Controversies

Company response

• Denial — Meta

  A spokesperson for Meta said in an email: “These claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Source excerpt

• A spokesperson for Meta said in an email: “These claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”

• The Texas Attorney General’s office is suing Facebook for allegedly violating state law when the social media platform captured and used biometric information from photos or videos uploaded to the site without users’ consent.

• The Texas lawsuit was filed in state district court in Marshall, Texas, where Paxton held a short press conference announcing the litigation.

Source excerpt

• Moreover, the decision states that, based on the grounds that the application of the practice may be subject to serious and irrevocable damages until the final decision has been given, interim measures within the framework of Article 9 of Law No 4054 must be taken, and thus in this context, Facebook must cease the terms of use regarding the data sharing of WhatsApp users in Turkey from 8 February 2021 and notify all users who do or do not accept the notification that it has stopped the execution of the new conditions involving data sharing by 8 February 2021.

• Turkey’s competition watchdog on Monday launched an investigation into Facebook and WhatsApp over the messaging application’s changes to its data-sharing rules.

• The Competition Board said its investigation would focus on whether Facebook and WhatsApp were in violation of Article 6 of Turkey’s competition laws, which bar companies from “abusing their dominant positions.”

Source excerpt

• The update sparked criticism among users as they must accept the changes or see their access to the service – which also allows encrypted voice and video calls – cut off from Feb 8.

• the popular messaging app WhatsApp asked its some two billion users on Jan 7 to accept new terms that will allow it to share more information with its parent company Facebook and roll out advertising and e-commerce.

• Facebook aims to monetise WhatsApp by allowing businesses to contact their clients via the platform, even sell them products directly using the service as they already do in India.

Company response

• Clarification — Facebook

  "Privacy policy and terms updates are common in the industry and we're providing users with ample notice to review the changes, which go into effect on February 8th," a Facebook spokesperson said.

Source excerpt

• The update sparked criticism among users as they must accept the changes or see their access to the service -- which also allows encrypted voice and video calls -- cut off from February 8.

• The popular messaging app WhatsApp asked its some two billion users on Thursday to accept new terms that will allow it to share more information with its parent company Facebook and roll out advertising and e-commerce.

• The firm said the updated terms will allow additional sharing of information between WhatsApp with Facebook and its other applications such as Instagram and Messenger, such as contacts and profile data, but not the content of messages which remain encrypted.

Company response

• Investigation — Facebook

  这个话题标签已经恢复，我们正在调查事件经过。

Source excerpt

• 在暂时屏蔽带有“呼吁印度总理莫迪辞职”标签的帖子后，28日脸书又将这些帖子恢复，称之前采取的行动是错误的。

• 这个话题标签已经恢复，我们正在调查事件经过。

Company response

• Remediation — Facebook

  We understand people's concerns, which is why we continue to strengthen our systems to make scraping from Facebook without our permission more difficult and go after the people behind it.

• Denial — Facebook

  It has denied any wrongdoing, saying that the data was scraped from publicly available information on the site.

Source excerpt

• Facebook confirmed the memo was genuine and told the BBC: "We understand people's concerns, which is why we continue to strengthen our systems to make scraping from Facebook without our permission more difficult and go after the people behind it."

• An internal Facebook email, accidentally sent to Belgium-based Data News, has revealed its strategy for dealing with the leaking of account details from 533 million users.

• Facebook said the data was old, from a previously reported leak in 2019. It has denied any wrongdoing, saying that the data was scraped from publicly available information on the site.

Source excerpt

• Facebook faced a growing backlash on their own platform Friday after the social network blocked users from sharing a New York Post report on the luxury homes owned by a founder of ‘Black Lives Matter.’

• The New York Post responded Friday after social media giant Facebook prevented users from sharing a story regarding the co-founder of ‘Black Lives Matter,’ labeling their decision “arbitrary and laughable.”

Source excerpt

• Former US President Donald Trump said he is filing class-action lawsuits against Facebook, Google, and Twitter and their executives, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai respectively.

• The lawsuits, filed in the Southern District of Florida, come after Twitter and Facebook booted him over risks of violence following the January 6 insurrection.

• Filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida and backed by the concerningly named America First Policy Institute, the suit is also aimed at altering Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

Company response

• Refund or compensation — Facebook

  In this case, Facebook refunded the victims and helped them secure their accounts

Source excerpt

• Facebook this week announced filing two lawsuits — one against an organization and its agents and one against four individuals in Vietnam — over advertising-related schemes.

• Facebook also filed a lawsuit against California marketing company N&J USA Incorporated and its agents Mohit Melwani and Vishaal Melwani, for engaging in a bait-and-switch advertising scheme.

• According to Facebook, four individuals residing in Vietnam employed session/cookie theft techniques to compromise the accounts of employees at advertising and marketing agencies, leveraging them to run unauthorized ads.

Company response

• Refund or compensation — Facebook

  Facebook refunded victims

• Remediation — Facebook

  helped them secure their accounts

Source excerpt

• Facebook refunded victims and helped them secure their accounts.

• According to Facebook Director of Law Enforcement and Litigation Jessica Romero, four individuals living in Vietnam – NHT, LK, NQB and PHD – used “cookie stealing” or “session stealing” techniques to compromise personal accounts of employees of many advertising and marketing agencies, and then they ran unauthorized ads from these accounts.

• In a blog posted on June 29, Facebook said it had filed two lawsuits against those who violated the Advertising Policies. The defendant in the first lawsuit is a California-based marketing company and agents. The second lawsuit is against a group of people living in Vietnam, who hijacked accounts to run illegal ads.

Source excerpt

• Under certain conditions, a national supervisory authority may exercise its power to bring any alleged infringement of the GDPR before a court of a member state, even though that authority is not the lead supervisory authority,

• The EU top court got involved in the matter after a Belgian court sought guidance on Facebook's challenge to the territorial competence of the Belgian data watchdog, which was trying to stop it from tracking users in Belgium through cookies stored in the company's social plug-ins, regardless of whether they have an account or not.

• The court's decision opens the gate for series of potential new sanctions.

Source excerpt

• A federal appeals court Monday rejected a lawsuit alleging that Twitter, Google and Facebook should be held liable in the 2016 massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub after Islamic State social-media posts radicalized shooter Omar Mateen.

• A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district judge’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed by victims and estates of victims in the shooting that killed 49 people and wounded dozens of others at the LGBT club.

• The ruling focused heavily on whether the plaintiffs had proven that Twitter, Google-owned YouTube and Facebook “aided and abetted” Mateen in violation of a federal law known as the Anti-Terrorism Act. The court’s 31-page ruling said the plaintiffs did not show that the attack was an act of international terrorism as defined under the law.

Company response

• Denial — Facebook

  We believe this case is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously against the allegations.

Source excerpt

• Stossel reportedly filed suit against Facebook for placing fact-check labels on his videos.

• Facebook reportedly responded to Variety that the platform is ready to lock horns: “We believe this case is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously against the allegations.”

• Stossel’s complaint alleged Facebook and its fact-checking partners “falsely attributed to Stossel a claim he never made, and on that basis flagged the content as ‘misleading’ and ‘missing context,’ so that would-be viewers would be routed to the false attribution statement,”

Company response

• Denial — Facebook

  At the heart of this series is an allegation that is just plain false: that Facebook conducts research and then systematically and willfully ignores it if the findings are inconvenient for the company

Source excerpt

• Facebook fired back after a series of withering Wall Street Journal reports that the company failed to keep users safe, with the social media giant noting an increase in staff and spending on battling abuses.

• Multiple media reports criticised Facebook for being a platform that spread misinformation and hate speech with no security of its users

• At the heart of this series is an allegation that is just plain false: that Facebook conducts research and then systematically and willfully ignores it if the findings are inconvenient for the company

Source excerpt

• Facebook was handed fines totalling 21 million roubles (about $288,000) while Twitter received fines of a total 5 million roubles (about $70,000).

• A Moscow court has fined social media companies Facebook and Twitter for failing to delete content prohibited by Russian law, Zulfiya Gurinchuk, press secretary of the Moscow’s Tagansky District court, told RAPSI.

• 俄罗斯一家法院周二（9月14日）表示，已对美国社交媒体公司脸书（Facebook）和推特（Twitter）处以罚款，原因是它们未能删除被莫斯科指定为非法的内容。

Company response

• Apology — Facebook

  A Facebook spokesperson told The New York Times on Friday, which first reported on the story, that the automated prompt was an "unacceptable error" and apologized to anyone who came across the offensive suggestion.

• Remediation — Facebook

  The social media giant has since disabled the topic recommendation feature and says it's investigating the cause of the error, but the video had been online for more than a year.

• Investigation — Facebook

  The social media giant has since disabled the topic recommendation feature and says it's investigating the cause of the error, but the video had been online for more than a year.

Source excerpt

• The social media giant has since disabled the topic recommendation feature and says it's investigating the cause of the error, but the video had been online for more than a year.

• Facebook issued an apology on behalf of its artificial intelligence software that asked users watching a video featuring Black men if they wanted to see more "videos about primates."

Company response

• Denial — Meta

  Meta发言人发表声明称，这起诉讼“毫无根据”，并表示“我们将积极地进行自己辩护”。

Source excerpt

• Meta发言人发表声明称，这起诉讼“毫无根据”，并表示“我们将积极地进行自己辩护”。

• 俄亥俄州总检察官戴夫·约斯特（Dave Yost）提起诉讼称，Facebook在其应用可能对儿童健康产生的负面影响方面误导了公众。约斯特代表俄亥俄州的一家公共养老基金和其他Facebook投资者，以联邦集体诉讼的形式提起了这项指控。

• “The bottom line is, there are substantial questions about the governance of Facebook. Do their policies what they say they mean? What are the internal procedures to make sure the policy is followed?” Yost said.

Source excerpt

• The court ruled that Facebook was found guilty under Part 2 Article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (the owner of an information resource on the Internet that does not delete information or a webpage in the event when Russian law envisages such an obligation),

Company response

• Denial — Meta

  A Meta spokesperson declined the allegations and said, 'This suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.'

Source excerpt

• A Meta spokesperson declined the allegations and said, 'This suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.'

• The suit claims that Facebook and Instagram then created a clone that does the same job and then used the market share to get the other app to fall behind in the race.

• As Facebook Inc (FB) fights off a monopoly lawsuit charged by the FTC, another predicament hits the company as photo app Phhhoto has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant claiming that it has cloned their app and ruined their business.

Company response

• Apology — Science Feedback

  The flag has been removed. We apologize for the mistake.

Source excerpt

• “Thanks for reaching out and appealing directly to Science Feedback,” was the response he received from Facebook communications manager Ayobami Olugbemiga. “As you know, our fact-checking partners independently review and rate content on our apps and are responsible for processing your appeal.”

• The flag has been removed. We apologize for the mistake.

• Soave then reached out to both Facebook and Science Feedback seeking a correction or clarification and the fact-checking organization admitted that it had mistakenly flagged his article and agreed to remove the “false information” label.