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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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Facebook Meta revenue drop

Meta extends cut-free revenue for Facebook and Instagram creators until 2024

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Meta announced that it wouldn’t take a cut of creators’ revenue on Facebook and Instagram as a measure to help small businesses. The company first announced the cut-free revenue would last “for at least the next year,” but now it has confirmed that the benefit will extend until 2024.

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Photoshopped MacBook is alternate reality straight out of the metaverse

Zuckerberg Mac

It’s no secret that the relationship between Apple and Meta is strained, with the two companies routinely criticizing one another. Even Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg have taken jabs at each other in public and in private. Despite Zuckerberg’s hatred of Apple, however, it seems that even he can’t resist using a MacBook.

But Meta doesn’t want you to know that …

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Meta just can’t get over Apple in 19-page comment to US over app ecosystems [U]

Meta Apple App Store

In 19 pages of comments for a federal agency’s report on the app ecosystem, Meta is once again slamming Apple’s overwhelming market power. These comments are to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in a report on competition in the mobile app ecosystem. This report is part of the Biden Administration’s effort to crack down on tech giants’ power.

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‘Massive’ Facebook hiring freeze and 40% decline in stock price is partly Apple’s fault, says CFO

Close-up of desk showing iMac and Apple Watch | Facebook hiring freeze partly Apple's fault says CFO

A “massive” Facebook hiring freeze has been announced, which the company says will affect “almost every team across the company.”

Parent company Meta told employees that four factors were behind the decision, and that Apple’s introduction of App Tracking Transparency was the first of these …

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Apple tricked into releasing personal data used to sexually extort minors

Low-key photo of woman hiding her face in darkness | Apple tricked into releasing personal data used to sexually extort minors

We learned last month that Apple was tricked into releasing personal data to hackers, after they posed as law enforcement officials with emergency data requests. A follow-up report reveals that some of this data was used to sexually extort minors.

The latest report also sheds light on how the hackers were able to fool Apple and other tech giants, including Facebook, Google, Snap, Twitter, and Discord …

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Zuckerberg wants Meta’s AR glasses to be ‘an iPhone moment’ in 2024

Steve Jobs Archive

Apple and Meta have already butted heads numerous times over the App Store and privacy, and the two are poised to become hardware competitors soon. As Apple readies its own AR and VR headset and glasses products, Meta is also aiming to release AR glasses as soon as 2024.

A new report from The Verge indicates that Mark Zuckerberg has grandiose ideas for the launch of these AR glasses, aiming for an “iPhone moment” when they are released.

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