Controversies

Company response

• Clarification — Facebook

  In a statement provided to Fox News, a Facebook company spokesperson said that Sorbo’s account was removed from the platform over posts he made about the coronavirus and vaccine.

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• "We removed Kevin Sorbo’s Page for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines," the statement reads.

• Facebook responded to Kevin Sorbo’s claims that the social media site removed his page without any explanation.

• But a Facebook spokesperson that per its policy, Sorbo’s account was notified twice that it had 48 hours to remove posts that promoted alleged misinformation prior to its policy change.

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• The suit alleges that statements made by the executives about the removal of hateful and violent content have misled people into believing that Facebook is doing more than it actually is to combat anti-Muslim bigotry on the world's largest social network.

• Frustrated with what it sees as a lack of progress, Muslim Advocates on Thursday filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Facebook, Zuckerberg and Sandberg, among other executives, demanding the social network start taking anti-Muslim activity more seriously.

• The lawsuit, which was filed in District of Columbia Superior Court in Washington, alleges that Facebook, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, and other executives violated the district’s consumer protection law through their statements about removing rule-breaking content.

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• On Wednesday, lawmakers questioned four tech CEOs about the market power of their companies. The nearly six-hour hearing was conducted by the House Judiciary Committee as part of an investigation into the potential anticompetitive behavior of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.

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• A Qatari billionaire and former wife of pop-star Janet Jackson is suing Facebook’s Dublin office over concerns that his likeness was used to push a cryptocurrency product, which he considers a scam.

Company response

• Denial — Meta

  this suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously

• Denial — Facebook

  A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement the company "has been cooperating with the DOJ in its review of this issue and while we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on pending litigation."

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• The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has sued Facebook for $9 billion in unpaid taxes, alleging that the social networking giant undervalued the intellectual property it sold to the subsidiary, thereby dodging billions in taxes.

• In a statement given to The Verge, Facebook’s Berti Thomson said the company “stand[s] behind” the 2010 transaction.

• Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a campaign finance lawsuit today against Facebook for selling Washington state political ads without maintaining information for the public as required by Washington state campaign finance law.

Company response

• Remediation — Facebook

  Mark Zuckerberg has promised Facebook users privacy upgrades

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• Mark Zuckerberg has promised Facebook users privacy upgrades, as the founder seeks to address ongoing privacy concerns dogging the company.

• Facebook announced on 14 May it would defend its compliance with the EU’s privacy laws after the Irish High Court gave the go-ahead to an investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) and rejected Facebook’s challenge to the inquiry that could lead to a ban on Facebook's data transfers from the European Union to the United States.

• We look forward to defending our compliance to the IDPC, as their preliminary decision could be damaging not only to Facebook, but also to users and other businesses,

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• In a statement, law firms Edelson, Robbins Geller and Labaton Sucharow said the plaintiffs will ask the district court to give preliminary approval for the settlement.

• Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it reached a $550 million settlement in principle related to a lawsuit that claimed it illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent.

• the terms of the settlement require Facebook to obtain full consent from Illinois consumers before collecting biometric information going forward

Company response

• Clarification — Ring

  In a statement to Gizmodo, the Amazon-owned home security and the smart home company said it limited the amount of data it shared.

Source excerpt

• In a statement to Gizmodo, the Amazon-owned home security and the smart home company said it limited the amount of data it shared.

• An investigation of the Ring doorbell app for Android discovered that four main analytics and marketing companies - including Facebook and Google -- were receiving information such as the names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers, and sensor data on the devices of paying customers.

• The EEF said that Ring has exhibited a pattern of behaviour that attempts to mitigate exposure to criticism and scrutiny while benefiting from the wide array of customer data available to them.

Company response

• Remediation — Facebook

  In addition to the lawsuit, Facebook said it has taken technical enforcement measures against Leadcloak and accounts that "we've determined have used their software, including disabling personal and ad accounts on Facebook and Instagram".

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• Gajjar operated under the name 'LeadCloak' and provided ad-cloaking software designed to push fake news and scams related to COVID-19, cryptocurrency, pharmaceuticals, diet pills and fake news pages.

• In addition to the lawsuit, Facebook said it has taken technical enforcement measures against Leadcloak and accounts that "we've determined have used their software, including disabling personal and ad accounts on Facebook and Instagram".

• Gajjar operated under the name �LeadCloak’ and provided ad-cloaking software designed to push fake news and scams related to COVID-19, cryptocurrency, pharmaceuticals, diet pills and fake news pages.

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• The data that the users will enter for Tuned can be used for ad targeting.

• This is because Tune will follow Facebook’s data rules, The Verge reports.

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• The plaintiff alleges that Facebook has infringed on its patent via Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service

• VOIP-Pal has filed a complaint against Facebook, et al. for patent infringement.

• Hubbard has filed suit in a Minnesota U.S. district court alleging "trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and unfair competition," citing its REELZ® cable/satellite video service, which is also available on computers, smart TV's and other devices, it points out.

Company response

• Remediation — Zoom

  Zoom has now issued an update to its iOS app to stop sending confidential and private data to Facebook.

• Remediation — Zoom

  The company thus removed the Facebook SDK in iOS and reconfigured the feature that still allows users to use the login with Facebook via their browser.

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• The problem, specific to Zoom's iOS app, involved sending device data to Facebook, even for users who didn't have a Facebook account.

• Zoom users on iOS should now update their app to the latest version (4.6.9), which gets rid of the data-collecting Facebook SDK

• A detailed analysis found that Zoom was connecting with Facebook's Graph API for data-sharing and was sending the device's model, OS, time zone, city, carrier, hardware details and its unique advertiser identifier to the analytics tool.

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• Justice Ayokunle Faji, while delivering the judgment at the weekend, also ordered a perpetual injunction restraining the social media firm from interfering with the plaintiff’s statutory rights under the Trademark Act.

• Defending the suit, the defendants alleged that the plaintiff’s account was blocked as a result of several contractual breaches, which allegedly contravened the Statement of Rights and Responsibility (SRR) entered by the parties at the time of opening the Facebook accounts.

• A federal High Court, Lagos has ordered Facebook Incorporated and Facebook Ireland Limited to pay N10 million to a Nigerian firm, Double Paws Enterprise, as damages for unlawfully interfering with the use of the firm’s trademark.

Company response

• Remediation — Facebook

  In a follow-up tweet, Rosen added that Facebook has restored all the posts that were incorrectly removed.

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• Facebook has been flagging posts related to the COVID-19 as spam, The Verge reports after discovering user complaints on Twitter.

• Facebook's vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, has since confirmed that the error was due to a bug in the company's anti-spam system.

• In a follow-up tweet, Rosen added that Facebook has restored all the posts that were incorrectly removed.

Company response

• Denial — Meta

  'We've cooperated with the ACCC's investigation into this matter to date. We will review the recent filing by the ACCC and intend to defend the proceedings.'

• Denial — Facebook

  Facebook told BBC News that there was “no evidence” that UK or EU users’ data had been transferred to Cambridge Analytica.

• Investigation — Facebook

  Facebook said it had "actively engaged" with the Australian investigation

Source excerpt

• 澳大利亚一监管机构正起诉Meta Platforms，理由是该公司未采取足够措施从Facebook上移除一些诈骗广告

• Australia has launched legal action against Facebook's parent company Meta, alleging it allowed scam ads to target users with fake celebrity endorsements.

• 相关诈骗广告包含利用公众人物推广加密货币的内容

Company response

• Denial — Facebook

  although the company disagrees with the finding, they will not contest it.

• Denial — Facebook

  “When people downloaded Onavo Protect, we were always clear about the information we collect and how it is used.”

• Remediation — Facebook

  the social network said it was already implementing the provisions of the deal.

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• On Tuesday, social media giant Facebook was ordered to pay $9 million for privacy violations against Canadians, the Competition Bureau said.

• The Competition Bureau said they found Facebook falsely represented how much information users could control — including the personal information of users' friends who had installed "certain third-party applications."

• The Bureau's findings relate to data on both Facebook and Messenger, where users were given the impression they could control who can see and access their personal information. Instead, third-party developers were able to access some of that information in ways inconsistent with Facebook policies.

Company response

• Denial — Facebook

  A Facebook spokesperson responded to the lawsuit by telling CIO that “this claim is unfounded and Facebook has already offered to provide the documents relevant to the shareholder’s stated concerns.”

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• A Michigan pension fund is suing Facebook to force the social media giant to turn over records to investigate whether the company’s board timed stock buybacks to maximize proceeds for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other senior executives who sold millions of shares of company stock.

• “There is a credible basis to believe that Facebook’s directors and/or officers may have breached their fiduciary duties by approving stock buybacks that may have been timed to facilitate insiders’ sales of Facebook stock at prices higher than they would have been absent the buybacks,” said the lawsuit.

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• 联合利华考虑到11月举行美国总统大选，甚至宣布在今年之内暂停投放广告。

• 联合利华旗下品牌、冰激淋制造商Ben & Jerry's和服装公司Patagonia、North Face都成为最初一批的响应者，表示将暂停在Facebook上发布广告。

• 越来越多的商业巨头对社交平台Facebook（脸书）和Twitter（推特）施加压力，要求其停止仇恨评论、宣传、垃圾邮件和假新闻。

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• 该网站声称允许用户同时管理多个Facebook账户，在其服务中要求用户提供登录凭据，从而根据这些信息从Facebook平台上获取用户的数据。

• 近日，Facebook称已在欧洲和美国起诉了一些水军公司。这些公司在未经授权的情况下在Facebook和Instagram上使用自动化软件来分发虚假的点赞和评论。

• Facebook周四在一份新闻稿中称，公司已在西班牙起诉了MGP25 Cyberint Services，这家公司提供自动化软件来分发虚假的点赞(like)和评论。此外，Facebook还向旧金山联邦法院起诉了Mohammad Zaghar，这家公司通过自动化的工具盗取用户个人信息。

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• Balsam argues the Facebook algorithms are inconsistently applied and lacking in human oversight. “What it really comes down to is political speech. There’s a right to political speech and Facebook is censoring it,” he told KPIX.

• A clever Bay Area lawyer is playing some sillier legal games with Facebook — and it may be working — as KPIX reports that after the fifth time attorney Dan Balsam had his account suspended, Balsam is now suing Facebook because their algorithm keeps flagging his jokes mocking conservatives as hate speech.

• A South Dublin woman has brought High Court proceedings against Facebook after a hacker took over and locked her out of her account.