European Union regulators have opened investigations into the tech giants in the first application of the new Digital Markets Act. The tech lobby has criticized the move, saying it was "rushed." US tech giants Apple, Google and Meta were targeted by European Union regulators on Monday, as the bloc opened its first investigations into "non-compliance" with its new Digital Markets Act (DMA). The sweeping DMA legislation was passed into law earlier this month. The law aims to prevent big tech companies from cornering digital markets while creating a fairer digital space by curbing how the biggest companies act online, including ensuring they give users more choices. "We are not convinced that the solutions by [Google parent company] Alphabet, Apple and Meta respect their obligations for a fairer and more open digital space for European citizens and businesses," said the EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton. If found guilty of failing to comply with the new law, the EU Commission, the bloc's executive arm, can impose fines of up to 10% of a company's total global turnover, rising to 20% for repeat offenders. The DMA is an accompaniment to the EU's Digital Services Act groundbreaking legislation to put in force measures to moderate illegal content and prevent, for example, the promotion of hate speech on their online platforms. What have been the reactions?  The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a leading international tech lobby group, criticized the move, which it said sent a "worrying signal." "As we all know, data takes time to collect. What we see now, however, sends a worrying signal that the EU might rush into investigations without knowing what they're investigating," said the head of CCIA Europe, Daniel Friedlaender, as reported by AFP news agency.  Google said that it has already made "significant changes" to the way its services operate in Europe to comply with the DMA – including recent changes to its Google Maps service. "We will continue to defend our approach in the coming months," Google's director of competition, Oliver Bethell, said. Apple said it is confident that its move to allow iPhone users to switch web browsers more easily complies with the DMA, and that it will "continue to constructively engage with the European Commission as they conduct their investigations."  

A Kenyan judge has ruled that Meta is not in contempt of court for failing to pay dozens of Facebook content moderators, who had been laid off by a contractor. Facebook's parent company Meta is not in contempt of court for not paying dozens of content moderators who were laid off by the subcontractor, Sama. The ruling comes after scores of content moderators had been made redundant by Sama, a Facebook contractor, in March this year. A number of them subsequently filed a lawsuit suing Meta, Sama and other contractors for unfair dismissal. Negotiations for the parties involved to pursue an out-of-court settlement through mediation then collapsed in October after the moderators who had brought the lawsuit dismissed an offer saying it was too low.   'No deliberate contempt' In his decision, judge Mathews Nduma Nderi said on Thursday that the US tech giant had not "deliberately and contemptuously" breached a court order still requiring Meta to pay wages to the moderators. "They did various things which they thought were lawful in trying to deal with their situation, but we did not find that what they did amounted to contempt," Nderi said. The contempt of court application against Meta and its contractors was lodged after in an earlier ruling, a different judge had banned Meta from laying off the workers while a decision on their case was still pending. However, the content moderators said they hadn't been paid during this period as the court had ruled they should be, resulting in a contempt case being lodged.   Original lawsuit over unfair dismissal US-based sub-contractor Sama was first hired by Facebook to moderate its content in east and southern Africa in 2019. In March 2023, Sama decided to withdraw from the content moderation business for what it said were economic reasons, which resulted in mass terminations, mainly affecting its hub in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. However, the sacked content moderators believe they were fired because of attempts to unionize as well as due to complaints over working conditions and a lack of mental health support. They say they also were blocked from applying for jobs at a second subcontractor, Luxembourg-based Majorel, which later was awarded the African content moderation contract by Facebook after its withdrawal from Sama. Thursday's ruling meanwhile does not signal an end coming to the highly publicized lawsuit. The legal counsel representing the content moderators now has 45 days to amend its contempt of court petition.   Lawsuit ongoing The judge also highlighted that unless the matter was resolved out of court, the case would be given priority for the court to determine its merits. After Thursday's ruling, British tech rights group Foxglove, which is supporting the plaintiffs, said it was still eager to bring the ongoing case to trial. "We remain confident of our case overall, as we have prevailed on every substantive point so far," Foxglove director Martha Dark told the Reuters news agency, adding: "The most important ruling remains the one we won in June; Meta can no longer hide behind outsourcers to excuse the exploitation and abuse of its content moderators." In early June, Kenya's employment court had ruled that Meta was still the "principal" employer of the outsourced content moderators working in the Nairobi hub, and that therefore it could be held liable under Kenyan law, especially since their work tasks were carried out using Meta's own proprietary technology, while also adhering to the tech giant's performance and accuracy metrics.   Significant trauma As part of a broader interim decision, the court ruling in June also resulted in Meta being ordered to "provide proper medical, psychiatric and psychological care" to the moderators, as their jobs entailed screening content uploaded by users and removing any uploads deemed to be in breach of Facebook's community standards. This exposed them to disturbing images, including rape, murder, suicide and self-harm. the moderators said they were traumatized by viewing this endless streams of highly graphic content. "The reason we don't see videos of beheadings and sexual violence on Facebook is because there are content moderators on the front line, constantly consuming this content, reviewing it and taking it down before you and I have a chance to look at it," lawyer Mercy Mutemi, who represents 43 of the plaintiffs, said after Thursday's ruling. "Facebook and Sama lure young, promising yet vulnerable, and unsuspecting youth from Kenya and other African countries," she told DW. Earlier this month, DW spoke to a young woman from Ethiopia, who had worked as a content moderator for Facebook in Nairobi. Requested to remain anonymous, she said: "All you see is manslaughter, dismembered bodies or people being burnt alive, there's no warning. "And once you see it, you can't unsee it." More legal troubles for Meta in Kenya Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, meanwhile faces another two lawsuits in Kenya alone: Another former content moderator is suing Sama and Facebook in Kenya for a raft of alleged rights violations, including exploitation and union-busting. In the lawsuit lodged in 2022, Daniel Motaung claims he was paid as little as $2.20 (€2.04) an hour to view posts that included beheadings and child abuse, affecting his long-term mental health.  Furthermore, a local NGO lodged a $1.6 billion lawsuit alongside two Ethiopian citizens, accusing Meta of inflaming the civil war in Ethiopia due to its alleged failure to remove hate speech on Facebook. Despite mounting legal troubles, East Africa continues to witness growing interest from international tech firms, which often use third-party outsourcing companies. With its young and tech-savvy English speakers, stable internet connection and a similiar time zone to much of Europe, countries like Kenza and Ethiopia are becoming increasingly attractive for conglomerates like Meta and its subsidiaries. However, low pay rates and insecure employment contracts, coupled with this exposure to graphic content, raise questions about the exploitative conditions that content moderators often have to work under.

Meta on Thursday (Nov 30) warned that deceptive online campaigns based in China were taking aim at 2024 elections in the United States and elsewhere. The tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram said it has taken down five coordinated influence networks out of China this year. "Foreign threat actors are attempting to reach people across the Internet ahead of next year's elections, and we need to remain alert," Meta global threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo said during a briefing about its latest security report. Meta said that it removed 4,789 Facebook fake accounts that were part of one campaign posting about national politics and relations with China. The accounts in the network praised China; bashed its critics, and copy-pasted real online posts by US politicians with the potential to stoke partisan divisions, according to the threat report. "As election campaigns ramp up, we should expect foreign influence operations to try and leverage authentic parties and debate rather than creating original content themselves," Nimmo said. "We anticipate that if relations with China become an election topic in a particular country, we may see China-based influence operations pivot to target those debates." Meta tracked the source of the networks to China but did not attribute them to the government. The most prolific source of such networks continues to be Russia, with operations based in that country focusing primarily on undermining support for its war against Ukraine, according to Meta. Websites associated with Russia-based campaigns recently shifted to using the war between Hamas and Israel to tarnish the image of the United States, the security report indicated. Source: CNA

Meta revealed on Thursday that it had taken down numerous Facebook accounts from China, purportedly impersonating Americans and engaging in discussions on contentious issues such as abortion and healthcare, CNN reported. The tech giant issued a warning about “foreign threat actors attempting to reach audiences” in anticipation of the 2024 US election. The fabricated accounts replicated social media posts verbatim from both Republicans, including presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, and Democrats like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While Meta did not attribute the network to a specific entity in China, it does reflect a broader trend of increased Chinese propaganda targeting American audiences. This development comes amid growing concerns about potential foreign influence in the 2024 presidential election, according to CNN. Furthermore, the report noted that US national security officials suspended their efforts to flag foreign influence operations on social media platforms due to a legal challenge. Meta executives confirmed that government agencies hadn’t shared information related to foreign election interference since July, with the US Supreme Court set to address the case. Before the court case, “there are a number of times when a tip from government has enabled us to take action … quickly” against covert foreign influence operations, Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s head of security policy, told reporters. Importantly, Meta took down the Chinese network before it gained any engagement from real users on its apps. “This is the most notable change in the threat landscape compared with 2020,” Ben Nimmo, Meta’s global threat intelligence lead, told reporters on Wednesday, referring to an increase in Chinese online influence operations in the last year aimed at audience around the world. The company highlighted the evolving threat landscape, emphasising a significant change compared to 2020, with a notable increase in Chinese online influence operations on a global scale. While Russia’s interference in the 2016 US elections showcased the use of trolls and bots to amplify divisions, China traditionally avoided such direct tactics. However, recent incidents, including the use of AI-generated images and a substantial online disinformation operation, suggest a shift in China’s approach. According to a recent CNN review of court documents and public disclosures by social media companies, the Chinese government has amassed the world’s largest known online disinformation operation. This operation is reportedly employed to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses, occasionally resorting to threats of violence against its targets. Despite these findings, China consistently denies allegations that troll farms operate from its soil. Despite Meta’s efforts to protect elections, concerns persist about the company’s direction. This includes reported layoffs in the team countering misinformation and Meta’s decision to allow political ads questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election on its platforms.   Source: The Print

Twitter has said Meta's new Threads app uses stolen trade secrets and intellectual property. Threads has attracted tens of millions of users in just 24 hours. Twitter is threatening fellow social media giant Meta with legal action over its new rival text app Threads, according to US media reports. In a letter dated Wednesday and addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — a copy of which was obtained by US news outlet Semafor — Twitter legal representative Alex Spiro accused Meta of hiring Twitter employees to create a "copycat" text app, and of stealing Twitter trade secrets and intellectual property. Spiro said Twitter "intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights," adding that the letter was a "formal notice" to Meta to preserve all relevant documents in light of possible legal action. Meta spokesman Andy Stone responded to Spiro accusations, writing on the new app, "no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that's just not a thing." The Associated Press reported Thursday that it received a poop emoji when it reached out to Twitter for comment. The standard automated response for journalists is an expression of the company's attitude under the leadership of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. Musk versus Zuckerberg — battle of the billionaire techies Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion (€40.4 billion) in 2022, has not publicly commented on the situation. Nor has Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who simply tweeted, "We're often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated." Threads, which Meta launched Wednesday night, was created by its Instagram employees and has already picked up tens of millions of users in just 24 hours. Twitter has been struggling to hang on to its users since Musk took over the company. His erratic public behavior and statements have led some to seek an alternative. Not many are racing to sign up for former US President Donald Trump's Truth Social, so it could be an opportune moment for Zuckerberg and Meta — though the company formerly known as Facebook also has a track record of letting projects wither. None of the 100 countries in which Threads was launched were in the EU, due to the bloc's stricter data security laws. 

The social media giant is making another round of mass layoffs as it seeks to reduce costs. The company has sunk billions into its metaverse venture. Facebook parent Meta is cutting another 10,000 jobs, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in an email to employees on Tuesday. Another 5,000 open positions would also remain unfilled, the tech giant said. The mass axing of staff comes after a previous round of cuts that saw 11,000 jobs culled in November. Zuckerberg called 2023 a "year of efficiency," saying Meta was planning on reducing costs by about $5 billion (€4.67 billion), down to $89-$95 billion. What did Mark Zuckerberg say about the job cuts? "This will be tough, and there's no way around that," Zuckerberg said. "It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success." "As I've talked about efficiency this year, I've said that part of our work will involve removing jobs — and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long-term vision," he added. The job cuts will first target Meta's recruitment team, with further cuts hitting the company's tech groups in late April and its business groups in late May. Meta shares rose by 6% in early trading as news of the cuts was made public. Tech companies cutting back across the board The Meta company — which owns social media platforms Facebook and Instagram as well as messenger service WhatsApp — has invested billions in shifting its efforts toward developing an online platform that takes advantage of 3D technology. But the project has become an investment sink, with billions already having been lost on the venture. In February, Meta posted lower fourth-quarter profit and revenue, sparked by a downturn in the online advertising market and competition from rivals including TikTok. Meta is not the only major US tech company to be cutting back on jobs. Rival social media platform Twitter has also made considerable cutbacks following the takeover by billionaire Elon Musk. Online retail giant Amazon also put construction of its second headquarters in Virginia on hold last month after the biggest round of layoffs in the company's history. The vast job cuts in the tech industry come after many companies bloated their payrolls during the coronavirus pandemic to meet the sudden surge in demand for online services.