Facebook takes on Amazon with online shopping, commerce venture Shops

The Facebook chief executive officer announced a handful of updates Tuesday signaling the company's commitment to online shopping and commerce.

Facebook is making another run at building a shopping empire — and this time it has the direct involvement of the company’s most important executive, Mark Zuckerberg.

The Facebook chief executive officer announced a handful of updates Tuesday signaling the company’s commitment to online shopping and commerce, one of the areas he highlighted as a priority for this year.

The main product, called Shops, is a new version of an existing Facebook feature with a similar name, and will let retailers upload product catalogs to their Facebook page or Instagram profile.

Users can find these Shops directly from the retailer’s page, or by clicking on an ad that will redirect them to a Shop inside Facebook instead of the retailer’s own website.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 crisis: Donald Trump threatens permanent freeze on WHO funding

Eventually, Zuckerberg says, these Shops will be accessible across the Facebook family, including Messenger and WhatsApp, giving retailers a way to reach Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users with one product catalog.

“This is really the first very major push that we’re going to be making into that next step around commerce,” Zuckerberg said in an interview Monday.

He also highlighted the importance of Shops for small businesses, almost all of which are operating exclusively online during the Covid-19 pandemic. The “vast majority” of Facebook advertisers are small businesses, Zuckerberg said, so ensuring they can operate is important to Facebook’s business as well.

Covid-19: Zuckerberg endorses Silicon Valley lockdown, Musk sees 'fascism'

Zuckerberg expresses concerns about easing lockdown measures. Musk calls the move 'anti-democratic'.

Silicon Valley billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg offered dueling views on lockdown measures designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus on Wednesday, with Facebook's Zuckerberg endorsing the measures while Tesla's Musk condemned them as anti-democratic.

Musk, who has often made outspoken and even inflammatory comments on conference calls and on Twitter, said in comments to analysts on Tesla Inc's earnings call that it was "fascist" to say people cannot leave their homes.

"This is not democratic, this is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom," Musk said.

Zuckerberg, on the other hand, in comments on Facebook's own earnings calls, expressed concerns about easing lockdown measures and said the economic fallout from the pandemic would last longer than people are currently anticipating.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: India cases rise to 33,062; global cases at 3,220,225

"I worry that reopening certain places too quickly before infection rates have been reduced to very minimal levels will almost guarantee future outbreaks and worse longer-term health and economic outcomes," he said.

Both companies are based in the San Francisco Bay area, which was out front in trying to slow the virus' spread, with the region's seven counties issuing a joint shelter-in-place order before California issued a statewide order.

Electric carmaker Tesla and social media network Facebook have had different experiences under the lockdown. Tesla had initially resisted efforts by California authorities to shut its plant in the Bay Area under the lockdown, until agreeing on March 19 to suspend production. Even so, Tesla on Wednesday reported its third profitable quarter in a row.

Reliance Jio connects with Facebook for $5.7-billion equity deal

Investment values Jio Platforms at Rs 4.36 trn; US giant gets 9.99% stake, board seat; collaboration is non-exclusive.

Facebook and Reliance Jio hit the headlines early Wednesday morning, in a break from the daily lockdown news. Mark Zuckerberg announced in a Facebook post that the technology giant will acquire a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) through a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 43,574 crore.

The deal values JPL—the holding company of Reliance Jio — at an enterprise value Rs 4.62 trillion.

JPL’s equity value works out to Rs 4.36 trillion after Facebook’s investment, making it the fifth most valuable company in the country, behind its parent Reliance Industries (RIL), Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever, and HDFC Bank.

Considering the market value of RIL and JPL, the Street is valuing RIL’s remaining but core businesses of refining and petrochemicals and others such as retail at a lesser number of Rs 4.28 trillion. This makes JPL more valuable than the rest of RIL.

JPL, a fully-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, houses many digital platforms like Jio Saavn and Radisys, besides the biggest disruptor in the Indian telecom scene, Jio.

As part of the deal, Facebook will get a board seat in JPL and an observer seat without voting powers. At a concall, a couple of hours after the news broke, Facebook India CEO Ajit Mohan said, “the very fact that we are announcing the deal during Covid-19 is a reflection of our commitment to invest in the country.’’

However, both sides made it clear that they will continue to compete in many areas where they have their own digital products. For instance, while Jio Pay is already operational, Facebook is awaiting permission for its digital payment platform. Also, Reliance has Jio Chat, which competes with WhatsApp directly.

“We will collaborate, not integrate. And in some areas, we will also compete as we have our own product lines. The deal is also not exclusive,” said Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy at Reliance Jio. He also pointed out that Jio or JPL could go public, but only in the medium term, in about three to four years.

Facebook draws user data to help scientists anticipate coronavirus spread

Information about people's identities would not be disclosed to researchers, the social network promised.

Facebook on Monday said it is providing anonymous data about users' movements and relationships to help researchers better anticipate where the coronavirus might spread.

The leading online social network is augmenting maps on "population movement" with tools to glean insights in ways that still protect people's privacy, according to a post by the Facebook head of health KX Jin and Laura McGorman of its Data for Good arm.

"Hospitals are working to get the right resources, and public health systems are looking to put the right guidelines in place," Jin and McGorman said.

"To do that, they need better information on whether preventive measures are working and how the virus may spread."

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: India cases at 4,778, death toll 136, says Worldometer

Google last week announced a similar move, saying it would provide a snapshot of users' location data around the world to help governments gauge the effectiveness of social distancing measures, implemented to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tools that Facebook is providing for researchers include "co-location maps" to show probabilities of people in one specific place coming into contact with those in another, perhaps signaling where new Covid-19 cases might appear.

Facebook-owned Oculus acquires maker of 'Beat Saber', plans expansion

In the virtual game, players use light sabers to slash oncoming, large cubes to the beat of music, sometimes twisting or ducking to avoid oncoming walls.

Business Standard : Facebook-owned Oculus on Tuesday said it is buying the studio behind hit virtual reality game "Beat Saber" as it looks to expand VR technology to wider audiences.

Oculus, which makes Rift and Quest VR headgear, did not disclose financial terms of the deal to acquire Prague-based Beat Games.

"Beat Games is joining us in our quest to bring VR to more people around the world," Oculus director of augmented and virtual reality content Mike Verdu said in a blog post.

"Beat Games' accomplishments are already impressive, but Facebook and the Beat Games team know that there is so much more that can be done across VR, games, and music."

Verdu assured players that the studio would continue to ship content and updates for "Beat Saber" on platforms where it is already available.

In the virtual game, players use light sabers to slash oncoming, large cubes to the beat of music, sometimes twisting or ducking to avoid oncoming walls.

"VR reimagines old genres and invents new ones," Verdu said.

Oculus is exploring ways, including acquisitions, to accelerate the adoption of virtual reality technology, which Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has heralded as the next major computing platform.

"With the resources and know-how that we can offer, Beat Games will be able to accelerate, adding more music and more exciting features to 'Beat Saber' as well as bringing the game to more people," Verdu said.

Facebook is planning a virtual social community where users of its Oculus headgear can "explore new places" via its Horizon virtual world, which is set for a beta launch in 2020.

Oculus users will be able to choose an avatar and interact with others in the virtual community, Facebook said earlier this year.

Horizon will replace earlier versions of the social VR community Facebook Spaces and Oculus Rooms.

Oculus remains a small part of Facebook, whose core social network and other platforms reach more than two billion people worldwide.

Google, Facebook business models threaten people's rights: Amnesty report

Internet giants use 'ubiquitous surveillance' to collect massive amounts of data, says London-based rights group.

The data-collection business model fuelling Facebook and Google represents a threat to human rights around the world, Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday.

The organization argued that offering people free online services and then using information about them to target money-making ads imperils a gamut of rights including freedom of opinion and expression.

"Despite the real value of the services they provide, Google and Facebook's platforms come at a systemic cost," Amnesty said in its report, "Surveillance Giants."

"The companies' surveillance-based business model forces people to make a Faustian bargain, whereby they are only able to enjoy their human rights online by submitting to a system predicated on human rights abuse."

With ubiquitous surveillance, the two online giants are able to collect massive amounts of data which may be used against their customers, according to the London-based human rights group.

The business model is "inherently incompatible with the right to privacy," Amnesty contended. The report maintained that the two Silicon Valley firms have established "near-total dominance over the primary channels through which people connect and engage with the online world," giving them unprecedented power over people's lives.

"Google and Facebook dominate our modern lives -- amassing unparalleled power over the digital world by harvesting and monetizing the personal data of billions of people," said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International's secretary general.

"Their insidious control of our digital lives undermines the very essence of privacy and is one of the defining human rights challenges of our era." The report called for governments to implement policies that ensure access to online services while protecting user privacy.

"Governments have an obligation to protect people from human rights abuses by corporations," Amnesty maintained.

Business Standard

Foreign hand: Govt sources say int'l lobbies may be behind WhatsApp spying

Govt sources said WhatsApp withheld information from the govt after the May revelations of a spyware targeting Indian users.

The government is exploring options to assess the extent of the impact caused by NSO Group’s spyware on Indian individuals even as home ministry sources said there are fears that international lobbies might have been involved in spying.

These lobbies, the ministry says, are trying to create a narrative around Indian governance as well as the economy.

“We have been investigating the spying allegations for some time and are trying to understand the extent of the damage done. We are also looking at lobby groups active in India to figure out if they were involved in this and why, and come out with a report soon on this issue,” said a senior official looking into the investigation.

WhatsApp said on October 29 it was filing a federal complaint in the US against Israeli technology firm NSO Group for a cyberattack that exploited a vulnerability in the chat app’s video-calling feature, which could compromise the target person’s device. According to reports, 121 Indians were also affected in the breach.

The breach was first reported in May this year but gathered steam in India after WhatsApp’s complaint and activists and journalists saying they received communication from Toronto-based Citizen Lab, which helped WhatsApp’s investigation of the breach.

Sources said some other investigative agencies including the National Investigation Agency (NIA) might be involved at a later stage. However, no such decision has been taken yet in this regard.

While NSO has maintained it sells only to governments, the India has so far not categorically accepted or denied buying NSO software by either the Centre, states, or government agencies. WhatsApp has said it will cooperate with the government to “do all we can to protect users from hackers attempting to weaken security”.

Business Standard

Facebook plans to hire team of editors to help curate your news stories

The Silicon Valley company said that journalists would help curate News Tab, a new section inside of the company's mobile application that will surface the most recent and relevant stories for readers.

Business Standard : Facebook has long relied on algorithms to select news stories for its users to see.

Now the social network wants to rely on something else for the same task, too: humans.

Specifically, Facebook plans to hire a team of editors to work on a news initiative called News Tab, which is its latest venture into the world of publishing.

The Silicon Valley company said that journalists would help curate News Tab, a new section inside of the company’s mobile application that will surface the most recent and relevant stories for readers. Facebook said it planned to hire seasoned journalists from various outlets for the roles and would put up job postings on its employment board on Tuesday.

News Tab is part of the company’s effort to highlight real-time journalism and news. It will exist outside of the News Feed, Facebook’s never-ending stream of status updates and friend requests.

“Our goal with the News Tab is to provide a personalized, highly relevant experience for people,” said Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of news partnerships. “To start, for the Top News section of the tab we’re pulling together a small team of journalists to ensure we’re highlighting the right stories.”

Facebook has been under pressure for spreading misinformation and disinformation to millions of its users. In 2016, Russian operatives manipulated Facebook and disseminated false news stories across its network to influence the outcome of the American presidential election. On Monday, Facebook also revealed that China was behind Facebook pages and groups that were sowing disinformation about the protests in Hong Kong.

Facebook is now working to restore its reputation as a place where people can find trusted sources of information. The company has scrambled to hire security researchers and third-party content reviewers to deal with the proliferation of bad content.

At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, has overhauled the News Feed to focus less on news publishers and marketers, and more on personal interactions between users. As a result, Facebook is looking for other places on its network to show news.

Facebook plans to create global financial system based on cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency, called Libra, will also have to overcome concern that Facebook does not effectively protect the private information of its users.

Business Standard : Facebook unveiled an ambitious plan on Tuesday to create an alternative financial system that relies on a cryptocurrency that the company has been secretly working on for more than a year.

The effort, announced with 27 partners as diverse as Mastercard and Uber, could face immediate skepticism from people who question the usefulness of cryptocurrencies and others who are wary of the power already accumulated by the social media company.

The cryptocurrency, called Libra, will also have to overcome concern that Facebook does not effectively protect the private information of its users — a fundamental task for a bank or anyone handling financial transactions.

But if the project, which Facebook hopes to begin next year with 100 partners, should come together, it would be the most far-reaching attempt by a mainstream company to jump into the world of cryptocurrencies, which is best known for speculative investments through digital tokens like Bitcoin and outside-the-law e-commerce, like buying drugs online.

The company has sky-high hopes that Libra could become the foundation for a new financial system not controlled by today’s power brokers on Wall Street or central banks. “It feels like it is time for a better system,” David Marcus, head of Facebook’s blockchain technology research, said in an interview. “This is something that could be a profound change for the entire world.”

Marcus and other Facebook executives conducted press interviews ahead of the unveiling of their project at the historic San Francisco Mint, a nearly 150-year-old building that once housed one-third of the US gold reserve.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has discussed his fascination with cryptocurrencies in recent years. And over the last few months, he has promised to offer users better privacy on company-owned services like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

But improving the privacy of users will make it harder for Facebook to show them ads tailored to their interests. A virtual financial network, if it should work, would be a way for the company to find new revenue if ad sales should drop.

The payment system would also help Facebook and other American companies compete for financial transactions in developing countries, where WeChat, developed by the Chinese company Tencent, already offers a highly profitable payments system built into its popular messaging product.

Why breaking up Facebook is not enough to heal the underlying rot

The overriding questions that nag at me: What problems are we trying to solve, and does a breakup really address them?

It's impossible to root for Facebook Inc. It's like rooting for the New England Patriots. (Sorry, Pats fans.) Besides partisans and kooks, who could side with an organization that is successful beyond belief, skirts the rules and is led by an all-powerful boss facing serious legal questions? And unlike the sports team, Facebook wields enormous influence over how the world thinks and interacts

I don't root for the Patriots, or Facebook. But I’m uneasy about the growing calls for Facebook to be split into pieces, including the op-ed Thursday from Chris Hughes, one of Facebook’s co-founders. The overriding questions that nag at me: What problems are we trying to solve, and does a breakup really address them?

I don't have the answers. But I worry that "break up Facebook" has become a catchall, soothing solution to the feeling that Facebook is bad and something should be done about it. A breakup may be the right approach. But I want advocates to start by uniting people around the root problems and working backward to possible fixes before we all back a Standard Oil-style dismantlement.

Here are three problems I have with Facebook, and how a breakup might affect them:

Facebook has huge treasure troves of personal information

Facebook has vast knowledge about how the world spends its time on and off its internet hangouts, and in the real world. It hasn't always been a reliable steward of that information, and Facebook hasn't adequately justified why it needs all of it in the first place.

Let's say Facebook is split into multiple companies – the core Facebook social network, Instagram and WhatsApp, as Hughes suggests. Does a core Facebook with perhaps 1 billion users have less ability to harvest information such as people's web-surfing habits and physical locations as they roam around with smartphones? No, it doesn't.

It's true that a stand-alone Facebook wouldn't know what people are doing on an independent Instagram and an independent WhatsApp, just as Facebook isn't harvesting specific information now from people’s use of YouTube and Snapchat. I don't know, however, that those limits would blunt Facebook's aggressive data-harvesting machine.

Business Standard

Facebook to block housing, job and bank ads that are age, gender specific

The changes to Facebook's advertising methods which generate most of the company's enormous profits are unprecedented.

Business Standard : Facebook will overhaul its ad-targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing , credit and employment ads as part of a legal settlement.

For the social network, that's one major legal problem down, several to go, including government investigations in the U.S. and Europe over its data and privacy practices.

The changes to Facebook's advertising methods which generate most of the company's enormous profits are unprecedented. The social network says it will no longer allow housing, employment or credit ads that target people by age, gender or zip code. Facebook will also limit other targeting options so these ads don't exclude people on the basis of race, ethnicity and other legally protected categories in the U.S., including national origin and sexual orientation.

The social media company is also paying about $5 million to cover plaintiffs' legal fees and other costs.

Facebook and the plaintiffs a group including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Fair Housing Alliance and others called the settlement "historic."

It took 18 months to hammer out. The company still faces an administrative complaint filed by US Department of Housing and Urban Development in August over the housing ads issue.

What's not yet clear is how well the safeguards will work. Facebook has been working to address a slew of social consequences related to its platform, with varying degrees of success. Last week, it scrambled to remove graphic video filmed by a gunman in the New Zealand mosque shootings, but the footage remained available for hours on its site and elsewhere on social media.

Earlier in March, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new "privacy-focused vision" for the company to focus on messaging instead of more public sharing but he stayed mum on overhauling Facebook's privacy practices in its core business. Galen Sherwin, senior staff attorney at the ACLU and the group's lead attorney on its suit, praised the settlement as "sweeping" and said she expects it to have ripple effects through the tech industry.

Facebook agreed to let the groups test its ad systems to ensure they don't enable discrimination. The company also agreed to meet with the groups every six months for the next three years, and is building a tool to let anyone search housing-related ads in the U.S. targeted to different areas across the country.

Three ways Facebook, other social media companies could clean up their acts

A more significant change social media companies could make would be to introduce democratic oversight of how they collect and use people's data.

Facebook is in crisis mode, but the company can take major steps to fix itself – and the global community it says it wants to promote. Facebook founder, CEO and majority shareholder Mark Zuckerberg need not wait for governments to impose regulations. If he and other industry leaders wanted to, they could make meaningful changes fairly quickly.

It wouldn’t be painless, but Facebook in particular is in a world of hurt already, facing criticism for contributing to civil unrest and sectarian turmoil around the world, delayed responses to disinformation campaigns, misleading users about data-handling policies, and efforts to discredit critics – not to mention a budding employee revolt.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media companies are causing society-wide damage. But they tend to describe the problems as much smaller, resulting from rogue individuals and groups hijacking their systems for nefarious purposes. Our research into how social media can be exploited by manipulative political operatives, conducted with Joan Donovan at the Data & Society research institute, suggests the real problem is much larger than these companies admit.

We believe the roots lie in their extremely profitable advertising systems, which need a major overhaul. We have identified some key changes that these giant powerhouses could make right away. These moves could reduce opportunities for political manipulation and limit the harm to democratic societies around the world.

Users’ minds in the crosshairs

Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media companies have built an enormous digital influence machine powered by user tracking, targeting, testing and automated decision-making to make advertising more effective and efficient. While building this supercharged surveillance system, companies have promised users and regulators that targeted advertising is mutually beneficial for both consumers and advertisers.

In this bargain, users are supposed to receive more relevant ads. Facebook, for instance, explains that its “interest-based advertising” serves users who “want to see ads that relate to things they care about.” It’s true that these methods can identify ads that connect with users’ actual interests. But the very same data-driven techniques that tell a surfer about a new board design can also identify strategic points where people are most vulnerable to influence.

In particular, the leading social media advertising systems let political operatives experiment with different ads to see which are the most effective. They can use these tools not only to see if certain issues resonate with particular targets but also test for fears or prejudices that can be invoked to influence political behavior... Read More

Business Standard

Facebook and California fire: Toxic smoke bleak backdrop for Silicon Valley

The toxic smoke is an apt metaphor for where Silicon Valley finds itself.

Business Standard : When I flew into San Francisco last Sunday, the haze shrouding the city was not the usual charming fog, and there was an acrid smell, like a barbecue on steroids. California was on fire.

In the past week, towns have been burned out of existence, people have fled the raging flames, and ashes have been falling from a tangerine sky.

The conflagration is airborne via the smoke, creating a “weather of catastrophe,” which is the phrase Joan Didion once used to describe the hot Santa Anas blowing into Los Angeles. “The wind shows us how close to the edge we are,” she wrote.

As 2018 comes to a close, that edge — a sense that the end times are near — has never been more obvious to those in California’s tech business. And while that feeling is nowhere near comparable to the suffering of those fleeing and battling the fires that are burning away the Western landscape, the toxic smoke is a bleak backdrop and an apt metaphor for where Silicon Valley now finds itself.

Much of the mess, of course, has been emanating from one company: Facebook. The realization of how much the social media giant has screwed up has dropped slowly, but now we know.

This week, a New York Times investigation into who knew what about the Russian manipulation of Facebook’s platform painted a devastating picture of a company if not out of control, then driving directly and with great alacrity into what were clearly avoidable walls.

In addition to showing how Facebook’s leaders failed to deal forthrightly with the situation, the piece has numerous examples of what I can only call dirty tricks to hurt rival companies and deflect public attention. And that is on Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief executive and chief operating officer, as well as a panoply of top executives.

One is Facebook’s man in Washington, Joel Kaplan, who could not seem to make any decision that was not a perplexing misjudgment. This was a practice he continued by sitting behind Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearings as his chief cheerleader. Conflict of interest much? Very much.

But the frightening news from Silicon Valley goes beyond one company. Tech leaders made screens so addictive that they won’t let their own children use them; they operate in a monoculture that reflects only itself and turns a blind eye to sexual harassment and diversity; and they accept dirty money from unsavory investors like the Saudis.

The overall sense of this year is that the brilliant digital minds who told us they were changing the world for the better might have miscalculated.

Dan Lyons, a longtime tech observer and author of the new book “Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us,” recently tweeted: “Nobody in Silicon Valley can solve homelessness or figure out how to hire with diversity, but 11 electric scooter companies have raised VC funding. Oh, and a company that uses robots to make pizza. You wonder why there’s a tech backlash.”... Read More

Why Zuckerberg's Facebook needs Instagram founders now more than ever

Kevin Systrom, a founder of Instagram, wasn't a 'team player.' That was exactly what the company needed.

Business Standard : This week, Facebook lost an executive who, in a better and different world, might one day have taken the helm of the social networking giant.

On Monday, Kevin Systrom, as well as his longtime partner, Mike Krieger, the founders of Instagram, quit Facebook. While seemingly out of the blue, it was a long time coming. The reason? Their unhappiness over increasingly aggressive meddling by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, about how Instagram was run.

ALSO READ: After Whatsapp, Instagram founders quit amid tensions with Zuckerberg

This might seem like business as usual in Silicon Valley. Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, when it was a wee thing, and helped it surpass a billion users. Fighting over control of tech companies is commonplace, and executive shuffles happen all the time. At Facebook alone in the last two years, the founders of WhatsApp, the messaging product, left amid disagreements over the placement of advertising. So too much of the team that founded the Oculus, Facebook’s virtual reality project, as well as a conga line of other founders of start-ups the social media giant has swallowed whole. They all essentially took the money and ran (usually to luxury yachts in Fiji).

But what happened with the Instagram guys is different. A pair of extraordinarily talented entrepreneurs — who multiple sources said very much wanted to stay at Facebook, who have a gift for making great products and whose jewel-in-the-crown unit was driving the future of the entire Facebook ecosystem — had worked hard to make their creation a huge success and had remained at the company for six years already. This is not typical in tech, which is a credit to Facebook.

But then they became so irked by their boss that they up and left without any warning.

“In a perfect world, they wanted to continue to build and were not bored at all,” said one person with knowledge of the situation. “But they were frustrated by an inability to take it to the next level.”

Frustrated indeed. Mr. Systrom returned on Monday from a parental leave and his first act was to quit. Think about that. While some inside Facebook are trying to spin the narrative that he’d spent his time away deep in contemplation and simply decided that six years was enough, that’s not the true motivation.

Instead, many sources say, a series of changes imposed from above made it clear to Mr.