Facebook

Gone in Minutes, Out for Hours: Outage Shakes Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook and its family of apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, were inaccessible for hours on Monday, taking out a vital communications platform used by billions and showcasing just how dependent the world has become on a company that is under intense scrutiny.

Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram suffer outage

All three services are owned by Facebook and could not be accessed over the web or smartphone apps.

Downdetector, which tracks outages, logged tens of thousands of outage reports for all three platforms from around the world.

Facebook's chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer has tweeted his "sincere apologies" to those affected.

"We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible," he wrote.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp go down

"We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products," Facebook said on Twitter. "We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."
Outage tracking site Down Detector logged tens of thousands of reports for each of the services. Facebook's own site would not load at all for about an hour on Monday; Instagram and WhatsApp were accessible, but could not load new content or send messages.

Facebook reveals its video camera glasses

The specs, called Ray-Ban Stories, are a collaboration with the luxury eyewear brand.

Facebook is expected to release fully-fledged augmented reality (AR) spectacles.

But Facebook's head of AR and VR told BBC Click's Chris Fox they were still in development.

     

Competition watchdog says Facebook could have to sell Giphy

The Competition and Markets Authority provisionally found Facebook owning Giphy "could lead it to deny other platforms access to its Gifs".

The CMA will now consult before making a final conclusion. And if its concerns are confirmed, the it may require Facebook to sell Giphy.

Facebook said the findings were "not supported by the evidence".

Giphy's vast library of looping short video animations is hugely popular - including among Facebook's competitors.

Facebook and academics row over data access

Members of the Cybersecurity for Democracy team, based at New York University, tweeted they had had their accounts shut down.

Facebook said the tools they had used to gain access to its data violated user privacy.

The researchers said Facebook was now curtailing their work measuring vaccine disinformation, among other things.

Laura Edelson tweeted Facebook had suspended the accounts of several people associated with the team, including her own.

Zuckerberg wants Facebook to become online 'metaverse'

A metaverse is an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.

The Facebook CEO described it as “an embodied internet where instead of just viewing content - you are in it”.

He told The Verge people shouldn't live through “small, glowing rectangles”.

“That’s not really how people are made to interact,” he said, speaking of reliance on mobile phones.

“A lot of the meetings that we have today, you’re looking at a grid of faces on a screen. That’s not how we process things either.”

Trump sues Twitter, Google and Facebook alleging 'censorship'

The class action lawsuit also targets the three companies' CEOs.

Mr Trump was suspended from his social accounts in January over public safety concerns in the wake of the Capitol riots, led by his supporters.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump called the lawsuit "a very beautiful development for our freedom of speech".

In a news conference from his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Mr Trump railed against social media companies and Democrats, who he accused of espousing misinformation.

Facebook developing smartwatch with AR control

Reports claimed the device was due for release in mid-2022 and would feature multiple cameras.

But a senior Facebook executive said the smartwatch was in only its early stages - and may never be released to the public.

"We're investing in technologies across the board... research doesn't always lead to product development," he said.

The watch's existence was revealed by technology news website the Verge, which cited anonymous sources familiar with its development.

Facebook and Google 'failed to remove scam adverts'

Google had failed to remove 34% of the scam adverts reported to it, compared with 26% at Facebook, the study indicated.

Both companies said they removed fraudulent adverts, which are banned on their platforms.

But Which? said a more proactive approach was needed.

The report also found:

15% of those surveyed had fallen victim to a scam advert and reported it

of these, 27% had been on Facebook and 19% on Google

43% of victims did not report the scam to the technology companies