Tallinn, Estonia | AFP | Google and Facebook may face higher tax bills in Europe as the EU rushed Saturday to change rules so that more of Silicon Valley’s mega profits fall into public coffers. Public anger against the billions of euros earned by online behemoths is growing louder in Europe …
Read More »Facebook rolls out video shows, in new challenge
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook is rolling out a new video service offering professionally produced shows in a challenge to rivals such as YouTube, and potentially to streaming providers like Netflix. The Facebook service called Watch will include a range of shows, from reality to comedy to live …
Read More »Facebook profit jumps as user ranks grow
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook on Wednesday reported a surge in profits in the past quarter, fueled by strong growth in money-making ads to its more than two billion users. Net profit in the second quarter leapt 71 percent from a year ago to $3.9 billion while …
Read More »High-tech mystery: Is a Facebook phone in the works?
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook could be working on a smartphone, according to paperwork recently spotted by cyber sleuths which the tech giant filed earlier this year. A Facebook unit devoted to hardware filed a patent application in January for a mysterious “modular electromechanical device” that could …
Read More »Facebook to test news story paywalls: report
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook will test limiting the number of published news stories that can be read for free on its Instant Articles platform for premium publishers, US media reported on Wednesday. The leading social network has become a major source of news for people, triggering …
Read More »Facebook to produce own TV series, games
New York, United States | AFP | Facebook is starting production on high-quality television series and gaming shows to be broadcast on its platform, one of the social media giant’s executives said on Monday. The online platform, which has around two billion monthly users worldwide, is working on the project …
Read More »Man guilty of libel over Facebook ‘likes’: Swiss court
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | In a landmark ruling, a Swiss court has fined a man for “liking” comments on Facebook accusing an animal rights activist of being a “racist” and an “anti-Semite”. In the first case of its kind in Switzerland, the Zurich district court on Monday faulted a …
Read More »13 years after quitting, Zuckerberg gets Harvard ‘degree’
Washington, United States | AFP | Thirteen years after dropping out of Harvard University to work on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday finally got his degree — well, sort of. Zuckerberg returned to the university where he launched what would become the world’s biggest social network, and basked in the …
Read More »Facebook takes aim at ‘low quality’ websites
Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook said Wednesday it was making changes designed to keep its users from linking to “low-quality” websites, part of an effort to fight spam and misinformation. The world’s biggest social network said it is updating its ranking algorithm with the help of artificial intelligence …
Read More »Facebook adding 3,000 people to screen out violent content
Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook said Wednesday it is hiring an extra 3,000 staff to root out violent content as the social media giant faces scrutiny for a series of killings and suicides broadcast on its platform. “If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to …
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