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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 says Apple has restored its access to enterprise certificates, bringing internal apps back online

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Update: In a leaked memo obtained by Business Insider, Facebook continues to defend its Research app, as well as its decision to distribute it via enterprise certificates. Read the details below.

In a new statement today, Facebook says that Apple has restored its access to enterprise certificates. This means that Facebook can now use its internal applications again, which were rendered useless earlier this week when Apple barred the company’s access to enterprise certification.


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Zuckerberg says merging WhatsApp, Instagram & Messenger chats will improve security, create an iMessage-like experience

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A report last week suggested that Facebook is planning to combine Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram messaging into a single, unified platform. During Facebook’s Q4 2018 earnings call this evening, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that this is something the company is considering but said it’s not happening this year.


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Apple shutting down sketchy Facebook iPhone app – but still available on Android [U]

Facebook Research messenger kids

Facebook has said that it is shutting down its controversial ‘Facebook Research’ iPhone app, after it was disclosed that the company had repackaged its banned Onavo VPN app and was paying teens and adults $20/month to install it.

Update: It turns out it wasn’t even Facebook’s decision to shutdown the iOS app – it was Apple. Apple PR via Recode:

We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.

Update 2: Many of Facebook’s internal iOS apps have been disabled after Apple revoked its enterprise certificate.


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Report: Facebook repackages Onavo VPN as ‘Research’ app, paying teens $20/month to sneakily sideload it

Back in August, Apple asked Facebook to remove its Onavo VPN from the App Store, saying the app was in violation of its data collection policies. Now, TechCrunch reports that Facebook has sidestepped the App Store and has been paying teenagers and adults to install a “Facebook Research” VPN on their device.


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Facebook reportedly plans to merge WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger chats

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The New York Times is reporting that Facebook plans to combine messaging services across its applications, merging chats from WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. A WhatsApp user would be able to start a chat with an Instagram user, breaking down barriers between Facebook’s social platforms.

A Messenger user would be able to send an end-to-end encrypted conversation with someone who only has a WhatsApp account for instance. Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp will remain separate apps on the home screen but the common messaging features will be unified.
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Facebook’s ‘Friendly Fraud’ — report reveals social media knowingly scammed children as Zuckerberg publishes WSJ column

Mark Zuckerberg announces Meta lay

Bad news and Facebook seem be in perfect harmony over the past months, and the latest report might shine the social media in its worst light yet. Information from RevealNews uncovers how Facebook privately used phrases such as “Friendly Fraud” in internal memos in reference to children spending money on games without their parents permission.

Perhaps more troubling is how the report alleges the company pushed developers into allowing games to entice children to spend money without parental guidance in an effort to “maximize revenue”.


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Facebook admits its photo-sharing app’s ‘Moment’ has passed, phasing out for lack of users

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A scoop from CNET today says that Facebook will begin shutting down Moments on February 25 — an app launched to help simplify photo sharing between friends. Initially launched in 2015, the failing service saw exceedingly low usage by users, with data pointing to just 80,000 downloads in the previous month.


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FTC reportedly planning ‘record-setting’ fine against Facebook for mishandling user data

Following a report last weekend that Germany was planning to punish Facebook, a report from The Washington Post now says the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. is planning “record-setting” fines against the social media giant. The report cites three people familiar with the matter and says regulators plan to punish the company for failing to protect user data.


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