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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 again copies Snapchat with new ‘Vanish Mode’ messages in Messenger and Instagram

Snapchat features continue to roll into the messaging apps on Facebook and Instagram. The latest is dubbed “Vanish Mode” and as the name suggests, offers users the ability to send texts, photos, emoji, voice messages, and more that disappear after being seen. It’s starting to roll out first to Facebook Messenger and also coming to Instagram chats.

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Presidential election hoaxes: Tech giants act, FBI investigating

Presidential election hoaxes

Three tech giants had to take action in response to presidential election hoaxes. This included Twitter placing a warning on a tweet by Donald Trump, which falsely accused the Democrats of trying to ‘steal’ the election.

Twitter stated that the tweet violated its civic integrity policy, which says that users ‘may not use Twitter’s services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections’ …

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Zuckerberg claims Apple’s ad-tracking policy will hurt small businesses

Zuckerberg attacks Apple's ad-tracking policy

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that a pending version of Apple’s ad-tracking policy will hurt small businesses when it is introduced next year. Further, he says Apple could damage the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

Zuckerberg’s attack relates to a privacy change Apple originally made in iOS 14 and subsequently agreed to delay to give the ad industry time to react …

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Facebook exec says ad-based businesses are ‘under assault’ by Apple’s privacy changes

Facebook fine won't be the end of it

Facebook has been complaining about Apple since the company introduced a new privacy feature in the iOS 14 beta that forces developers to ask users before tracking them across the web. David Fischer, Facebook’s chief revenue officer, now said that every business based on advertising is “under assault” by the changes imposed by Apple.

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[Update: Applies for all devs] Apple concedes to Facebook on its 30% iOS cut for online events

How to delete Logged in with Facebook apps and websites on iPhone

Back in August as Facebook rolled out its latest online service for creators, teachers, and small businesses to host virtual events, the company announced it would be waving fees. Google also agreed to waive its 30% commission on Android, however, Apple at the time did not. Now Facebook says Apple has revisited that decision and will stop charging its 30% fee temporarily.

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Facebook argues Apple should let its apps like Messenger be default on iPhone

Can't sign up for Facebook Messenger without a Facebook account

With iOS 14, Apple has opened up its mobile platform more than ever before with the ability to set third-party apps as defaults for mail and browser. Riding on that change, Facebook is criticizing Apple for not opening up messaging on iOS to do the same. All told, Facebook is trying to pressure Apple to make messaging on iOS the same as it is on Android.

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Facebook AR glasses – prototype revealed, providing auditory superpowers

Facebook AR glasses prototype

We’re not expecting to see Apple Glasses before 2022 at the earliest, but we’ve now seen a prototype of one rival effort: Facebook AR glasses.

Interestingly, this prototype has no display and is entirely focused on an auditory experience. It’s part super-sophisticated hearing aid, part virtual reality device …

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Facebook wanted to tell users about Apple’s 30% cut; Apple blocked it

Apple's 30% cut in the news again

Apple’s 30% cut of all in-app purchases is again making the news. Facebook said that when it tried to help out small businesses who’d lost income due to the coronavirus, Apple refused to waive its 30% commission on sales. Facebook itself takes no cut of the income.

The social network then tried including a ‘transparency notice’ advising users that Apple would get 30% of the amount paid, and Apple blocked that …

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Facebook again criticizes iOS 14 privacy changes, warns of drastic effect on advertising industry

Facebook continues to warn advertisers about the effects of the privacy and tracking changes that Apple has planned for iOS 14. While a pair of earlier reports indicated Facebook’s concerns, the company has now published a blog post detailing how advertisers will be affected by iOS 14’s new anti-tracking features.

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Facebook launches new shopping section as Instagram expands ‘Checkout’ feature and Live Shopping

Facebook has launched a number of updates to its shopping experience for both Facebook and Instagram today. After debuting “Facebook Shops” back in May there is now a dedicated section in the app for shopping while Instagram is opening up its Checkout and Live Shopping features to all sellers in the US. Today’s changes also bring new tools to help businesses with e-commerce.

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