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Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018

Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018. It also averages 1.52 billion daily active users as of December 2018.

Facebook was launched in February of 2004 (as The Facebook) for college students and then rapidly grew as it opened the service to more than those with a .edu email address. It was the subject of the 2010 movie called “The Social Network“.

In 2012, the social media giant offered its IPO and Facebook earned the title of the fastest company to grow to $250 billion market capitalization in the S&P 500.

In recent years, the company has been at the center of attention related to its role in the Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Since then, it’s been a continual stream of negative news for the company. They recently had all of their enterprise certificates for iOS revoked after it was discovered they had repackaged Onavo VPN as a ‘Research’ app and were paying teens $20/month to sneakily sideload it.

In early 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a “privacy shift” for the company. He outlined a detailed vision for the future of the social media platform, specifically its messaging services. Notably, in contrast to how the company operates today, he says the future of the platform will be privacy-focused with features like end-to-end encryption, interoperability between its various apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reducing how long it holds data, secure storage of personal data, and more.

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WhatsApp hack sees Facebook sue; company pays Cambridge Analytica fine

WhatsApp hack sees Facebook sue

Facebook is suing an Israeli company for a WhatsApp hack which allowed various governments to spy on more than 1,000 users, reports ReutersThe attack was made possible by a security vulnerability in the app, later fixed.

WhatsApp sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents in a hacking spree whose targets included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials…


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Zuckerberg Vision Pro comment

US Attorney General and UK/AU officials hit Facebook over encrypted messaging apps, Apple could be targeted too

After Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this past spring that the company would build end-to-end encryption into all of its products and services, government officials from the US, UK, and Australia are set to share a public letter requesting Facebook halts its plan to include total privacy for its apps. And with Apple’s iMessage already featuring end-to-end-encryption, could it be targeted soon as well?


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Instagram ‘Threads’ promoting direct messaging with standalone chat app

Instagram Threads messaging app

Instagram has officially launched a stand-alone messaging app today called Threads. The company describes it as a “camera-first messaging app” that will give users “a new way to message with close friends in a dedicated, private space.” Threads is a stand-alone app but it will integrate with a user’s Instagram Direct messages.


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Ahead of iOS 13, Facebook publishes blog post defending its use of location data in iOS

iOS 13 is set to be released to the public later this month, and Facebook is looking to get out ahead of some of the changes to location settings in the update. Facebook has published a new blog post detailing how iOS 13 affects its access to your location data, while reaffirming that users are “in control” of their location settings.


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Facebook Dating available now, with Secret Crush feature, but concerns raised

Facebook Dating available now in the US

Facebook Dating has now officially launched in the US – which could be particularly good news for shy singles with a secret crush on one of their Facebook friends. There’s a specific feature designed to let you know whether the feeling is mutual without the risk of embarrassment.

You can also choose between including or excluding friends-of-friends in your pool of potential dates…


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How to turn off Facebook face recognition

Facebook just changed how its face recognition features work, here’s how to turn them off

Facebook has updated how its face recognition features work and will be turned off for some users by default going forward. However, for those accounts in which the features have already been turned on, users will have to manually opt out. Read along for what’s changed, and how to turn off Facebook’s face recognition.


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Facebook beefing up election interference measures, but researchers unhappy

Facebook boosts countermeasures for election interference in 2020

Facebook said today that it is beefing up its measures designed to prevent foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election. Election interference by foreign states was found to have played a role in 2016.

A declassified version of a joint intelligence community report revealed that the CIA, FBI, and NSA all agree that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election with fake social media posts and other activities. A number of individuals were subsequently charged with criminal offenses as a result of investigations into this…


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