Tag: facebook

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Reggie Speaks

Whether we know what Facebook Meta’s “metaverse” is or not, it’s impossible to ignore their push into virtual reality. There have been lots of responses to what they’re doing, but this one strikes at the heart of what is going on. Reggie Fils-Amie, the former President and COO of Nintendo of America gave his take on the metaverse at the SXSW conference. “Facebook itself is not an innovative company,” Fils-Aime told Emily Chang. “They have either acquired interesting things like Oculus and Instagram, or they’ve been a fast follower of people’s ideas. I don’t think their current definition will be…

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Face The Drop

Seems like my latest edition of The Longform had impeccable timing, as Facebook Meta has reported its first drop in daily active users ever. During their quarterly earnings call with investors, Facebook delivered the bad news. Which then tanked its stock by about 20%. Alex Heath at The Verge has more. The massive stock drop, which instantly wiped out roughly $200 billion in market value, shows that Facebook’s corporate rebrand to Meta isn’t enough to distract investors from the problems in its core business of social media. Not only was user growth across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp essentially flat last quarter, but…

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The Longform

Permanent Deletion

We scroll and eventually pause. Is it a funny photo that caught the eye? Perhaps it’s a memory that the algorithm has surfaced. Or maybe it’s simply some piece of content that’s got way too many likes and comments for its own good. It won’t be an ad, of course, because we scroll right by those. As far back as I can recall, that was my typical time on Facebook. Always scrolling, sometimes posting, never satisfying. Then something strange happened: I’d had enough. I proceeded to do what most people never even consider doing. This is the story of my…

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Meta Breakup

Facebook can only dodge legal ramifications for the way they run their business for so long. The more they acquire companies, the more they try to hoover up people’s data, the more they think they can get away with anything, the bigger chances they’ll run afoul of the law. The FTC has been granted permission to force Facebook Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp. Judge James Boasberg ruled that the FTC can proceed with a bid to force Facebook, now Meta, to sell its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram. Meta asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed in December, Reuters reported, but Boasberg rejected…

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UK Says Meta Must Sell Giphy

It was only a matter of time before antitrust investigations landed on a negative ruling for Facebook Meta. The independent CMA panel reviewing the merger has concluded that Facebook would be able to increase its already significant market power in relation to other social media platforms by: – denying or limiting other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs, driving more traffic to Facebook-owned sites – Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – which already account for 73% of user time spent on social media in the UK. – changing the terms of access by, for example, requiring TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat to provide…

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The Longform

The Paid Social Network Nobody Wanted

In the early 2010s there were two mighty giants in the social media landscape: Facebook and Twitter. One behemoth was scrapping its way in an attempt to be a third. This company was backed by lots of money, a thoughtful design, and a single focus to topple the others. It wanted to be king. But this is not about Google with their Plus endeavor or even the weirdly-limited Path wherein you were only allowed 50 friends. This is the story of a scrappy startup that set its sights on Twitter. A company that felt that enough people were willing to…

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Facebook Plans to be Not Facebook

Interesting that a constant flow of crisis’ leads to “solutions” such as this: Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of…