Meta

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Op-Ed: Meta's Court Loss May Backfire in a Big Way

Techdirt essay argues that new legal strategy threatens future of the open internet

(Newser) - In an essay at Techdirt , Mike Masnick makes clear he thinks Meta "is a terrible company" that has prioritized profit over user safety. You might expect, then, that he would be cheering this week's landmark court verdict holding Mark Zuckerberg's company liable for "enabling child exploitation,...

UK Tests Social Media Curfews, Time Caps for Teens

Government will also test complete bans for a portion of 300 in pilot study

(Newser) - British teens are about to become test subjects in a government experiment on life with less scrolling. The UK's Department for Science, Innovation & Technology will run a six-week pilot study involving 300 teenagers, imposing different limits on social media use, after lawmakers rejected a nationwide under-16s ban, per CNBC...

Meta Cuts 700 More Jobs
Meta Cuts 700 More Jobs
Mar 25, 2026 4:20 PM CDT

Meta Cuts 700 More Jobs

Layoffs hit Reality Labs as Meta doubles down on AI investments

(Newser) - It's been a rough week for Meta in court, and a mixed one for its employees: The company has announced job cuts for some workers and massive potential executive payouts for others. The company shed about 700 roles, largely in its Reality Labs division, plus some recruiting, sales, and...

Meta, YouTube Found Negligent in 'Bellwether' Trial

Companies were determined to be negligent in the design or operation of their platforms

(Newser) - A jury found both Meta and YouTube liable in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that aimed to hold social media platforms responsible for harm to children using their services, awarding the plaintiff $3 million in damages. After more than 40 hours of deliberation across nine days, California jurors decided Meta and YouTube...

Meta Loses Landmark Trial in New Mexico

Jury finds Meta misled users, enabled child exploitation on platforms

(Newser) - Meta just took a major hit in New Mexico, where a jury has ordered the company to pay $375 million over claims it misled families about how safe its platforms are for kids. After a six-week trial, jurors found Meta violated the state's consumer protection law by presenting Facebook, Instagram,...

Maybe They Shouldn't Have Named Meta After Metaverse

Social media giant is quietly winding down its virtual reality world, pivoting to artificial intelligence instead

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg's once-grand virtual kingdom is looking more like a cul-de-sac these days. Five years after he rechristened Facebook as Meta and declared the "metaverse" as the company's future, Meta is sharply scaling back its virtual reality ambitions and shifting its weight to artificial intelligence. The New ...

Meta Just Bought a New Kind of Social Network

Moltbook was designed for AI 'agents'

(Newser) - Facebook and Instagram owner Meta just picked up another social network, one that was designed for bots. The company has acquired Moltbook, a two-month-old platform built by technologist Matt Schlicht that lets AI "agents" chat with one another, the New York Times reports. Terms weren't disclosed, but Schlicht...

Woman Sues Meta, YouTube: 'Too Hard to Be Without It'

Trial could set precedent on how far social media companies are shielded by law

(Newser) - A California jury on Thursday heard from the young woman at the center of a closely watched trial over whether social media is built to hook kids. Now 20, the plaintiff identified as Kaley G.M. testified that starting to use YouTube at 6 and Instagram at 9 fed years...

Instagram Will Alert Parents to Teens' Self-Harm Searches

Alerts will include guidance for parents on mental health conversations

(Newser) - Parents could soon get a digital heads-up if their teen is looking for the darkest corners of Instagram. Meta says that beginning next week, adults who've enabled Instagram's supervision tools will be notified when a teen repeatedly carries out searches for content or terms tied to suicide or...

US Child Abuse Investigators: Meta Drowning Us in 'Junk'

Officers testify that low-quality AI reports swamp their resources

(Newser) - Meta's AI tools may be catching more noise than danger, according to US child abuse investigators. Agents with the Justice Department–backed Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforce say Meta's automated tools are flooding them with "junk" reports about supposed child exploitation on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—...

ISIS Offshoot Wants Members to 'Responsibly' Tap Into AI

Afghan extremist group IS-K's magazine frames chatbots as secure propaganda tools

(Newser) - ISIS' Afghan offshoot is publishing something unexpected in its English-language magazine: AI user guides. Per Politico , recent issues of Voice of Khorasan, produced by Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), lay out how followers should use artificial intelligence "responsibly" as part of their activities. One edition opens with the slogan "...

AMD's Rivalry With Nvidia Just Took a Turn, Thanks to Meta

Social media giant secures AMD's custom MI450 chips to diversify its AI infrastructure

(Newser) - Meta just inked a chip-buying deal so big it could end up owning a chunk of its supplier. The social media giant agreed to purchase enough of Advanced Micro Devices' new MI450 AI chips to juice up data centers using up to 6 gigawatts of computing capacity over five years,...

Zuckerberg Team Angers Judge With AI Glasses

She threatens to hold them in contempt if the devices recorded anything

(Newser) - Meta's smart glasses got a courtroom reality check this week. A Los Angeles judge sharply warned members of Mark Zuckerberg's team on Wednesday after they showed up to a high-profile trial wearing the camera-equipped eyewear, reports CBS News . "The judge upbraided the Meta team and said if...

Zuckerberg Defends Meta in Landmark Trial

CEO denies pushing screen-time goals or targeting young children

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg spent hours on the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday insisting he never ordered Meta to keep users—especially kids—hooked on its apps, even as lawyers projected his own emails on a screen a few feet away. The Meta CEO was grilled in a landmark trial...

Spain Moves to Protect Kids From 'Digital Wild West'

Country goes after AI-generated child sexual-abuse content on social media, including X, Meta, TikTok

(Newser) - Spain just dialed up Europe's clash with Big Tech, asking prosecutors to probe X, Meta, and TikTok over suspected AI-generated child sexual-abuse imagery on their platforms. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accused the companies of harming children's "mental health, dignity, and rights" and said their "impunity" must...

DHS Pressures Platforms for Identities of Anti-ICE Users

Providers could resist the subpoenas, which have sparked lawsuits

(Newser) - The Department of Homeland Security is pressuring tech companies to disclose the identities behind social media accounts that criticize or track Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, say officials and tech employees familiar with the requests. Over the past several months, Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta have received hundreds of administrative...

Instagram Boss: You Can't Be Addicted to Social Media

Adam Mosseri describes 16 hours a day on the app as 'problematic use,' not addiction

(Newser) - Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta's Instagram, testified Wednesday during a landmark social media trial in Los Angeles that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms. The question of addiction is a key pillar of the case , where plaintiffs seek to...

TikTok Settles Ahead of Looming Youth Addiction Trial

Meta, YouTube are in the hot seat at trial amid accusations they deliberately harm kids

(Newser) - TikTok agreed to settle a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before the trial kicked off, the plaintiff's attorneys confirmed. The social video platform was one of three companies—along with Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube—facing claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. A...

Teens Can Say Goodbye to AI Characters on Meta

Instagram owner says access will be denied to minors until 'the updated experience is ready'

(Newser) - Meta is halting teens' access to artificial intelligence characters, at least temporarily, the company said in an updated blog post on Friday. Meta Platforms Inc., which own Instagram and WhatsApp, said that starting in the "coming weeks," teens will no longer be able to access AI characters, "...

Snap Avoids First Big Tech Addiction Trial

Company settles suit, leaving Meta, YouTube, TikTok to defend against alleged harms

(Newser) - Snap has avoided the witness stand in the first in a series of trials over alleged social media addiction. The company has struck a deal to resolve a high-stakes lawsuit that claimed its products were intentionally designed to keep teens endlessly engaged, days before the case moved to trial, per...

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