
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">Topline</h2>



<p>Meta apps Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were experiencing issues Wednesday afternoon as thousands of people reported outages for the apps on DownDetector—though Meta said just after 5:30 p.m. EST the issue was almost fixed.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">Key Facts</h2>



<p>Reports of outages soared starting around 12:30 p.m. EST, with more than 100,000 Facebook users reporting their problems on&nbsp;<a href="https://downdetector.com/status/facebook/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">DownDetector</a>&nbsp;by around 1:10 p.m. EST.</p>



<p>Tens of thousands of Instagram users also reported problems, while there was a similar spike for WhatsApp and Threads.</p>



<p>Just before 5:30 p.m., the number of reported outages on Facebook had dropped to just over 1,200, Instagram reports fell to about 1,900 from a peak of more than 68,000 and reports of issues on WhatsApp and Messenger were far below their peaks.</p>



<p>Upon trying to access Facebook, some users were met with an error message reading “We&#8217;re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.”</p>



<p>Meta’s&nbsp;<a href="https://metastatus.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">status and outages page</a>&nbsp;for its business products said almost all listed tools and platforms including Facebook Ads Manager, Messenger API for Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp Business API were suffering “major disruptions” as of just after 5:30 p.m. EST.</p>



<p>But in a&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/MetaNewsroom/status/1866974760694907008" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">post on X</a>, formerly known as Twitter, just after 5:30 p.m., Meta thanked people for bearing with it and said, “We’re 99% of the way there &#8211; just doing some last checks. We apologize to those who’ve been affected by the outage.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">Key Background</h2>



<p>Meta’s outage on Wednesday comes after a global outage in March that lasted more than two hours. Meta said that outage was caused by a technical issue,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/metas-facebook-instagram-down-thousands-downdetector-shows-2024-03-05/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Reuters</a>&nbsp;reported, and it impacted hundreds of thousands of users. At the peak of that outage, there were more than 538,000 reports of issues with Facebook and more than 91,000 issues with Instagram, The New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/technology/facebook-instagram-meta-down.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">Tangent</h2>



<p>Meta’s outage follows at least two other recent tech outages. On Nov. 25, some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/11/26/microsoft-outages-issues-resolved-more-than-24-hours-after-outlook-teams-impacted/">Microsoft</a>&nbsp;platforms were down for more than a day. Microsoft didn’t specify what change impacted programs, though the outage happened the same day as the rollout of a new Recall AI tool for Windows Insiders that was meant to take regular snapshots of computer activity. Earlier that week on Nov. 21, Reddit had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/11/21/users-report-reddit-outage-thursday-morning-second-in-24-hours/">two outages</a>&nbsp;in 24 hours as more than 76,000 users logged reports of issues with the site and app on DownDetector.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">Forbes Valuation</h2>



<p>Meta is ranked 24th on the Forbes’ Global <a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/global2000/">2000 list</a> of the world’s largest public companies, according to sales, profits, assets and market value. Meta was listed with about $142.7 billion in sales, $45.8 billion in profit and a market value of $1.197 trillion as of June.</p>


Smartphone apps from Facebook

Facebook And Instagram Outage: Meta Says It’s ‘99% Of The Way’ To Being Fixed


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Meta registered its highest-ever share price Friday, potentially completing the social media giant’s dramatic recovery amid Wall Street’s renewed faith in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has refocused the firm&#8217;s attention on improving bottom lines.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Shares of Meta climbed as much as 2.2% to $384.36 in Friday trading, eking out their prior intraday high of $384.33 set in September 2021.</p>



<p>Meta, which also broke its prior high closing share price of $382, capped a significant comeback from the stock’s 77% collapse from its 2021 peak to its November 2022 nadir.</p>



<p>The 2021-22 unraveling, though coming as worsening economic conditions and the threat of higher interest rates broadly weighed on technology stocks, notably coincided with Meta’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/">name change</a>&nbsp;from Facebook to reflect the company’s shifting focus away from its core social media product and into Zuckerberg’s pet “metaverse” augmented and virtual reality passion project.</p>



<p>The metaverse push&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/07/26/metaverse-results-keep-getting-worse-at-meta/?sh=78e1c8672b24">proved</a>&nbsp;highly unpopular among investors, as the company’s augmented and virtual division reported $13.7 billion of operating losses in 2022.</p>



<p>But Meta shares came roaring back in 2023 as Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/03/14/meta-cuts-another-10000-jobs/?sh=1d164387725b">touted</a>&nbsp;the company’s “year of efficiency”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-lay-off-employees-metaverse-silicon-unit-wednesday-2023-10-03/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">marked</a>&nbsp;by more than 20,000 layoffs and a push to boost profits, an effort that began to bear fruit in Meta’s results as the company is fresh off of its most profitable quarter ever, generating $13.9 billion in cash during the quarter ending September 30, 2022.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Meta was the S&amp;P 500’s second-best performer of 2023, returning almost 200%. Its gains came during a broad rally for big tech stocks, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index rose more than 40% last year. Zuckerberg, who owns about 13% of the company, grew much richer as Meta stock soared. His $134 billion net worth Friday, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?sh=51ad6d243e06">as estimated</a> by Forbes, is the fifth-largest fortune in the world.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



<p>Meta is now within 2% of achieving a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time in its history. Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia are the only companies in the world now valued at over $1 trillion. Meta’s roughly $985 billion market cap Friday made it the world’s seventh-most valuable company.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>Meta will report fourth-quarter and full-year financial results February 1. Analysts expect Meta to report its most profitable year ever with a record $72.6 billion of projected EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), according to FactSet.</p>


In this photo illustration the American online social media

Meta Stock Sets Record High—How It Emerged From 77% Plunge And Metaverse Fiasco


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The stock market fell on Thursday—its first down day in five sessions—as investors once again dumped shares of tech stocks, which were under pressure after Facebook parent Meta Platforms reported lackluster profits and warned of challenges to its business this year.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%, over 500 points, while the S&amp;P 500 lost 2.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 3.7%.</p>



<p>Tech stocks led the market lower on Thursday: Despite a recent comeback after a big selloff in January, investors’ renewed optimism in tech stocks took a sharp downturn following Meta’s massive&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/03/facebook-faces-an-existential-moment-after-230-billion-stock-crash/">earnings miss</a>.</p>



<p>The company issued weaker-than-expected revenue guidance, with management warning about rising competition, slowing user growth and ongoing challenges from the Apple iOS advertising changes last year.</p>



<p>Shares of Facebook parent Meta are on pace for their biggest one-day drop ever, falling 26% and erasing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/03/facebook-faces-an-existential-moment-after-230-billion-stock-crash/">over $230 billion</a>&nbsp;in market value alone, with the company’s market capitalization now standing at around $670 billion.</p>



<p>Social media stocks were particularly hard-hit following Meta’s big earnings miss: Shares of Snap, formerly known as Snapchat, plunged 23%, while image-sharing platform Pinterest lost 10% and social media platform Twitter 6%.</p>



<p>Shares of other Big Tech companies moved lower as well, including Amazon (down 7%), Alphabet (over 3%) and Microsoft (nearly 4%).<img decoding="async" src="https://img.connatix.com/302c3f34-bd8e-4e10-bdf6-142f6a05eae6/1.png" alt=""><img decoding="async" src="https://img.connatix.com/4c198a62-584d-4ab5-9ef3-e0efaa9f505d/415c4a63-a6f8-4da0-8848-2adb4edb8f2d.jpg?crop=634:429,smart&amp;width=634&amp;height=429&amp;format=jpeg&amp;quality=60&amp;fit=crop" alt="This Week In Credit Card News: Lenders Issuing More Credit Cards; Crypto May Improve Your Dating Life"></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND:</h2>



<p>Strong earnings from the likes of Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft helped push investors back into tech stocks after January’s selloff when the Nasdaq fell into correction territory, down 9% for the month alone. That renewed optimism in recent days has proved short-lived, however, with investors once again dumping tech shares after Meta’s dismal quarterly earnings report late on Wednesday.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE:</h2>



<p>“This isn’t simply a disappointing quarter but rather an existential moment for Meta, where investors will be forced to take a long and hard look at the company’s competitive position and consider whether it isn’t heading into a prolonged period of subpar performance—this will make it hard for the stock to quickly rebound,” predicts Vital Knowledge founder Adam Crisafulli.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING:</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/03/facebook-faces-an-existential-moment-after-230-billion-stock-crash/">Facebook Faces An ‘Existential Moment’ After $230 Billion Stock Crash</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/02/paypal-stock-crash-wipes-out-over-50-billion-in-market-value-after-company-lowers-profit-outlook/">PayPal Stock Crash Wipes Out Over $50 Billion In Market Value After Company Lowers Profit Outlook</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/01/alphabet-surges-7-after-blowout-earnings-heres-what-the-201-stock-split-means-for-investors/">Alphabet Surges 10% After Blowout Earnings, Here’s What The 20:1 Stock Split Means For Investors</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/01/cathie-wood-buys-more-robinhood-and-tesla-tells-investors-to-take-advantage-of-volatility/">Cathie Wood Buys More Robinhood And Tesla, Tells Investors To Take ‘Advantage’ Of Volatility</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><strong><em> By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/"></a>Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Close up of young businesswoman checking financial trading data on smartphone by the stock exchange market display screen board in downtown financial district

Stocks Plunge After Facebook’s Massive Sell-Off, Nasdaq Falls 3.7%


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Two months after its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=67cbb91f7f83">buzzy name change</a>&nbsp;from Facebook, Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/12/horizon-worlds-open-in-us-and-canada/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;a further leap into the “metaverse” Thursday, making the beta version of its multiplayer virtual reality game downloadable to all American and Canadian adults for free.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Meta describes “Horizon World” as ​​a “social VR experience where you can create and explore together,” representing a key component of the company’s expansion into the metaverse.</p>



<p>The metaverse is a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-the-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vague term</a>, but it represents a shift into augmented and virtual reality spaces on the Internet — including VR gaming — and Meta’s website&nbsp;<a href="https://about.facebook.com/meta/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dubs it</a>&nbsp;the “the next evolution of social connection.</p>



<p>“Horizon Worlds” is available on Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 VR headset (Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2014/03/facebook-to-acquire-oculus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acquired</a>&nbsp;Oculus for $2 billion in 2014).</p>



<p>The “Horizon Worlds” beta had previously been downloadable on an invite-only basis.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>During the company’s October name-change announcement,<strong>&nbsp;</strong>Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=67cbb91f7f83">said</a>&nbsp;he sees the metaverse, not social media, as the company’s future: “Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and identity on what we&#8217;re building toward.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



<p>Microsoft founder<strong>&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/?sh=5b5e1dde689f">Bill Gates</a>&nbsp;predicted that “most virtual meetings” will take place in the metaverse “within the next two or three years” in a Tuesday blog post. Microsoft has announced its&nbsp;<a href="https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/mesh-for-microsoft-teams/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">own plans</a>&nbsp;for the metaverse. Gates stepped down from the company’s board last year.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=67cbb91f7f83">Facebook Announces New Name: Meta</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhackl/2020/07/05/the-metaverse-is-coming--its-a-very-big-deal/">The Metaverse Is Coming And It’s A Very Big Deal</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-the-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What Is the Metaverse, Exactly?</a> (<em>Wired</em>)Follow me on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/derek_saul" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Send me a secure <a href="https://www.forbes.com/tips/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">tip</a>. </p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/"></a><strong><em>By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Facebook Dives Deeper Into The Metaverse Two Months After Meta Name Change


<p>When Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and maimed a third in August 2020, Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/brianfishman/status/1299083851596214272" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">took relatively swift action</a>. A day after the incident in Kenosha, Wisconsin, it removed his Facebook and Instagram accounts, started to prohibit posts praising him and blocked his name from the apps’ search function.</p>



<p>The moves came as part of another new Facebook policy around violence and mass shootings that debuted that same week, though it’s unclear whether it dropped before&nbsp;<em>or&nbsp;</em>after Rittenhouse shot those men. And as part of its decision to reduce Rittenhouse’s profile on the platform, the company officially designated Rittenhouse as a “mass shooter.”</p>



<p>But the steps immediately drew criticism from within Facebook. In a post to Facebook’s internal Workplace message board days later, one employee wrote: “If Kyle Rittenhouse had killed 1 person instead of 2, would it still qualify as a mass shooting? Can we really consistently and objectively differentiate between support (not allowed) and discussion of whether he is being treated justly (allowed)?”</p>



<p>The Workplace post went on: “Can we really handle this at scale in an objective way without making critical errors in both under and over enforcement?”</p>



<p>That comment really hits the nail on the head. Facebook has been caught up in a years-long reckoning over what type of content to regulate and how it should do that. It has been roundly criticized by liberals for not doing enough and by conservatives for doing too much. As a result, it is pulled in both directions, more often than not pleasing neither side.</p>



<p>Recently, it has been pressed recently to take a stronger stance against violent content and posts that might lead to violence, which you might think could draw universal support. It hasn’t. And on Friday, it became even more complicated for Facebook: A jury found Rittenhouse <a href="https://www.forbes.com/video/6282826589001/biden-and-politicians-responds-to-kyle-rittenhouse-verdict/">not guilty</a>, reigniting outcries from right-wing pundits that Facebook had unfairly rushed to penalize him. (His lawyer had successfully convinced the jury that he acted in self-defense that August evening in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a city then engulfed in protests over the police shooting of a 29-year-old Black man, Jacob Blake.)</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">FACEBOOK DECLARED KYLE RITTENHOUSE A MASS MURDERER<br><br>PRESERVE YOUR RECORDS ZUCKERBERG</p>&mdash; Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1461764109402316808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/facebook?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Facebook</a> owes Rittenhouse and its users an apology, to start. <a href="https://t.co/DPGT3PNcHx">https://t.co/DPGT3PNcHx</a></p>&mdash; Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1461781361380016130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>Facebook has long been reluctant to make judgment calls about what belongs on its site—and when it has prohibited material such as violent content, it has not always been successful in keeping it from appearing on its platform. One of the most dramatic examples: the March 2019 Christchurch shooting in New Zealand, where the shooter livestreamed his onslaught on Facebook and YouTube. No one reported the video to Facebook until 29 minutes after it went up, and no part of the video triggered Facebook’s automated moderation software, according to a internal Facebook report about the Christchurch shooter. Facebook eventually shut off the feed, but it would spend the next day taking down 1.5 million copies of the video. In response, Facebook changed a number of its policies related to live videos, including speeding up how quickly its software reviews new live videos. (Before Christchruch, a broadcast would typically have lasted for 5 minutes before the program noticed it; subsequent changes lowered it to about 20 seconds.)</p>



<p>As with many Facebook policy changes, these were reactive, and the more recent past has seen more of Facebook trying to keep up with current events unfolding on its platform. In August 2020, shortly after the Rittenhouse shootings, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the company had erred in not taking down a Facebook event page that encouraged a militia to form in the same Wisconsin city where Rittenhouse had shot the three men. Facebook users reported the militia group 455 times before Facebook removed it. And then in January, Facebook took measures against posts related to the U.S. Capitol riots only in the aftermath to the insurrection—even though sentiment delegitimizing the election had blossomed on Facebook in the months after Joe Biden’s victory, another internal Facebook report shows.</p>



<p>The Rittenhouse verdict raises a whole new set of questions. When should a “mass shooter” label get affixed to someone—before or after a trial? Ever? How exactly should Facebook tamp down on posts? Should it scrap the mass shooter policy entirely?</p>



<p>Over the weekend, Facebook, which didn’t return requests to comment, was again sent backtracking. It lifted its block around searching for “Kyle Rittenhouse” on Facebook and Instagram, helping posts about Rittenhouse from right-wing media personalities like Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino to attract tens of thousands of comments, reshares and reaction emojis, the signals that then boost their posts further up users’ Facebook feeds. One Facebook group, American Patriots Appeal, is advertising a Rittenhouse T-shirt. It costs $27.99 and shows him crouched, G.I. Joe-style, holding a semiautomatic rifle. An emblazoned phrase appears alongside: “Kyle Rittenhouse Did Nothing Wrong.”</p>



<p><em>The internal Facebook documents cited in this story come from the documents that Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen turned over to the SEC; redacted versions have gone to Congress and a consortium of news organizations, including </em>Forbes. <em>They’re popularly known as The Facebook Papers.  </em></p>



<p><em><strong>By Abram Brown, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Kyle Rittenhouse Found Not Guilty In Kenosha Protest Shootings

Will The Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict Change How Facebook Treats Gun Violence—Again?


<p><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Facebook made an internal post in April for multiple jobs tasked with making new products for children as young as six years old in an aim to attract more users to its platforms, <em>NBC News</em> first<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-documents-reveal-company-targeted-children-young-6-rcna4021?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> reported</a> Friday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The internal post says that Facebook historically did not have products designed for consumers under 13 years old, except Messenger Kids, according to a document obtained by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;as part of a consortium of news organizations reporting on leaked internal Facebook files.</p>



<p>Bold letters at the top of the post read, &#8220;The internet wasn&#8217;t built with young people in mind, but we&#8217;re about to change that.&#8221;</p>



<p>The post describes openings for three roles, including “strategists on the experiences” of “Kids (6-9), Tweens (10-12), Early Teens (13-15), Late Teens (16+) that includes net new products” and reshape existing ones.</p>



<p>Four of the seven “research partners” and hiring managers the post said would have more information about the jobs were working for Instagram.</p>



<p>A spokesperson for Meta — the new name for the company — told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;the age brackets are from a regulatory framework set by the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s office and “don’t represent Facebook’s product plans”— but it wasn’t immediately clear why it had used the U.K.’s guidelines.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The spokesperson added the company is currently hiring for the roles that will “largely focus on new features we’re building for teens (13-17) and parents.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Other openings looked for researchers to focus on understanding “what roles digital experiences” are having on caregiving for children. Still others sought researchers who could collaborate with experts in the policy, legal and communications fields to understand “the needs and challenges of upcoming and current generations,” according to the post. The revelations come from documents provided by Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which were also provided to Congress in redacted form by her legal team. The redacted versions received by Congress were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>, a collection of documents popularly known as the Facebook Papers.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>In late September, Facebook<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58707753" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> paused</a> the development of an Instagram for kids under 13 years old, also known as “Instagram Kids,” following the <em>Wall Street Journal’s </em>bombshell reports that Facebook knew Instagram was “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739?mod=series_facebookfiles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">toxic</a>” for teen girls. Instagram head Adam Mosseri <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/pausing-instagram-kids" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> in a blog post that Facebook will “use this time to work with parents, experts and policymakers to demonstrate the value and need for this product.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-documents-reveal-company-targeted-children-young-6-rcna4021?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Documents reveal Facebook targeted children as young as 6 for consumer base</a>&nbsp;(<em>NBC News</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/10/25/here-are-the-biggest-facebook-papers-charges-zuckerberg-caves-to-communist-government-and-lets-celebrities-break-the-rules-more/?sh=389a98bf1fa7">Here Are The Biggest ‘Facebook Papers’ Charges: Zuckerberg Caves To Communist Government And Lets Celebrities Break The Rules, More</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/10/27/facebook-can-be-toxic-for-female-politicians-company-documents-show/?sh=7dccc9b05020">Facebook Can Be Toxic For Female Politicians, Company Documents Show</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/technology/facebook-instagram-for-kids.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook Delays Instagram App for Users 13 and Younger</a> (<em>The New York Times</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/"></a><strong><em>by Lisa Kim, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Girl hold telephone in hand and playing smartphone watching cartoons at the school. Asia child addicted to games problems of children use smartphone technology

Facebook Recruited Researchers For Products For Kids As Young As 6


<p><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Facebook published its guidelines on content distribution Thursday, reiterating that it throttles the reach of “problematic or low-quality” content including clickbait, misinformation and sensationalist health claims, as the company faces increasing pressure from users and lawmakers to reveal how it decides what content to display. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>There are dozens of reasons Facebook curtails the reach of content it displays in its News Feed, according to Content Distribution Guidelines&nbsp;<a href="https://transparency.fb.com/en-gb/features/approach-to-ranking/types-of-content-we-demote/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a>&nbsp;on Thursday, including spam, unsafe reporting on suicide and “posts from broadly untrusted news publishers.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Facebook said the guidelines, previously shared through earlier announcements, have been newly gathered in the platform’s months-old&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2021/05/20/facebook-launches-transparency-center-shares-data-on-content-removal/?sh=46511bcb1f53">transparency center</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Facebook said there are three reasons it will reduce the reach of content: to incentivize creators to build “high-quality and accurate content,” to foster a “safer community,” and in response to direct user feedback.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Publishing the measures in one place—which apply to problematic posts that do not warrant removal from the site—is supposed to provide more clarity on Facebook’s internal process, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/09/content-distribution-guidelines/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>, as it faces increasing fire around the world to reveal how it controls what users see.</p>



<p>According to the guidelines, Facebook also demotes posts by people who “probably have multiple accounts for the purposes of evading enforcement,” news articles lacking clear authorship and links that lead to pages containing explicit or shocking content.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



<p>The guidelines offered only a top-level look at how Facebook controls News Feed and did not, for example, give details on how content is reduced, by how much or whether different kinds of posts have their reach cut in different ways.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>The guidelines are not a new initiative of Facebook’s and simply shine a small light on the company’s well-known and poorly-understood&nbsp;<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/mark-zuckerberg-joel-kaplan-facebook-alex-jones" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">practice</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/media/2020/10/facebook-mother-jones/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">manipulating</a>&nbsp;what users see. Recent investigations by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Wall Street Journal&nbsp;</em></a>and the&nbsp;<em>New York Times</em>&nbsp;uncovered details of a project to show people<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/technology/zuckerberg-facebook-project-amplify.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;positive stories&nbsp;</a>about Facebook,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/09/21/facebook-oversight-board-cross-check-moderation/?sh=3b04693351f7">separate rules</a>&nbsp;for high-profile users and politicians, and evidence the company is fully aware its products can be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">harmful</a>&nbsp;to users,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/14/facebook-internal-research-found-instagram-can-be-very-harmful-to-young-girls-report-says/?sh=1dad6885a2a5">including</a>&nbsp;young girls. In 2014, Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a>&nbsp;a clandestine experiment on nearly 700,000 to determine whether or not it could&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/everything-we-know-about-facebooks-secret-mood-manipulation-experiment/373648/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">manipulate</a>&nbsp;users’ emotions using News Feed (the study found they could).&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/technology/zuckerberg-facebook-project-amplify.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">No More Apologies: Inside Facebook’s Push to Defend Its Image</a>&nbsp;(NYT)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/09/21/facebook-oversight-board-cross-check-moderation/?sh=3b04693351f7">Facebook Oversight Board Will Investigate Whether The Company Has Different Rules For Powerful Users</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/23/22688840/facebook-releases-content-distribution-guidelines-for-news-feed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook is starting to share more about what it demotes in News Feed</a>&nbsp;(Verge)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-algorithm-change-zuckerberg-11631654215" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead.</a>&nbsp;(WSJ)</p>


Facebook Holds Virtual F8 Developer Conference

Facebook Reveals What Content It Will Suppress, But Not Remove — Though Crucial Details Remain Hidden


<p id="h-a-federal-district-court-ruled-in-favor-of-facebook-in-two-lawsuits-brought-by-the-federal-trade-commission-ftc-and-state-attorneys-general-monday-thwarting-government-efforts-to-break-up-the-big-tech-behemoth-and-sending-the-company-s-market-value-to-record-heights-though-the-court-said-the-ftc-can-file-their-complaint-again-and-make-another-attempt"><strong>TOPLINE</strong>: A federal district court ruled in favour of Facebook in two <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/12/09/48-us-states-ftc-file-antitrust-charges-against-facebook/?sh=24ef02ec7653">lawsuits</a> brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general Monday, thwarting government efforts to break up the big tech behemoth and sending the company’s market value to record heights—though the court said the FTC can file their complaint again and make another attempt.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<p>The FTC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/191-0134/facebook-inc-ftc-v" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sued</a>&nbsp;Facebook in December 2020, alleging the company had violated antitrust law through practices like buying up competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp.</p>



<p>U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.224921/gov.uscourts.dcd.224921.73.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruled</a>&nbsp;the government agency’s claims about Facebook being a monopoly were “legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed,” saying the government’s case was “light on specific factual allegations” even as the judge acknowledged the court “does not agree with all of Facebook’s contentions here.”</p>



<p>New York Attorney General Letitia James led 48 states in separately&nbsp;<a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-leads-multistate-lawsuit-seeking-end-facebooks-illegal" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suing</a>&nbsp;Facebook for alleged antitrust violations in December, which Boasberg also&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.224923/gov.uscourts.dcd.224923.137.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dismissed</a>&nbsp;Monday, saying the states waited too long to bring their case.</p>



<p>The states’ case “is premised on public, high-profile conduct nearly all of which occurred over six years ago,” Boasberg wrote—“when Ebola was the virus dominating headlines”—and granting relief to the states now would result in harm to Facebook and its shareholders given that Instagram and WhatsApp have been fully integrated into the company.</p>



<p>The FTC lawsuit was dismissed “without prejudice,” which means it can be filed again with changes to address the court’s concerns, but the state complaint was dismissed in its entirety.</p>



<p>The favorable ruling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/28/tech/facebook-trillion-ftc/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">led to</a>&nbsp;Facebook’s stock rising by more than 4% Monday and the company hitting a $1 trillion market cap for the first time, and the company said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/andymstone/status/1409611408371859459?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;they were “pleased” the court’s decisions “recognize the defects in the government complaints filed against Facebook.”</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



<p>“The FTC alleges only that Facebook has ‘maintained a dominant share of the U.S. personal social networking market (in excess of 60%)’ since 2011&#8230;and that ‘no other social network of comparable scale exists in the United States.’ That is it,” Boasberg wrote to explain why he ruled in Facebook’s favor, saying the FTC did “not even provide an estimated actual figure or range for Facebook’s market share at any point over the past ten years” and their allegations “ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power.”</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h3>



<p>The FTC is likely to submit an amended complaint to get the court to reconsider the issue, particularly considering the agency’s new director,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/technology/lina-khan-ftc.html#:~:text=Liz%20Cheney-,Biden%20Names%20Lina%20Khan%2C%20a%20Big%2DTech%20Critic%2C%20as,on%20the%20agency%20on%20Tuesday." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lina Khan</a>, has a history of being critical of big tech. The new FTC chief, who the Senate just confirmed in mid-June, expressed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/business/lina-khan-ftc.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">concerns</a>&nbsp;about the dominance of big tech companies like Facebook during her confirmation hearing, saying she believed there was a “whole range of potential risks” associated with companies’ growing power.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



<p>The Facebook lawsuits are part of a growing government effort against Facebook and its big tech brethren. Government&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-are-the-u-s-antitrust-cases-facing-google-facebook-and-others-11608150564" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lawsuits</a>&nbsp;have also been brought against Google, the FTC is reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-planned-purchase-of-mgm-to-be-reviewed-by-ftc-11624379614" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">preparing</a>&nbsp;to investigate Amazon over its acquisition of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/05/26/amazon-buys-mgm---but-heres-why-you-still-wont-find-wizard-of-oz-or-gone-with-the-wind-on-there/">MGM</a>&nbsp;and the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/10/06/long-awaited-house-report-recommends-breaking-up-big-tech/?sh=7158f975c831">concluded</a>&nbsp;in October that Congress should consider updating its antitrust laws and breaking up big tech companies, among other efforts. Facebook, for its part, has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/28/tech-ceo-antitrust-hearing-opening-statement-385233" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">maintained</a>&nbsp;it does not practice anticompetitive behavior—even as emails&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21345723/facebook-instagram-documents-emails-mark-zuckerberg-kevin-systrom-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">show</a>&nbsp;CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he viewed Instagram as a threat that “can hurt us meaningfully” before Facebook bought the company—and has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/11/facebook-breakup-antitrust/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">integrated</a>&nbsp;the tech behind its platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp reportedly in order to make the company harder to break up.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



<p>Antitrust legislation that could result in big tech companies like Facebook potentially getting broken up is moving forward in Congress, with the House Judiciary Committee&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/technology/antitrust-overhaul-congress.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">advancing</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/22/tech-industry-urges-congress-to-slow-down-new-antitrust-bills.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">legislation</a>&nbsp;last week that would prohibit companies from owning businesses that present a conflict of interest, stop tech platforms from advantaging their own services over those of competitors and give regulators more of an advantage over the tech companies. Those bills likely face an uphill battle in a closely divided Senate, however, even as both Republicans and Democrats have advocated against tech companies’ growing power.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h3>



<p>Among those who have called for Facebook to be broken up is the company’s own co-founder Chris Hughes, who wrote in a 2019 op-ed that the “government must hold Mark accountable.” “Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” Hughes wrote about Zuckerberg. “It is time to break up Facebook.”</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/12/09/48-us-states-ftc-file-antitrust-charges-against-facebook/?sh=24ef02ec7653">48 Attorneys General, FTC File Antitrust Charges Against Facebook</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/03/10/facebook-seeks-dismissal-of-antitrust-lawsuits/?sh=1458cb054e30">Facebook Seeks Dismissal Of Antitrust Lawsuits</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/28/tech/facebook-trillion-ftc/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook hits $1 trillion market cap after federal court dismisses FTC antitrust complaint</a>&nbsp;(CNN)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/11/facebook-breakup-antitrust/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Regulators want to break up Facebook. That’s a technical nightmare, insiders say. </a>(Washington Post)</p>



<p><em><strong>By Alison Durkee, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


In this photo illustration, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook Wins Antitrust Lawsuits — At Least For Now


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Facebook, the world&#8217;s largest social media company, posted its strongest first-quarter earnings yet Wednesday afternoon, shattering Wall Street expectations thanks to surging advertising revenues despite heightened competition from the likes of Google and threats on the regulatory front.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook <a href="https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2021/Facebook-Reports-First-Quarter-2021-Results/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> revenue of $26.1 billion in the first quarter, 48% more than the $17.7 billion it pulled in the first quarter of last year and nearly $3 billion more than analysts expected.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Net income also smashed expectations, hitting $9.5 billion, or $3.30 per share—well above average analyst expectations of $2.33 per share and nearly double income of $4.9 billion in the first quarter of last year.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Facebook’s monthly active users jumped about 50 million, meaning a record-breaking 2.85 billion people used the social network in the last month of the quarter. </li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>A slew of analysts upped their Facebook price targets this week in anticipation of the better-than-expected earnings report, with Credit Suisse&#8217;s Stephen Ju on Monday saying improving ad trends should bode well for Facebook and Instagram&#8217;s bottom lines.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Facebook stock futures jumped 7% within minutes of the announcement; shares closed up 1.2% on Wednesday and have climbed about 14% for the year—better than the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s 11% increase.</li></ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h3>



<p>$341.50. That&#8217;s how high analysts think Facebook shares can go over the next year, according to Bloomberg data, giving the stock about 11% upside to Wednesday’s closing price of $307.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h3>



<p>Facebook&#8217;s third-quarter&nbsp;<a href="https://investor.fb.com/investor-events/event-details/2021/Facebook-Q1-2021-Earnings-/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">earnings call</a>&nbsp;is at 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE&nbsp;</h3>



<p>&#8220;We had a strong quarter as we helped people stay connected and businesses grow,&#8221; said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/">Mark Zuckerberg</a>, Facebook’s billionaire founder and CEO. &#8220;We will continue to invest aggressively to deliver new and meaningful experiences for years to come, including in newer areas like augmented and virtual reality, commerce, and the creator economy.&#8221;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



<p>Founded in 2004 by a group of Harvard College classmates including Zuckerberg and fellow billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/dustin-moskovitz/">Dustin Moskovitz</a>, Facebook is now the fifth-largest U.S. company by market cap, worth a staggering $862 billion. More than 95% of the company&#8217;s revenue comes from advertising, with about 50% of sales saturated in the U.S. and Canada. Though Bank of America expects the stock could soar another 20% in the next three years, the biggest risks to watch for include declines in user activity, privacy issues, big-tech regulation and any adverse impact on advertising prices.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2021/04/27/facebooks-stock-to-grow-as-earnings-expected-to-beat-market-estimates/">Facebook&#8217;s Stock To Grow As Earnings Expected To Beat Market Estimates?</a>&nbsp;<em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/04/28/why-mark-zuckerberg-wants-influencers-to-get-rich/">Why Mark Zuckerberg Wants Influencers To Get Rich</a>&nbsp;<em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><strong><em>By Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Facebook Posts $26 Billion In Revenue, Shattering Wall Street Expectations As Income Nearly Doubles


<p><strong>Amazon, Facebook, TikTok and a growing number of venture-backed startups are all seeking to replicate QVC&#8217;s success selling stuff via live demos and time-pressured promotions. But the original home shopping is still way ahead &#8211; for now.</strong></p>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In March, a year into the pandemic, QVC is pitching a predictably eclectic assortment of items. A set of three collapsible storage boxes for $33, perfect for the springtime ritual of clearing away clutter — 28,000 sold! A pink amaryllis bulb for Easter – yours for three payments of $10.89! An “ingenious” planter in the shape of a frog — only 500 left!</p>



<p>Hardly the essentials needed to endure a lockdown, but it’s made for brisk business for QVC and its sister channel HSN, which now reach into 380 million homes worldwide and continue to find a massive audience for its hokey sales pitches that push everything from mattresses and mops to cooking supplies and jewelry.</p>



<p>Last year, the two channels — plus a handful of smaller clothing and home décor brands — delivered revenue of $11.4 billion for publicly-traded Qurate Retail. QVC has been around for 35 years but has suddenly become the company to beat in the industry’s new fervor for live shopping. Amazon, Facebook and TikTok are in hot pursuit, along with a number of venture-backed startups. Walmart wants in too, as do Macy’s, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, Wayfair, Estee Lauder, Tommy Hilfiger and Levi Strauss, all of whom have begun to experiment with the approach as a way of reaching shoppers who are staying at home — and may never come back.</p>



<p>“They are more relevant now than ever,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, of the two channels born at the dawn of the cable TV era.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1180313883-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50467" width="175" height="262" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1180313883-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1180313883-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1180313883-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1180313883-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1180313883-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1180313883-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px" /><figcaption>Qurate Retail Group CEO Mike George . (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Fashion Footwear Charitable Foundation )</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Livestream shopping, the internet-era name given to programming that leans heavily on lively demos, time-pressured promotions and real-time interactions with shoppers, is set to grow four-fold to $25 billion in the U.S. in the next two years, according to Coresight Research. And that’s nothing compared to what’s happening in China, where data firm iResearch expects consumers to spend $300 billion on livestream purchases this year, about 15% of the country’s total online sales. Qurate, with 22 million active customers, is the largest in the U.S. by far and still growing, adding 7.6 million new shoppers during 2020. Shares of Qurate, which is controlled by cable billionaire John Malone, have delivered total returns of 300% in the past 12 months.</p>



<p>“The world is shifting to what we do,” says Qurate CEO Mike George, who is set to retire at the end of the year. “As we see others copy what we do, it motivates us to move that much faster to expand our leadership.”</p>



<p>While most livestreamers are still fumbling for footing, QVC is a well-oiled machine that has already won over millions of bargain-hunting, middle-aged women, who buy an average of 26 items every year at a cost of $1,335, an enviable advantage. Big tech is still in the trial and error phase. Amazon’s first effort, “Style Code Live,&#8221; was cancelled in 2017 after a year. The online behemoth has since revamped the strategy to allow brands and influencers to host their own livestreams, which run throughout the day on the Amazon Live page. Last year, Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">began making it easier</a>&nbsp;for small businesses to sell products during livestream sessions, while TikTok is running tests with Walmart. A pilot event in December attracted seven times more viewers than it anticipated, prompting&nbsp;<a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2021/03/09/walmart-doubles-down-on-tiktok-shopping-hosts-all-new-live-stream-shopping-event" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a second livestream earlier this month</a>.</p>



<p>A rash of copycats has also emerged, with ambitions of overtaking the incumbent with a slicker, more digitally savvy version geared toward young shoppers. “I love it,” says George, who keeps a thick file of stories about companies purporting to be the ‘new QVC,’ most of them failed. “It’s good to be talked about.”</p>



<p>If any of them do gain traction, they could threaten the value of that 380-million home reach. That’s why George has embraced streaming services like YouTube TV, the company&#8217;s own branded websites and mobile apps, as well as social media. He’s now testing 15-second spots on TikTok and on-demand content like a 30-minute show where celebrity chef Curtis Stone travels to far-flung destinations to sample local cuisine. A new app, currently in beta in the U.K., will let users themselves livestream content, the same kind of user-generated content approach that has boomed in China.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>The world is shifting to what we do. As we see others copy what we do, it motivates us to move that much faster to expand our leadership.</p><cite>-Mike George, CEO of Qurate Retail</cite></blockquote>



<p>George won’t disclose how many orders still start with a customer tuning in through their television, and instead points out that QVC and HSN are now mostly digital businesses, with about 60% of their revenue coming from online sales and two-thirds of those purchases made from mobile devices. Still, sales rose just 5% in 2020, hardly the numbers posted by a game-changing growth business.</p>



<p>The 59-year-old retail veteran began running QVC in 2005, shortly after cable giant Comcast sold its stake in the business to Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. in 2003, and oversaw the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/business/dealbook/qvc-home-shopping-network-merger.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2017 acquisition</a>&nbsp;of its main rival, HSN. Before he took the job, he was put off by what felt like a dated concept even then, but was won over by its connection with customers and the way it sent units flying out the door. The son of a carpenter who learned as a kid he was no good with his hands, George&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/jobs/21boss.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">became convinced that QVC’s “best days were yet to come.”</a></p>



<p>“The people that watch QVC and HSN and buy stuff on there woke up that morning and didn’t know they needed a pan or makeup or whatever it is,” says Evercore ISI retail analyst Oliver Wintermantel. Its biggest problem? An aging audience.</p>



<p>That’s what led him&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/qvc-to-acquire-online-shopping-site-zulily-for-2-4-billion-1439813202" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">to pay $2.4 billion for flash sales site Zulily</a>&nbsp;in 2015, giving him a brand that also relies on time-pressured promotions but is popular among moms with young children. He also ramped up the marketing budget for QVC and HSN to $170 million last year, with a focus on social media ads and partnerships with influencers.</p>



<p>George says he’s got the problem in hand, but not because he believes that youth is the future. Gen Z shoppers lack the disposable income, hobbies and life experience to be interested in what he’s selling. “We’ve never worried a whole lot about being cool,” he says. Instead, he sees plenty of runway left for his core audience of women 35 and older.</p>



<p>His bigger worry is becoming a showroom for Amazon. That’s led to exclusive merchandise deals, both with emerging entrepreneurs like IT Cosmetics founder Jamie Kern Lima and celebrities like Katy Perry, Martha Stewart, Jaime Foxx and HGTV’s Property Brothers, who are drawn to the company’s massive reach.&nbsp;</p>



<p>One of those lines was with plus-sized model Hunter McGrady, the curviest woman ever featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, who watched QVC with her mom growing up and debuted a clothing line with the channel last year. She worked with the in-house design team to create a line of hoodies, joggers and cardigans in sizes XXS to 5x, then began going on-air to walk customers through the story behind each piece. Doing it live she can demonstrate how the clothing moves on her body. On one segment, the 27-year-old explained how she created a ruched tank top because she could never find one that sufficiently covered her backside. She has sold 155,000 units since launching last April, most to customers she never would have reached on her Instagram page.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“I think what a lot of livestream shopping folks miss is they’re trying to sell you something in the moment with technology, a flashy influencer and slick production values,” says George, who says his viewers often watch hours and hours of programming before springing for a purchase. “They’re not establishing any connection, relationship or intimacy with you. They’re not enticing you to come back tomorrow to discover something new. That is the magic of what we try and do.” </p>



<p><em>-by Lauren Debter,Forbes Staff</em></p>


Teleshopping

Where QVC Is Still Way Ahead Of Amazon


<p><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Tech CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey will soon have to answer to lawmakers about the rise of misinformation on their platforms and how they plan to address it, as the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday a hearing with the Facebook, Google and Twitter leaders will take place on March 25.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<p>Zuckerberg, Pichai and Dorsey—who lead Facebook, Google and Twitter, respectively—will testify at a remote hearing on “misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms,” the House committee announced.</p>



<p>The hearing will further the committee’s work of “holding online platforms accountable” for the issues on their platforms, committee chair Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and subcommittee chairs Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in a statement.</p>



<p>The lawmakers singled out misinformation on election fraud and the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccine as particular matters of concern.</p>



<p>The tech leaders have previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/facebook-twitter-ceos-senate-judiciary-committee-prepared-testimony.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">testified</a>&nbsp;before lawmakers in recent months, including an October&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/28/facebook-google-and-twitter-ceos-testify-in-congress-over-section-230-live-updates.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hearing</a>&nbsp;with all three CEOs before the Senate Commerce Committee on Section 230, which shields tech companies from legal liability for the content their users post.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



<p>“For far too long, big tech has failed to acknowledge the role they’ve played in fomenting and elevating blatantly false information to its online audiences. Industry self-regulation has failed,” Pallone, Doyle and Schakowsky said in a statement. “We must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation.”</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h3>



<p>93%. That’s the percentage of Americans who say they are either very or somewhat about the spread of misinformation on the internet, according to a Gallup/Knight Foundation&nbsp;<a href="https://knightfoundation.org/articles/most-americans-would-believe-social-media-misinformation-warnings/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;conducted in September.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



<p>The House Judiciary Committee also separately announced plans to investigate big tech Thursday, unveiling a series of antitrust hearings aimed at curbing tech giants’ market dominance as it develops antitrust legislation. The renewed investigation will continue the antitrust subcommittee’s ongoing work probing the tech giants and their monopolistic power, which included a July&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/07/29/republicans-use-tech-antitrust-hearing-to-rail-against-anti-conservative-bias/?sh=6f7e186855aa">hearing</a>&nbsp;with Dorsey, Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



<p>Online misinformation and its spread on major social networks has come under significant scrutiny in recent months, particularly amid the Covid-19 pandemic and around the November election. Social media companies have taken significant&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/01/31/heres-how-facebook-twitter-and-tiktok-are-battling-coronavirus-misinformation/?sh=2dfca99c6651">steps</a>&nbsp;to curb the spread of false information, such as Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/09/twitter-new-rules-try-to-prevent-election-and-trump-related-chaos-misinformation/?sh=262d250f6840">adding safeguards</a>&nbsp;to limit sharing posts that have been flagged for misinformation and Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/18/facebook-continues-fight-against-misinformation-plans-to-debunk-climate-change-myths/?sh=7cac8aee4804">announcing</a>&nbsp;Thursday new efforts to combat misinformation around climate change. Despite their efforts, however, misinformation still continues to persist: an October study by the German Marshall Fund of the United States&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/12/facebook-users-interacting-with-misinformation-way-more-now-than-in-2016-study-finds/?sh=403d34415973">found</a>&nbsp;that engagement with false content producers on Facebook had gone up by 102% since 2016, for instance, while a September&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news/releases/covid-related-misinformation-videos-spread-primarily-through-facebook-as-its-fact-checkers-fail-to-spot-false-information-finds-new-oxford-study/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;from the University of Oxford found Facebook’s third-party fact checkers had only caught less than one percent of Covid-19 misinformation videos on the platform.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/18/house-antitrust-amazon-apple-facebook-google/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">House to grill Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs as Washington seeks to crack down on disinformation, antitrust</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/18/facebook-continues-fight-against-misinformation-plans-to-debunk-climate-change-myths/?sh=7cac8aee4804">Facebook Continues Fight Against Misinformation, Plans To Debunk Climate Change Myths</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/01/31/heres-how-facebook-twitter-and-tiktok-are-battling-coronavirus-misinformation/?sh=2dfca99c6651">Here’s How Facebook, Twitter And TikTok Are Battling Coronavirus Misinformation</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/12/facebook-users-interacting-with-misinformation-way-more-now-than-in-2016-study-finds/?sh=403d34415973">Facebook Users Interacting With Misinformation Way More Now Than In 2016, Study Finds</a> (Forbes)</p>



<p><em>By Alison Durkee, Forbes Staff</em></p>


US-politics-computers-internet

Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs Set To Testify About Misinformation


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Apple will introduce privacy features this spring limiting the ability of apps to track users—but while the change is applauded by privacy advocates, Facebook is staging an all-out offensive by announcing Monday it would send out its own notifications extolling the benefits of tracking.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Apple’s new privacy update will ask all users whether they want to be tracked across different apps, preventing third parties like Facebook from collecting data from other apps and using it to build profiles on individual users for targeted advertising.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Currently, if a user puts something into their cart on the Amazon app, for example, Facebook can access that data,  and users might see an ad for that same product on Facebook. </li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The new notifications that allow users to opt-out will pop up as soon as users open or download an app, making them more visible than Apple’s current system, which requires users to go into their settings to make that choice.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Facebook has been outspoken against the change because it threatens its lucrative advertising business, and could result in a 7% revenue dip, according to recent <a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/facebook-may-take-revenue-hit-from-apple-privacy-changes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimates</a>.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>In its fiercest opposition yet, Facebook said Monday it would send out its own prompt directly countering Apple’s, telling users that collecting such data allows for more personalized ads and supports “small businesses that rely on ads to reach customers.”</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Facebook argues that if users opt-out, they won’t see fewer ads, the ads will just be less relevant, and at the same time, small businesses would lose some of their ability to serve hyper-targeted ads, forcing some to raise prices or turn to a subscription model.</li></ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



<p>&nbsp;Facebook and Apple have been on a collision course since Apple made the App Tracking Transparency announcement over the summer. Facebook took out full page ads in several newspapers declaring it was “standing up to Apple for small businesses.” And last week Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4401479-facebook-inc-fb-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-on-q4-2020-results-earnings-call-transcript" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said&nbsp;</a>Apple is increasingly one of the social network’s biggest competitors. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook fired back, saying “if a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise” during a speech in Brussels.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



<p>&nbsp;“This is a laughable attempt from Facebook to distract you from its poor track record of anticompetitive behavior and privacy issues as it tries to derail pro-privacy changes from Apple that are bad for Facebook’s business,”&nbsp; the Electronic Frontier Foundation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/facebooks-laughable-campaign-against-apple-really-against-users-and-small" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said&nbsp;</a>in December. “Requiring trackers to request your consent before stalking you across the Internet should be an obvious baseline, and we applaud Apple for this change.”&nbsp;</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



<p>Public polling has&nbsp;<a href="https://epic.org/privacy/survey/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consistently&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shown&nbsp;</a>that users don’t like being tracked. It’s unclear just how many iOS users will opt-out when prompted, but dating app Bumble&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/bumble-ipo-filing-warns-apple-privacy-changes-could-harm-its-business.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimates&nbsp;</a>that only 0-20% will choose to be tracked.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h4>



<p>Apple’s privacy update will go into effect early this spring, Apple says.</p>



<p><em>By Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff</em></p>


In this photo illustration the Apple and Facebook logos are

Apple Wants To Make It Harder For Apps To Track You. Facebook Isn’t Happy.


<p><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Facebook will no longer recommend political groups to users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday, amid criticism for how the platform was used by pro-Trump extremists to plan the attack on the Capitol earlier this month.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



<p>Facebook had already halted political and social issue group recommendations leading up to the November election last year, but Zuckerberg said on an earnings call Wednesday that the change will become permanent.</p>



<p>The move is significant because private Facebook groups are rife with misinformation and conspiracy theories, researchers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/22/881826881/facebook-groups-are-destroying-america-researcher-on-misinformation-spread-onlin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">say</a>, with some involved in the planning of the Capitol riots, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/some-pro-trump-extremsists-used-facebook-plan-capitol-attack-report-n1254794" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report&nbsp;</a>from the Tech Transparency Project.</p>



<p>The ban comes the day after Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) wrote a scathing letter to Zuckerberg saying, “Facebook’s system of recommending political groups poses grave threats to American democracy and public safety.”</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



<p>&nbsp;Critics have long pressured Facebook to crack down on calls for violence, hate speech and misinformation. They argue Facebook is a cesspool of extreme views, and can play a role in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/opinion/facebook-far-right.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">radicalizing&nbsp;</a>normal users. At least in part recognizing Facebook’s divisiveness, Zuckerberg also said Wednesday the social network plans to reduce the amount of political content people see in their feeds. “One of the top pieces of feedback that we’re hearing from our community right now is that people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services,” Zuckerberg said.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h4>



<p>Facebook’s revenue and profit grew in 2020, despite a looming antitrust investigation, privacy mishaps and scrutiny over content moderation. But the company warned in its fourth-quarter earnings report that it would face significant obstacles this year as Apple plans to make it harder for Facebook to track iOS users.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h4>



<p>Facebook already <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/17/21443742/facebook-health-groups-recommendations-new-admin-rules" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stopped</a> recommending health-related groups in September to address coronavirus and other health misinformation.</p>



<p><em>By Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff</em></p>


Facebook Will Permanently Stop Promoting Political Groups


<p>Facebook will soon allow people on the social media platform to send direct messages to Instagram users and vice versa, the social media giant said in a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/09/new-messaging-features-for-instagram/" target="_blank">blog post</a>, signaling the first step in the company’s plan to unify messaging systems across all of its platforms, which also includes WhatsApp.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h4>



<p>Instagram’s inbuilt instant messenger will also be updated to include a few additions including selfie stickers, custom backgrounds, and disappearing messages.</p>



<p>The feature will be open to all users by default but Instagram users who may want to keep their chats separate from Facebook may choose to opt-out of the update altogether, although this means they will also not receive all the other new features.</p>



<p>It is unclear as to when the cross-platform messaging will become available to all users, but CNN&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/30/tech/instagram-messenger-messaging/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that the feature is presently being “tested in select markets and will expand globally in the coming months.”</p>



<p>The cross-platform integration presently excludes Facebook-owned messaging behemoth WhatsApp which has over 2 billion users worldwide.</p>



<p>Unlike Facebook Messenger and Instagram’s direct messages, WhatsApp features end-to-end encryption that prevents third parties including government and law enforcement from peering into messages in transit.</p>



<p>In 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had&nbsp;<a href="http://facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networking/10156700570096634/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlined</a>&nbsp;a plan that would see his company pivot away from public communications to focus on encrypted private messaging.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



<p>Responding to a question on WhatsApp integration on Twitter, Facebook’s EMEA Technology Communications Manager Alexandru Voica&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/alexvoica/status/1311287329701724170" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>, “Right now, we are focused on cross-app communications Messenger and Instagram. We are still determining how cross-app communications will work with WhatsApp. WhatsApp will continue to remain a separate, end-to-end encrypted app at this time.”</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITIC</h4>



<p>After Zuckerberg announced his company’s intention to integrate its service, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/opinion/sunday/chris-hughes-facebook-zuckerberg.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>&nbsp;for the&nbsp;<em>New York Times</em>, calling for Facebook to be broken up. Arguing that Facebook has become a monopoly which in turn has limited competition and held back innovation, Hughes wrote, “Mark’s influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government. He controls three core communications platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — that billions of people use every day.” He then called on the government to move quickly to split Facebook from Instagram and WhatsApp adding, “Until recently, WhatsApp and Instagram were administered as independent platforms inside the parent company, so that should make the process easier. But time is of the essence: Facebook is working quickly to integrate the three, which would make it harder for the F.T.C. to split them up.”</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h4>



<p>On Tuesday, Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/09/privacy-matters-accounts-center/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that it was testing a unified ‘Accounts Centre’ that would control login and other activity on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger from a single platform. Once operational this will allow users to log into all three of the apps from a single platform and cross-post content. “Whether you want to share a story to Instagram and Facebook at the same time, or use your Facebook account to log into Instagram, setting up your Accounts Center will allow you to control connected experiences that work across our apps,” Facebook said in its blog post.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



<p>Lawmakers around the world have <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/facebooks-plan-to-merge-messaging-services-could-be-barred-in-the-eu.html" target="_blank">expressed concern</a> over Facebook’s plan to integrate its messaging platforms. The company is presently facing antitrust scrutiny in both the U.S. and the European Union. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://medium.com/@teamwarren/heres-how-we-can-break-up-big-tech-9ad9e0da324c" target="_blank">called</a> for the breaking up of big tech companies including Facebook. The Democratic presidential candidate <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://nypost.com/2019/05/13/joe-biden-says-hes-open-to-breaking-up-facebook/" target="_blank">Joe Biden</a> and his running mate <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://gizmodo.com/kamala-harris-says-we-need-to-seriously-take-a-look-at-1834706259" target="_blank">Kamala Harris</a> have both said that the issue of breaking up Facebook is something that needs to be given a serious look. However, breaking the company up may become difficult if Facebook manages to merge all its services under a single umbrella.</p>



<p><em>-By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff</em></p>


Tag: Facebook

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