All articles tagged with #facebook
A National Desk poll asks readers to vote on whether Facebook (Meta) should be held financially liable for youth mental‑health harms linked to social media, reflecting ongoing debates about platform accountability and potential penalties for juveniles’ safety.
The European Commission released preliminary findings that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram may violate the Digital Services Act due to addictive features like autoplay, infinite scroll and personalized recommendations, warning Meta has failed to address or warn users about the risks. Meta disputes the findings; if confirmed, it could face fines up to 6% of global revenue (potentially over $12 billion). The commission urges changes such as disabling autoplay and adjusting the recommender system, while Meta points to teen-safety features it has rolled out. The ruling is provisional and Meta will have an opportunity to dispute it.
Storage Wars star Darrell Sheets left a handwritten suicide note before his April death in which he referenced ‘Facebook bulling.’ Police say the note, found in a closet inside a black bin, read “I could not take anymore the Facebook bulling,” with handwriting described as shaky. The incident report also describes his final moments—sleep deprivation and distress, a late wake, and a gunshot after an argument with his son Brandon—though a girlfriend said their relationship had been good. Medical examiners ruled the death a suicide; castmates and outlets have cited cyberbullying as a factor in the tragedy.
Meta warns that if the four-state COPPA case against it wins, penalties could total $1.4 trillion—nearly the company’s entire market capitalization—an amount it calls outlandish. The suit accuses Facebook and Instagram of addicting teens and misleading the public about safety, with about 29 states involved and a trial set for August, amid a broader wave of related lawsuits.
More than two decades after the Malibu crash that ripped a Ferrari Enzo apart, ex-con Stefan Eriksson has been released from prison and resurfaced in a Ferrari Facebook group claiming the car was stolen from impound and demanding its return; the piece recounts the crash speed (police materials cite up to 199 mph) and Eriksson's criminal history, including deportation, while noting RM Sotheby's documentation of the car’s rebuild and that civil forfeiture questions could still affect ownership.
Gizmodo reports Meta is developing Arena, a cross‑app prediction‑markets platform for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to bet on almost anything, viewed as a knockoff of Kalshi/Polymarket and a continuation of betting on people’s worst impulses for profit. The piece ties this to Meta’s history—from the Facemash era and a notorious quote about users’ “trust” to harnessing dopamine‑driven engagement and whistleblower claims about addictive design and mental health harm—arguing Arena would extend that business model into gambling, with concerns about addiction and vulnerability, including minors.
A major outage has knocked Instagram and Facebook offline, leaving the apps unusable for users worldwide as service disruptions continue with no confirmed restoration time.
Facebook and its Messenger app went down in a global outage, logging users out with “an unexpected error” messages while the main site struggled; Instagram and WhatsApp largely stayed online, though some Instagram features were affected. Meta did not provide a consumer status page at the time, Downdetector reported widespread disruption, and updates tracked the outage in a live blog as users and services tried to recover.
Meta’s services, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, faced a Friday outage with most services restored and the WhatsApp Business Platform still disrupted; the company hasn’t disclosed a cause, while DownDetector tracked spikes in user reports.
Aaron Sorkin tried to bring Jesse Eisenberg back as Mark Zuckerberg for The Social Reckoning, but Eisenberg says he doesn’t want to be conflated with Zuckerberg anymore. The film, a follow‑up to The Social Network, centers on Frances Haugen and WSJ reporter Jeff Horwitz, with Sorkin writing and directing (instead of David Fincher).
Users in several countries reported outages across Meta platforms—Facebook, Instagram and Messenger—with login failures and logouts, while outage trackers like IsDown showed rising reports even though Meta had not publicly confirmed a widespread disruption.
A widespread outage hit Meta’s core apps—Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger—leaving users unable to load or log into accounts. Downdetector logged a spike in reports as users worldwide reported being logged out or facing blank pages, and Meta acknowledged the issue, saying they’re working on a fix.
Sony’s The Social Reckoning released its first official trailer, starring Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook drama about whistleblower Frances Haugen; also featuring Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White, the film opens in theaters October 9 and marks Sorkin’s directorial return since Being the Ricardos.
Sony Pictures released the trailer for The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to The Social Network, which centers on Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and WSJ reporter Jeff Horwitz; Jeremy Strong portrays Mark Zuckerberg, taking over from Jesse Eisenberg, with Sorkin again writing and directing; the film hits theaters on October 9.
Meta announces the launch of Creator Assistant on Facebook to help creators, along with expanding artificial‑intelligence translation capabilities to more languages (including Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish variants), enabling cross‑language posting and broader audience reach.