ANALYSIS A bite of the digital apple 23-04-2022 00:01 The problem with Google and Faebook sucking the air out of the digital advertising market is that it has seriously deteriorated the quality of journalism worldwide. by Agustino Fontevecchia
TECH & SOCIETY The battle to keep Russia's Internet free 18-03-2022 11:28 Western powers have seized the possessions of Russian oligarchs and sanctioned banks, but moves to limit access to the Internet are highly divisive.
Tech giants Argentina fines Facebook for abusive privacy terms in WhatsApp 07-01-2022 01:35 Government fines Facebook for abusive clauses in the privacy policy terms of messaging service WhatsApp.
Tech giants Facebook misidentified thousands of political ads, says study 09-12-2021 14:53 Facebook misidentified tens of thousands of advertisements flagged under its political ads policy, according to a study released Thursday, which warned that the failure could lead to political manipulation.
Digital dystopia The lies behind Zuckerberg’s Meta & Google’s Goodness 29-10-2021 23:37 It is clear that the level of complexity behind managing and supervising content on the Facebook family of products is extreme, yet Zuckerberg simply doesn’t seem interested in it. by Agustino Fontevecchia
What's in a name? Facebook’s new name draws critics – but at least it’s not Tronc 29-10-2021 11:25 The company that runs the world’s largest and most controversial social network has a new name. The reactions ranged from “like” to “angry emoji face.”
BLOOMBERG – ANALYSIS Facebook changes name to Meta in embrace of virtual reality 29-10-2021 10:54 Facebook Inc is re-christening itself Meta Platforms Inc, decoupling its corporate identity from the eponymous social network mired in toxic content, and highlighting a shift to an emerging computing platform focused on virtual reality.
BRAZIL UNDER BOLSONARO Facebook removes Bolsonaro video linking Covid shots to AIDS 26-10-2021 10:04 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro found himself in social media time-out Monday after his video warning of a supposed link between Covid-19 vaccines and AIDS triggered action by Facebook and YouTube.
Facebook’s dilemma How to evade taxes while being a major global corporation in a globalised and digital world 09-10-2021 11:55 Facebook, Google, Amazon, and the largest technology companies out there, most of them headquartered in Silicon Valley but registered in tax havens like Ireland, have long bent the rules in order to innovate, but also to their own benefit. by Agustino Fontevecchia
explainer Why did Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp shut down? 05-10-2021 09:11 Hundreds of millions of people were unable to access Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for more than six hours on Monday, underscoring the world's reliance on platforms owned by the Silicon Valley giant. But what actually caused the outage?
TECH GIANTS Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp hit by widespread outage 04-10-2021 20:55 Facebook battled duelling crises on Monday as it faced a large-scale outage of its dominant social network for seven hours, and fought against a whistleblower's damning revelations.
BIG TECH Is Facebook a monopoly? A few ideas to help the FTC out… 10-07-2021 08:20 For anyone operating in the same digital ecosystem as Facebook, it is painstakingly clear that Zuckerberg’s creation has excessive market power and uses it to its own benefit. The same can be said about Google and a few other Silicon Valley giants. by Agustino Fontevecchia
TECH GIANTS Facebook wins US antitrust dismissal, surges to US$1-trillion value 28-06-2021 19:23 A judge of the of the US District Court dismissed cases filed in December by the Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states, which could have impeded Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.
SOCIAL MEDIA CENSORSHIP? 'An insult' — Trump responds to two-year Facebook ban 04-06-2021 14:59 Facebook says it has banned former US President Donald Trump for two years, saying he deserved the maximum punishment possible for violating platform rules over a deadly attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.
NATION v TECH GIANT Argentina orders Facebook to suspend WhatsApp data sharing 17-05-2021 17:59 Government orders Facebook to suspend its data use policy allowing it to collect information from users of its WhatsApp messaging app.
BIG TECH, MASSIVE PROFITS Amazon caps blockbuster Big Tech earnings reports 29-04-2021 12:15 A week of blockbuster earnings reports from Big Tech culminated Thursday with Amazon crushing forecasts of how much money it would rake in from pandemic-revved online shopping and growing reliance on internet-hosted services.
Bloomberg Facebook removes 1,000 fake accounts seeking to sway global politics 06-04-2021 16:44 Facebook says it has removed 14 networks representing more than 1,000 accounts seeking to sway politics around the world, including in Argentina, Iran and El Salvador, while misleading the public about their identity.
ON FACEBOOK´S 17TH BIRTHDAY Facebook and Zuckerberg – one year from adulthood 06-02-2021 09:08 Facebook reached its first million monthly users the same year it was founded, 2004. It reached 100 million just four years later, went on to top one billion by 2012 and currently boasts 2.8 billion monthly active users, or roughly 36 percent of the global population. by Agustino Fontevecchia
AS I SEE IT Censorship is on the march 16-01-2021 09:05 Once upon a time, progressives, or “liberals” as North Americans call them, agreed that censorship was bad. They would have been appalled by the notion that the richest men on Earth were entitled to prevent the sitting US president, however obnoxious many thought him, from communicating with his followers. by James Neilson
SOCIAL MEDIA The fallacy of 'deplatforming' Donald Trump 16-01-2021 08:11 Regardless of whether the decisions made by Mark Zuckerbeg and Jack Dorsey were right or wrong, the Trump ban lays bare the absolute fallacy behind arguments used by the major platforms in the past. by Agustino Fontevecchia
Data journalism How to hunt down a hate group on the Internet 06-01-2021 05:00 In the second of two articles on hate speech and online communication, technology expert Julio López explores how to become involved in the fight against messages of discrimination and prejudice on social networks. by Julio López
Hate & social media Hate groups flourish on social networks in Argentina 05-01-2021 05:00 In the first of a two-part series on hate speech and online communication, technology expert Julio López explores how easy it is for messages of discrimination and prejudice to spread on social networks. by Julio López, via PERFIL
US 2020 Election Facebook moves to target misinformation before election 03-09-2020 11:32 Facebook will place new restrictions on political advertising the week before the United States presidential election as a way of targeting misinformation about Covid-19 and voting.
ANTITRUST AND REGULATION Big Tech’s Funday in Congress 01-08-2020 10:18 Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple have become some of the most powerful organisations in the world – and the global coronavirus pandemic has only made their dominant position even stronger. by Agustino Fontevecchia