This week, the state of Virginia became the second to pass its own version of the Consumer Data Protection Act — a sweeping regulatory bill aimed at protecting user privacy. And while it would be easy to imagine that Facebook would be opposed to legislation like this, it’s actually quite the opposite. The social media…

Facebook has long touted artificial intelligence technology as a solution to its many content moderation problems. The only issue is that AI first needs to be trained in order to recognize images or content that could be considered offensive, and it’s difficult to teach technology to think like a human. However, Facebook’s research team said…

When Facebook first announced it was creating an independent “supreme court” to rule on controversial content moderation decisions, it was seen as an encouraging step forward for the company. However, at least one member of the independent organization is already feeling frustrated by the task of working with the social media giant. So far, the…

Facebook users won a major privacy victory this week, with a federal judge giving final approval to a $650 million settlement over the platform’s use of facial recognition technology. The class-action suit, filed in Illinois in 2015, involved 1.6 million users in the state. The dispute was over Facebook’s photo-tagging feature, which allowed Facebook to…

Despite facing nearly endless privacy controversies, Facebook remains committed to pushing the boundaries of technology that some perceive as invasive. For instance, Facebook VP Andrew Bosworth told a group of employees this week that the company is weighing whether or not it should include facial recognition technology in its upcoming smart glasses product. There is…

For much of the past year, Facebook has found itself under pressure from lawmakers to fight the spread of hate speech and misinformation on its platform. And this week, those efforts intensified, with Democratic lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee pressing the social media giant to do something about these problems — or…

Facebook is no stranger to controversial content moderation decisions. Because of the company’s complicated rules and structure, it’s never entirely clear how it reaches decisions on who or what should be allowed to remain on the platform. And according to a recent bombshell from BuzzFeed News, sometimes it’s Mark Zuckerberg himself who steps in to…

Last week, Facebook abruptly decided to block all news content for Australian users because a proposed law would require it to pay publishers. Many experts predicted this would spark a wave of condemnation around the world, and that is exactly what’s happened this week, with several notable U.S. politicians and experts weighing in that Facebook…

This week, Facebook opened up a new front in its battle against misinformation, this time by “expanding and improving” its Climate Science Information Center. The approach that the company is taking is similar to the one it recently implemented to combat misleading COVID-19 and political content. The Center, which connects people to science-based news and…

This week, a watchdog organization in Italy announced that it will fine Facebook for failing to comply with an earlier order that required the company to inform users about what it does with their data. According to the watchdog group, Facebook is still failing to inform users “with clarity and immediacy” about how it monetizes…