Meta

Meta faces another round of layoffs affecting Threads and other teams

Meta experienced another wave of layoffs on Wednesday, affecting multiple teams, including those working on Threads, recruiting, legal operations, and design. These cuts are part of the company’s ongoing effort to reallocate resources that are aligned with its strategic goals and location strategy. According to a statement from Meta, some teams were relocated, and certain employees were shifted to new roles, while others faced job eliminations. In cases where roles were cut, Meta stated that it works to provide new opportunities for affected employees.

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While the exact number of layoffs remains unclear, social media posts and anonymous employee accounts suggest several team members were dismissed through video calls. Some of those affected received six weeks of severance pay. According to The Verge, teams from Meta’s Reality Labs, Instagram, and WhatsApp divisions were also impacted by this round of layoffs.

Why does it matter?

Meta has been undergoing significant workforce reductions following the company’s pandemic-era expansion. In 2022, the tech giant laid off 13% of its workforce—approximately 11,000 employees—with CEO Mark Zuckerberg taking responsibility for the decision. Another 10,000 employees were cut in 2023, along with the withdrawal of 5,000 open positions. These ongoing changes reflect Meta’s shift toward streamlining operations amid a challenging economic environment.

Meta faces lawsuits over teen mental health concerns

A federal judge in California has ruled that Meta must face lawsuits from several US states alleging that Facebook and Instagram contribute to mental health problems among teenagers. The states argue that Meta’s platforms are deliberately designed to be addictive, harming young users. Over 30 states, including California, New York, and Florida, filed these lawsuits last year.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Meta’s attempt to dismiss the cases, though she did limit some claims. Section 230 of US law, which offers online platforms legal protections, shields Meta from certain accusations. However, the judge found enough evidence to allow the lawsuits to proceed, enabling the plaintiffs to gather further evidence and pursue a potential trial.

The decision also impacts personal injury cases filed by individual users against Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat. Meta is the only company named in the state lawsuits, with plaintiffs seeking damages and changes to allegedly harmful business practices. California Attorney General Rob Bonta welcomed the ruling, stating that Meta should be held accountable for the harm it has caused to young people.

Meta disagrees with the decision, insisting it has developed tools to support parents and teenagers, such as new Teen Accounts on Instagram. Google also refuted the allegations, saying its efforts to create a safer online experience for young people remain a priority. Many other lawsuits across the US accuse social media platforms of fuelling anxiety, depression, and body-image concerns through addictive algorithms.

Thousands of users impacted by Facebook and Instagram outage

On Monday, Meta Platforms’ social media platforms Facebook and Instagram experienced a significant outage affecting thousands of users across the US. According to Downdetector, a website that tracks service interruptions, the outage peaked around 1:35 p.m. ET, with over 12,000 users reporting issues with Facebook and more than 5,000 for Instagram.

By 2:09 p.m. ET, the number of reported problems had decreased significantly to around 659 for Facebook and 450 for Instagram. Downdetector’s data is based on user-submitted reports, so the actual number of impacted users may differ.

Meta Platforms did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier this year, a similar issue disrupted services globally for more than two hours, affecting hundreds of thousands of users. That event saw 550,000 disruption reports for Facebook and around 92,000 for Instagram.

India investigates WhatsApp’s privacy policy

WhatsApp is facing potential sanctions from India’s Competition Commission (CCI) over its controversial 2021 privacy policy update, which has raised significant privacy concerns. The CCI is reportedly preparing to take action against the messaging platform, owned by Meta, for allegedly breaching antitrust laws related to user data handling. The policy, which allows WhatsApp to share certain user data with Meta, has faced widespread criticism from regulators and users who view it as intrusive and unfair.

The CCI’s investigation suggests that WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices, particularly involving business transaction data, may give Meta an unfair competitive advantage, violating provisions against the abuse of dominance. A draft order has been prepared to penalise both WhatsApp and Meta, as the CCI’s director general has submitted findings indicating these violations.

In response, WhatsApp stated that the case is still under judicial review and defended its privacy policy by noting that users had the choice to accept the update without losing access to their accounts. If sanctions are imposed, this could represent a pivotal moment in India’s efforts to regulate major tech firms and establish precedents for the intersection of privacy and competition laws in the digital age.

AI pioneer says concerns over AI are exaggerated

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, AI pioneer Yann LeCun dismissed concerns about AI poses an existential threat to humanity, calling them ‘complete B.S.’ LeCun, a professor at New York University and senior researcher at Meta, has been vocal about his scepticism, emphasising that current AI technology is far from achieving human-level intelligence. He previously tweeted that before worrying about super-intelligent AI, we need to first create a system that surpasses the intelligence of a house cat.

LeCun argued that today’s large language models (LLMs) lack essential capabilities like persistent memory, reasoning, planning, and a comprehension of the physical world—skills even a cat possesses. In his view, while these models are adept at manipulating language, this does not equate to true intelligence, and they are not advancing toward developing artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Despite his scepticism about current AI capabilities, LeCun is not entirely dismissive of the potential for AGI in the future. He suggested that developing AGI will require new approaches and pointed to ongoing work by his team at Meta, which is exploring ways to process and understand real-world video data.

Meta takes action against Russian-linked accounts in Moldova

Meta Platforms announced it had removed a network of accounts targeting Russian speakers in Moldova ahead of the country’s October 20 election, citing violations of its fake accounts policy. Moldovan authorities have also blocked numerous Telegram channels and chatbots allegedly used to pay voters to cast “no” votes in a referendum on EU membership being held alongside the presidential election. Pro-European President Maia Sandu, seeking a second term, has made the referendum central to her platform.

The deleted Meta accounts targeted President Maia Sandu, pro-EU politicians, and the strong ties between Moldova and Romania while promoting pro-Russia parties. This network featured fake Russian-language news brands masquerading as independent media across various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, OK.ru, and TikTok. Meta’s actions involved removing multiple accounts, pages, and groups to combat coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

Moldova’s National Investigation Inspectorate has blocked 15 Telegram channels and 95 chatbots that were offering payments to voters, citing violations of political financing laws. Authorities linked these activities to supporters of fugitive businessman Ilan Shor, who established the ‘Victory’ electoral bloc while in exile in Moscow. In response, Moldovan police have raided the homes of Shor’s associates, alleging that payments were funnelled through a Russian bank to influence the election. Shor, who was sentenced in absentia for his involvement in a significant 2014 bank fraud case, denies the bribery allegations. Meanwhile, President Maia Sandu accuses Russia of attempting to destabilise her government, while Moscow claims that she is inciting ‘Russophobia.’

Meta agrees to data collection changes in Germany

German cartel authorities have closed their investigation into Meta’s data practices following extensive negotiations that led to the US tech giant agreeing to address regulatory concerns. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has committed to implementing several measures to change how user data is collected and processed on its platforms, the officials announced on Thursday.

According to Andreas Mundt, the president of the German Federal Cartel Office, one of the most significant changes is that users of Facebook will no longer be required to consent to the unrestricted collection and association of data to their user accounts. This new approach ensures that data not generated through Facebook’s services cannot be automatically linked to a user’s account without specific consent. The decision marks a significant step in limiting the scope of Meta’s data collection and improving user privacy in Germany.

The investigation into Meta was part of a larger initiative by European regulators to closely examine and regulate the data practices of major tech firms. Meta’s cooperation with German authorities highlights its readiness to comply with regulatory standards and could set a precedent for similar cases across Europe. The agreed changes aim to enhance privacy protections for users and increase transparency in how tech platforms manage and utilise personal data.

New features for Meta AI in 21 countries

Meta has announced the expansion of its AI chatbot to 21 new markets, including the UK and Brazil, as it intensifies competition with ChatGPT. The chatbot is now available to millions of users, offering support in several additional languages. The expansion reflects the ongoing race among technology companies to capture global interest in AI tools.

The AI chatbot already boasts almost 500 million monthly active users and is expected to be accessible in 43 countries by the end of the year. Its broadening reach includes more languages, with Meta aiming for it to become the leading AI assistant by the end of 2024.

While Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, revealed new character voices for the chatbot at the company’s Connect event, these will be rolled out at a later stage. Meta clarified that the new voices are part of a separate timeline, indicating a phased approach to the overall AI development.

In addition, Meta AI will soon be available through Ray-Ban Meta glasses in the UK and Australia, marking another innovative feature as the company seeks to integrate its technology into daily life.

New AI model by Meta elevates video editing

Meta has launched Movie Gen, a powerful AI model designed to produce 1080p videos with synchronised audio. The system can edit videos based on instructions, allowing for personalised content creation using user-supplied images.

With a transformer model containing 30 billion parameters, Movie Gen can generate 16-second videos at 16 frames per second. The model’s advanced techniques improve video motion realism, trained on over 100 million video-text pairs and 1 billion image-text pairs.

Movie Gen outperforms previous models, including Runway Gen3 and OpenAI Sora, particularly in video editing and text-to-video tasks. Benchmarks show its superiority in maintaining video structure and fine details, especially in the TGVE+ test.

Future developments for Movie Gen include improving scene understanding, safeguarding against misuse, and making the system more accessible. Meta envisions applications in social media, film production, and marketing campaigns.

Meta revamps Facebook to engage young adults

Facebook, once the go-to platform for connecting with family and friends, is shifting its focus to attract younger users, according to Tom Alison, head of Facebook at Meta. With younger generations favouring apps like Instagram and TikTok, Meta aims to revitalise Facebook by helping users expand their networks and make new connections, aligning with how young adults use the platform today.

To achieve this, Facebook is testing two new tabs, Local and Explore, aimed at helping users find nearby events, community groups, and content tailored to their interests. This initiative aligns with Meta’s efforts to compete with TikTok, which has 150 million US users, by introducing its short-form video feature, Reels, in 2021. Data reveals that young adults on Facebook spend 60% of their time watching videos, with over half engaging with Reels daily.

Facebook also reported a 24% increase in conversations initiated through its dating feature among young adults in the US and Canada. At a recent event in Austin, Texas, the platform promoted its new direction with the slogan ‘Not your mom’s Facebook,’ emphasising its push to attract a younger audience.