The House of Representatives has banned staff members from using WhatsApp on government devices, according to a report from Axios. In an email viewed by the outlet, the House’s chief administrative officer (CAO) tells staffers that the Office of Cybersecurity “has deemed WhatsApp a high-risk” because of a “lack of transparency in how it protects […]
The future of the internet will be determined in one building in Washington, DC – and for six weeks, I watched it unfold. For much of this spring, the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in downtown Washington, DC, was buzzing with lawyers, reporters, and interested onlookers jostling between dimly lit courtrooms that hosted everyone from the […]
At this point, it’s becoming easier to say which AI startups Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t looked at acquiring. In addition to Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI), sources tell me the Meta CEO recently discussed buying ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab and Perplexity, the AI-native Google rival. None of these talks progressed to the formal […]
Meta is announcing its next pair of smart glasses with Oakley. The limited-edition Oakley Meta HSTN (pronounced “how-stuhn”) model costs $499 and is available for preorder starting July 11th. Other Oakley models with Meta’s tech will be available starting at $399 later this summer. Like the existing Meta Ray-Ban glasses, the Oakley model features a […]
Facebook is adding support for passkeys on its mobile app. That means you’ll be able to log into the platform using your device’s authentication method, like your fingerprint, face scan, or PIN, making it more difficult for bad actors to take control of your account. Passkeys offer a more secure alternative to typical passwords because […]
Meta is making a change to how sharing videos works on Facebook. Right now, you can share videos as a video from the post composer or as a reel, and both have different sharing workflows. In “the coming months,” however, “all videos on Facebook will be shared as reels,” according to a blog post. “Facebook […]
This week, WhatsApp did something its founders said it would never do: it’s putting advertisements inside the app. It ends WhatsApp’s decade-plus run of offering an ad-free messaging and calling experience. Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, attempted to justify the decision by saying ads will be sequestered to its “Update” tab, where you’ll see […]
The Threads team at Meta has spent the past year working on supporting the broader fediverse and social web, and is launching its biggest integrations yet: a new dedicated feed for fediverse posts, and a way to search for fediverse users inside of Threads. Starting today, if you’ve turned on fediverse sharing in Threads, there […]
Threads is rolling out a test that will let you hide images or text that contain spoilers, according to a post from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. With the test, you’ll be able to blur content by tapping an image or highlighting text and selecting the “mark spoiler” option. Other users can view the hidden content […]
WhatsApp is rolling out ads. In an update on Monday, Meta announced that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like status feature. The status feature lives within WhatsApp’s “Updates” tab and allows users to share disappearing text, photo, voice notes, or video messages. But now, you might see sponsored content in addition […]