In Congress, pretty much everything moves at a glacial pace. But legislation targeting the market power of large tech companies is picking up an unusual amount of bipartisan momentum. After nearly two years of investigations into Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, the House Judiciary Committee pushed through a package of six bills last month that …
Rep. Ken Buck is the new face of Republican antitrust Read More »
Facebook has asked recently confirmed Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan to recuse herself from the agency’s antitrust fight against Facebook, claiming her previous criticism of the company disqualifies her from fairly judging its conduct. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Facebook’s petition, which was filed with the FTC today. In the petition, Facebook …
Facebook says FTC chair shouldn’t help decide the future of its antitrust case Read More »
A future version of WhatsApp will give more control over the amount of compression it applies to sent images and videos. WABetaInfo reports that the two features are currently in development for the Android app, and should eventually present three quality options when sending images and video. The options are “Auto,” “Best quality,” or “Data …
WhatsApp will let you send images and videos in their ‘best quality’ Read More »
On Monday, a US District Court dealt a huge blow to the federal government’s antitrust case against Facebook by dismissing a complaint filed against the company by the Federal Trade Commission. The lawsuit, filed late last year, sought to unwind Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The judge also dismissed an associated case filed by …
Federal court dismisses FTC’s bid to unwind Instagram from Facebook Read More »
Instagram accidentally banned a post criticizing solitary confinement because Facebook had misplaced the policy allowing it, according to a new Facebook Oversight Board (FOB) decision. The semi-independent Oversight Board says the Facebook-owned site should not have removed a post about Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Facebook designates Öcalan …
Facebook accidentally lost a piece of its moderation policy for three years Read More »
Deepfakes aren’t a big problem on Facebook right now, but the company continues to fund research into the technology to guard against future threats. Its latest work is a collaboration with academics from Michigan State University (MSU), with the combined team creating a method to reverse-engineer deepfakes: analyzing AI-generated imagery to reveal identifying characteristics of …
Facebook develops new method to reverse-engineer deepfakes and track their source Read More »
Facebook’s Portal video calling device is getting a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child crossover that lets you and up to three friends dress up as characters from the play using augmented reality technology. Here’s how you can use it, according to a Facebook blog: Anyone can initiate the experience by tapping “Curtain Call” in …
Facebook’s new AR feature for Portal lets you dress up as Harry Potter characters Read More »
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is probing whether Amazon and Google broke consumer laws by failing to take action against fake reviews on their sites, the agency announced Friday. “We are investigating concerns that Amazon and Google have not been doing enough to prevent or remove fake reviews to protect customers and honest …
UK antitrust watchdog investigating Amazon and Google over fake reviews Read More »
Less than two hours before Apple’s big Worldwide Developers Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be launching a new interface for creators that shows how different fees affect their earnings on the platform. The announcement comes as Apple is under intense scrutiny for its App Store fees. Here’s a preview of …
Facebook will show creators how much money Apple and Google take from them Read More »
If you use an iPhone or Android phone, chances are the majority of your most-used apps were made by Apple and Google. That’s the takeaway from a new Comscore study that ranks the popularity of preinstalled iOS and Android apps, such as Apple’s Messages, alongside apps made by other developers. The results show that the …
Apple and Google crowd out the competition with default apps Read More »
