Facebook

Facebook announced “Watch,” the long-awaited update to its video section where people can go watch short, episodic video shows. You’ll also be able to watch some live video here, including live sports that the social network has the rights to stream, like Major League Baseball games.

Facebook already had a video tab. But now that tab has been redesigned, and will include short episodic “shows” that Facebook didn’t have before. Facebook is paying publishers like BuzzFeed, ATTN and Group Nine Media to make these shows, and will retain the rights to some of them. The majority of the shows, though, will be posted on Facebook free of charge. Some publishers plan to run mid-roll video ads, à la commercials, during the shows to make money.

Globally, the number of women working at Facebook has risen to 35 percent, up from 33 percent in 2016 while their number in the technical department has risen by two per cent in the past year to 19 percent, the company said.

According to a Facebook blog post on Wednesday, women now make up 27 percent of all new graduate hires in engineering and 21 percent of all new technical hires at Facebook.

Facebook reported its second quarter earnings on Wednesday, and the results were predictably positive. The social network passed 2 billion monthly users earlier this summer, with over 1.3 billion using its software every day. The company parlayed that audience into $9.3 billion in revenue and $3.89 billion in net income. That’s a 71 percent higher profit than it reported for this same period last year.

"I want to see us move a little faster here but I’m confident that we’re going to get this right over the long term," Zuckerberg said in a conference call with analysts.

Facebook is in talks with Hollywood studios about producing scripted, TV-quality shows, with the aim of launching original programming by late summer, according to Wall Street Journal report.
Facebook has indicated that it was willing to commit to production budgets of as much as, even $3 million for each episode, in meetings with Hollywood talent agencies, the Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

A district court in northern Switzerland’s Zurich on Monday gave a Swiss man a suspended sentence and a 4,000 CHF (4,000 U.S. dollars) fine in a defamation case which involved him "liking" on Facebook posts, local media reported on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old defendant was found guilty of defamation for his liking posted on Facebook that accused an animal rights activist of racism and anti-Semitism, the Swissinfo reported.

Facebook is allowing users to share death threats, videos of self-harm and pictures of animal torture, it emerged yesterday.
The english newspaper Guardian has obtained leaked copies of over 100 internal documents outlining Facebook’s rules for handling sensitive content that reveal staff moderating the social media website are told not to delete such content.

The images may be removed from the site "once there’s no longer an opportunity to help the person," unless the incident has news value, according to the documents. Facebook is said to have an extensive list of secret rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2 billion users can and cannot post.

Facebook has been fined €110m by the EU for providing misleading information about its 2014 takeover of WhatsApp. The Commission previously expressed concern that the social media giant had not correctly communicated planned changes to its privacy policy.

The European commission said it had imposed a “proportionate” fine on the technology company to send a clear signal that all firms must comply with EU competition rules.

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) imposed a 3-million-euro ($3.2 million) fine on WhatsApp messaging service for allegedly forcing its users to share their personal data with its parent company Facebook, the agency said in a statement Friday.

All 28 European Union data protection authorities asked Whatsapp last year to stop sharing users’ data with Facebook due to doubts over the validity of users’ consent. The Italian agency said the application led users to believe they would not have been able to continue using the service unless they agreed to terms including sharing personal data.

Whatsapp did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment on the fine. The amount is lower than the maximum €5 million the agency could have levied.