SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages. "While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be...
Facebook Launches a News Section – and Will Pay Publishers
Over the course of its 15 year history, Facebook has variously ignored news organizations while eating their advertising revenue, courted them for video projects it subsequently abandoned, and then largely cut their stories out of its newsfeeds. Now it plans to pay them for news headlines — reportedly millions of dollars...
Zuckerberg Appears in Congress as Facebook Faces Scrutiny
WASHINGTON — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg endured hours of prickly questioning from lawmakers Wednesday as he defended the company’s new globally ambitious project to create a digital currency while also dealing with widening scrutiny from U.S. regulators. The immediate focus of the hearing by the House Financial Services Committee was...
LeBron James No Longer King James for Hong Kong Protesters
HONG KONG — When the ball smashed into a photo of LeBron James' face stuck above the hoop and dropped into the basket, the Hong Kong protesters cheered. They also trampled on jerseys bearing his name and gathered in a semicircle to watch one burn. James' standing among basketball fans...
Ahead of 2020, FB Ensnared in Heated Political Climate
Mark Zuckerberg defended meetings he's reportedly had with conservative leaders after #DeleteFacebook began trending on social media. Politico reported this week that the Facebook CEO held private meetings with, among others, Fox News' Tucker Carlson and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. Conservatives have long accused Facebook of suppressing conservative political view and...
California Could Require Parents' OK for Social Media Access
SACRAMENTO — California is considering tightening the rules for children under 13 using social media. The state Senate voted 31-4 on Thursday to require social media companies to first get the consent of a parent or guardian before creating an account for a child the company knows is under 13. Federal...
States Led by Texas Target Google in New Antitrust Probe
WASHINGTON — Fifty U.S. states and territories, led by Texas, announced an investigation into Google's "potential monopolistic behavior." The Monday announcement closely followed one from a separate group of states Friday that disclosed an investigation into Facebook's market dominance. The two probes widen the antitrust scrutiny of big tech companies beyond sweeping federal and...
Friends with Benefits: Can Facebook Tackle Your Love Life?
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is tackling a new frontier: love. Facebook Dating, a matchmaking service the company already offers in Brazil, Canada and 17 other countries, will arrive in the U.S. on Thursday. But after years of privacy missteps by the social network, will people trust it with their love lives? For...
Apple Apologizes for Use of Contractors to Eavesdrop on Siri
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is apologizing for allowing outsiders to listen to snippets of people's recorded conversations with its digital assistant Siri, a practice that undermined its attempts to position itself as a trusted steward of privacy. As part of the apology posted this week, Apple reiterated an earlier pledge to stop...
Tech Firms Struggle to Police Content While Avoiding Bias
WASHINGTON — Take the post down. Put it back up. Stop policing speech. Start silencing extremists. That's just a sampling of the intense, often contradictory demands facing tech companies and their social media platforms as they try to oversee internet content without infringing on First Amendment rights. The pendulum has...