Internet

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain You may have read recently that TikTok allegedly "serves up" sex and drug videos to minors. Media reports have described the video-sharing platform, which is designed predominantly for young people, as an "addiction machine" that promotes harmful content. In an investigation, reporters at the Wall Street...

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A Facebook representative provided false testimony in a lawsuit that accuses the social media giant of violating state campaign finance laws, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson alleges in court filings. Both Facebook and Facebook's attorneys knew the testimony was false, Ferguson says in court filings. He...

Credit: Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University Since Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, came forward with troubling information about the far-reaching harms caused by the company's algorithms, talk of potential regulatory reforms has only intensified. There is now wide agreement among experts and politicians that regulatory changes are needed to protect users,...

Facebook has released new anti-harassment protections as it battles a crisis over the impact of its products. Facebook unveiled fresh protections Wednesday against online attacks on journalists, activists and celebrities as the social media giant battles a crisis over its platforms' potential harms. The company has faced a storm of...

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Facebook Inc. is changing the way it counts user profiles for advertising purposes—a move that will increase the number of total accounts an advertiser can reach—as part of an effort to improve privacy. The company currently uses data, like a user's email address or phone ID,...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Google is developing a new feature called Big Moments, which will compete with rivals Facebook and Twitter in delivering the latest breaking news updates during major events. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the search engine to react quickly and constantly to its users' needs for the latest...

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A systematic review of research into the dark side of social media use has identified 46 harmful effects, ranging from physical and mental health problems to negative impacts on job and academic performance, as well as security and privacy issues.   Social media networks such as...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Facebook's chief spokesman said the company is willing to subject itself to greater oversight to ensure its algorithms are performing as intended and aren't harming users. Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president for global affairs, defended the company's business practices against accusations from a whistleblower that it...

Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen speaks during a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington. Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon Less than two years after Facebook hired Frances Haugen to help correct...

Facebook reported trouble again Friday with its services, days after a major outage. Facebook on Friday said users around the world again had problems accessing its services for hours due to a tweak of its system, just days after a massive outage caused in a similar fashion. "Sincere apologies to...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Facebook on Friday said it will stop allowing the sale of land in Amazon rainforest conservation areas at marketplaces on the social network or its Instagram and WhatsApp services. The announcement came as Facebook defends itself against accusations that it has long put profit over societal...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Facebook has announced that it is halting development on its Instagram Kids project. This follows reports that the social media giant had commissioned—and kept secret—internal research that found Instagram was detrimental to young people's mental health. The study's findings, not to mention the fact that they...

In this April 14, 2020 file photo, the thumbs up Like logo is shown on a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. A Moscow court has ruled to enforce the collection of fines from Facebook for breaching Russian laws on illegal content, officials said Thursday Oct. 7, 2021....

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The United States government has reportedly been issuing secret "keyword warrants" to Google for those who look up certain phrases and names, triggering worry over privacy in addition to concern for innocent internet users, who could unknowingly and erroneously become involved in major criminal investigations. The...

This data was derived from a study involving 8,500 people responding to 120,000 articles. Credit: Chart: The Conversation CC-BY-ND Source: Avram et al. Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen testified before the U.S. Senate on Oct. 5, 2021, that the company's social media platforms "harm children, stoke division and weaken...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Right at the time social media became popular, teen mental health began to falter. Between 2010 and 2019, rates of depression and loneliness doubled in the U.S. and globally, suicide rates soared for teens in the U.S. and emergency room admissions for self-harm tripled among U.S....

Credit: CC0 Public Domain As social media giants like Facebook and Twitter come under increasing criticism for how they approach what type of speech is allowed on their platforms, another type of online group navigated similar struggles more than a decade ago, according to two University of Kansas scholars who...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain The EU said Thursday that Facebook and YouTube took down less of the hate speech reported to them in 2021 than 2020 as pressure mounts to impose tighter regulation on social media platforms. The EU's annual review of social media platforms that have signed up to...

Many companies have become dependent on platforms such as Facebook for business growth, but experts say the use of consumer data raises ethical concerns. Credit: Shutterstock This week, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified about the tens of thousands of pages of internal documents she leaked exposing how Facebook prioritized profits...

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.,from left, Sen Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, listen as former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen testifies during a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday,...