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13 articles in meta

US authorities reportedly investigate claims that Meta can read encrypted WhatsApp messages

US authorities reportedly investigate claims that Meta can read encrypted WhatsApp messages

A lawsuit filed last week alleges tech firm ‘can access virtually all’ private communications, a claim the company has denied US authorities have reportedly investigated claims that Meta can read users’ encrypted chats on the WhatsApp messaging platform, which it owns. The reports follow a lawsuit filed last week, which claimed Meta “can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications”. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 31
WhatsAppMetaTechnology
Meta burned $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 won’t be any better

Meta burned $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 won’t be any better

The reported financial losses follow a series of layoffs at the VR unit.

techcrunch.com
Jan 29
GadgetsSocialMark Zuckerberg
Life after Molly: Ian Russell on big tech, his daughter’s death – and why a social media ban won’t work

Life after Molly: Ian Russell on big tech, his daughter’s death – and why a social media ban won’t work

Molly Russell was just 14 when she took her own life in 2017, and an inquest later found negative online content was a significant factor. With many people now pushing for teenagers to be kept off tech platforms, her father explains why he backs a different approach Ian Russell describes his life as being split into two parts: before and after 20 November 2017, the day his youngest daughter, Molly, took her own life as a result of depression and negative social media content. “Our life before Molly’s death was very ordinary. Unremarkable,” he says. He was a television producer and director, married with three daughters. “We lived in an ordinary London suburb, in an ordinary semi-detached house, the children went to ordinary schools.” The weekend before Molly’s death, they had a celebration for all three girls’ birthdays, which are in November. One was turning 21, another 18 and Molly was soon to be 15. “And I remember being in the kitchen of a house full of friends and family and thinking, ‘This is so good. I’ve never been so happy,’” he says. “That was on a Saturday night and the following Tuesday morning, everything was different.” The second part of Russell’s life has been not only grief and trauma, but also a commitment to discovering and exposing the truth about the online content that contributed to Molly’s death, and campaigning to prevent others falling prey to the same harms. Both elements lasted far longer than he anticipated. It took nearly five years to get enough information out of social media companies for an inquest to conclude that Molly died “from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”. As for the campaigning, the Molly Rose Foundation provides support, conducts research and raises awareness of online harms, and Russell has been an omnipresent spokesperson on these issues. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 26
Online abuseGrok AIX
‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward

‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward

Progress of artificial general intelligence could stall, which may lead to a financial crash, says Yoshua Bengio, one of the ‘godfathers’ of modern AI Will the race to artificial general intelligence (AGI) lead us to a land of financial plenty – or will it end in a 2008-style bust? Trillions of dollars rest on the answer. The figures are staggering: an estimated $2.9tn (£2.2tn) being spent on datacentres , the central nervous systems of AI tools; the more than $4tn stock market capitalisation of Nvidia, the company that makes the chips powering cutting-edge AI systems; and the $100m signing-on bonuses offered by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to top engineers at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 17
AI (artificial intelligence)ComputingTechnology
Meta’s layoffs leave Supernatural fitness users in mourning

Meta’s layoffs leave Supernatural fitness users in mourning

Supernatural has had its staff cut and won’t receive any more content updates.

arstechnica.com
Jan 17
GamingTechmeta
Meta hires former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chair

Meta hires former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chair

Before joining Meta, Powell McCormick was working as deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump.

techcrunch.com
Jan 12
AppsGovernment & PolicyMark Zuckerberg
AI showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to pull plug, says pioneer

AI showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to pull plug, says pioneer

Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio warns against granting legal rights to cutting-edge technology A pioneer of AI has criticised calls to grant the technology rights , warning that it was showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be prepared to pull the plug if needed. Yoshua Bengio said giving legal status to cutting-edge AIs would be akin to giving citizenship to hostile extraterrestrials, amid fears that advances in the technology were far outpacing the ability to constrain them. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 30, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI)MetaComputer science and IT
Facebook slow to act on posts celebrating Bondi beach massacre, anti-hate group says

Facebook slow to act on posts celebrating Bondi beach massacre, anti-hate group says

Exclusive: CST highlights volume of IS-supporting accounts and says social media firms ‘putting all of us in danger’ Facebook hosted terrorist propaganda that celebrated the murder of Jews and praised Islamic State, a leading anti-hate group has alleged. The posts included celebrations of the Bondi beach massacre that the Community Security Trust says Facebook has been too slow to take down. The posts were still on Facebook on 16 December, two days after the attack, and received shares and likes. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 30, 2025
FacebookAntisemitismHate crime
Parents of sextortion victim sue Meta for alleged wrongful death

Parents of sextortion victim sue Meta for alleged wrongful death

Exclusive: Lawsuit is the first UK case of its kind, with Ros and Mark Dowey accusing Meta of ‘putting profit before our young people’ The parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life after he fell victim to a sextortion gang on Instagram are suing Meta for the alleged wrongful death of their son, in the first UK case of its kind. Murray Dowey died in December 2023 at his family home in Dunblane, after being tricked into sending intimate pictures to an Instagram contact. He thought it was a girl his own age, but it turned out to be overseas criminals involved in financially motivated sexual extortion. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 17, 2025
MetaInstagramTechnology
Meta offers EU users ad-light option in push to end investigation

Meta offers EU users ad-light option in push to end investigation

Facebook agrees to change "pay or consent" model after talks with European Commission.

arstechnica.com
Dec 8, 2025
Biz & ITEUFacebook
The AI boom is heralding a new gold rush in the American west

The AI boom is heralding a new gold rush in the American west

Once home to gold and prospectors, the Nevada desert is now the site of a new kind of expansion: tech datacenters Driving down the interstate through the dry Nevada desert, there are few signs that a vast expanse of new construction is hiding behind the sagebrush-covered hills. But just beyond a massive power plant and transmission towers that march up into the dusty brown mountains lies one of the world’s biggest buildouts of datacenters – miles of new concrete buildings that house millions of computer servers. This business park, called the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, has a sprawling landmass greater than the city of Denver . It is home to the largest datacenter in the US, built by the company Switch, and tech giants like Google and Microsoft have also bought land here and are constructing enormous facilities. A separate Apple datacenter complex is just down the road. A Tesla “gigafactory”, which builds electric vehicle batteries, is a resident too. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 4, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI)WaterTesla
More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate

More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate

Workers say the firm’s ‘warp-speed’ approach fuels pressure, layoffs and rising emissions More than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” about AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to “democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.” The letter, published on Wednesday, was signed by the Amazon workers anonymously, and comes a month after Amazon announced mass layoff plans as it increases adoption of AI in its operations. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Nov 28, 2025
AmazonArtificial intelligence (AI)E-commerce
Meta’s star AI scientist Yann LeCun plans to leave for own startup

Meta’s star AI scientist Yann LeCun plans to leave for own startup

AI pioneer reportedly frustrated with Meta's shift from research to rapid product releases.

arstechnica.com
Nov 12, 2025
AIBiz & ITAI alignment