Facebook should shut down a messaging app aimed at children under 13 years old, child advocates said Tuesday in a letter to the company. The missive follows a report last week that the social network duped kids into spending their parents’ money on online games. A year ago, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and …
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Snap is looking at letting photos stick around longer on its Snapchat app, according to a report Monday. The social media company is thinking about making public posts live longer or even permanently, as well as revealing the identities of those making the posts, according to Reuters, which cited an anonymous source. Snap is also carefully considering the privacy, technical and …
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Like pretty much everyone right now, I’m watching Marie Kondo on Netflix and trying to get better at tidying up. Among my biggest challenges: all the little electronics stuff. The cords, the earbuds, the flash drives, the microSD cards and so on. I’ve just never found a particularly good way to organize and store all these items. Until now. For …
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Activists seeking greater transparency for online political ads say they’ve been struggling to monitor ads on Facebook after changes by the company. Tools created by WhoTargetsMe and ProPublica, groups based in Britain and the US, respectively, have been limited by the social networks’ crackdown on third-party plug-ins, The Guardian reported over the weekend. The browser extensions have allowed the groups …
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I missed traveling to Facebook’s Oculus Connect developer conference last fall, where the upcoming Oculus Quest was first announced and demoed. The standalone headset is expected in the spring, and it’ll cost $400 all-in with the headset and controllers. (That price is roughly £300 or AU$560.) And unlike current PC-based VR gear, no annoying wall sensors or other accessories are …
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I ended up in an absurdist maze world yesterday. A bemused godlike creature helped me find the back entrance to his nightclub, “The Under,” in the hull of an overturned ship. On stage, a green-skinned lounge performer sang and danced with her drumming skeleton sidekick, Tina. When a cruise-boat captain ran up to me and touched my hand, I teleported …
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Facebook reportedly duped kids into spending their parents’ money in online games. The social media giant targeted kids in an aggressive effort to pump up revenue from games like Angry Birds, PetVille and Ninja Saga, Reveal reported Thursday, citing court documents from a 2012 class action lawsuit. Reveal is the website run by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), a …
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Mark Zuckerberg says he didn’t set out to build a global company. But a month shy of Facebook’s 15th birthday, the CEO of the world’s biggest social network has found himself defending the behemoth he created. In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday evening, Zuckerberg set out to explain “The Facts About Facebook” and, in particular, …
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Facebook launched a UK-specific tool on Wednesday for people to report scam ads they spot across the platform. At the same time, the social network said it’s donating £3 million ($3.9 million) to set up an action project, due to launch in May, with charity group Citizens Advice that would help people deal with scams. Facebook announced the tool at …
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Russia’s telecom regulator on Monday opened a civil case against Facebook and Twitter over their alleged failure to explain how they’ll comply with data laws. Roskomnadzor wants to know how and when the social media sites will comply with legislation requiring all servers that store Russians’ personal data to be located in the country, it confirmed in an emailed statement. …
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