Tag: Facebook

Meta Earnings: Revenue uncertainty for 2024 overshadows strong results; stock drops over 4%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Shares of Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms Inc. fell in regular and extended trading on Wednesday after the company warned that its advertising business depends heavily on macroeconomic environment for spending. The stock dropped despite better-than-expected results and its fastest revenue growth in two years.

“We are very subject to volatility in the macro landscape,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said on a call with investors. “The revenue outlook is uncertain” for 2024.

Here are its five key numbers:

• Revenue: $34.15 billion, higher than estimates of $33.56 billion
• Earnings per Share: $4.39 Vs $3.63 expected
• Daily Active Users (DAUs): 2.09 billion Vs 2.07 billion expected
• Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 3.05 billion, in-line with the 3.05 billion expected
• Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $11.23, higher than estimates of $11.05

Meta’s digital ads business was its major painpoint in 2022 as it triggered three straight quarters of revenue decline for the Mark Zuckerberg-led company. For the current quarter, the net profit grew by 2.5x to $11.58 billion, from $4.4 billion during the year-ago period.

Revenue for the period grew by 23%, the fastest pace since 2021.

Earlier this year, the company cut thousands of employees and a wide range of projects, while sharpening its focus on improving its advertising and algorithms with artificial intelligence. Talk of the metaverse, the virtual reality world that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg renamed the company for, has been less frequent, particularly in front of the skeptical investor community.

Meta’s core advertising business has returned to growth. On Instagram and Facebook, Meta has been pushing short-form video, which it calls Reels. While that’s helped boost the time spent by users scrolling through the app, Meta’s advertisers are taking a while to get used to the new format.

These cost-cutting measures helped Meta’s margins expand to 40% from 20% last year. For the remainder of the year, Meta cut its spending expectations to $87 billion from $89 billion earlier. For 2024, expenses are likely to range between $94 billion to $99 billion. Most of that expenditure will go towards building technology infrastructure to run complex AI and VR tools.

Reality Labs, the division that makes smart glasses and headsets, posted an operating loss of $3.7 billion on $210 million in revenue. Analysts had expected an operating loss of $3.94 billion on $313.4 million in revenue, on average.

Meta shares fell 4.2% in regular trade and 3.7% in afterhours trade on Wednesday night. Despite the drop, the stock is still up 140% so far in 2023.

(With Inputs From Agencies.)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

More innovations with ‘India First Lens’ in pipeline: Meta India’s Sandhya Devanathan

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meta hosted its annual Conversations conference in Mumbai this week, marking their first event in the country. During the conference, the tech giant introduced several new WhatsApp features, including WhatsApp flows, easier payment for WhatsApp Businesses, and Meta Verified for businesses.

In an address during the event, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, expressed his excitement about hosting the event in India.

She acknowledged India’s pivotal role in embracing messaging as a powerful tool for both individuals and businesses. On the sidelines of the event, CNBC-TV18 exclusively caught up with Sandhya Devanathan, the Head and Vice President of Meta India, to discuss Meta’s vision for business messaging, its plans for India, its excitement surrounding the festive season, and its preparations for the Lok Sabha Elections in 2024.

(edited excerpts)

If you can share Meta’s vision and its priorities for Business messaging? And how will it pan out for India?

Devanathan: I’m excited about Conversations coming to India. Part of it is a reflection of how important India really is especially when it comes to business messaging. If we zoom out, whether it’s WhatsApp, whether it’s Facebook, whether it’s Instagram or more recently Trends, we have seen a lot of user uptake.

We have hundreds of millions of people on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. And what we’ve seen is that what started as users reaching out to each other to build community, to connect with each other has now morphed into businesses and users connecting with each other, using our platforms. So we are seeing this big shift globally as well as in India, where we are seeing people using our platforms not just to connect with things they care about or people they care about, but also businesses that they are interested in or want to learn more about or make a purchase from.

So we’re seeing that behaviour especially played out in India. Globally, I think we have 200 million businesses on the app using our WhatsApp business messaging app. So you see this organic behaviour translate to not just users but also what businesses do on our platform.

So coming closer home, to India, one of the things that we have noticed is exactly that just in the past year we have seen conversations from a user to a business double on our platform, and that’s our ambition, really.

You talked about the vision for business messaging. Our vision for business messaging is how we enable what we are seeing, which is how today users expect businesses to meet them, where they are. They want conversations to be real-time. They want them to be instant, they want them to be personalised, and they want to be able to talk to a business. So what we are hoping to do with business messaging is enable those experiences.

You introduced some new features for WhatsApp including Flows-for a faster chat experience, Choose your Payments Service and Meta Verified, what was some of the feedback received from businesses using the platform and how will these features change their lives?

Devanathan: So across the board, pretty much everything we have launched has been because businesses or customers or users have come and told us that they either we have seen it play out on our platform or they have given us feedback that this is something they did like to see. And a lot of it is definitely within India’s first lens. And so I’m very excited about, you know, how this plays out for India.

In our last conversation you mentioned how Meta is using India as an innovation hub. “Focus is on how we make India as a crucible for innovation for Meta globally,” were your words. What are the kinds of innovations which are being tried out in the Indian market right now?

Devanathan: In fact, many of the announcements we made today have an India lens to them. And that’s why you see Mark making these announcements right here in India. I would like to highlight a couple of points.

First, JioMart serves as a perfect example of how we have adopted an India first approach. We anticipate that experiences similar to JioMart will unfold in other global markets for us. I’m very excited about the initiatives we’re testing with WhatsApp and how they will resonate globally.

Likewise, on Instagram, we have various projects in progress, especially related to creators. There’s more to come, particularly concerning reels, which also have an India lens perspective. I’ll provide further details on that soon.

As India prepares for the Lok Sabha elections next year, what are some of the key priorities for Meta India as it moves forward, especially considering that Meta platforms are extensively used during elections?

Devanathan: We take election integrity very seriously on our platforms. We understand our responsibility in this regard, having witnessed 200 elections globally. We have accumulated valuable insights from these 200 elections, and we intend to apply those lessons in India. Our primary goal is to strike a balance between empowering users to have a voice and participate in the civic process while also combating hate speech and minimizing user harm. To achieve this, we’ve taken several steps.

First, we’ve established a robust fact-checking network in the country, partnering with 11 fact-checkers, which is our largest such network globally. This is one of our measures to combat misinformation.

Secondly, we’ve enhanced our security operations specifically focused on elections. These operations are in place during election periods to safeguard the platform.

Lastly, we’ve introduced increased transparency regarding political advertisements on our platform, making significant investments in this area.

Underpinning all of these efforts is our substantial investment in AI technology. We extensively utilise AI to identify and combat abuse and the presence of fake accounts on our platforms, dedicating substantial resources and funding to this endeavor. Overall, we believe that with these measures, we can ensure the integrity of Indian elections on our platform.

The festival season is here. What brand and business excitement on the platforms are you noticing?

Devanathan: I think that when we talk about the festive season in India, it holds significant importance for both businesses and consumers. During this time, there is a surge in engagement and consumer demand, as individuals purchase items for their homes, friends, and family, and make decisions that impact the coming year. I’ll break down a few key observations:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Facebook owner Meta Platforms seeks to stop privacy breach fine in Norway

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meta Platforms will ask a court in Norway on Tuesday to stop a fine the country’s data regulator has imposed on the owner of Facebook and Instagram for breaching users’ privacy, in a case that could have wider European implications.

Since Aug. 14, Meta Platforms has been fined 1 million crowns ($94,313) per day for harvesting users’ data and using it to target advertising at them, called behavioural advertising, a business model common to Big Tech.

Meta Platforms is asking for a temporary injunction against the order, which imposes a daily fine through to Nov. 3.

Also Read | Meta’s Thread app likely to launch web version this week: Report

Meta said on Aug. 1 it intended to ask consent from users in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA), the European single market, before allowing behavioural advertising.

“We have already announced our intention to transition to the legal basis of Consent for personalised advertising for people in the EU and EEA,” Meta said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Regulator, Datatilsynet, will defend the fine in court. It said that it was unclear when, and how, Meta would seek consent from users and that, in the meantime, their rights were being violated.

“Datatilsynet will argue that there is no basis for an injunction,” Tobias Judin, the regulator’s head of international section, told Reuters.

Also Read | Meta planning to launch a free code-generating software to compete with OpenAI: Report

Datatilsynet could make the fine permanent by referring its decision to the European Data Protection Board, which has the power to do so, if it agrees with the Norwegian regulator’s decision.

That could also widen the decision’s territorial scope to the rest of Europe. Datatilsynet had yet to take this step.

The hearing at the Oslo district court will last two days.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Meta revenue grows above 10% for the first time in five quarters, issues optimistic guidance

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meta Platforms Inc. not only reported revenue and Earnings per Share that bettered analyst expectations for the June quarter, but also issued a better-than-expected guidance for the current quarter, reflecting a rebound in the digital advertising market.

Here’s what the results look like:

• Revenue: $32 billion Vs $31.12 billion expected
• Earnings per Share: $2.98 Vs $2.91 expected
• Daily Active Users: 2.06 billion Vs 2.04 billion expected
• Average Revenue per User: $10.63 Vs $10.22 expected

Revenue growth of 11 percent crossed double digits for the first time after the December quarter of 2021. This was also the first time in a year that Meta reported revenue growth during the quarter as the company grappled with a slowing economy and Apple’s iOS privacy changes, which limited their ad targeting capabilities.

For the current quarter, Meta expects revenue of $32 billion to $34.5 billion, which is well above estimates of $31.3 billion. This suggests a growth of nearly 15 percent year-on-year at the lower end of the guidance.

“We had a good quarter,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We continue to see strong engagement across our apps and we have the most exciting roadmap I’ve seen in a while with Llama 2, Threads, Reels, new AI products in the pipeline, and the launch of Quest 3 this fall.”

Investments in artificial intelligence, as well as the company’s virtual reality efforts, have continued to be expensive, despite the efficiency mandate. Meta said total expenses will be $88 billion to $91 billion in 2023, more than prior projections.

The Reality Labs division, which is in charge of realizing Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse, will have “meaningfully” greater losses this year than it did last year, the company said, citing the costs of product development and growing the technology.

Total headcount declined 14 percent year over year to 71,469, with the company adding that “approximately half of the employees impacted by the 2023 layoffs are included in our reported headcount as of June 30, 2023.”

Instagram recently introduced a competitor to Twitter, called Threads. In the first few days after launch, Threads soared to 100 million users, though has since struggled to get all those users to return, according to estimates from web analytics firm Similarweb.

Analysts believe that Threads could generate about $8 billion in annual revenue over the next two years and reach close to 200 million daily active users. However, Threads is currently ad-free.

Shares of Meta gained nearly 7 percent in after-hours trading to cross the $300 per share mark. The stock has gained nearly 2.5 times on a year-to-date basis.

(With Inputs From Agencies.)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Australia fines Facebook owner Meta $14 million for undisclosed data collection

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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An Australian court ordered Facebook owner Meta Platforms to pay fines totalling A$20 million (Australian dollars) ($14 million) for collecting user data through a smartphone application advertised as a way to protect privacy without disclosing its actions.

Australia’s Federal Court also ordered Meta, through its subsidiaries Facebook Israel and the now-discontinued app, Onavo, to pay A$400,000 in legal costs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which brought the civil lawsuit.

The fine wraps up one strand of Meta’s legal issues in Australia related to its handling of user information since a global scandal erupted over its use of data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 US election.

Meta still faces a civil court action by Australia’s Office of the Information Commissioner over its dealings with Cambridge Analytica in Australia.

Wednesday’s judgment was in relation to a virtual private network (VPN) service the company then called Facebook offered from early 2016 to late 2017, Onavo, which it advertised as a way to keep personal information safe. VPNs obscure an internet user’s identity by giving their computer a different online address.

However, Facebook used Onavo to collect users’ location, time and frequency using other smartphone apps, and websites they visited for its own advertising purposes, the judge Wendy Abraham said in a written judgment.

“The failure to make sufficient disclosures … may have deprived tens of thousands of Australian consumers of the opportunity to make an informed choice about the collection and use of their data before downloading and/or using Onavo Protect,” Abraham wrote.

She added that the court could have fined Meta hundreds of billions of dollars since Australians downloaded the app 271,220 times and each breach of consumer law carried a A$1.1 million fine, but “the contraventions can be characterised as a single course of conduct”.

The fine was agreed by both sides but “carries with it a sufficient sting to ensure that the penalty amount is not such as to be regarded … as simply an acceptable cost of doing business”, she wrote.

Meta, which made global revenues of $116 billion last year, said in a statement the judge had acknowledged it never sought to mislead customers, and “over the last several years we have built tools to give people more transparency and control over how their data is used”.

The ACCC was not immediately available for comment.

Also Read: As Twitter fades to X, TikTok steps up with new text-based posts

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cambodia PM leaves Facebook amid Meta’s investigation of alleged threats

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has stopped using Facebook to communicate with the public in favour of Telegram, switching to what he called a ”better” application amid an ongoing case over whether he violated Meta Platforms’ rules.

The self-styled strongman, who has led Cambodia for nearly four decades, has been accused by human rights groups of using Meta’s Facebook to intimidate political opponents and discourage criticism of his government, which his administration denies.

Meta’s independent oversight board took on a case in March centred on allegations that Hun Sen violated Meta’s community standards on violence and incitement.

Hun Sen has a following of 14 million on Facebook, a figure close to the size of Cambodia’s population.

”It is better compared to Facebook,” he said of Telegram in a post on Wednesday.

”So from now on I will publish information including live streaming only on Telegram channel,” he said, adding that he would still use YouTube and Instagram and was creating a TikTok profile.

The Meta case came after several users reported a January video where Hun Sen said those who accused his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of buying votes in a 2022 local election should file a legal case, or face a beating from CPP’s supporters.

Hun Sen has made no comment on the Meta case. Government spokesperson Phay Siphan on Thursday denied knowledge of the case and said the switch to Telegram was made because it was easier to use and could reach more people.

It comes as the country prepares for an election next month in which Hun Sen’s ruling CPP faces virtually no opposition, with its main rival dissolved in 2017 over an alleged coup attempt and scores of its members’ given jail terms or fleeing into exile.

A party formed by its remnants was last month disqualified from running over a paperwork discrepancy, prompting condemnation from activists, who say Hun Sen has systematically weakened independent institutions and has used them to crush his opponents and preserve CPP’s political monopoly.

The CPP government has denied that and says its opponents have broken the law.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Facebook to end news access in Canada over new laws on paying publishers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meta Platforms Inc plans to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada once a parliament-approved legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers comes into effect, the company said on Thursday.

The legislation, known as the Online News Act, was approved by the Senate upper chamber earlier on Thursday and will become law after receiving royal assent from the governor general, a formality.

The legislation was proposed after complaints from Canada’s media industry, which wants tighter regulation of tech companies to prevent them from elbowing news businesses out of the online advertising market.

“Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect,” Meta said in a statement.

Facebook had telegraphed such a move for weeks, saying news has no economic value to the company and that its users do not use the platform for news.

The act outlines rules to force platforms such as Facebook and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content, a step similar to a groundbreaking law passed in Australia in 2021.

The U.S. technology companies have said the proposals are unsustainable for their businesses. Google has argued Canada’s law is broader than those enacted in Australia and Europe, saying it puts a price on news story links displayed in search results and can apply to outlets that do not produce news.

The search engine giant proposed that the bill be revised to make the displaying of news content, rather than links, as basis for payment and to specify that only businesses that produce news and adhere to journalistic standards are eligible.

A spokesperson Google said on Thursday that the bill remains “unworkable” and that the company was urgently seeking to work with the government “on a path forward.”

Canada’s federal government has so far pushed back against suggestions to make changes. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Meta and Google were using “bullying tactics” as they campaign against the legislation.

Google and Facebook had also threatened to curtail their services in Australia when a similar rules were passed into law. Both eventually struck deals with Australian media companies after amendments to the legislation were offered.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who introduced the bill last year, said on Thursday that the government “will engage in a regulatory and implementation process” after the legislation comes into effect.

“If the government can’t stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?” Rodriguez said in a statement.

Also read: India among top three sources for active users growth on Facebook: Meta 

The heritage ministry has had meetings with Facebook and Google this week, and it looks forward to further discussions, a government spokesperson said.

Danielle Coffey, president of the News Media Alliance global industry group, said the Canadian Parliament “should be applauded for standing up to Big Tech” after the bill’s approval in the Senate.

“We are encouraged by the increasing recognition of the need for legal action to ensure just compensation, both in Canada and abroad, and hope to see the United States follow suit,” Coffey said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Titan Submersible Missing: A Facebook post from 2013 is going viral for Eerie dream similar to the tragedy

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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An old Facebook post by an Irish musician and DJ, Deborah Grattan, shared nearly a decade ago is now going viral on the internet for an Eerie dream similar the Titan submarine tragedy. In her post, Deborah talked about her dream of seeing a thrill-seeking billionaire who launches submarine trips to the Titanic which ends up in tragedy on its maiden outing. This has left people baffled because of the sheer accuracy of her dream, which she suggested would make a good movie.

The news of the Titan submarine going missing broke on June 18 prompting a high priority search and rescue mission. However, after nearly four days of the search the US Coast Guard found debris near the Titanic wreckage confirming that the five occupants of the submarine had died due to catastrophic implosion caused by the high pressures under the sea.

The incident has several similarities to the dream that Deborah saw 10 years ago.

Her post was made on November 1, 2013, in which she wrote, “Had a weird dream that an evil billionaire started doing submarine trips down to Titanic and somehow pumped water out of parts of it, but then it turned to disaster on its maiden outing… prob make a good movie…”

Even though it may not have been the maiden outing of the Titan submarine, the precise details of an adventurous billionaire, the Titanic exploration via submarines, and the disastrous outcome, mirrored the details of her dream with extraordinary accuracy.

Also Read:Debris field discovered near Titanic as search for missing submersible continues

The sheer coincidence has astounded the world, and Deborah has found herself in the spotlight.

The viral post prompted several reactions from users in the comment section.

One person exclaimed, “That’s mad. The whole thing is mad to be honest. It’s like a live Hollywood movie and the whole world is watching.”

While another user pointed out that the post indeed was unedited and absolutely original.

“girl…. I checked to see if she edited this for clout but she didn’t, that’s a wild dream to have,” the user wrote.

Due to the increasing traction on the post, Deborah even said that her account was temporarily jammed.

However, as the post went viral, given the gravity of the situation Deborah wrote a message to express her grief over the tragic loss.

“So it looks like a post I made in 2013 is going viral. I just wanted to say that I honestly am a little bit sad about the subject matter of the post. I had a bad dream and posted it up but I can’t contemplate how awful it would be to be in that situation those poor people are in. It doesn’t matter that they are rich people, they are still people and no one deserves to die like that,” she wrote in another post.

The Titan submersible was piloted by OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush, a ‘billionaire’, who embarked on an adventure to explore the Titanic wreckage along with four other passengers, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman and British billionaire Hamish Harding.

Disaster struck when the Titan Submarine lost contact with its mothership, and days later after a vast search and rescue operation, all five occupants of the submersible were declared dead as the vessel was destroyed in a ‘catastrophic implosion’.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Boost for creators as Meta eases monetisation criteria, widens performance bonuses

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In a bid to empower creators and offer more opportunities for monetisation, Meta announced on Wednesday, June 15, that it has reduced partnership ads eligibility requirements on Facebook, allowing creators to grant permission to their brand partners to run ads from their Facebook pages.

Along with that, the company added that the monetisation eligibility criterion for Facebook Stars, its virtual currency for tipping creators, has also been lowered. “Now creators must have 500 followers (down from 1,000) over the past 30 days (down from 60),” Meta said in a blog post.

To check if you are eligible to monetise Facebook Stars:

• Go to Meta Business Suite on the website.
• On the left-hand side navigation bar, click Monetisation.
• Below Status, click View Page eligibility.

Meta is also extending invitations to more creators to join its Performance bonus programme, which rewards creators for achieving high engagement rates on their Facebook content. Furthermore, Meta is introducing extra bonuses to enable creators to earn even more rewards based on their performance.

The tech giant announced that it is now planning a limited test on its ads on Reels tests, where select creators will be able to monetise Reels that incorporate licensed music from the Facebook audio library. Eligible creators will receive notifications within the Facebook app, and Meta intends to gradually roll out this feature more broadly over time.

YouTube also recently updated its monetisation criteria for creators to have at least 500 subscribers, three valid public uploads within 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours in the past year or three million valid public Shorts views within the last 90 days.

Earlier this month, TikTok too extended its video paywall feature, Series, to creators with 10,000 followers but added that users with 1,000 followers who met other requirements could also apply to participate in the programme.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s why Meta’s shareholders are raising concerns on ‘political entanglement’ in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meta shareholders will ask for accountability at the company’s annual general meeting regarding allegations of Facebook’s “political entanglement and content management bias in India”. The Big Tech company is facing increasing scrutiny in areas such as privacy, online abuse, human rights impact, and so on.

According to a filing on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Meta shareholders have floated Proposal Seven, termed ‘Assessing Allegations of Biased Operations in Meta’s Largest Market’.

This proposal, along with a few others will come for voting in the upcoming Meta AGM which is scheduled for May 31. However, Meta’s board of directions has recommended a vote against this particular shareholder proposal.

What is the proposal?

Concerns regarding content moderation and transparency are addressed in this proposal, along with allegations regarding how hate speech is spread on Facebook, risks, and political bias.

“Facebook is apparently a critical catalyst of religious violence in India from disseminating anti-Muslim hate speech and failing to flag posts and speakers who pose risks in this regard,” the proposal said.

The proposal pointed out that in the months preceding the 2020 Delhi riots, incendiary comments against religion were made by “the head of a powerful North Indian temple” in a video on Facebook which has been viewed well over 40 million times.

A Wall Street Journal article is cited in the proposal to say that former Facebook official Ankhi Das resisted employees’ efforts to ban a BJP politician. “Das argued that punishing (the legislator) would hurt Facebook’s business in India,” the SEC filing said.

Also read: Meta India executive Manish Chopra resigns, fourth major exit in six months

Additionally, the resolution noted that Meta’s India public policy head, Shivnath Thukral, “assisted the BJP’s 2014 election campaign”. According to the proposal, Meta has “poor capacity” when it comes to content moderation in India’s 22 official languages.

What are the shareholders asking?

Meta is being urged by shareholders to conduct an impartial evaluation of allegations regarding political involvement and biases in content management within its operations in India. Specifically, they are concerned about how the platform has potentially contributed to the “fomentation of ethnic and religious conflicts and hatred.”

The shareholders have suggested that the assessment should focus on identifying any political biases present in the company’s activities and determining whether the content management algorithms and personnel in India have been effective in limiting the widespread dissemination of hate speech and disinformation.

What did Meta say?

“We are dedicated to building a team that reflects the diversity of the people, all around the globe, who use our products and services.”

“We already provide extensive disclosure on our human rights policies and practices and have published an independent human rights impact assessment regarding potential human rights risks in India that we believe addresses the proposal,” it added.

“Given our ongoing efforts to address this topic, the requested report is unnecessary and would not provide additional benefit to our shareholders,” Meta said.

Also read:  Meta Layoff: Top Indian executives laid off in the final phase of job cuts, employees say ‘sad it ended but anxiousness finally over’

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow