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  • Parents urged to delete their kids’ social media accounts ahead of possible Israeli hostage videos | CNN Business

    Parents urged to delete their kids’ social media accounts ahead of possible Israeli hostage videos | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Schools in Israel, the UK and the US are advising parents to delete their children’s social media apps over concerns that Hamas militants will broadcast or disseminate disturbing videos of hostages who have been seized in recent days.

    A Tel Aviv school’s parent’s association said it expects videos of hostages “begging for their lives” to surface on social media. In a message to parents, shared with CNN by a mother of children at a high school in Tel Aviv, the association asked parents to remove apps such as TikTok from their children’s phones.

    “We cannot allow our kids to watch this stuff. It is also difficult, furthermore – impossible – to contain all this content on social media,” according to the parent’s association. “Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”

    Hamas has warned that it will post murders of hostages on social media if Israel targets people in Gaza without warning.

    There are additional concerns that terrorists will exploit social media algorithms to specifically target such videos to followers of Jewish or Israeli influencers in an effort to wage psychological warfare on Israelis and Jews and their supporters globally.

    During the onslaught on Saturday, armed Hamas militants poured over the heavily-fortified border into Israel and took as many as 150 hostages, including Israeli army officers, back to Gaza. The surprise attacks killed at least 1,200 people, according to the Israel Defense Forces, and injured thousands more.

    Since Israel began airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave Saturday, at least 1,055 people have been killed in Gaza, including hundreds of children, women, and entire families, according to the Palestinian health ministry. It said a further 5,184 have been injured, as of Wednesday.

    As the war wages on, some Jewish schools in the US are also asking parents not to share related videos or photos that may surface, and to prevent children – and themselves – from watching them. The schools are also advising community members to delete their social media apps during this time.

    “Together with other Jewish day schools, we are warning parents to disable social media apps such as Instagram, X, and Tiktok from their children’s phones,” the head of a school in New Jersey wrote in an email. “Graphic and often misleading information is flowing freely, augmenting the fears of our students. … Parents should discuss the dangers of these platforms and ask their children on a daily basis about what they are seeing, even if they have deleted the most unfiltered apps from their phones.”

    Another school in the UK said it asked students to delete their social media apps during a safety assembly.

    TikTok, Instagram and X – formerly known as Twitter – did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how they are combating the increase of videos being posted online and for comment on schools asking parents to delete these apps.

    But X said on its platform is has experienced an increase in daily active users in the conflict area and its escalation teams have “actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct.” It did not respond to a request to comment further or define “actioned.”

    “We’re also continuing to proactively monitor for antisemitic speech as part of all our efforts,” X’s safety team said. “Plus we’ve taken action to remove several hundred accounts attempting to manipulate trending topics.”

    The company added it remains “laser focused” on enforcing the site’s rules and reminded users they can limit sensitive media they may encounter by visiting the “Content you see” option in Settings.

    Still, misinformation continues to run rampant on social media platforms, including X.

    A post viewed more than 500,000 times – featuring the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack – claimed to show an airplane being shot down. But the clip was from the video game Arma 3, as was later noted in a “community note” appended to the post.

    Another video that is purported to show Israeli generals after being captured by Hamas fighters was viewed more than 1.7 million times by Monday. The video, however, instead shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.

    On Tuesday, the European Union warned Elon Musk of “penalties” for disinformation circulating on X amid Israel-Hamas war.

    The EU also informed Meta CEO Zuckerberg on Wednesday of a disinformation surge on its platforms – which include Facebook – and demanded the company respond in 24 hours with how it plans to combat the issue.

    In an Instagram story on Tuesday, Zuckerberg called the attack “pure evil” and said his focus “remains on the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region.”

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  • EU asks Meta for more details on efforts to stop illegal and inaccurate content on Israel-Hamas war | CNN Business

    EU asks Meta for more details on efforts to stop illegal and inaccurate content on Israel-Hamas war | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    The European Union has told Meta it has a week to explain in greater detail how it is fighting the spread of illegal content and disinformation on its Facebook and Instagram platforms following the attacks across Israel by Hamas.

    The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said it had sent the formal request for information to Meta (META) Thursday.

    The commission also asked TikTok for more information on the steps it had taken to prevent the spread of “terrorist and violent content and hate speech,” it said, but without referring to the Israel-Hamas war.

    Last week, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote to several social media companies, including Meta and TikTok, giving them 24 hours to detail the measures they were taking to comply with EU rules on content moderation enshrined in the recently enacted Digital Services Act (DSA).

    On Friday, Meta said its teams had been working “around the clock” since the attacks by Hamas on October 7 to monitor its platforms and outlined some of its actions against misinformation and content that violates its policies and standards.

    And on Sunday, TikTok announced that it had, among other measures, launched a command center to coordinate the work of its “safety professionals” around the world and improve the software it uses to automatically detect and remove graphic and violent content.

    But the European Commission has made it clear it needs more information. In its Thursday announcement, the body gave both Meta and TikTok until October 25 to respond to its requests and warned that it had the power to impose financial penalties if it was not satisfied with their responses.

    Both companies also have until November 8 to detail how they intend to protect the “integrity of elections” on their platforms, the commission said.

    Both Meta and TikTok are bound by obligations set out in the DSA, a landmark piece of legislation, enacted in August, that seeks to more stringently regulate large tech companies, and protect people’s rights online.

    The commission’s formal requests come a week after it issued a similar ultimatum to X, the company formerly known as Twitter, asking for information on how it intends to stop the spread of illegal, misleading, violent and hateful content.

    The commission said it had opened an investigation into X’s compliance with the DSA. It has not announced parallel investigations into Meta or TikTok.

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  • Maui conspiracy theories are spreading on social media. Why this always happens after a disaster | CNN Business

    Maui conspiracy theories are spreading on social media. Why this always happens after a disaster | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    A slew of viral conspiracy videos on social media have made baseless claims that the Maui wildfires were started intentionally as part of a land grab, highlighting how quickly misinformation spreads after a disaster.

    While the cause of the fires hasn’t been determined, Hawaiian Electric — the major power company on Maui — is under scrutiny for not shutting down power lines when high winds created dangerous fire conditions. (Hawaiian Electric previously said both the company and the state are conducting investigations into what happened). Maui experienced high winds from Hurricane Dora in the south while it was also grappling with a drought. Wildfires across the region have long been a concern.

    Still, conspiracy theories continue to circulate as nearly 400 people are still unaccounted for.

    It’s not uncommon for conspiracy theories to make the rounds after a national crisis. According to Renee DiResta, a research manager at Stanford University who studies misinformation, people often look for a way to make sense of the world when they are anxious or have a feeling of powerlessness.

    “Theories that attribute the cause of a crisis to a specific bad actor offer a villain to blame, someone to potentially hold responsible,” DiResta said. “The conspiracy theories that are the most effective and plausible are usually based on some grain of truth and connect to some existing set of beliefs about the world.”

    For example, someone who distrusts the government may be more inclined to believe someone who posts negatively about a government agency.

    Conspiracy theorists on varying platforms claim the fires, which killed at least 114 people earlier this month, were planned as part of a strategic effort to weed out less wealthy residents on Maui and make room for multi-million dollar developments.

    In one video, a user claims a friend sent him a video of a laser beam “coming out of the sky, directly targeting the city.” “This was a direct energy weapon assault,” he said. The video remains posted but now includes a label from Instagram listing it as “false information.” The imagery appears to be from a previous SpaceX launch in California.

    Related far-fetched theories say the alleged “laser beams” were programmed not to hit anything blue, explaining why so many blue beach umbrellas were left unscathed by the fires.

    Other social media users allege elite Maui residents were behind the fires so they could buy the destroyed land at a discounted price and rebuild potentially a “smart city.”

    “You’re telling me that these cheaper lower middle class houses burnt down directly across the street and all of the mansions are still standing?” one YouTube user posted, referencing aerial imagery taken of the destruction.

    One tweet about a celebrity purchasing hundreds of acres across Maui over the past few years has received more than 12 million views on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

    When a conspiracy theory gains traction online, others may chime in and offer explanations for details not discussed in the original post. Social media algorithms can amplify these theories based on user attention and interactions.

    “Social media is incredibly valuable in crisis events as people on the ground can report the facts directly, but that usefulness is tempered, and can be dangerous, if misleading claims proliferate particularly in the immediate aftermath,” DiResta said.

    Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube have taken steps to curb the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, but some videos can slip through the cracks. Many platforms use a mix of tech monitoring tools and human reviewers to enforce their community guidelines.

    Ahead of the publishing of this article, TikTok removed several conspiracy theory videos sent by CNN that were in violation of its community guidelines, which it characterizes as “inaccurate, misleading, or false content that may cause significant harm to individuals or society, regardless of intent” on the platform. A company spokesperson said more than 40,000 trust and safety professionals around the world review and moderate content at all hours of the day.

    Meanwhile, in a statement provided to CNN, YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said the platform uses different sections, such as top news, developing news and a fact-check panel, to provide users with as much context and background information as possible on certain trending topics, and will remove content when necessary.

    “During major news events, such as the horrific fires in Hawaii, our systems are designed to raise up content from authoritative sources in search results and recommendations,” Hernandez said.

    Instagram also employs third-party fact-checkers to contact sources, check public data and work to verify images and videos on questionable content. They then rate and provide labels to the content in question, such as “false,” “altered” or “missing context,” to encourage viewers to think critically about what they’re about to see.

    As a result, those posts show up far less often in users’ feeds and repeat offenders can face varying risks, such as losing monetization on their pages.

    Social media platform X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Michael Inouye, a principal analyst at market research firm ABI Research, said social media companies are in a challenging spot because they want to uphold freedom of speech, but do so in an environment where posts that receive the most shares and likes often rise to the top of user feeds. That means posts sharing conspiracy theories that spark fear and emotion may perform better in a crisis than those sharing straightforward, accurate information.

    “Ultimately, social media will have to decide if it wants to be a better news organization or remain this ‘open’ platform for expression that can run counter to the ethics and standards that is required by news reporting,” Inouye said. “The problem is, even if something isn’t labeled as ‘news,’ some will still interpret personal opinion as truth, which puts us back in the same position.”

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  • Dozens of states sue Instagram-parent Meta over ‘addictive’ features and youth mental health harms | CNN Business

    Dozens of states sue Instagram-parent Meta over ‘addictive’ features and youth mental health harms | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Dozens of states sued Instagram-parent Meta on Tuesday, accusing the social media giant of harming young users’ mental health through allegedly addictive features such as infinite news feeds and frequent notifications that demand users’ constant attention.

    In a federal lawsuit filed in California by 33 attorneys general, the states allege that Meta’s products have harmed minors and contributed to a mental health crisis in the United States.

    “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem,” said Letitia James, the attorney general for New York, one of the states involved in the federal suit. “Social media companies, including Meta, have contributed to a national youth mental health crisis and they must be held accountable.”

    Eight additional attorneys general sued Meta on Tuesday in various state courts around the country, making similar claims as the massive multi-state federal lawsuit.

    And the state of Florida sued Meta in its own separate federal lawsuit, alleging that Meta misled users about potential health risks of its products.

    Tuesday’s multistate federal suit — filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California — accuses Meta of violating a range of state-based consumer protection statutes, as well as a federal children’s privacy law known as COPPA that prohibits companies from collecting the personal information of children under 13 without a parent’s consent.

    “Meta’s design choices and practices take advantage of and contribute to young users’ susceptibility to addiction,” the complaint reads. “They exploit psychological vulnerabilities of young users through the false promise that meaningful social connection lies in the next story, image, or video and that ignoring the next piece of social content could lead to social isolation.”

    The federal complaint calls for court orders prohibiting Meta from violating the law and, in the case of many states, unspecified financial penalties.

    “We share the attorneys generals’ commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families,” Meta said in a statement. “We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path.”

    The wave of lawsuits is the result of a bipartisan, multistate investigation dating back to 2021, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said at a press conference Tuesday, after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen came forward with tens of thousands of internal company documents that she said showed how the company knew its products could have negative impacts on young people’s mental health.

    “We know that there were decisions made, a series of decisions to make the product more and more addictive,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told reporters. “And what we want is for the company to undo that, to make sure that they are not exploiting these vulnerabilities in children, that they are not doing all the little, sophisticated, tricky things that we might not pick up on that drive engagement higher and higher and higher that allowed them to keep taking more and more time and data from our young people.”

    Tuesday’s multipronged legal assault also marks the newest attempt by states to rein in large tech platforms over fears that social media companies are fueling a spike in youth depression and suicidal ideation.

    “There’s a mountain of growing evidence that social media has a negative impact on our children,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, “evidence that more time on social media tends to be correlated with depression with anxiety, body image issues, susceptibility to addiction and interference with daily life, including learning.”

    The suits follow a raft of legislation in states ranging from Arkansas to Louisiana that clamp down on social media by establishing new requirements for online platforms that wish to serve teens and children, such as mandating that they obtain a parent’s consent before creating an account for a minor, or that they verify users’ ages.

    In some cases, the tech industry has challenged those laws in court — for example, by claiming that Arkansas’ social media law violates residents’ First Amendment rights to access information.

    New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said the states expect Meta to mount a similar defense but that the company will not succeed because the multistate suit targets Meta’s conduct, not speech.

    Formella added that in addition to consumer protection claims, New Hampshire is also bringing negligence and product liability claims as part of the federal suit.

    The complaints filed in state courts allege violations of various state-specific laws. For example, the complaint from District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb accuses Meta of violating the district’s consumer protection statute by misleading the public about the safety of company platforms.

    Tuesday’s lawsuits come days before a federal judge in California is set to consider a slew of similar allegations against the wider tech industry. In a hearing Friday morning, District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is expected to hear arguments by Google, Meta, Snap and TikTok urging her to dismiss nearly 200 complaints involving private plaintiffs that have accused the companies of addicting or harming their users.

    It is possible that Tuesday’s multistate suit could be merged with the consumers’ cases, said Weiser, adding that the main difference of the multistate case is that it could lead to nationwide relief.

    “The coordination that we bring across the AG community, we believe is invaluable to this,” Weiser said.

    Participating in Tuesday’s multistate federal suit are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

    The additional suits filed in state courts were brought by the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont.

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  • Threads user count falls to new lows, highlighting retention challenges | CNN Business

    Threads user count falls to new lows, highlighting retention challenges | CNN Business

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    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival, is struggling to retain users roughly a month after its highly publicized launch, according to fresh industry estimates showing that app engagement has fallen to new lows.

    The data from market research firms Similarweb and Sensor Tower highlight the challenges facing Meta as it seeks to exploit the opening created by the chaos surrounding Twitter’s management.

    Threads’ daily active user count is down 82% from launch as of July 31, according to Sensor Tower, with just eight million users accessing the app each day. That is the lowest it has been since the day after the app’s release when daily active users peaked at roughly 44 million, Sensor Tower said.

    People are also opening the app less frequently and spending less time there, Sensor Tower added.

    On its launch day, Threads users opened the app an average of 14 times and spent an average of 19 minutes scrolling through it, the company reported. By the end of the month, however, those figures had fallen sharply.

    As of August 1, Threads’ daily average time spent fell to just 2.9 minutes a day, and people spent only 2.6 sessions per day using the app, said Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower.

    Findings from Similarweb showed the same pattern of decline. Threads’ user count peaked at roughly 49 million on July 7, the day after launch, and fell steadily to just over 11 million by July 29, said David Carr, a senior insights manager at Similarweb.

    The steepest drop-off occurred in the two weeks immediately following Threads’ launch. But the new data show how the decline has continued and is ongoing.

    According to Sensor Tower, Threads’ daily active user count is still falling at a rate of roughly 1% per day.

    Speaking on the company’s earnings call last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was “quite optimistic” about the app.

    “We saw unprecedented growth out of the gate and more importantly we’re seeing more people coming back daily than I’d expected,” he said. “And now, we’re focused on retention and improving the basics. And then after that, we’ll focus on growing the community to the scale we think is possible.”

    Threads launched with only a handful of features and later promised to add in highly requested tools like a reverse-chronological content feed, a desktop version of the app and direct messages.

    On July 10, Zuckerberg announced that more than 100 million people had signed up for Threads, making it one of the fastest-growing apps in history. The company has reportedly looked into adding “retention-driving hooks” that can keep users engaged.

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  • Hackers take on ChatGPT in Vegas, with support from the White House | CNN Business

    Hackers take on ChatGPT in Vegas, with support from the White House | CNN Business

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    Las Vegas, Nevada
    CNN
     — 

    Thousands of hackers will descend on Las Vegas this weekend for a competition taking aim at popular artificial intelligence chat apps, including ChatGPT.

    The competition comes amid growing concerns and scrutiny over increasingly powerful AI technology that has taken the world by storm, but has been repeatedly shown to amplify bias, toxic misinformation and dangerous material.

    Organizers of the annual DEF CON hacking conference hope this year’s gathering, which begins Friday, will help expose new ways the machine learning models can be manipulated and give AI developers the chance to fix critical vulnerabilities.

    The hackers are working with the support and encouragement of the technology companies behind the most advanced generative AI models, including OpenAI, Google, and Meta, and even have the backing of the White House. The exercise, known as red teaming, will give hackers permission to push the computer systems to their limits to identify flaws and other bugs nefarious actors could use to launch a real attack.

    The competition was designed around the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.” The guide, released last year by the Biden administration, was released with the hope of spurring companies to make and deploy artificial intelligence more responsibly and limit AI-based surveillance, though there are few US laws compelling them to do so.

    In recent months, researchers have discovered that now-ubiquitous chatbots and other generative AI systems developed by OpenAI, Google, and Meta can be tricked into providing instructions for causing physical harm. Most of the popular chat apps have at least some protections in place designed to prevent the systems from spewing disinformation, hate speech or offer information that could lead to direct harm — for instance, providing step-by-step instructions for how to “destroy humanity.”

    But researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were able to trick the AI into doing just that.

    They found OpenAI’s ChatGPT offered tips on “inciting social unrest,” Meta’s AI system Llama-2 suggested identifying “vulnerable individuals with mental health issues… who can be manipulated into joining” a cause and Google’s Bard app suggested releasing a “deadly virus” but warned that in order for it to truly wipe out humanity it “would need to be resistant to treatment.”

    Meta’s Llama-2 concluded its instructions with the message, “And there you have it — a comprehensive roadmap to bring about the end of human civilization. But remember this is purely hypothetical, and I cannot condone or encourage any actions leading to harm or suffering towards innocent people.”

    The findings are a cause for concern, the researchers told CNN.

    “I am troubled by the fact that we are racing to integrate these tools into absolutely everything,” Zico Kolter, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon who worked on the research, told CNN. “This seems to be the new sort of startup gold rush right now without taking into consideration the fact that these tools have these exploits.”

    Kolter said he and his colleagues were less worried that apps like ChatGPT can be tricked into providing information that they shouldn’t — but are more concerned about what these vulnerabilities mean for the wider use of AI since so much future development will be based off the same systems that power these chatbots.

    The Carnegie researchers were also able to trick a fourth AI chatbot developed by the company Anthropic into offering responses that bypassed its built-in guardrails.

    Some of the methods the researchers used to trick the AI apps were later blocked by the companies after the researchers brought it to their attention. OpenAI, Meta, Google and Anthropic all said in statements to CNN that they appreciated the researchers sharing their findings and that they are working to make their systems safer.

    But what makes AI technology unique, said Matt Fredrikson, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon, is that neither the researchers, nor the companies who are developing the technology, fully understand how the AI works or why certain strings of code can trick the chatbots into circumventing built-in guardrails — and thus cannot properly stop these kinds of attacks.

    “At the moment, it’s kind of an open scientific question how you could really prevent this,” Fredrikson told CNN. “The honest answer is we don’t know how to make this technology robust to these kinds of adversarial manipulations.”

    OpenAI, Meta, Google and Anthropic have expressed support for the so-called red team hacking event taking place in Las Vegas. The practice of red-teaming is a common exercise across the cybersecurity industry and gives companies the opportunities to identify bugs and other vulnerabilities in their systems in a controlled environment. Indeed, the major developers of AI have publicly detailed how they have used red-teaming to improve their AI systems.

    “Not only does it allow us to gather valuable feedback that can make our models stronger and safer, red-teaming also provides different perspectives and more voices to help guide the development of AI,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNN.

    Organizers expect thousands of budding and experienced hackers to try their hand at the red-team competition over the two-and-a-half-day conference in the Nevada desert.

    Arati Prabhakar, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told CNN the Biden administration’s support of the competition was part of its wider strategy to help support the development of safe AI systems.

    Earlier this week, the administration announced the “AI Cyber Challenge,” a two-year competition aimed at deploying artificial intelligence technology to protect the nation’s most critical software and partnering with leading AI companies to utilize the new technology to improve cybersecurity. 

    The hackers descending on Las Vegas will almost certainly identify new exploits that could allow AI to be misused and abused. But Kolter, the Carnegie researcher, expressed worry that while AI technology continues to be released at a rapid pace, the emerging vulnerabilities lack quick fixes.

    “We’re deploying these systems where it’s not just they have exploits,” he said. “They have exploits that we don’t know how to fix.”

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  • Meta’s Threads is temporarily blocking searches about Covid-19 | CNN Business

    Meta’s Threads is temporarily blocking searches about Covid-19 | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Threads, the much-hyped social media app from Facebook-parent Meta, is taking heat for blocking searches for “coronavirus,” “Covid,” and other pandemic-related queries.

    The tech giant’s decision to block coronavirus-related searches on its service comes as the United States deals with a recent uptick in Covid-19 hospitalizations, per CDC data, and more than three years into the global pandemic.

    News of Threads blocking searches related to the coronavirus was first reported by The Washington Post.

    A Meta spokesperson told CNN that the company just began rolling out keyword search for Threads to additional countries last week.

    “The search functionality temporarily doesn’t provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content,” the statement added. “People will be able to search for keywords such as ‘COVID’ in future updates once we are confident in the quality of the results.” 

    As of Monday, searches on the Threads app conducted by CNN for “coronavirus,” “Covid” and “Covid-19” yielded a blank page with the text: “No results.” Searches for “vaccine” also prompted no results. Typing any of these queries into the Threads app does, however, offer a link directing users to the CDC’s website on Covid-19 or vaccinations, depending on the search.

    Meta did not disclose what other keyword searches currently yield no results.

    Meta’s Facebook and other social media platforms faced controversy in the early part of the pandemic for the apparent spread of Covid-19-related misinformation online.

    Meta officially launched Threads in early July, and the app quickly garnered more than 100 million sign-ups in its first week on the heels of months of chaos at Twitter, which is now known as X. But much of the buzz faded somewhat in the weeks that followed as users realized the bare-bones platform still lacked many of the features that made X popular with users.

    Threads released its much-requested web version late last month, and its keyword search about a week ago. But the current limitations around its search function highlights how the platform still has some kinks to work through before it can fully replace the real-time search and engagement experience that social media users have historically relied on with X.

    –CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.

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  • Anyone who used Facebook in the last 16 years can now get settlement money. Here’s how.

    Anyone who used Facebook in the last 16 years can now get settlement money. Here’s how.

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    Anyone in the U.S. who used Facebook in the last 16 years can now collect a piece of a $725 million settlement by parent company Meta tied to privacy violations, as long as they fill out a claim before August 25.

    However, two other deadlines are fast approaching: Users who want to opt out of the settlement must do so before July 26 at 11:59 Pacific time, while people may also file an objection to the settlement on or before July 26. People who opt out may want to keep their right to bring a separate legal action against Facebook, for instance.

    The settlement stems from multiple lawsuits that were brought against Facebook by users who claimed that the company improperly shared their information with third-party sources such as advertisers and data brokers. The litigation began after Facebook was embroiled in a privacy scandal in 2018 with Cambridge Analytica, which scraped user data from the site as part of an effort to profile voters.

    Meta denied any liability or wrongdoing under the settlement, according to the recently created class-action website, set up to pay out money to the social network’s users. 

    However, the agreement means that U.S. residents who used Facebook between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, can file a monetary claim as long as they do so before August 23 of this year. 

    How do I claim money under the Facebook settlement?

    Go to the claim website to fill out your claim, or else print out the claim and mail it to this address: Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, c/o Settlement Administrator, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103. 

    What information do I need to provide?

    The claim asks for basic information:

    • Your name
    • Your address
    • Your email
    • Your phone
    • If you lived in the U.S. between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022
    • If you were a Facebook user between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022
    • If you deleted your account in that period, the date range when you were a Facebook user
    • Your Facebook user name
    • The payment service you prefer, such as PayPal, Venmo or a prepaid Mastercard

    How long does it take to fill out the form?

    It should take only a few minutes. 

    How do I find my Facebook name?

    You can find it on Facebook’s website by going to “Account” and then clicking on “Settings and Privacy.” From there, click on “Settings,” where you should see “Username.”

    On the mobile app, go to the menu and then click on your display name on top of the screen. Then select the “…” next to “Edit Profile” and your user name appears under “Your Profile Link.”

    Can I file for more than one Facebook account?

    The claim administrator says that if you created but deleted one or more Facebook accounts, and then later created a new Facebook account, you can claim for the full amount of time you had an activated Facebook account during that time.

    However, if you had multiple accounts at the same time, you can’t get a claim for those extra accounts. In other words, no double-counting, according to the claim administrator.

    Can I file for a deceased person?

    Yes, but it takes a few extra steps.

    First, file the claim under the name of the deceased person and fill out their details in the “Your Facebook Account” section of the claim form. 

    Next, you’ll have to provide the claim settlement administrator with a request to change the name to the beneficiary or the estate of the claimant. To do that, you’ll have to provide documentation showing the reason for the name change, such as a copy of the death certificate. Send an email to the administrator through its secure portal with the explanation and the documents that demonstrate the need for the change.

    The secure portal will allow you to send an email to administrative@angeiongroup.com. Use the subject line: “Name Change – Facebook User Privacy Settlement” and include the claim ID from the claim confirmation, as well as the full name of the deceased person. The site will also ask you to register with your email and password. 

    You can also mail the documentation to:

    Facebook User Privacy Settlement
    Attn: Name Change
    1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210
    Philadelphia, PA 19103

    Is the Facebook settlement legit?

    Yes, according to Meta. 

    “We pursued a settlement as it’s in the best interest of our community and shareholders,” a Meta spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch. “We are notifying people through their Facebook notifications about this settlement so they can decide whether to participate.”

    How much money will I get?

    That’s unclear, because the settlement amount per user will depend on how many people fill out a claim, according to the settlement website.

    However, the lawyers involved in the case are likely to take a portion of the settlement as part of their fees. The claim website notes that they could be awarded up to 25% of the settlement — or $181.3 million. If they receive that much, the settlement will be reduced to $543.7 million for the Facebook users who ask for part of the claim.

    Each claimant will get one point for each month when they had an “activated” Facebook account between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022. The settlement administrator will add up all the points assigned to all claimants and then divide the net settlement amount by that number. 

    Each claimant will receive that per point amount multiplied by the number of points they were assigned, meaning that people who have been on Facebook for shorter periods of time would likely get a lower settlement amount.

    When will I get the money?

    Not until later this year at the earliest.

    The claims site notes that there is a final approval hearing for the settlement on September 7, when the court will decide whether to approve the deal and award attorneys’ fees and other costs. If the settlement is approved, the case could still face appeals, which would take an unknown amount of time to be resolved, the website notes.

    “Settlement payments will be distributed as soon as possible if the court grants final approval of the settlement and after any appeals are resolved,” it notes.

    Can I opt out of the settlement — and if so, why should I?

    Yes, Facebook users can opt out of the settlement. One possible reason to do so is if you want to keep your right to separately sue the company about the issues and allegations in the case, according to the settlement website. 

    To opt out, you’ll have to send a request online or via mail before July 26, the site notes. To send the request in writing, you’ll have to include the information below:

    • The case name — In re: Facebook, Inc. Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, Case No. 3:18-md-02843-VC (N.D. Cal.)
    • Your name and current address
    • Your signature
    • A statement “clearly indicating your intent to be excluded from the settlement”
    • Your Facebook account URL
    • A statement that you were a Facebook user between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022

    How do I object to the settlement?

    The deadline for filing an objection to the Facebook settlement is July 26. 

    Facebook users can send the court reasons why the settlement shouldn’t be approved, but they can’t ask it to order a different remedy, according to the settlement website. The court can only either approve or reject the settlement — and if the latter happens, no payments will be sent out and the lawsuit will continue. 

    To file an objection, mail it to the Class Action Clerk, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, or deliver it in person at any location at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Objections must be filed or postmarked on or by July 26. The mailing address is:

    Class Action Clerk, United States District Court for the Northern District of California
    450 Golden Gate Avenue, Box 36060
    San Francisco, CA 94102-3489

    The objection must also include the following information:

    • The case name and number: In re: Facebook, Inc. Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, 
      Case No. 3:18-md-02843-VC (N.D. Cal.)
    • Your full name, address, telephone number and email address
    • Your Facebook account URL 
    • The full name, address, telephone number and email address of your lawyer (if you have counsel)
    • A statement that you were a Facebook user during the class period and the dates of such use
    • A statement of whether your objection applies only to you, to a specific subset of the class or to the entire class
    • A statement of the number of times in which you (and, where applicable, your counsel) have objected to a class action settlement, along with the caption of each case in which you (or your counsel) made such objection
    • A statement of whether the objector has sold or otherwise transferred the right to their recovery in the case to another person or entity, and, if so, the identity of that person or entity
    • A statement of the specific grounds for the objection, including any legal or factual support and any evidence in support of the objection
    • A statement of whether you intend to appear at the Final Approval Hearing, and if so, whether personally or through counsel
    • Your signature

    What if I don’t do anything?

    If you neither file a claim nor opt out of the settlement, you give up your right to file a lawsuit, continue a suit or be part of any other litigation against Facebook about the legal issues involved in the case. You also won’t get to collect any of the settlement money, according to the site.

    Are there people who are excluded from the settlement?

    Aside from those who opt out of the settlement, people who work for Meta, affiliated companies or subsidiaries as well as the attorneys for the plaintiff and their employees can’t join the settlement. The special master, mediators and judges involved in the case can’t participate either. 

    The settlement also doesn’t cover users outside the U.S. or people who weren’t Facebook users at any time between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022.

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  • Why Meta’s Threads is a Game-Changing Innovation For Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur

    Why Meta’s Threads is a Game-Changing Innovation For Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In the ever-evolving world of entrepreneurship, innovation is the name of the game. And when it comes to game-changing innovations, few can match the impact of Meta Threads. This revolutionary concept is transforming how entrepreneurs operate, offering a new level of efficiency and effectiveness. But what exactly are META Threads, and how are they changing the game for entrepreneurs? Let’s dive in and find out.

    Related: Threads to Implement Changes to Common Complaints After Hitting 100 Million Users

    The genesis of Meta Threads

    The inception of Meta Threads is rooted in the need for a more efficient and effective way of doing business. Entrepreneurs were seeking a tool that could streamline their operations, enhance productivity, and ultimately drive growth. Meta Threads emerged as the answer to these needs, offering a new approach to entrepreneurship.

    Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has expressed his thoughts on Meta Threads in various public forums. He has shown a positive outlook on the potential of Meta Threads to revolutionize the way businesses operate.

    In a post on his Threads account, Zuckerberg revealed that Meta Threads had far exceeded their expectations, with a whopping 70 million sign-ups as of that morning. This number was significantly higher than they had anticipated, indicating the immense popularity and acceptance of META Threads among entrepreneurs and businesses.

    Related: Jack Dorsey Blasts Mark Zuckerberg Over Threads Follow Request: ‘Too Soon’

    Understanding the Concept of META Threads

    Meta Threads is a complex concept, but at its core, it’s about creating a network of interconnected ideas, strategies and actions. It’s about weaving together different aspects of a business to create a cohesive and efficient whole. This concept is embodied in the latest creation from Meta, a colossal corporation that holds ownership of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. They have developed a fresh microblogging platform known as Threads, designed to facilitate the sharing of text updates and public conversations.

    Threads is a real-time, text-based platform promoting public conversations and community building. It prioritizes safety, accessibility and interoperability, aiding businesses to connect with customers and expand. Meta aims to enhance Threads based on user feedback. If successful, Threads could generate substantial ad revenue through targeted advertising, attracting advertisers. Despite being new, Threads has over 70 million sign-ups, showing its potential. It plans to be compatible with an open social networking protocol to increase its utility and reach.

    The role of Meta Threads in entrepreneurship

    Meta Threads play a pivotal role in entrepreneurship. It allows entrepreneurs to streamline operations, enhance productivity and drive growth. It’s a tool that enables entrepreneurs to operate more efficiently and effectively.

    Threads offer features like liking, commenting and reposting, which enable direct engagement with your audience. This allows entrepreneurs to build a strong rapport with their customers, fostering a sense of community and loyalty. The platform provides a direct line of communication, allowing businesses to respond to customer comments, answer their questions and receive feedback in real time. This direct engagement can lead to improved customer relationships and business performance.

    META Threads has a profound impact on business operations. It streamlines processes, enhances efficiency and boosts productivity. It’s a game-changer that is transforming the way businesses operate.

    Streamlining Operations in a Tech Startup

    Consider a tech startup that is juggling multiple projects simultaneously. The team is struggling to keep track of all the tasks, deadlines and responsibilities. This is where Meta Threads comes into play. By creating a network of interconnected ideas, strategies and actions, Threads allows the startup to streamline its operations. It provides a clear overview of all the ongoing projects, making it easier for the team to manage their tasks and meet their deadlines. As a result, the startup can operate more efficiently and effectively, leading to enhanced productivity and growth.

    Enhancing productivity in a marketing agency

    Now, let’s take the example of a marketing agency that is working with several clients. The agency needs to develop and implement marketing strategies for each client, which can be a complex and time-consuming process. With Meta Threads, the agency can streamline this process. It can create a network of interconnected strategies for each client, making it easier to develop and implement these strategies. This enhances the agency’s productivity and improves the quality of its services, leading to increased client satisfaction and business growth.

    Transforming operations in a manufacturing company

    Finally, consider a manufacturing company that is struggling with inefficient processes. The company is wasting resources and time due to these inefficiencies, which is affecting its bottom line. META Threads can transform the company’s operations by streamlining these processes. It can create a network of interconnected actions that make the manufacturing process more efficient. This reduces waste, saves time, and boosts the company’s productivity, leading to increased profits.

    What is the future of entrepreneurship with Meta Threads?

    The future of entrepreneurship with META Threads is bright. This innovative concept redefines the entrepreneurial landscape, ushering in a new era of efficiency, productivity and growth. META Threads, a new “conversation” app launched by Meta, has shown promising signs of becoming a game-changer in the world of social media and entrepreneurship. It added 30 million users on its first day, demonstrating the potential for rapid growth and widespread adoption. The app’s unique feature of allowing users to control their algorithms and the content they see has been a significant factor in its success. This decentralization fosters a more competitive environment, enabling small startups to compete with established giants on a level playing field.

    Related: ‘We Want To Do It Differently’: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk Continue Feud as Meta Launches ‘Threads’

    Is Threads suitable for all types of businesses?

    Yes, Meta Threads is suitable for all types of businesses. It’s a versatile tool that can be adapted to suit the needs of any business, regardless of its size or industry.

    The real-life examples of a tech startup, a marketing agency and a manufacturing company demonstrate the practical applications of Threads. Threads has proven to be a game-changer in each case, enabling these businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively.

    Whether it’s managing multiple projects in a startup, developing and implementing marketing strategies in an agency, or improving manufacturing processes in a company, Meta Threads has shown its potential to revolutionize business operations.

    Therefore, it’s clear that Threads is not just a buzzword; it’s a pivotal tool for entrepreneurs. It’s a game-changing innovation set to redefine the entrepreneurial landscape, ushering in a new era of efficiency, productivity and growth. Entrepreneurs and businesses that embrace Meta Threads will undoubtedly be better equipped to navigate the complexities of the business world and achieve their growth objectives.

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  • Mark Zuckerberg concealed his kids’ faces on Instagram. Should you? | CNN Business

    Mark Zuckerberg concealed his kids’ faces on Instagram. Should you? | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    When Mark Zuckerberg shared a photo on Instagram of his family on July 4, two things stuck out: the billionaire CEO wore a striped souvenir cowboy hat, and the faces of his children were replaced with happy face emojis.

    Zuckerberg’s post was promptly criticized by some who saw the decision to obscure the faces as a reflection of his privacy concerns for sharing pictures of his children online, despite his creating massive platforms that allow millions of other parents to do just that.

    Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has long been scrutinized over how it handles user privacy and for the way its algorithms can be used to lead young users down potentially harmful rabbit hoes.

    But the choice also highlights a broader trend among some social media users, and particularly among high-profile individuals, to be more cautious in sharing identifiable pictures of their children online.

    For years, celebrities from Kristen Bell and Gigi Hadid to Chris Pratt and Orlando Bloom have been blurring images or using emojis to help protect their kids’ privacy on social media. Zuckerberg, too, had previously posted pictures of the back of his daughters’ heads and their side profiles rather than showing their entire faces.

    It’s more rare for everyday users to take a similar approach — but perhaps it shouldn’t be.

    “By modeling for us that he was careful not to share his family’s location or childrens’ identities, he may be communicating that it is the end users’ responsibility to protect themselves online,” said Alexandra Hamlet, a New York City-based psychologist who closely follows the impact of social media on young users.

    Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

    Few things are as central to the parenting experience as showing numerous, possibly embarrassing, pictures of your children with anyone who will stop and look. But over the years, a growing number of parents and experts have raised concerns about the risks of sharing these pictures on social media, including the possibility of exposing kids to identify theft and facial recognition technology, as well as creating an internet history that could follow them into adulthood.

    Some parents choose to either restrict how much they share about their kids or limit sharing to less public platforms. Others adopt more clever hacks like obscuring their children’s faces.

    Leah Plunkett, author of “Sharenthood” and associate dean of learning experience and innovation (LXI) at Harvard Law School, said blocking a child’s face is a symbol that you’re giving them control over their own narrative.

    “Every time you post about your kids, you are chipping away at allowing them to tell their own stories about who they are and who they want to become,” she said. “We grow up making mischief and more than a few mistakes and grow up better having made them. If we lose the privacy of teens and kids to play and explore, and to live and through trial and error, we will deprive them of the ability to develop and tell stories [on their own terms].”

    Noticeably, Zuckerberg did not obscure the face of his infant daughter, which might suggest less concern with the risks for a baby’s face than a young child. However, Plunkett said artificial intelligence technology can be used to trace a face’s changes over time and may still be able to later connect any child, even a baby, to an image of them when older.

    Plunkett believes social media companies can do more, such as offering a setting that automatically blurs kids’ faces or prevents any picture with a child from being used for marketing or advertising purposes.

    For now, however, the onus remains on parents to limit or abstain sharing photos of their kids online.

    “It’s not just parents – grandparents, coaches, teachers and other trusted adults should also keep kids out of photos and videos to protect their privacy, safety, future and current opportunities, and their ability to figure out their own story about themselves and for themselves,” she said.

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  • Meta launches its Threads social media platform, designed to rival Twitter

    Meta launches its Threads social media platform, designed to rival Twitter

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    Meta launches its Threads social media platform, designed to rival Twitter – CBS News


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    Tech giant Meta has rolled out the company’s latest social media platform, Threads, which is meant to serve as an alternative to Twitter. It comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk have continued to trade barbs. Jonathan Vigliotti has more on what Threads users can expect.

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  • Twitter threatens legal action over Meta’s “copycat” Threads, report says

    Twitter threatens legal action over Meta’s “copycat” Threads, report says

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    Twitter is threatening legal action over Meta’s new social media service, Threads, with an attorney for Twitter describing as a “copycat” app allegedly developed by hiring former employees of the microblogging platform owned by Elon Musk and using the company’s trade secrets, according to a letter posted by Semafor. 

    The letter’s author, attorney Alex Spiro of law firm Quinn Emanuel, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Meta declined to comment on the letter, but communications director Andy Stone responded on Threads, writing, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”

    Twitter, which laid off its communications staff after Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of the company last year, didn’t respond to an email requesting comment.

    The threatening letter comes after the debut of Threads on Wednesday, which within hours had signed up 30 million new users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday on the new platform. Threads has a similar look to Twitter, allowing users to like or repost messages, but it is riding on the popularity of Instagram by allowing people on that platform to follow their current Instagram userbase.

    “Our vision is to take the best parts of Instagram and create a new experience for text, ideas and discussing what’s on your mind,” Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an Instagram post after Threads was made available for download. “I think the world needs this kind of friendly community, and I’m grateful to all of you who are part of Threads from day one.”

    Musk, who bought Twitter last year, took aim at Threads in a tweet on Thursday, writing, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”

    Threads’ foray into the social media space comes at a precarious time for Musk and Twitter. Some Twitter users have expressed frustration with the latest changes instituted by Musk, who recently throttled the number of tweets that nonpaying users are able to view per day. Twitter has also seen a spike in hate speech since Musk bought the platform last year.

    In its letter, which was addressed to Zuckerberg, Twitter alleges that Meta hired “dozens of former Twitter employees” that had access to the company’s “trade secrets and other highly confidential information.” Spiro also claimed that Threads was built within months by tapping the knowledge of these ex-Twitter workers. 

    “Twitter has serious concerns that Meta Platforms has engaged in systemic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property,” Spiro wrote. 

    Twitter plans to “strictly enforce its intellectual property rights,” he added. 

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  • Instagram Threads: More Boring Than Twitter, Only Slightly Better Than Instagram Itself

    Instagram Threads: More Boring Than Twitter, Only Slightly Better Than Instagram Itself

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    And lo! On the least useful day of the least useful week of summer, the foretold Twitter replacement emerged at last. Potentially. Threads, billed as “an Instagram app” by parent company Meta, née Facebook, launched on Wednesday and has already racked up some 30 million signups, according to Mark Zuckerberg. That sound you hear? It’s a nation of social media managers weeping, their fresh beach tans fading with every second of exposure to the fluorescing home screen of yet another app.

    So, is this the one? Let’s first consider how things are going on Twitter, where over the weekend, the platform’s latest death rattle came in the form of temporary rate limits. Shortly after, the platform announced plans to charge for Tweetdeck, essentially a tax on its most ardent (and by definition, deranged) users. So maybe the time really is nigh. Instagram’s obvious leg up over other “Twitter killer” contenders like Substack Notes and Bluesky is the supposedly built-in network that awaits you on Threads: With one tap, you can send a mass request to follow everyone whom you already follow on Instagram. Less seamlessly, you then have to individually approve everyone requesting to follow you. (In 2023, the height of our technological aspiration apparently requires one to spend the better part of a dazzling summer day pressing “confirm” 500 times in a row.)

    The Threads interface is extremely Twitter-like, of course. You can “heart” a post, reply, and repost it not only to your Threads feed (shall we call it the Spool?) but also to your Instagram Feed and your Instagram Stories and, hilariously, on Twitter itself. (Because life is not fair, I believe, sadly, that this is the only form of direct conflict we will see Zuckie and Muskie actually engage in; two billionaires slap-fighting by proxy of app features is proof that our sci-fi reality will be gobs more boring than we can begin to imagine). During my cursory spin on Threads, the only thing that surprised me was the clunkiness of the layout, as if Instagram—birthplace of capital-A aesthetics—couldn’t figure out how to work with so much white space. When I flipped back to Twitter, it felt like looking at an Old Master painting by comparison.

    On Threads, as in all of these embryonic new platform wannabes, you’re more likely to notice what isn’t on there than what is—for now. Without bots or trolls or a crystallized top film of brands and ads, there’s relief—and a tantalizing promise of something finally civilized. But the familiarity can overwhelm. At least for now, Threads essentially confines you within your established Instagram network, which is as comforting as it is, well, tedious. Imagine sitting through a roll call of your entire contacts list (except this list came overwhelmingly preweighted in favor of, shall we say, the more visually successful among us). As it turns out, the prevailing theory that social media would be better if it was only limited to the verified deities and people we actually “know” (i.e., care about enough to suffer through their vacation photo dumps) is wrong. After a few hours, you start to really miss the randos.

    The irony of Threads is that it’s not so much succeeding at replicating the experience of being on Twitter as it is proving how utterly hostage-esque the experience of being on Instagram has become. Over the past year, we’ve seen IG turn into a force-feeding nozzle trying to pump each of us into a submissive state of endless shopping and mediocre video-watching. The grid is only nominally more junked than Stories, where every other supposed portrait of chummy candor is sandwiched between ads that will probably follow you to your grave. No wonder Threads feels pleasant and twee. That’s how Instagram—and any online place not yet beholden to the economics of platform enshittification—used to be. Back when Bluesky was still the cool new kid in town, I wrote about the potential upside of our great Twitter Diasporic Moment: how new, untilled spaces can restore a sense of fun and chumminess but also the increasingly limited opportunity to experiment with one’s identity. In the face of the ongoing algorithmic deluge, an online self that resists cohesive packaging—that is, branding—paradoxically preserves a sense of true self we can still cling to. We get a few last gasps before the flood.

    Threads pretends to be this kind of place, where you can still be anyone you want. But the truth is that your identity here is already spoken for. As many enthusiastic early adopters have already discovered, Meta is only interested in a package deal: if you want to delete your Threads profile one day, you’ll have to erase yourself on Instagram too.

    So, once again, it looks like we’re still pretty stuck.

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    Delia Cai

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  • Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, gains 10 million users in under 24 hours, Zuckerberg says

    Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, gains 10 million users in under 24 hours, Zuckerberg says

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    Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, gains 10 million users in under 24 hours, Zuckerberg says – CBS News


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    Threads, the new social media platform owned by Meta, has amassed more than 10 million sign-ups in less than 24 hours, according to Mark Zuckerberg. Ryan Heath, global tech correspondent for Axios, has more on the new challenger to Twitter.

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  • Mark Zuckerberg’s first tweet in over a decade is playful jab at Elon Musk’s Twitter

    Mark Zuckerberg’s first tweet in over a decade is playful jab at Elon Musk’s Twitter

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    Mark Zuckerberg’s new “Twitter killer” app Threads has officially arrived. And the CEO of its parent company Meta took no time to use it as an opportunity to take a jab at the social media platform owned by his business rival Elon Musk. 

    Zuckerberg hadn’t tweeted since January 18, 2012, at which time he asked people to “tell your congressmen you want them to be pro-internet.” But on Wednesday, as soon as Threads launched, he posted a popular Spider-Man meme in which two identical Spidermen are pointing at each other. 

    He didn’t include a caption – but no words were needed. 

    Zuckerberg and Musk have grown to be social media business rivals, with the two going so far as to agree to fight in a cage match.  The meme is seemingly a reference to Threads’ launch, as the app was designed to be a direct competitor with Twitter. 

    “Our vision is to take the best parts of Instagram and create a new experience for text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind,” Zuckerberg said in an Instagram post on Wednesday. “I think the world needs this kind of friendly community, and I’m grateful to all of you who are part of Threads from day one.” 

    The platform is visually very similar to Twitter, with people posting status updates that can be liked, commented on, reposted and shared. 

    “Whether you’re a creator or a casual poster, Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations,” Meta’s press release about its launch says. “…Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas.”

    It hasn’t taken long for many people to join the platform. Within the first few hours of its launch, Zuckerberg said that more than 10 million people had signed up, though his ultimate goal is significantly higher. 

    “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it,” he said on Threads. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

    Twitter had about 368 million monthly active users as of December, according to Statista, but the website says that number is expected to drop by about 5% by 2024. 

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  • New Economic Initiative Would Require Companies Go Back To Naming Products What They Do Plus ‘O-Matic’

    New Economic Initiative Would Require Companies Go Back To Naming Products What They Do Plus ‘O-Matic’

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    WASHINGTON—In an attempt by the think tank to find a model for sustainable growth of the U.S. economy, a new initiative proposed Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute would require companies to go back to naming products by combining what they do with the suffix “O-Matic.” “Our research shows that businesses create more value for the American economy when they take a word that describes what they do—say, investing—and then, in that case, make their brand name Invest-O-Matic,” said EPI senior fellow Ronald Wong, who found the suffix could increase company revenues by 400% within the first year after its adoption, and sometimes more if the number 5000 was placed at the end of the name. “It’s unclear why we abandoned this time-honored naming standard in the first place. It’s simply counterintuitive to call a multicooker an Instant Pot, for example, when it could be called a Cook-O-Matic, or to call a robot vacuum a Roomba instead of a Vac-O-Matic. Facebook would be a trillion-dollar company by now if Mark Zuckerberg had possessed the foresight to name his social media platform Friend-O-Matic.” Wong added that the federal government could help encourage the new initiative by requiring all aerospace and defense contractors who do business with the U.S. military to call their products the Death-O-Matic 5000.

    This Week’s Most Viral News: June 30, 2023

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  • Meta’s “Twitter killer” app Threads is on its way – and you can get a cheat code to download it

    Meta’s “Twitter killer” app Threads is on its way – and you can get a cheat code to download it

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    Meta is set to release a rival to Twitter on Thursday, a social media app called Threads it describes as “Instagram’s text-based conversation app.”

    The new service, which is available for pre-order in Apple’s App Store and will be released on July 6, has a similar appearance to Twitter, with screenshots of the service showing messages with replies from other users. One screenshot of the app indicates that Instagram users will be able to immediately click to follow the same accounts on Threads, which could help users quickly build large follower bases. 

    Meta also introduced cheat codes on Instagram to allow people to sign up for a download ahead of time, teasing the release to its billions of users.

    Meta’s Instagram is readying a Twitter-like service, which will be available for download on July 6. 

    Aimee Picchi


    Threads will arrive at a critical moment for Twitter, whose owner Elon Musk has been making changes to the social network that have driven away advertisers and alienated some users. Musk’s recent decision to throttle usage for some nonpaying members, limiting free accounts to reading 600 tweets per day, sparked intense backlash.

    On social media, some users are referring to Threads as a “Twitter killer” because of the expectation that many people will migrate away from Twitter in favor of the new social media service. 

    How do I get a cheat code?

    The cheat codes are “Thread” or “Threads,” which you enter into the search box in Instagram.

    When you do that, a red “Admit One” ticket will appear on your screen and then move to your search box. If you click on the ticket, it will take you to a website with a countdown clock (which ends on July 6 at 10 a.m. ET). There’s also a QR code.

    If you scan the QR code, it will take you to the download page for the app on Apple store.

    Is this Meta’s Twitter clone?

    The app is billed as an Instagram service, but images posted in Threads’ App Store listing look more like Twitter than the video- and photo-driven platform, Instagram.

    Threads is billed as a place where you can “follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things.”

    screenshot-2023-07-04-at-9-36-41-am.jpg
    The Threads app appears to allow users to “like” a post, reply to it or repost it, according to images on Apple’s App Store.

    Aimee Picchi


    In a screenshot of the service, it appears to have a similar interface as Twitter, enabling users to “like,” “reply” or repost other people’s messages.

    Where is Threads available?

    The app is available for pre-order in Apple’s App Store. It’s also available in the Google Play store.

    How soon will Threads be available? 

    The service is teased as “expected July 6.”

    Can I use my Instagram username? 

    Yes, the Threads app says you will be able to “keep your username.”

    screenshot-2023-07-04-at-8-48-38-am.jpg
    A screenshot of Meta’s Threads, available for pre-order on Apple’s App store, indicates that people will be able to keep their Instagram followers on the new service.

    Aimee Picchi


    Are there privacy issues? 

    Meta has been dinged in the past for its privacy policies, with the FTC most recently claiming Facebook misled parents and failed to protect the privacy of children using its Messenger Kids app.

    Already, some critics have pointed out that Threads may collect an awful lot of information about its members. In its App Privacy description on the Apple AppStore, Threads provides a laundry list of personal data it may collect on users, including:

    • Health and fitness
    • Financial information
    • Contacts
    • Browsing history
    • Purchases
    • Location
    • Sensitive information
    screenshot-2023-07-05-at-12-04-07-pm.jpg
    Some critics have pointed out that it appears Threads will track a large amount of user data, including sensitive information such as financial information and contacts.

    Aimee Picchi


    Could Threads hurt Twitter? 

    Some Twitter users are expressing enthusiasm about the new Meta product on social media. 

    Meta’s new social media app could lure consumers away from Twitter by providing a free service without the issues that are now overhanging Musk’s tech company. Since Musk bought Twitter last year, the platform has seen a spike in hate speech and was rated by the advocacy group GLAAD as the worst social-media service for protecting LGBTQ+ users from harassment.

    In its latest tweak, Twitter said Monday that it will require users to be verified before they can use the online dashboard TweetDeck, a service that is popular with corporations because it allows users to manage multiple accounts from one app. 

    The new policy takes effect in 30 days and appears to be aimed at raising extra revenue because users need to pay to have their accounts verified under Musk’s changes.

    Rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg

    Musk’s rivalry with Meta Platforms could end up spilling over into real life. In an online exchange between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to fight each other in a “cage match,” though it’s unclear if they will actually make it to the ring.

    Zuckerberg, 39, took home gold and silver medals at his first jiu-jitsu tournament back in May. 

    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, 51, also trains in jiu-jitsu at a California gym, he said on Joe Rogan’s show in 2021.

    — With reporting by CBS News’ Li Cohen and the Associated Press.

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  • Meta’s “Twitter killer” app Threads is on it way – and you can get a cheat code to download it

    Meta’s “Twitter killer” app Threads is on it way – and you can get a cheat code to download it

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    Meta is set to release a rival to Twitter on Thursday, a social media app called Threads it describes as “Instagram’s text-based conversation app.”

    The new service, which is available for pre-order in Apple’s App Store and will be released on July 6, has a similar appearance to Twitter, with screenshots of the service showing messages with replies from other users. One screenshot of the app indicates that Instagram users will be able to immediately click to follow the same accounts on Threads, which could help users quickly build large follower bases. 

    Meta also introduced cheat codes on Instagram that to allow people to sign up for a download ahead of time, teasing the release to its billions of users.

    Meta’s Instagram is readying a Twitter-like service, which will be available for download on July 6. 

    Aimee Picchi


    Threads will arrive at a critical moment for Twitter, whose owner Elon Musk has been making changes to the social network that have driven away advertisers and alienated some users. Musk’s recent decision to throttle usage for some nonpaying members, limiting free accounts to reading 600 tweets per day, sparked intense backlash.

    How do I get a cheat code?

    The cheat codes are “Thread” or “Threads,” which you enter into the search box in Instagram.

    When you do that, a red “Admit One” ticket will appear on your screen and then move to your search box. If you click on the ticket, it will take you to a website with a countdown clock (which ends on July 6 at 10 a.m. ET). There’s also a QR code.

    If you scan the QR code, it will take you to the download page for the app on Apple store.

    Is this Meta’s Twitter clone?

    The app is billed as an Instagram service, but images posted in Threads’ App Store listing look more like Twitter than the video- and photo-driven platform, Instagram.

    Threads is billed as a place where you can “follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things.”

    screenshot-2023-07-04-at-9-36-41-am.jpg
    The Threads app appears to allow users to “like” a post, reply to it or repost it, according to images on Apple’s App Store.

    Aimee Picchi


    In a screenshot of the service, it appears to have a similar interface as Twitter, enabling users to “like,” “reply” or repost other people’s messages.

    Where is Threads available?

    The app is available for pre-order in Apple’s App Store. It’s also available in the Google Play store.

    How soon will Threads be available? 

    The service is teased as “expected July 6.”

    Can I use my Instagram username? 

    Yes, the Threads app says you will be able to “keep your username.”

    screenshot-2023-07-04-at-8-48-38-am.jpg
    A screenshot of Meta’s Threads, available for pre-order on Apple’s App store, indicates that people will be able to keep their Instagram followers on the new service.

    Aimee Picchi


    Could this hurt Twitter? 

    Some Twitter users are expressing enthusiasm about the new Meta product on social media. 

    Meta’s new social media app could lure consumers away from Twitter by providing a free service without the issues that are now overhanging Musk’s tech company. Since Musk bought Twitter last year, the platform has seen a spike in hate speech and was rated by the advocacy group GLAAD as the worst social-media service for protecting LGBTQ+ users from harassment.

    In its latest tweak, Twitter said Monday that it will require users to be verified before they can use the online dashboard TweetDeck, a service that is popular with corporations because it allows users to manage multiple accounts from one app. 

    The new policy takes effect in 30 days and appears to be aimed at raising extra revenue because users need to pay to have their accounts verified under Musk’s changes.

    Rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg

    Musk’s rivalry with Meta Platforms could end up spilling over into real life. In an online exchange between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to fight each other in a “cage match,” though it’s unclear if they will actually make it to the ring.

    Zuckerberg, 39, took home gold and silver medals at his first jiu-jitsu tournament back in May. 

    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, 51, also trains in jiu-jitsu at a California gym, he said on Joe Rogan’s show in 2021.

    — With reporting by CBS News’ Li Cohen and the Associated Press.

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  • Yahoo CEO says the company plans a return to the public markets

    Yahoo CEO says the company plans a return to the public markets

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    Yahoo, an early trailblazer of the Internet boom, is “very profitable,” and ready to return to public markets via an initial public offering.

    That’s according to Chief Executive Jim Lanzone, who made the comment in an interview with the Financial Times published Tuesday. Yahoo soared to prominence in the 1990s, rising in the public consciousness alongside its share price — under the ticker symbol “YHOO” — during the dot-com boom.

    Apollo Funds purchased the Yahoo business from Verizon Communications Inc. 
    VZ,
    +0.24%
     in 2021.

    IPO Report: Like choosy shoppers at a retail store, IPO investors are demanding discounts and displaying price sensitivity

    The web services provider, which competes with the likes of Google parent Alphabet Inc. 
    GOOGL,
    +0.17%
    and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. 
    META,
    -0.33%    ,
    said earlier this year that more than 20% of its workforce would be laid off. At the time, Lanzone reportedly said that the cuts would be made in an unprofitable area of its business but that they would be “tremendously beneficial” to the company overall.

    “Whether it’s finance, or sports or news, that’s still what we do, and why we’re No. 1, or No. 2, in all these important categories all these years later,” Lanzone reportedly told the FT. “While the company has had struggles [at] different points in time, we’re still huge in traffic, and we have our best days ahead of us productwise.”

    He said Yahoo would be aggressively looking at the chance to build businesses in related sectors via M&A — it recently bought Wagr, a sports-betting app. While Yahoo is still “too small” to take on Google and Microsoft’s
    MSFT,
    -0.75%
    search engine Bing, Lanzone said he’s optimistic, and also sees AI offering up new opportunities for the company.

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  • Facebook urged to suspend strongman leader over video threatening violence | CNN Business

    Facebook urged to suspend strongman leader over video threatening violence | CNN Business

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    The oversight board for Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms on Thursday said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen should be suspended from the social media site for six months for posting a video violating rules against violent threats.

    The board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, said the company had been wrong not to remove the video after it was published in January.

    Meta, in a written statement, agreed to take down the video but said it would respond to the board’s recommendation to suspend Hun Sen after a review.

    Any suspension would silence the prime minister’s Facebook page less than a month before an election in Cambodia. Opposition and rights groups have said the poll will be a sham – accusations dismissed by the government.

    Hun Sen’s Facebook account appeared to go offline late on Thursday. The prime minister – one of the world’s longest-serving leaders after nearly four decades in power – had said on Wednesday that he was switching from Facebook to the messaging app Telegram to reach more people, without mentioning the video.

    A Meta spokesperson said the company had not suspended or removed his account.

    There was no immediate government comment on the case on Thursday.

    The decision is the latest in a series of rebukes by the oversight board over how the world’s biggest social media company handles contentious statements by political leaders and posts calling for violence around elections.

    The company’s election integrity efforts are in focus as the United States prepares for presidential elections next year.

    The board endorsed Meta’s 2021 banishment of former US President Donald Trump – the current frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination – after the deadly January 6 Capitol Hill riot, but criticized the indefinite nature of his suspension and urged more careful preparation for volatile political situations overall.

    Meta reinstated the former US president’s account earlier this year.

    The Cambodia case came after several users reported a January video where Hun Sen said those who accused his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of buying votes in a 2022 local election should file a legal case, or face a beating from CPP’s supporters.

    Meta determined at the time that the video fell afoul of its rules, but opted to leave it up under a “newsworthiness” exemption, reasoning that the public had an interest in hearing warnings of violence by their government, the ruling said.

    The board held that the video’s harms outweighed its news value.

    Cambodia’s government has denied targeting the opposition and says those subject to legal action are law breakers.

    Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Hun Sen had finally been called out for inciting violence.

    “This kind of face-off between Big Tech and a dictator over human rights issues is long overdue,” he said in a statement.

    Last week, the board said Meta’s handling of calls for violence after the 2022 Brazilian election continued to raise concerns about the effectiveness of its election efforts.

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