Workers that have an office seat will have to return by September 5th.

Meta to Implement Three-Day Office Presence for Employees

Jim HendlerJune 3, 23covid, Facebook, Meta

Meta’s persistent efforts to bring its employees back to the office may finally pay off as the social media giant announces that office-based workers will be required to work in-person for a minimum of three days per week beginning September 5th. However, those who are currently working remotely will be allowed to continue doing so. According to a spokesperson, Meta is dedicated to promoting remote work and recognizes that it can have a positive impact on employees’ performance. The company aims to enhance collaboration and work culture to facilitate optimal…

A 2018 privacy lawsuit brought by Washington, D.C., against Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc was dismissed on Thursday by a Superior Court judge, who ruled the firm did not mislead consumers over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

News

Court Rules Out Legal Action Against Meta in Connection to Cambridge Analytica Affair

Jim HendlerJune 2, 23Facebook, Meta

On Thursday, a Superior Court judge dismissed a privacy lawsuit filed by Washington, D.C. against Meta Platforms Inc, the owner of Facebook, in 2018. The judge concluded that the company did not deceive consumers regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal. According to the lawsuit, the district’s consumer protection law was violated. In 2018, the social media company faced worldwide scrutiny when it revealed that a third-party personality quiz, which was shared on Facebook, collected profile data from 87 million users across the globe and then sold it to the British political…

It's a response to the company's objection to the proposed Bill C-18 legislation.

News

Canadian Facebook and Instagram Users to be Subject to Meta Test Restrictions on Posting

Jim HendlerJune 2, 23Canada, Facebook, Meta

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, had previously hinted at the possibility of preventing Canadians from sharing news content due to the proposed Online Sharing Act. In a recent blog post, the company has now revealed that it will be conducting tests on Facebook and Instagram to restrict certain users and publishers from accessing or sharing news content in Canada. This trial will span several weeks, and a “small percentage” of users will be informed if they attempt to share news content. “As we have repeatedly shared, the Online News…

The action RPG has a 60-plus-hour campaign and an endless dungeon-crawling mode.

Gaming

“Asgard’s Wrath 2” is Meta’s most ambitious VR game to date

Adriana MaraisJune 2, 23Gaming, Meta, Meta Quest 3, Virtual Reality, VR

One of the biggest announcements at today’s Meta Quest Gaming Showcase is Asgard’s Wrath 2, the sequel to the acclaimed 2019 original, which is slated for release this winter. It’s shaping up to be Meta’s most ambitious game to date – an RPG that the company believes can stand up to the genre’s biggest hits on consoles and PC. To deliver on the promise, developer Sanzaru Games may have to push the 2020 mobile technology VR headset to the limit. Sanzaru studio creative director Mat Kraemer said in an overview…

Expect to learn more details about the Quest 3, the company's next VR and MR headset.

News

The Meta Connect 2023 event will take place on September 27

Jim HendlerJune 2, 23AR, augmented reality, Meta, Meta Connect, Virtual Reality, VR

Alongside the official reveal of Quest 3, Meta has announced the release date for this year’s Connect. The event, which focuses on Meta’s development in the spaces of augmented and virtual reality, will take place on September 27-28, according to its website. Connect will take place a little earlier than usual this year. The 2022 edition was held in October. More information about Connect 2023 will be released soon, but one thing is for sure: we will know more about Quest 3 in late September. Meta’s next virtual reality headset…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the device ahead of Apple's rumored mixed-reality headset.

Gadgets

Meta Quest 3 unveiled; Costs $499 and offers full-color reproduction

Jim HendlerJune 1, 23June 1, 23Gadgets, Meta, Meta Quest 3, Virtual Reality, VR

Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled the Meta Quest 3, his long-rumored next-generation virtual reality headset. Meta’s CEO first introduced the device just hours before the recent Meta Quest Games Showcase and right before Apple’s WWDC. Like the Quest Pro, the Quest 3 supports mixed reality and offers full color passthrough. This allows users to see a colored version of the physical space around them through external cameras. The headset is able to connect elements of augmented reality with the outside world. Zuckerberg says it’s “the first high-resolution mixed-color headset.” Zuckerberg claims…

The new bill being considered puts tech giants like Instagram in a new position of paying to host the content.

News

Meta warns that news will be pulled from Facebook and Instagram if California’s press protection law is passed

Jim HendlerJune 1, 23June 1, 23Facebook, instagram, Meta

Meta has threatened to pull news from Facebook and Instagram if California’s press protection law is passed. Once the bill is paid, the big tech has to pay a “press usage fee” when it distributes local news content on its own platforms. “If the Journalism Preservation Act is passed, we will have to remove news from Facebook and Instagram instead of paying into an unofficial fund that primarily benefits large outside media companies by helping California publishers,” Meta said. his book. permission. According to the Mark Zuckerberg-led company, the bill…

The company is trying to make it easier for creators to understand their reach.

News

Instagram explains its recommendation algorithm and “shadowbanning” misconceptions

Jim HendlerJune 1, 23Algorithm, Isstagram, Meta

Instagram is once again trying to explain how its recommendations work in an effort to dispel “misconceptions” about how the app’s algorithm works and whether the company is “shadowbanning” some users. In a new blog post from Adam Mosser, CEO of Instagram, he offers one of the most detailed explanations yet of how the app categorizes content in different parts of the app. “Instagram doesn’t have a single algorithm that controls what people do and don’t see in the app,” explains Mosseri. Instead, he says there are many algorithms and…

Britain's competition watchdog said Meta had offered to limit its use of other businesses' advertising data for its Facebook Marketplace.

News

Meta offers to limit the use of advertising data to resolve competition issues in the UK

Jim HendlerMay 29, 23Ads, Business, Facebook, Meta

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s competition watchdog said on Friday that social media giant Meta had offered to limit the use of other companies’ advertising data on its Facebook Marketplace service to address the regulator’s competition concerns. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it intends to accept commitments that include the option for advertisers to opt out of having their data used to improve the Facebook Marketplace advertising platform. Michael Grenfell, the CMA’s director of enforcement, said: “Meta’s unfair use of the data of businesses that advertise on its…

Dozens of employees working in marketing, program management, content strategy and corporate communications were sacked by Meta

News

Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta is cutting corporate teams in its latest round of layoffs

Jim HendlerMay 25, 23Mark Zukerberg, Meta

Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc cut jobs in its business and operations units on Wednesday as it carried out the last of a three-part layoff, part of a plan announced in March to eliminate 10,000 roles. Dozens of employees working in marketing, site security, corporate planning, program management, content strategy and corporate communications teams, among others, notified LinkedIn of their layoffs. The social media giant also cut employees from its units focused on privacy and integrity, according to LinkedIn posts. Earlier this year, Meta became the first Big Tech company…

The animated images platform Giphy Inc has been owned by Meta Platforms for a few years.

News

Shutterstock acquires Giphy from Meta in a $53 million deal

Jim HendlerMay 23, 23Business, Giphy, Meta, Shutterstock

(Reuters) – Stock image repository Shutterstock Inc said on Tuesday it will buy the animated images platform from Giphy Inc’s Meta Platforms Inc for $53 million in cash. The deal will be funded with existing cash and includes an intellectual property rights sharing agreement that would give Metal access to Giphy’s content, Shutterstock said. Shutterstock, whose shares rose 4% before the sale, made no changes to its 2023 revenue and adjusted margin guidance. The deal is expected to be completed next month. Read all the Latest Tech News here.

Meta was hit with a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) fine by its lead privacy regulator in the European Union for its handling of user information and given five months to stop transferring users’ data to the United States.

News

Facebook fined record $1.3 billion, 5 months to stop EU-US data flows

Jim HendlerMay 22, 23Facebook, Meta

Meta was fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by its top data protection authority in the European Union over its handling of user data and given five months to stop transferring user data to the United States. The fine imposed by Ireland’s data protection commissioner (DPC) over Meta’s continued transfer of personal data surpassed the previous EU data protection record of €746 million, which was handed down by Luxembourg to Amazon.com Inc in 2021, the DPC said in a statement on Monday. In a statement, Meta said it…

Meta is building its first-generation custom silicon chip for running artificial intelligence (AI) models, saying its AI compute needs will grow dramatically over the next decade as we break new ground in AI research.

News

Meta works on artificial intelligence-powered hardware, artificial intelligence chips and next-generation graphics cards

Jim HendlerMay 19, 23AI, Artificial Intelligence, Meta

Meta (formerly Facebook) is building its first generation of custom silicon to run AI models and says its AI computing needs will grow dramatically over the next decade as we blaze new trails in AI research. Called MTIA (Meta Training and Inference Accelerator), an in-house custom accelerator chip provides greater computing power and efficiency than CPUs and is tailored for internal workloads. “By deploying both MTIA chips and GPUs, we can deliver better performance, lower latency and greater efficiency for every workload,” said Santosh Janardhan, Meta’s president and director of…

Meta declined to comment, while the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the European Commission did not immediately respond

News

Meta to Face Record EU data protection fines via Facebook’s data transfer to the US

Febin MathewMay 18, 23May 18, 23EU, Facebook, Lawsuit, Meta

Meta Platforms Inc is expected to face a record European Union privacy fine related to the transfer of Facebook’s EU users’ data to US servers for failing to heed a warning from the EU’s top court, two sources familiar with the matter said. The fine is higher than Amazon.com Inc’s previous fine of 746 million euros ($821.20 million), sources said. Meta declined to comment, while Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the European Commission did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. EU regulators, led by Ireland’s data protection…

News

Meta pulls the plug on the Messenger app on the Apple Watch; Users must respond using an iPhone

Jim HendlerMay 17, 23Apple, Apple watch, Facebook, Gadgets, Messenger, Meta

If you use the Messenger app on your Apple Watch, here’s some bad news for you: Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is killing the Messenger app on the Apple Watch. According to TechCrunch, Apple Watch users who already have the Messenger app installed will receive notifications saying the app will no longer be available on Apple Watches after May 31st. However, users will continue to receive notifications from Messenger, but must respond to text messages on their iPhone. A Meta spokesperson, speaking to TechCrunch, said: “People can still receive Messenger notifications…

Social media giant Meta Platforms Inc joined the generative AI product race on Thursday, saying it would begin testing artificial intelligence-powered ad tools that can create content like image backgrounds and variations of written text.

News

Meta to test AI-powered advertising tools for content creation: what it means

Jim HendlerMay 13, 23May 14, 23Ads, AI, Meta

Social media giant Meta Platforms Inc joined the generative artificial intelligence product race on Thursday, saying it will begin testing artificial intelligence-based advertising tools that can create content such as image backgrounds and variations of written text. A select group of advertisers will be invited to try out the tools in a “testing playground,” which the company calls an AI sandbox, Meta executives said at a news conference in New York. Administrators decline to specify how many advertisers will have access to the space at the outset, saying only that…

Meta is also evolving the programme by testing a new payout model that pays creators based on the performance of their public reels, not the earnings of ads on their reels.

News

Meta expands the ads on rolls test with a new performance-based payment model

Jim HendlerMay 13, 23May 14, 23Ads, Facebook, Meta

Meta (formerly Facebook) has announced that they are updating and expanding the Ads on Reels test (or monetization program) on Facebook to allow more content creators to monetize their interesting reels. The company announced that it will start testing the program on Instagram in the coming weeks. Meta is also developing the program by testing a new payment model that pays content creators based on the performance of public reels, not based on revenue from ads on reels. “This means creators can focus on creating engaging content while we optimize…

News

Meta hires Oslo-based “supercomputing” experts to boost AI infrastructure

Jim HendlerMay 6, 23AI, Artificial Intelligence, Meta, Supercomputing

Meta Platforms Inc has hired an Oslo-based team that until the end of last year built AI network technology for British chip unicorn Graphcore. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the hiring in response to a request for comment after Reuters identified 10 people whose LinkedIn profiles indicated they worked at Graphcore until December 2022 or January 2023 and later joined Meta in February or March of this year. “We have recently welcomed a number of highly specialized engineers to Oslo to our infrastructure team at Meta. They bring deep expertise in…