Facebook

15 Aug, 2014

Satire tag

Facebook adds a satire tag to help people distinguish between real news articles and satirical articles from sites like The Onion. A Facebook representative says they added it in response to user demand:

We are running a small test which shows the text ‘[Satire]’ in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.

18 Aug, 2014

Facebook campaign

Robin Williams0 Comments

A Facebook campaign is asking the public to make one last stand in honor of late actor and comedian Robin Williams. The group, Standing Ovation for Robin Williams, is calling for people in San Francisco — and beyond — to stop what they’re doing at 1 p.m. August 18 and cheer Williams for a minute. So far, 30,000 have signed up.

3 Sep, 2014

Apologizes for lack of access

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While the company was performing configurations to the infrastructure of the online service, many users were unable to access Facebook today for approximately 20 minutes. At around 1:00 pm PST service returned to the US, Germany and other places after the short period of difficulty accessing the site. Some users are still having trouble accessing the service:

Earlier today we encountered an error while making an infrastructure configuration change that briefly made it difficult for people to access Facebook.

The incident is under further investigation, and Facebook apologizes to its users for any inconveniences they experienced today.

Auto play maxes data plans

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A study on Facebook Autoplay claims that the feature may be to blame for above normal data usage. It concludes that this feature can cause users to max out their data limits and suffer higher charges more often than before it was rolled out. The Facebook Autoplay feature also sometimes causes videos to play automatically, when a person is at a computer. While this may not be a problem for many computer users, it could still be one for those with the limited data that is offered by many satellite internet providers.

5 Sep, 2014

Announces privacy checkup with mascot

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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.

11 Sep, 2014

Testing disappearing posts

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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.

19 Sep, 2014

Beats Twitter, Facebook pre-orders

Alibaba X (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

Online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade says pre-open orders for Alibaba ($BABA) were around three times the volume it received for Twitter on its market debut day, and higher than the volume it received for Facebook.

iPhone 6 Facebook post

iPhone 6 Joan Rivers0 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.

24 Sep, 2014

Uses Justpaste.it, hashtags to spread content

ISIS X (formerly Twitter)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

29 Oct, 2014

Strong third quarter earnings, weak guidance

David Wehner Mark Zuckerberg0 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

Removes breastfeeding photo

Carene Bond Emma Bond0 Comments

Facebook 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.

30 Oct, 2014

1 billion users for each Facebook brand

Mark Zuckerberg0 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.

17 Nov, 2014

Facebook At Work tested

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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.

19 Dec, 2014

Auto-enhance feature

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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.

23 Dec, 2014

Facebook, NFL partner

National Football League0 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.

24 Dec, 2014

To face class action suit

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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.

2015

Suicide prevention plan

Suicide Prevention Product Release0 Comments

Facebook 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.

Adds gender options

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The 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.

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.

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.

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