions of medical conditions:

These standards are designed to create an environment where people feel motivated and empowered to treat each other with empathy and respect.

10 Mar, 2015

Feeling Fat status removed

Design Change0 Comments

The Company removes the “feeling fat” emoticon from its status menu after the group Endangered Bodies launched multiple Change.org petitions to persuade Facebook to remove the puffed-up and rosy cheeked image. The group says the option is problematic for people who struggle with eating disorders. Facebook:

We’ve heard from our community that listing ‘feeling fat’ as an option for status updates could reinforce negative body image, particularly for people struggling with eating disorders. So we’re going to remove ‘feeling fat’ from the list of options. We’ll continue to listen to feedback as we think about ways to help people express themselves on Facebook.

Catherine Weingarten, a 24-year-old Ohio student who launched the U.S. petition:

As someone who struggled with body image, I feel so happy that I am eliminating one form of body shaming hatred on the internet.

2015

Adds gender options

0 Comments

Facebook Gender OptionsThe Company introduces a custom gender option for all Facebook US English users worldwide. The custom field allows user to add just about whatever they’d like whether it’s transgender, transgender,transexual, or lumbersexual. This option adds to the 50 gender options added last year.

Suicide prevention plan

Product Release0 Comments

Facebook Suicide Prevention screenFacebook joins with Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Save.org and Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention to give users more options to report posts indicating the user could be thinking of self harm. Users will be able to click a small arrow at the top right of the post and click “Report Post” If Facebook feels like the post indicates distress, the person who posted it will be greeted with a pop when he or she next logs in.

 

24 Dec, 2014

To face class action suit

0 Comments

A U.S. District Judge rules that Facebook Inc. must face the class action lawsuit, dismissing some state law claims against the company but largely denying Facebook’s attempt to dismiss the suit. Facebook had argued that the alleged scanning of its users’ messages was covered by an exception under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, but Judge Hamilton says it has:

not offered a sufficient explanation of how the challenged practice falls within the ordinary course of its business.

23 Dec, 2014

Facebook, NFL partner

0 Comments

Facebook partners with the National Football League, showing short video clips featuring the NFL, such as highlights, news and fantasy football advice, to be followed by ads from Verizon Wireless. Facebook and the NFL are to share ad revenue. Facebook spokeswoman:

This is a small video sponsorship test, and we will be evaluating how people, publishers, and marketers respond to this kind of co-branded video content on Facebook.

19 Dec, 2014

Auto-enhance feature

0 Comments

Facebook adds an auto-enhancing feature for pictures taken and uploaded from mobile apps. The enhancing can be altered or removed when the picture is captioned or the feature can be disabled altogether. Facebook director of engineering Brian Cabral explains that the feature is meant to be a clean up tool, only.

Pragmatically this means you can see something in shadow and bright light when both are in the same scene. Even though your eye is adapting as you move your eye around, you remember the whole scene as if it was evenly lit.

17 Nov, 2014

Facebook At Work tested

0 Comments

Several companies are piloting the new product aimed at enterprise collaboration, which has been under testing for six months internally at Facebook and is expected to roll out in a wider launch within a few months. The enterprise app will be separately hosted from the private app but will share features such as News Feed, Messenger, and Groups, which Facebook employees are already using in a work context. A source says there are no ads in the piloted version but isn’t able to say what the final product will look like, or whether it will be available direct for download or sold to IT departments.

30 Oct, 2014

1 billion users for each Facebook brand

0 Comments

Zuckerberg gives the three-, five-, and 10-year outlooks for Facebook on the earnings call. He wants a billion users each for WhatsApp, Messenger, Search, Video, NewsFeed, Oculus and Instagram and will aggressively monetize them once they reach mass scale. He wants to improve the advertising experience, particularly on mobile, and will be investing in ways to better target and measure campaigns through data. Facebook wants to help brands measure online to offline sales conversions to boost ad spend on mobile which is currently only about 11% of ad budgets. Facebook also wants to build the next major computing platform, which Zuckerberg says could be augmented reality and Oculus. He also wants to bring the Internet to more people through Internet.org. Zuckerberg:

[…] You’ve heard me talk about our big company goals of connecting everyone, understanding the world and building the next generation of platforms. These goals are important for us and part of our foundation of our strategy for the next decade, but achieving these will involve many different efforts and steps along the way, some that will be achieved rapidly and others that are going to take longer.

29 Oct, 2014

Removes breastfeeding photo

0 Comments

facebook-breastfeeding-photoFacebook removes a photo of Emma Bond feeding her baby Carene for the first time as it says the photo is offensive nudity. Bond had been told that Carene was unlikely to survive more than three days after she was born 12 weeks early on Oct. 3, weighing only 2lbs 2oz. She was able to breastfeed Carene for the first time on Sunday and uploaded the photo to show the ‘special moment’. It attracted 166,000 likes, but when others tried to share the picture on their profiles, an anonymous user flagged it as offensive and Facebook took it down. Bond:

It was the first time she had breastfed so there was a reason for me posting that particular picture. It was a magical moment and to have it removed the same day for breaching nudity policies was really rubbing salts in the wounds. The picture represents more than just me breastfeeding my newborn baby. Carene is very poorly and we fought very hard to get to this point.

Strong third quarter earnings, weak guidance

0 Comments

Facebook reports $3.2 billion revenue for the quarter compared with a Wall Street consensus of $3.12 billion. Advertising revenue is $2.96 billion, up 64% from a year earlier, and EPS is $0.43 versus an expected $0.40. Monthly active users were 1.35 billion, up 14%, mobile monthly active users were 1.12 billion and daily active users were 864 million. Zuckerberg and Wehner give weaker guidance: full-year total GAP expenses including stock compensation may grow 45%-50% while 2015 expenses could be up 50%-70%. They say this is an ‘investment year’. Zuckerberg:

We’re going to prepare for the future by investing aggressively

24 Sep, 2014

Uses Justpaste.it, hashtags to spread content

0 Comments

ISIS disseminates content such as beheading videos and the ‘programs’ featuring Cantlie via anonymous paste sites. Links to the first video featuring Cantlie were placed on Justpaste.it, which allows anonymous uploads. Users were redirected to gulfup.com, sendspace.com and directmirror.com where they could view the video after entering a long password string, also provided on Justpaste.it. The group also uploads to Youtube but expects its content to be quickly deleted. ISIS-affiliated Twitter users with backup accounts announce simultaneously when content is being uploaded. They have also hijacked hashtags for trending topics including the 2012 Scottish independence referendum to spread their message. Facebook’s Simon Milner says the company’s safety team in Dublin is ‘consumed’ by dealing with content emanating from the Syrian civil war. Twitter’s Sinéad McSweeney says it has a team working 24/7 to examine reports across a range of issues which is comprised of

in excess of 100 people

19 Sep, 2014

iPhone 6 Facebook post

0 Comments

A post appears on Rivers’s Facebook saying that she is replacing her 2010 model iPhone:

This badass is being replaced by an iPhone 6 (not the fat one). I got this one in 2010, and after 4 years, my only complaint is that apps are now designed for bigger screens, and the battery is getting tired.

Apparently an automated marketing message, the post is quickly deleted.

11 Sep, 2014

Testing disappearing posts

0 Comments

Facebook is testing a feature that allows users to set a time when their status updates will disappear. This feature will allow Facebook to be more like Snapchat.  Snapchat allows users to send photos, texts or videos that disappear in a matter of seconds, and is very popular among young users. A Facebook spokesman said the feature is part of a “small pilot” that is available only for certain people using Facebook’s iOS app.

5 Sep, 2014

Announces privacy checkup with mascot

0 Comments

A new feature allowing users to perform a “privacy checkup” is announced. The privacy feature has a blue dinosaur to help guide users through the process. The  feature starts by displaying the share settings for the user’s Facebook posts and gives an option to change them. Next, the checkup shows the apps that have access to the user’s Facebook information and whether or not usage of those apps is displayed publicly. The apps that are no longer used can be deleted and the display options adjusted. Lastly, the personal information for the user is displayed, like work history, birthday, email address, etc., with options for the user to delete or change any of the information. Paddy Underwood, Facebook product manager writes in a blog post:

We know you come to Facebook to connect with friends, not with us”But we also know how important it is to be in control of what you share and who you share with.