Yeah, Sugar, I just got a notice that it is.qbawl wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:30 amRealist in a time warp‽sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:29 amAccording to comments and news reports, it's worldwide.
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x5Yep! Down here too.sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:29 amAccording to comments and news reports, it's worldwide.
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Meta’s Oversight Board Adopts International “Norms” Instead of US Free Speech Principles
Didi Rankovic
May 14, 2024
In a world where international law (a set of ratified documents) is being rapidly replaced with narratives about a “rules-based system,” it is no wonder that US tech giants like Meta choose to set their free speech “baseline” not on their country’s Constitution, but on “international human rights norms.”
The less clarity there is, the more space for abuse and biased interpretation, critics might say. But Meta Oversight Board member Kenji Yoshino is satisfied that this is the right approach, and even spelled it out.
“Our baseline here is not the US Constitution and free speech, but rather international human rights norms,” Yoshino recently told the National Constitution Center, a private nonprofit.
Such bold statements require bold justification, and so this Oversight Board member noted that in terms of free speech “values” the US is “an outlier,” while Meta’s global reach means it must adjust its policies accordingly.
There are plenty of openly authoritarian regimes out there, with their own “free speech values,” but when Yoshino – from the William J. Brennan Center for Justice – spoke about “striking a balance” between US law and international “norms” – he chose to mention the palatable to his audience example of Europe.
What’s striking in this context, however, is that in many, if not all European countries, “hate speech” is criminalized, unlike in the US. It isn’t clear from Yoshino’s statements how a balance between such different approaches to speech can even be achieved in a social platform’s guidelines, particularly around elections.
But, that is the explanation for why the giant chooses not to make the First Amendment its “baseline.”
https://reclaimthenet.org/metas-oversig ... principles
Meta Agrees To Pay Texas $1.4 Billion Settlement In Biometric Data Lawsuit
Tuesday, Jul 30, 2024 - 11:00 PM
by Tyler Durden Authored by Jana J. Pruet via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas over its unauthorized capture and use of the personal biometric data of Facebook users, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office announced Tuesday.
In a 2022 lawsuit, Mr. Paxton accused Facebook’s parent company of using facial recognition technology to collect biometric data of more than 20 million Texans without their permission. The information was captured in photos and videos uploaded to the social media platform, according to the 29-page lawsuit.
The settlement is the largest obtained in a lawsuit brought by a single state, according to Mr. Paxton’s office.
“After vigorously pursuing justice for our citizens whose privacy rights were violated by Meta’s use of facial recognition software, I’m proud to announce that we have reached the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single State,” Mr. Paxton said. “Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law.”
A Meta spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the company was glad to resolve the issue with the state of Texas.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investment in Texas, including potentially developing data centers,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The spokesperson noted that the agreement was not an admission of any wrongdoing.
The Texas lawsuit was the first major case brought and settled under the state’s 2009 Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, making it unlawful to use facial recognition software to capture and store data without lawful consent. The law provides damages of up to $25,000 for each violation.
According to the court documents, Facebook captured the biometric data through a feature known as “tag suggestions,” which was first rolled out in 2011.
For nearly a decade, the company claimed the tag suggestions tool was implemented to make tagging photos easier for Facebook users. The feature was discontinued in September 2019.
“Facebook was disclosing users’ personal information to other entities who further exploited it,” the lawsuit states. “Moreover, Facebook often failed to destroy biometric identifiers within a reasonable time, exposing Texans to ever-increasing risks to their well-being, safety, and security.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/met ... ta-lawsuit
Teenager sues Meta over ‘addictive’ Instagram features
The lawsuit seeking class-action status and $5 billion in damages alleges Meta intentionally got teens hooked on Instagram and knowingly exposed them to harmful content.
By Naomi Nix
August 5, 2024 at 10:57 a.m. EDT
A minor from New York on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against Meta, alleging the social media giant sought to keep teens hooked on Instagram while knowingly exposing them to harmful content.
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, argues that Meta implemented features its leaders knew would make Instagram addicting for teens, such as displaying counts of how many “likes” posts receive, even as internal evidence grew that the service could harm their mental health. The 13-year-old girl is seeking $5 billion in damages, to be shared among eligible Instagram users if the suit is certified as a class action.
Court filings claim the teen suffered from anxiety, depression and lower grades as a result of her Instagram usage.
Meta should “stop manipulating children in ways that are harmful to them,” said lawyer David Boies, who is representing the minor for the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, along with firms Labaton Keller Sucharow and Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman. “We have to be sure that there are rules of the road.”
gifted https://wapo.st/3WQLCxF
Zuckerberg regrets bowing to Biden 'pressure' over Covid
5 days ago
Tom Gerken Technology reporter
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg says he regrets bowing to what he calls pressure from the Biden administration to "censor" content on Facebook and Instagram during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter sent to a US House committee chair, he said some material – including humour and satire – was taken down in 2021 under pressure from senior officials.
The White House has defended its actions, saying it encouraged "responsible actions to protect public health and safety".
Mr Zuckerberg also said his firm briefly "demoted" content relating to Joe Biden's son, Hunter, ahead of the 2020 election, after the FBI warned of "a potential Russian disinformation" operation.
It later became clear that this content was not part of such an operation, Mr Zuckerberg said, and it should not have been temporarily taken down.
Mr Zuckerberg did not give further detail about the actions he regretted during the pandemic. At that time, his business removed posts for a variety of reasons.
Mr Zuckerberg said the decisions made were the decisions of his business, but that the “government pressure was wrong”.
He continued: "We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."
Mr Zuckerberg said he and Meta would be ready to "push back" if something similar happened in the future.
His letter was addressed to Jim Jordan, the chair of the House judiciary committee, which has been investigating content moderation on online platforms. Republicans said the letter was a "big win for free speech".
In a statement issued to the website Politico, the White House stood by its actions.
It said: “Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.”
article continues with Hunter Biden's laptop ...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxlpjlgdzjo
Meta fed its AI on almost everything you’ve posted publicly since 2007
Unless you’re in the EU, there’s no ability to opt out of AI training settings that keep Facebook or Instagram posts public.
By Jess Weatherbed, a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.
Sep 12, 2024, 5:04 PM GMT+2
Meta has acknowledged that all text and photos that adult Facebook and Instagram users have publicly published since 2007 have been fed into its artificial intelligence models. Australia’s ABC News reports that Meta’s global privacy director, Melinda Claybaugh, initially rejected claims about user data from 2007 being leveraged for AI training during a local government inquiry about AI adoption before relenting after additional questioning.
“The truth of the matter is that unless you have consciously set those posts to private since 2007, Meta has just decided that you will scrape all of the photos and all of the texts from every public post on Instagram or Facebook since 2007 unless there was a conscious decision to set them on private,” Green Party senator David Shoebridge pushed in the inquiry. “That’s the reality, isn’t it?”
“Correct,” Claybaugh responded.
Meta’s privacy center and blog posts acknowledge hoovering up public posts and comments from Facebook and Instagram to train generative AI:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/2424 ... -post-data
