Facebook parent Meta’s stock fell more than 26% on Thursday after disappointing fourth-quarter earnings and a drop in daily users underscored how much the company relies on social media as it develops its metaverse ambitions.  Meta shares fell $85.24 to close at $237.76. The collapse in share price wiped out almost $240 billion from the …

Picking a new piece of furniture for your home can feel like solving a puzzle. Is that couch too big? Will a cow print bar stool clash with a granite countertop? Retailers and tech companies are boosting their use of augmented reality to help customers decide what products to buy. AR lets people superimpose a virtual image onto a view …

TikTok said Thursday that it’s trying to make it easier for people to find credible information about the Holocaust, the Jewish community and antisemitism on the short-form video app. TikTok said that in the coming months it will start displaying a banner at the bottom of videos about the Holocaust that directs people to credible information about the genocide.  TikTok …

Law enforcement agencies and school districts across the country said they were aware of anonymous posts on short-form video app TikTok that alleged school shootings would take place in the US on Dec. 17 but concluded the threat wasn’t credible. The alleged threats prompted school districts across the country to take precautions. Police departments around the country also said they’d keep …

Taliban supporters, white nationalists and anti-vaccine activists have reportedly flocked to Twitter’s live audio chat feature, Spaces, with the social media site struggling to police the harmful content. The Washington Post, citing researchers and users, as well as screenshots seen by the news outlet, reported Friday that hundreds of people have listened to these offensive live audio chats. Twitter users …

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said Wednesday it has created artificial intelligence technology that can adapt more quickly to new types of harmful content, including posts discouraging COVID-19 vaccinations. Generally, AI systems learn new tasks from examples, but the process of gathering and labeling a massive amount of data typically takes months. Using technology Meta calls Few-Shot Learner, the new …

When co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to Twitter as chief executive in 2015, he made it clear the social media company needed to constantly reinvent itself.  “The world needs a Twitter that not only remains relevant,” Dorsey said during a conference call that year, “but thrives and continues to redefine what came before it.” Parag Agrawal became Twitter CEO with Jack …

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri will testify before Congress for the first time about how the social media app is trying to keep young people safe, amid criticism that the photo and video service is harming the mental health of teens.  “These are important issues, but we have shared goals. We all want young people to be safe when they’re online,” …

Facebook on Tuesday released data for the first time about the prevalence of bullying and harassment on the social network and its photo-service Instagram. Facebook said that from July to September, bullying and harassment content was seen between 14 and 15 times per every 10,000 views of content on the social network. On Instagram, these types of posts were seen …

Twitter released a new subscription service in the US and New Zealand on Tuesday that will enable people to pay for features such as the ability to undo a tweet and read ad-free news articles. Called Twitter Blue, the service costs $3 (NZD 4.49) per month. Twitter started testing the service in Australia and Canada in June. The move shows …