Facebook

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Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities. Since 2006, Facebook allows everyone to register from 13 years old (or older), except in the case of a handful of nations, where the age limit is 14 years.<ref>"How do I report a child under the age of 14 on Facebook in South Korea, Spain or Quebec, Canada?". Facebook. Archived from the original on October 13, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2023.</ref> As of December 2022^[update], Facebook claimed 3 billion monthly active users.<ref>"Meta Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results". Meta Investor Relations - Facebook. February 1, 2023. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.</ref> As of October 2023, Facebook ranked as the 3rd most visited website in the world, with 22.56% of its traffic coming from the United States.<ref>"Top Websites Ranking - Most Visited Websites in January 2023". similarweb. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2022.</ref><ref>"facebook.com". similarweb.com.</ref> It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.<ref>Miller, Chance (December 17, 2019). "These were the most-downloaded apps and games of the decade". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.</ref>

Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile revealing information about themselves. They can post text, photos and multimedia which are shared with any other users who have agreed to be their friend or, with different privacy settings, publicly. Users can also communicate directly with each other with Messenger, join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the activities of their Facebook friends and the pages they follow.

The subject of numerous controversies, Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance.<ref>Cadwalladr, Carole; Graham-Harrison, v (May 24, 2018). "Facebook accused of conducting mass surveillance through its apps". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2020.</ref> Facebook has also been subject to criticism over psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and various controversies over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech.<ref>Mahdawi, Arwa (December 21, 2018). "Is 2019 the year you should finally quit Facebook?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2019.</ref> Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content, as well as exaggerating its number of users to appeal to advertisers.<ref name=useradappeal>Claburn, Thomas (August 17, 2018). "Facebook flat-out 'lies' about how many people can see its ads – lawsuit". The Register. Archived from the original on September 7, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2020.</ref>

History

2003–2006: Thefacebook, Thiel investment, and name change

File:Thefacebook.png

Original layout and name of Thefacebook in 2004, showing Al Pacino's face superimposed with binary numbers as Facebook's original logo, designed by co-founder Andrew McCollum<ref>Shontell, Alyson (May 16, 2011). "This Person Was The First Face of Facebook". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2019.</ref>

Zuckerberg built a website called "Facemash" in 2003 while attending Harvard University. The site was comparable to Hot or Not and used "photos compiled from the online face books of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the "hotter" person".<ref name="Harvard Crimson on Facemash">Kaplan, Katharine A. (November 19, 2003). "Facemash Creator Survives Ad Board". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on May 4, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2017.</ref> Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours.<ref name="Fast Company on Zuckerberg">McGirt, Ellen (May 1, 2007). "Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: Hacker. Dropout. CEO". Fast Company. Mansueto Ventures. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2017.</ref> The site was sent to several campus group listservs, but was shut down a few days later by Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged with breaching security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.<ref name="Harvard Crimson on Facemash" /> Zuckerberg expanded on this project that semester by creating a social study tool. He uploaded art images, each accompanied by a comments section, to a website he shared with his classmates.<ref>Kincaid, Jason (October 24, 2009). "Startup School: An Interview With Mark Zuckerberg". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2017.</ref>

A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information.<ref name="Fast Company on Zuckerberg" /> In 2003, Harvard had only a paper version<ref>Phillips, Sarah (July 25, 2007). "A brief history of Facebook". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2017.</ref> along with private online directories.<ref name="Harvard Crimson on Facemash" /><ref name="Harvard Crimson on Facebook">Tabak, Alan T. (February 9, 2004). "Hundreds Register for New Facebook Website". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2017.</ref> Zuckerberg told The Harvard Crimson, "Everyone's been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard. ... I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week."<ref name="Harvard Crimson on Facebook" /> In January 2004, Zuckerberg coded a new website, known as "TheFacebook", inspired by a Crimson editorial about Facemash, stating, "It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available ... the benefits are many." Zuckerberg met with Harvard student Eduardo Saverin, and each of them agreed to invest $1,000 ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) in the site.<ref>Hoffman, Claire (September 15, 2010). "The Battle For Facebook". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2017.</ref> On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.<ref>Rothman, Lily (February 4, 2015). "Happy Birthday, Facebook". Time. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2017.</ref>

Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator of Facebook, in his Harvard dorm room, 2005

Six days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product.<ref>Carlson, Nicholas (March 5, 2010). "In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg Broke into A Facebook User's Private Email Account". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> The three complained to the Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later sued Zuckerberg, settling in 2008<ref name="nytb">Stone, Brad (June 28, 2008). "Judge Ends Facebook's Feud With ConnectU". The New York Times blog. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2008.</ref> for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million at Facebook's IPO, or $Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>).<ref>Rushe, Dominic (February 2, 2012). "Facebook IPO sees Winklevoss twins heading for $300m fortune". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref>

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Within a month, more than half the undergraduates had registered.<ref name="A brief history">Phillips, Sarah (July 25, 2007). "A brief history of Facebook". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the website.<ref>Weinberger, Matt (September 7, 2017). "33 photos of Facebook's rise from a Harvard dorm room to world domination". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2017.</ref> In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Columbia, Stanford and Yale.<ref>"Facebook: a timeline of the social network". The Daily Telegraph. February 1, 2012. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved December 13, 2017.</ref> It then became available to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, NYU, MIT, and successively most universities in the United States and Canada.<ref>Rosmarin, Rachel (September 11, 2006). "Open Facebook". Forbes. New York. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved June 13, 2008.</ref><ref>Nguyen, Lananh (April 12, 2004). "Online network created by Harvard students flourishes". The Tufts Daily. Medford, MA. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved November 30, 2018.</ref>

In mid-2004, Napster co-founder and entrepreneur Sean Parker—an informal advisor to Zuckerberg—became company president.<ref name="NYT_260505">Rosen, Ellen (May 26, 2005). "Student's Start-Up Draws Attention and $13 Million". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 29, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2009.</ref> In June 2004, the company moved to Palo Alto, California.<ref name="timeline">"Company Timeline" (Press release). Facebook. January 1, 2007. Archived from the original on January 6, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2008.</ref> Sean Parker called Reid Hoffman to fund Facebook. However, Reid Hoffman was too busy launching LinkedIn so he set Facebook up with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who gave Facebook its first investment later that month.<ref name="beware">"Why you should beware of Facebook". The Age. Melbourne. January 20, 2008. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2008.</ref><ref>Parker, Sean (April 16, 2015). "Reid Hoffman: The World's 100 Most Influential People". TIME.com. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved June 20, 2023.</ref> In 2005, the company dropped "the" from its name after purchasing the domain name Facebook.com for US$200,000 ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>).<ref>Williams, Christopher (October 1, 2007). "Facebook wins Manx battle for face-book.com". The Register. Situation Publishing. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> The domain had belonged to AboutFace Corporation.

In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) in Facebook, and Jim Breyer<ref>"Jim Breyer (via Accel Partners)". CNBC. May 22, 2012. Archived from the original on December 29, 2014.</ref> added $1 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) of his own money. A high-school version of the site launched in September 2005.<ref>Dempsey, Laura (August 3, 2006). "Facebook is the go-to Web site for students looking to hook up". Dayton Daily News. Ohio.</ref> Eligibility expanded to include employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.<ref>Lacy, Sarah (September 12, 2006). "Facebook: Opening the Doors Wider". BusinessWeek. New York. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2008.</ref>

2006–2012: Public access, Microsoft alliance, and rapid growth

In May 2006, Facebook hired its first intern, Julie Zhuo.<ref name="fortune.com">"Facebook's Julie Zhuo: She's not just pushing pixels". Fortune. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2019.</ref> After a month, Zhuo was hired as a full-time engineer.<ref name="fortune.com" /> On September 26, 2006, Facebook opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email address.<ref name="welcome">Abram, Carolyn (September 26, 2006). "Welcome to Facebook, everyone". The Facebook Blog. Archived from the original on January 11, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2008.</ref><ref name="tos">"Terms of Use". Facebook. November 15, 2007. Archived from the original on March 5, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2008.</ref><ref>"Facebook Expansion Enables More People to Connect with Friends in a Trusted Environment". Facebook Newsroom. September 26, 2006. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved February 4, 2016.</ref> By late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 pages on which companies promoted themselves.<ref>Richmond, Riva (November 27, 2007). "Enterprise: Facebook, a Marketer's Friend; Site Offers Platform To Tout Products, Interact With Users". The Wall Street Journal. New York. p. B4.</ref> Organization pages began rolling out in May 2009.<ref>Greenstein, Howard (May 27, 2009). "Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What's the Difference?". Mashable.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved August 4, 2014.</ref> On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>), giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>). Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international advertisements.<ref>"Microsoft gets a piece of Facebook". CNNMoney. CNN. October 24, 2007. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>Sherrets, Doug (October 24, 2007). "Microsoft invests $240M in Facebook, as Facebook develops ad product". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref>

In May 2007, at the first f8 developers conference, Facebook announced the launch of the Facebook Developer Platform, providing a framework for software developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features. By the second annual f8 developers conference on July 23, 2008, the number of applications on the platform had grown to 33,000, and the number of registered developers had exceeded 400,000.<ref>"Facebook Expands Power of Platform Across the Web and Around the World". About Facebook. July 24, 2008. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2020.</ref>

The website won awards such as placement into the "Top 100 Classic Websites" by PC Magazine in 2007,<ref>"Social Networking". PC Magazine. August 13, 2007. Archived from the original on December 11, 2018. Retrieved May 9, 2008.</ref> and winning the "People's Voice Award" from the Webby Awards in 2008.<ref name="webby">"12th Annual Webby Awards Nominees". International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on September 26, 2010. Retrieved May 6, 2008.</ref> In early 2008, Facebook became EBITDA profitable, but was not cash flow positive yet.<ref>Arrington, Michael (April 6, 2009). "Facebook Completes Rollout Of Haystack To Stem Losses From Massive Photo Uploads". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.</ref>

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced "Facebook Beta", a significant redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a cleaner look.<ref>Havenstein, Heather (July 21, 2008). "Facebook Facelift Targets Aging Users and New Competitors". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 7, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2017.</ref> Facebook began migrating users to the new version in September 2008.<ref>Slee, Mark (September 10, 2008). "Moving to the new Facebook". The Facebook Blog. Archived from the original on October 28, 2008. Retrieved September 12, 2008.</ref> In July 2008, Facebook sued StudiVZ, a German social network that was alleged to be visually and functionally similar to Facebook.<ref>Buley, Taylor. "Facebook's Russian Frenemy With Benefits". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.</ref><ref>"Why Facebook Suddenly Likes Russia". Yahoo! News. October 2012. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.</ref>

In October 2008, Facebook announced that its international headquarters would locate in Dublin, Ireland.<ref>"Facebook to Establish International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland" (Press release). Facebook. October 2, 2008. Archived from the original on January 9, 2019. Retrieved November 30, 2008.</ref> A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.<ref name="Kazeniac">Kazeniac, Andy (February 9, 2009). "Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over Top Spot, Twitter Climbs". Compete Pulse blog. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved February 17, 2009.</ref>^{[better source needed]} China blocked Facebook in 2009 following the Ürümqi riots.<ref>Wauters, Robin (July 7, 2009). "China Blocks Access To Twitter, Facebook After Riots". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2017.</ref>

In 2009, Yuri Milner's DST (which later split into DST Global and Mail.ru Group), alongside Uzbek Russian metals magnate Alisher Usmanov, invested $200 million in Facebook when it was valued at $10 billion.<ref name=":11">Garside, Juliette (September 5, 2013). "Russia's richest man cashes in on Facebook share recovery". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2023.</ref><ref>"Facebook bet pays off for Russia's Usmanov". Reuters. May 17, 2012. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2023.</ref><ref>Kincaid, Jason (May 24, 2010). "DST's Yuri Milner: Facebook Is Going To Be The Social Graph That Unifies All Civilization". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2023.</ref> A separate stake was also acquired by Usmanov's USM Holdings on another occasion.<ref name=":12">Kramer, Mark Scott and Andrew E. (September 5, 2013). "Russian Tech Giant Cashes In on Facebook's Recovery". DealBook. Archived from the original on March 7, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2023.</ref><ref name=":11" /> According to the New York Times in 2013, "Mr. Usmanov and other Russian investors at one point owned nearly 10 percent of Facebook, though precise details of their ownership stakes are difficult to assess."<ref name=":12" /> It was later revealed in 2017 by the Paradise Papers that lending by Russian state-backed VTB Bank and Gazprom's investment vehicle partially financed these 2009 investments, although Milner was reportedly unaware at the time.<ref>Swaine, Jon; Harding, Luke (November 5, 2017). "Russia funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Kushner investor". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on November 10, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2023.</ref><ref name=":13" />

In May 2009, Zuckerberg said of the $200 million Russian investment, "This investment is purely buffer for us. It is not something we needed to get to cash flow positive."<ref>Schonfeld, Erick (May 26, 2009). "Facebook Takes That $200 Million Investment From The Russians At A $10 Billion Valuation". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.</ref> In September 2009, Facebook became cash flow positive ahead of schedule<ref>"Facebook 'cash flow positive,' signs 300M users". CBC News. Toronto. September 16, 2009. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2010.</ref><ref name=":14" /> after closing a roughly $200 million gap in operating profitability.<ref name=":14">Siegler, M. G. (September 15, 2009). "Facebook Crosses 300 Million Users. Oh Yeah, And They Just Went Cash Flow Positive". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 4, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2017.</ref>

In 2010, Facebook won the Crunchie "Best Overall Startup Or Product" award<ref>Ha, Anthony (January 11, 2010). "Congratulations to Facebook, Bing, and the other Crunchies winners". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2017.</ref> for the third year in a row.<ref>Kincaid, Jason (January 8, 2010). "Congratulations Crunchies Winners! Facebook Takes Best Overall for the Hat Trick". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref>

The company announced 500 million users in July 2010.<ref name="500 million" /> Half of the site's membership used Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site from mobile devices. A company representative called the milestone a "quiet revolution".<ref name="Quiet revolution" /> In October 2010 groups were introduced.<ref>A Brief History of Facebook, Its Major Milestones Archived June 22, 2021, at the Wayback Machine by Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, July 7, 2020</ref> In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc. (an exchange for privately held companies' shares), Facebook's value was $41 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>). The company had slightly surpassed eBay to become the third largest American web company after Google and Amazon.com.<ref>Curtis, Sophie (February 3, 2014). "Facebook at 10: Zuckerberg hails 'incredible journey'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>Womack, Brian (November 15, 2010). "Facebook Becomes Third Biggest US Web Company". Jakarta Globe. BeritaSatu Media Holdings. Archived from the original on December 3, 2010. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref>

On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced it had acquired the domain name fb.com from the American Farm Bureau Federation for an undisclosed amount. On January 11, 2011, the Farm Bureau disclosed $8.5 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) in "domain sales income", making the acquisition of FB.com one of the ten highest domain sales in history.<ref>"FB.com acquired by Facebook". NameMon News. January 11, 2011. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011.</ref>

In February 2011, Facebook announced plans to move its headquarters to the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California.<ref name="parr_ben_facebooks_new_offices_feb_2011">Parr, Ben (February 8, 2011). "These Are Facebook's New Offices [PHOTOS]". Mashable. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2019.</ref><ref>Brundage, Sandy. "Facebook packs up for Menlo Park". www.almanacnews.com. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2019.</ref> In March 2011, it was reported that Facebook was removing about 20,000 profiles daily for violations such as spam, graphic content and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security.<ref>"Facebook deletes 20,000 underage profiles daily". IBN Live. Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Press Trust of India. March 24, 2011. Archived from the original on March 26, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.</ref> Statistics showed that Facebook reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website tracked by DoubleClick.<ref>Protalinski, Emil (August 24, 2011). "Facebook is first with 1 trillion page views, according to Google". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2017.</ref><ref>Solomon, Kate (August 25, 2011). "Facebook hit 1 trillion page views in June". TechRadar. Future plc. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2017.</ref> According to a Nielsen study, Facebook had in 2011 become the second-most accessed website in the U.S. behind Google.<ref>"Google and Facebook top 2011's most visited sites in US". BBC News. March 8, 2012. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2017.</ref><ref>Fleming, Ryan (December 29, 2011). "Google and Facebook top the most visited websites of 2011". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2017.</ref>

2012–2013: IPO, lawsuits, and one billion active users

In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, a store selling applications that operate via the website. The store was to be available on iPhones, Android devices, and for mobile web users.<ref>"Facebook app store launches amid mobile revenue worries". BBC News. May 10, 2012. Archived from the original on November 25, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2018.</ref>

Zuckerberg announced at the start of October 2012 that Facebook had one billion monthly active users,<ref name="One billion users" /> including 600 million mobile users, 219 billion photo uploads and 140 billion friend connections.<ref name="Billion statistics" />

On October 1, 2012, Zuckerberg visited Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow to stimulate social media innovation in Russia and to boost Facebook's position in the Russian market.<ref>Kramer, Andrew E. (October 1, 2012). "Zuckerberg Meets With Medvedev in a Crucial Market". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.</ref><ref>Elder, Miriam (October 1, 2012). "Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets excited Russian prime minister". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.</ref>

2013–2014: Site developments, A4AI, and 10th anniversary

On January 15, 2013, Facebook announced Facebook Graph Search, which provides users with a "precise answer", rather than a link to an answer by leveraging data present on its site.<ref>Tsukayama, Hayley (January 15, 2013). "Facebook introduces social search feature". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2017.</ref> Facebook emphasized that the feature would be "privacy-aware", returning results only from content already shared with the user.<ref>Claburn, Thomas (January 16, 2013). "Meet Facebook's Graph Search Tool" Archived January 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Information Week.</ref> On April 3, 2013, Facebook unveiled Facebook Home, a user-interface layer for Android devices offering greater integration with the site. HTC announced HTC First, a phone with Home pre-loaded.<ref>Seifert, Dan (April 4, 2013). "HTC and Facebook announce the First smartphone with AT&T, arriving April 12th for $99.99". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref>

On April 15, 2013, Facebook announced an alliance across 19 states with the National Association of Attorneys General, to provide teenagers and parents with information on tools to manage social networking profiles.<ref>Lunden, Ingrid (April 15, 2013). "Facebook Links Up With Attorneys General in 19 U.S. States For Teen Social Networking Safety Program". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> On April 19 Facebook modified its logo to remove the faint blue line at the bottom of the "F" icon. The letter F moved closer to the edge of the box.<ref>Murphy, Samantha (November 18, 2011). "New Facebook Logo Made Official". Mashable. Archived from the original on April 20, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2013.</ref>

Following a campaign by 100 advocacy groups, Facebook agreed to update its policy on hate speech. The campaign highlighted content promoting domestic violence and sexual violence against women and led 15 advertisers to withdraw, including Nissan UK, House of Burlesque, and Nationwide UK. The company initially stated, "while it may be vulgar and offensive, distasteful content on its own does not violate our policies".<ref>Nelson, Sara C. (May 28, 2013). "#FBrape: Will Facebook Heed Open Letter Protesting 'Endorsement Of Rape & Domestic Violence'?". HuffPost UK. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2013.</ref> It took action on May 29.<ref>Carroll, Rory (May 29, 2013). "Facebook gives way to campaign against hate speech on its pages". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref>

On June 12, Facebook announced that it was introducing clickable hashtags to help users follow trending discussions, or search what others are talking about on a topic.<ref>Dey, Aditya (June 13, 2013). "Facebook Introduces Hashtags to its Users". TechStake-Technology News Blog. Archived from the original on June 14, 2013. Retrieved June 13, 2013.</ref> San Mateo County, California, became the top wage-earning county in the country after the fourth quarter of 2012 because of Facebook. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average salary was 107% higher than the previous year, at $168,000 a year ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>), more than 50% higher than the next-highest county, New York County (better known as Manhattan), at roughly $110,000 a year ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>).<ref>Thurm, Scott (July 2, 2013). "How Facebook's IPO Created the Best-Paid County in America". Corporate Intelligence blog. The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on July 4, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2013.</ref>

Facebook joined Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) in October, as it launched. The A4AI is a coalition of public and private organizations that includes Google, Intel and Microsoft. Led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable to ease access in the developing world.<ref>Gibbs, Samuel (October 7, 2013). "Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Google lead coalition for cheaper internet". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 31, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref>

The company celebrated its 10th anniversary during the week of February 3, 2014.<ref name="2013 record quarterly results">Rushe, Dominic (January 29, 2014). "Facebook posts record quarterly results and reports $1.5bn profit for 2013". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> In January 2014, over one billion users connected via a mobile device.<ref>McDuling, John (April 23, 2014). "Facebook's mobile user base has crossed the 1 billion threshold – Quartz". Qz.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2014.</ref> As of June, mobile accounted for 62% of advertising revenue, an increase of 21% from the previous year.<ref>DVorkin, Lewis (July 29, 2014). "Inside Forbes: Mobile Part II, Or 4 More Charts That Offer a Peek Into the Future of Journalism". Forbes. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2014.</ref> By September Facebook's market capitalization had exceeded $200 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>).<ref>Luckerson, Victor (September 8, 2014). "Facebook Is Now Worth $200 Billion". Time. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>La Monica, Paul R. (September 9, 2014). "A lot to 'like': Facebook now worth $200 billion". CNNMoney. CNN. Archived from the original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>"Facebook Valuation Tops $200 Billion". Bloomberg L.P. September 8, 2014. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref>

Zuckerberg participated in a Q&A session at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, on October 23, where he attempted to converse in Mandarin. Zuckerberg hosted visiting Chinese politician Lu Wei, known as the "Internet czar" for his influence in China's online policy, on December 8.<ref>James Griffiths and Steven Jiang (March 26, 2019). "Former Chinese internet czar Lu Wei sentenced to 14 years in prison for bribery". CNN. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2021.</ref><ref>Macauley, Nikhil Sonnad, Richard (October 26, 2015). "Mark Zuckerberg's 20-minute speech in clumsy Mandarin is his latest attempt to woo China". Quartz. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)</ref><ref>Beijing, Agence France Presse in (October 23, 2014). "Mark Zuckerberg speaks Mandarin during Q&A session in China". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 20, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2021.</ref>

2015–2020: Algorithm revision; fake news

As of 2015^[update], Facebook's algorithm was revised in an attempt to filter out false or misleading content, such as fake news stories and hoaxes. It relied on users who flag a story accordingly. Facebook maintained that satirical content should not be intercepted.<ref>Oreskovic, Alexei (January 20, 2015). "Facebook clamps down on fake news stories". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 14, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.</ref> The algorithm was accused of maintaining a "filter bubble", where material the user disagrees with<ref>Bakshy, Eytan; Messing, Solomon; Adamic, Lada A. (June 5, 2015). "Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook". Science. 348 (6239): 1130–1132. Bibcode:2015Sci...348.1130B. doi:10.1126/science.aaa1160. PMID 25953820. S2CID 206632821.</ref> and posts with few likes would be deprioritized.<ref>"Facebook Is Hiding Your Friends' Updates From You | Unicorn Booty". Unicorn Booty. May 28, 2015. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved November 8, 2015.</ref> In November, Facebook extended paternity leave from 4 weeks to 4 months.<ref>gong (November 28, 2015). "페이스북, 전세계 '아빠 출산휴가' 4주→4개월로 확대". Archived from the original on March 20, 2017. Retrieved November 30, 2015.</ref>

On April 12, 2016, Zuckerberg outlined his 10-year vision, which rested on three main pillars: artificial intelligence, increased global connectivity, and virtual and augmented reality.<ref>"Zuckerberg unveils 10-year plan to expand Facebook empire, with political tones". USA Today. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved April 12, 2016.</ref> In July, a Template:USD suit was filed against the company alleging that it permitted Hamas to use it to perform assaults that cost the lives of four people.<ref>Ackerman, Gwen (July 11, 2016). "Facebook Sued for $1B for Alleged Use of Medium for Terror". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on August 19, 2016. Retrieved September 23, 2016.</ref> Facebook released its blueprints of Surround 360 camera on GitHub under an open-source license.<ref>Constine, Josh (July 26, 2016). "Facebook open sources Surround 360 camera with Ikea-style instructions". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> In September, it won an Emmy for its animated short "Henry".<ref>"Facebook wins first Emmy for Visual animated short "Henry"". September 20, 2016. Archived from the original on May 6, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2016.</ref> In October, Facebook announced a fee-based communications tool called Workplace that aims to "connect everyone" at work. Users can create profiles, see updates from co-workers on their news feed, stream live videos and participate in secure group chats.<ref>Hu, Howard (October 11, 2016). "Facebook's Workplace Could Replace All Emails Within Your Company". Forbes. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2016.</ref>

Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook announced that it would combat fake news by using fact checkers from sites like FactCheck.org and Associated Press (AP), making reporting hoaxes easier through crowdsourcing, and disrupting financial incentives for abusers.<ref>Alba, Davey. "Facebook's Cracking Down on Fake News Starting Today". WIRED. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2016.</ref>

Oculus VR headset<ref name="Kotaku FB">Plunkett, Luke (March 25, 2014). "Facebook Buys Oculus Rift For $2 Billion". *Kotaku.com*. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2014.</ref>

On January 17, 2017, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg planned to open Station F, a startup incubator campus in Paris, France.<ref>Shead, Sam (January 17, 2017). "Facebook is planning to open a startup incubator in Paris". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> On a six-month cycle, Facebook committed to work with ten to 15 data-driven startups there.<ref>Burgess, Matt (February 1, 2017). "More than 100 entrepreneurs sign up to help Facebook and Station F find the best startups". WIRED. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2017.</ref> On April 18, Facebook announced the beta launch of Facebook Spaces at its annual F8 developer conference.<ref>Statt, Nick (April 18, 2017). "Facebook's bold and bizarre VR hangout app is now available for the Oculus Rift". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2017.</ref> Facebook Spaces is a virtual reality version of Facebook for Oculus VR goggles. In a virtual and shared space, users can access a curated selection of 360-degree photos and videos using their avatar, with the support of the controller. Users can access their own photos and videos, along with media shared on their newsfeed.<ref>Roettgers, Janko (April 18, 2017). "A Closer Look at Facebook Spaces, the Company's First Social VR App". Variety. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2017.</ref> In September, Facebook announced it would spend up to US$1 billion on original shows for its Facebook Watch platform.<ref>Etherington, Darrell. "Facebook plans to spend up to $1B on original shows in 2018". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2018.</ref> On October 16, it acquired the anonymous compliment app tbh, announcing its intention to leave the app independent.<ref>Constine, Josh. "Facebook acquires anonymous teen compliment app tbh, will let it run". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2017.</ref><ref>"Facebook has bought tbh, the anonymous app loved by teens". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 22, 2018. Retrieved October 17, 2017.</ref><ref>"Facebook Buys TBH App Popular With Teens for Anonymous Messaging". Bloomberg. October 16, 2017. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2017.</ref><ref>"tbh has a new home!". tbh. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2017.</ref>

In October 2017, Facebook expanded its work with Definers Public Affairs, a PR firm that had originally been hired to monitor press coverage of the company to address concerns primarily regarding Russian meddling, then mishandling of user data by Cambridge Analytica, hate speech on Facebook, and calls for regulation.<ref name="nytimes.com">Frenkel, Sheera; Confessore, Nicholas; Kang, Cecilia; Rosenberg, Matthew; Nicas, Jack (November 14, 2018). "Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 14, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018.</ref> Company spokesman Tim Miller stated that a goal for tech firms should be to "have positive content pushed out about your company and negative content that's being pushed out about your competitor". Definers claimed that George Soros was the force behind what appeared to be a broad anti-Facebook movement, and created other negative media, along with America Rising, that was picked up by larger media organisations like Breitbart News.<ref name="nytimes.com" /><ref>Wong, Julia Carrie (November 15, 2018). "Facebook reportedly discredited critics by linking them to George Soros". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2018.</ref> Facebook cut ties with the agency in late 2018, following public outcry over their association.<ref>Isaac, Mike; Nicas, Jack (November 15, 2018). "Facebook Cuts Ties With Definers Public Affairs Following Outcry". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 15, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018.</ref> Posts originating from the Facebook page of Breitbart News, a media organization previously affiliated with Cambridge Analytica,<ref>Johnson, Eliana; Vogel, Kenneth P.; Dawsey, Josh (April 5, 2017). "Mega-donor urged Bannon not to resign". Politico. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved November 11, 2022.</ref> were among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.<ref>"Facebook offers a distorted view of American news". The Economist. September 10, 2020. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022. According to CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool that tracks how web content is shared on social media, the two most popular American media outlets on the site last month (..) were Fox News and Breitbart, two right-wing news sites.</ref><ref>Ellison, Sarah; Izadi, Elahe (October 26, 2021). "'Definitely not the results we want': Facebook staff lamented 'perverse incentives' for media". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2022. An August article from Breitbart, an early and loyal media ally of former president Donald Trump, touted three months of CrowdTangle data to boast that it was 'demolishing its establishment foes on Facebook.'</ref><ref>Alba, Davey (September 29, 2020). "The Facebook Pages With the Largest Share of Debate Conversation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 15, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022. At the top was Fox News (with a 25 percent share of the conversation), followed by Breitbart (15 percent of the conversation) and then the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro (12 percent share).</ref><ref>Darcy, Oliver (May 28, 2020). "Trump says right-wing voices are being censored. The data says something else". CNN. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022. The second top US political media page belonged to Breitbart, with 23% of total interactions.</ref>^{[excessive citations]}

In May 2018 at F8, the company announced it would offer its own dating service. Shares in competitor Match Group fell by 22%.<ref>"Facebook F8: Zuckerberg's dating service takes on Tinder". BBC News. May 2, 2018. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2018.</ref> Facebook Dating includes privacy features and friends are unable to view their friends' dating profile.<ref>"Facebook unveils plans for new dating service". CBC News. May 1, 2018. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2021.</ref> In July, Facebook was charged £500,000 by UK watchdogs for failing to respond to data erasure requests.<ref>"Facebook faces maximum fine for data misuse". BBC News. July 11, 2018. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2018.</ref> On July 18, Facebook established a subsidiary named Lianshu Science & Technology in Hangzhou City, China, with $30 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) of capital. All its shares are held by Facebook Hong.<ref>"Facebook sets up China subsidiary". Channel News Asia. July 24, 2018. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018.</ref> Approval of the registration of the subsidiary was then withdrawn, due to a disagreement between officials in Zhejiang province and the Cyberspace Administration of China.<ref>Mozur, Paul (July 25, 2018). "China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New Facebook Venture". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018.</ref> On July 26, Facebook became the first company to lose over $100 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) worth of market capitalization in one day, dropping from nearly $630 billion to $510 billion after disappointing sales reports.<ref>Imbert, Fred; Francolla, Gina (July 26, 2018). "Facebook's $100 billion-plus rout is the biggest loss in stock market history". CNBC. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2018.</ref><ref>Newton, Casey (July 26, 2018). "Facebook's stock market decline is the largest one-day drop in US history". The Verge. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2018.</ref> On July 31, Facebook said that the company had deleted 17 accounts related to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. On September 19, Facebook announced that, for news distribution outside the United States, it would work with U.S. funded democracy promotion organizations, International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, which are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic parties.<ref name="R91918">Menn, Joseph (September 19, 2018). "Facebook expands fake election news fight, but falsehoods still rampant". Reuters. Reuters. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2018.</ref> Through the Digital Forensic Research Lab Facebook partners with the Atlantic Council, a NATO-affiliated think tank.<ref name="R91918" /> In November, Facebook launched smart displays branded Portal and Portal Plus (Portal+). They support Amazon's Alexa (intelligent personal assistant service). The devices include video chat function with Facebook Messenger.<ref>"Facebook Portal brings Alexa and Messenger video chats to one device". CNET. October 8, 2018. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2018.</ref><ref>"You can buy Facebook's Portal smart displays starting today". CNET. November 7, 2018. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2018.</ref>

In August 2018, a lawsuit was filed in Oakland, California claiming that Facebook created fake accounts in order to inflate its user data and appeal to advertisers in the process.<ref name=useradappeal />

In January 2019, the 10-year challenge was started<ref>"Why everybody's doing the 10-year challenge (with the best so far)". January 15, 2019. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2019.</ref> asking users to post a photograph of themselves from 10 years ago (2009) and a more recent photo.<ref>"Facebook '10-year challenge' could be used for good and evil thanks to AI". Daily Mirror. January 16, 2019. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2019.</ref>

Criticized for its role in vaccine hesitancy, Facebook announced in March 2019 that it would provide users with "authoritative information" on the topic of vaccines.<ref>Graham, Jefferson (March 7, 2019). "Facebook announces anti-vaxx crackdown, will block ads with vaccine misinformation". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2019.</ref> A study published in the journal Vaccine of advertisements posted in the three months prior to that found that 54% of the anti-vaccine advertisements on Facebook were placed by just two organisations funded by well-known anti-vaccination activists.<ref>Jamison, Amelia M.; Broniatowski, David A.; Dredze, Mark; Wood-Doughty, Zach; Khan, Dureaden; Quinn, Sandra Crouse (2020). "Vaccine-related advertising in the Facebook Ad Archive". Vaccine. 38 (3): 512–520. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.10.066. PMC 6954281. PMID 31732327.</ref><ref>"Majority of anti-vaxx ads on Facebook are funded by just two organizations". The Guardian. November 14, 2019. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2019.</ref> The Children's Health Defense / World Mercury Project chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Stop Mandatory Vaccination, run by campaigner Larry Cook, posted 54% of the advertisements. The ads often linked to commercial products, such as natural remedies and books.

On March 14, the Huffington Post reported that Facebook's PR agency had paid someone to tweak Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's Wikipedia page, as well as adding a page for the global head of PR, Caryn Marooney.<ref>Feinberg, Askley (March 14, 2019). "Facebook, Axios And NBC Paid This Guy To Whitewash Wikipedia Pages". HuffPost. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved March 15, 2019.</ref>

In March 2019, the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand used Facebook to stream live footage of the attack as it unfolded. Facebook took 29 minutes to detect the livestreamed video, which was eight minutes longer than it took police to arrest the gunman. About 1.3m copies of the video were blocked from Facebook but 300,000 copies were published and shared. Facebook has promised changes to its platform; spokesman Simon Dilner told Radio New Zealand that it could have done a better job. Several companies, including the ANZ and ASB banks, have stopped advertising on Facebook after the company was widely condemned by the public.<ref>Anderson, Charles (March 24, 2019). "Censor bans 'manifesto' of Christchurch mosque shooter". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.</ref> Following the attack, Facebook began blocking white nationalist, white supremacist, and white separatist content, saying that they could not be meaningfully separated. Previously, Facebook had only blocked overtly supremacist content. The older policy had been condemned by civil rights groups, who described these movements as functionally indistinct.<ref name=romm>Romm, Tony; Dwoskin, Elizabeth (March 27, 2019). "Facebook says it will now block white-nationalist, white-separatist posts". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2019.</ref><ref>O'Sullivan, Donie (March 27, 2019). "Facebook bans white nationalism two weeks after New Zealand attack". CNN. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2019.</ref> Further bans were made in mid-April 2019, banning several British far-right organizations and associated individuals from Facebook, and also banning praise or support for them.<ref>"Facebook bans far right groups and leaders". BBC News. April 18, 2019. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2019.</ref><ref>Vincent, James (April 18, 2019). "Facebook bans UK's biggest far-right organizations, including EDL, BNP, and Britain First". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2019.</ref>

NTJ's member Moulavi Zahran Hashim, a radical Islamist imam believed to be the mastermind behind the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, preached on a pro-ISIL Facebook account, known as "Al-Ghuraba" media.<ref>"Sri Lanka bombings 'retaliation' for Christchurch mosque attacks, minister says". NZ Herald. April 23, 2019. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.</ref><ref>"Sri Lanka 'bombing mastermind' named as Moulvi Zahran Hashim". The Telegraph. April 23, 2019. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022.</ref>

On May 2, 2019, at F8, the company announced its new vision with the tagline "the future is private".<ref>Statt, Nick (April 30, 2019). "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the "future is private"". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2019.</ref> A redesign of the website and mobile app was introduced, dubbed as "FB5".<ref>"Facebook pivots to what it wishes it was". TechCrunch. May 2019. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2019.</ref> The event also featured plans for improving groups,<ref>"Analysis | The Technology 202: Facebook's new emphasis on groups could leave it more vulnerable to disinformation". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 3, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2019.</ref> a dating platform,<ref>Hunt, Elle (May 1, 2019). "Will Facebook's Secret Crush end the unbearable pain of unrequited love?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2019.</ref> end-to-end encryption on its platforms,<ref>Isaac, Mike (April 30, 2019). "Facebook Unveils Redesign as It Tries to Move Past Privacy Scandals". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2019.</ref> and allowing users on Messenger to communicate directly with WhatsApp and Instagram users.<ref>"All the important stuff from Facebook's F8 keynote". Engadget. April 30, 2019. Archived from the original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2019.</ref><ref>"Takeaways from F8 and Facebook's next phase". TechCrunch. May 2, 2019. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2019.</ref>

On July 31, 2019, Facebook announced a partnership with University of California, San Francisco to build a non-invasive, wearable device that lets people type by simply imagining themselves talking.<ref>"Facebook Reality Labs- UCSF working on tech that reads your mind". Preview Tech. August 17, 2019. Archived from the original on August 18, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2019.</ref>

On August 13, 2019, it was revealed that Facebook had enlisted hundreds of contractors to create and obtain transcripts of the audio messages of users.<ref name="latimesreveals">"Facebook paid hundreds of contractors to transcribe users' audio". Los Angeles Times. August 13, 2019. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2019.</ref><ref name="bloombergreveals">"Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe Users' Audio Chats". Bloomberg.com. August 13, 2019. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2020.</ref><ref name="cnbcreveals">Haselton, Todd (August 13, 2019). "Facebook hired people to transcribe voice calls made on Messenger". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2019.</ref> This was especially common of Facebook Messenger, where the contractors frequently listened to and transcribed voice messages of users.<ref name="cnbcreveals" /> After this was first reported on by Bloomberg News, Facebook released a statement confirming the report to be true,<ref name="bloombergreveals" /> but also stated that the monitoring program was now suspended.<ref name="bloombergreveals" />

On September 5, 2019, Facebook launched Facebook Dating in the United States. This new application allows users to integrate their Instagram posts in their dating profile.<ref>"Facebook Dating launches in the US, adds Instagram integration". TechCrunch. September 5, 2019. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2019.</ref>

Facebook News, which features selected stories from news organizations, was launched on October 25.<ref>Dwyer, Colin; Chappell, Bill (October 25, 2019). "Facebook News: App Will Offer Hand-Picked Stories From NPR, Other Outlets". NPR. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2019.</ref> Facebook's decision to include far-right website Breitbart News as a "trusted source" was negatively received.<ref>Robertson, Adi (October 25, 2019). "Mark Zuckerberg is struggling to explain why Breitbart belongs on Facebook News". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 26, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.</ref><ref>Ellefson, Lindsey; Burch, Sean (October 25, 2019). "Facebook News Criticized for Including Breitbart as 'Trusted' Source". TheWrap. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2019.</ref>

On November 17, 2019, the banking data for 29,000 Facebook employees was stolen from a payroll worker's car. The data was stored on unencrypted hard drives and included bank account numbers, employee names, the last four digits of their social security numbers, salaries, bonuses, and equity details. The company did not realize the hard drives were missing until November 20. Facebook confirmed that the drives contained employee information on November 29. Employees were not notified of the break-in until December 13, 2019.<ref>Lee, Dami (December 13, 2019). "A thief stole unencrypted hard drives filled with 29,000 Facebook employees' information". The Verge. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2019.</ref>

On March 10, 2020, Facebook appointed two new directors Tracey Travis and Nancy Killefer to their board of members.<ref>"Facebook Names Two New Directors, Making Board 40% Women". BloombergQuint. March 9, 2020. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2020.</ref>

In June 2020, several major companies including Adidas, Aviva, Coca-Cola, Ford, HP, InterContinental Hotels Group, Mars, Starbucks, Target, and Unilever, announced they would pause adverts on Facebook for July in support of the Stop Hate For Profit campaign which claimed the company was not doing enough to remove hateful content.<ref>Wakefield, Jane (June 30, 2020). "UK hotel and insurance giants pause Facebook ads". BBC News. Archived from the original on July 23, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.</ref> The BBC noted that this was unlikely to affect the company as most of Facebook's advertising revenue comes from small- to medium-sized businesses.<ref>Clayton, James (June 29, 2020). "Could a boycott kill Facebook?". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.</ref>

On August 14, 2020, Facebook started integrating the direct messaging service of Instagram with its own Messenger for both iOS and Android devices. After the update, an update screen is said to pop up on Instagram's mobile app with the following message, "There's a New Way to Message on Instagram" with a list of additional features. As part of the update, the regular DM icon on the top right corner of Instagram will be replaced by the Facebook Messenger logo.<ref>"Facebook begins merging Instagram and Messenger chats in new update". The Verge. August 14, 2020. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2020.</ref>

On September 15, 2020, Facebook launched a climate science information centre to promote authoritative voices on climate change and provide access of "factual and up-to-date" information on climate science. It featured facts, figures and data from organizations, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Met Office, UN Environment Programme (UNEP), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with relevant news posts.<ref>"Facebook launches climate information centre following California wildfires and misinformation criticisms". Sky News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.</ref>

After the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Facebook temporarily increased the weight of ecosystem quality in its news feed algorithm.<ref>Roose, Kevin (December 16, 2020). "Facebook reverses postelection algorithm changes that boosted news from authoritative sources". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2021.</ref>

2020–present: FTC lawsuit, corporate re-branding, shut down of facial recognition technology, ease of policy

Facebook was sued by the Federal Trade Commission as well as a coalition of several states for illegal monopolization and antitrust. The FTC and states sought the courts to force Facebook to sell its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram.<ref>"FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization". Federal Trade Commission. December 9, 2020. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.</ref><ref>Canon, Gabrielle (December 9, 2020). "Facebook's 'monopoly' must be split up, US and states say in major lawsuits". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.</ref> The suits were dismissed by a federal judge on June 28, 2021, who stated that there was not enough evidence brought in the suit to determine Facebook to be a monopoly at this point, though allowed the FTC to amend its case to include additional evidence.<ref>Kelly, Makena; Brandom, Russell (June 28, 2021). "Federal court dismisses FTC's bid to unwind Instagram from Facebook". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.</ref> In its amended filings in August 2021, the FTC asserted that Facebook had been a monopoly in the area of personal social networks since 2011, distinguishing Facebook's activities from social media services like TikTok that broadcast content without necessarily limiting that message to intended recipients.<ref>Brandom, Russell; Kelly, Makena (August 19, 2021). "FTC says Facebook has been a monopoly 'since at least 2011' in amended antitrust complaint". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.</ref>

In response to the proposed bill in the Australian Parliament for a News Media Bargaining Code, on February 17, 2021, Facebook blocked Australian users from sharing or viewing news content on its platform, as well as pages of some government, community, union, charity, political, and emergency services.<ref>"Facebook restores health, emergency pages". 7NEWS.com.au. February 17, 2021. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2021.</ref> The Australian government strongly criticised the move, saying it demonstrated the "immense market power of these digital social giants".<ref>"Facebook blocks Australian users from viewing or sharing news". BBC News. February 18, 2021. Archived from the original on March 23, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2021.</ref>

On February 22, Facebook said it reached an agreement with the Australian government that would see news returning to Australian users in the coming days. As part of this agreement, Facebook and Google can avoid the News Media Bargaining Code adopted on February 25 if they "reach a commercial bargain with a news business outside the Code".<ref>Template:Cite act Archived January 27, 2021, at the Wayback Machine</ref><ref>Choudhury, Saheli Roy (February 22, 2021). "Facebook to restore news pages for Australian users in coming days". CNBC. Archived from the original on March 21, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2021.</ref><ref>Van Boom, Daniel (February 22, 2021). "Facebook will reverse news block in Australia". CNET. Archived from the original on February 23, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.</ref>

Facebook has been accused of removing and shadow banning content that spoke either in favor of protesting Indian farmers or against Narendra Modi's government.<ref>"Protests About Indian Farming Reforms Have Reached Facebook's Headquarters". BuzzFeed News. December 17, 2020. Archived from the original on May 6, 2023.</ref><ref>"Online censorship claims shadow Indian farmer solidarity protests". Global News. December 19, 2020. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved April 5, 2021.</ref><ref>"Farmers' protest page was flagged as spam, clarifies Facebook a day after blocking account". Scroll.in. December 21, 2020. Archived from the original on December 21, 2020.</ref> India-based employees of Facebook are at risk of arrest.<ref>"India has reportedly threatened to jail Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp employees if the firms don't give up data regarding the farmers protests". Business Insider. March 5, 2021. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 5, 2021.</ref>

On February 27, 2021, Facebook announced Facebook BARS app for rappers.<ref>"Facebook Brings Another TikTok-Like App Specifically for Creating Raps". NDTV Gadgets 360. February 27, 2021. Archived from the original on July 26, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2021.</ref>

On June 29, 2021, Facebook announced Bulletin, a platform for independent writers.<ref>Brown, Campbell (June 29, 2021). "Introducing Bulletin, A Platform for Independent Writers". Facebook. Archived from the original on June 30, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2021.</ref><ref>"Facebook Bulletin". Bulletin. Archived from the original on June 29, 2021.</ref> Unlike competitors such as Substack, Facebook would not take a cut of subscription fees of writers using that platform upon its launch, like Malcolm Gladwell and Mitch Albom. According to The Washington Post technology writer Will Oremus, the move was criticized by those who viewed it as an tactic intended by Facebook to force those competitors out of business.<ref>Oremus, Will (July 6, 2021). "A classic Silicon Valley tactic – losing money to crush rivals – comes in for scrutiny". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 6, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2021.</ref>

In October 2021, owner Facebook, Inc. changed its company name to Meta Platforms, Inc., or simply "Meta", as it shifts its focus to building the "metaverse". This change does not affect the name of the Facebook social networking service itself, instead being similar to the creation of Alphabet as Google's parent company in 2015.<ref>Dwoskin, Elizabeth (October 28, 2021). "Facebook is changing its name to Meta as it focuses on the virtual world". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 28, 2021. Retrieved October 28, 2021.</ref>

In November 2021, Facebook stated it would stop targeting ads based on data related to health, race, ethnicity, political beliefs, religion and sexual orientation. The change will occur in January and will affect all apps owned by Meta Platforms.<ref>Brodkin, Jon (November 10, 2021). "Facebook to stop targeting ads based on race, sexual orientation, and politics". ArsTechnica. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2021.</ref>

In February 2022, Facebook's daily active users dropped for the first time in its 18-year history. According to Facebook's parent Meta, DAUs dropped to 1.929 billion in the three months ending in December, down from 1.930 billion the previous quarter. Furthermore, the company warned that revenue growth would slow due to competition from TikTok and YouTube, as well as advertisers cutting back on spending.<ref>"Facebook: Daily active users fall for first time in 18-year history". BBC News. February 3, 2022. p. 1. Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 3, 2022.</ref>

On March 10, 2022, Facebook announced that it will temporarily ease rules to allow violent speech against 'Russian invaders'.<ref>"Facebook eases rules to allow violent speech against 'Russian invaders'". France 24. March 11, 2022. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2022.</ref> Russia then banned all Meta services, including Instagram.<ref>"How War in Ukraine Roiled Facebook and Instagram". The New York Times. March 30, 2022. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022.</ref>

In September 2022, Jonathan Vanian, a Technology Reporter for CNBC, wrote a piece on CNBC.com about the recent struggles Facebook was experiencing, writing "Users are jumping ship and advertisers are reducing their spending, leaving Meta poised to report its second straight drop in quarterly revenue." He also cited poor leadership decisions devoting resources to the metaverse, writing "CEO Mark Zuckerberg spends much of his time proselytizing the metaverse, which may be the company's future but accounts for virtually none of its near-term revenue and is costing billions of dollars a year to build." He also detailed accounts from analysts predicting a "death spiral" for Facebook stock as users leave, ad impressions increase, and the company chases revenue.<ref>Vanian, Jonathan (September 30, 2022). "Facebook scrambles to escape stock's death spiral as users flee, sales drop". CNBC. Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2022.</ref>

October 4, 2021, global service outage

On October 4, 2021, Facebook had its worst outage since 2008. The outage was global in scope, and took down all Facebook properties, including Instagram and WhatsApp, from approximately 15:39 UTC to 22:05 UTC, and affected roughly three billion users.<ref>Subin, Samantha (October 4, 2021). "Facebook is suffering its worst outage since 2008". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref><ref>"Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram suffer worldwide outage". AP News. October 4, 2021. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref><ref>Patnaik, Subrat; Mathews, Eva (October 4, 2021). "Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp hit by global outage". Reuters. Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref> Security experts identified the problem as a BGP withdrawal of all of the IP routes to their Domain Name (DNS) servers which were all self-hosted at the time.<ref>Duffy, Clare; Lyngaas, Sean (October 4, 2021). "Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp go down". CNN Business. Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref><ref name=":7" /> The outage also affected all internal communications systems used by Facebook employees, which disrupted restoration efforts.<ref name=":7">Lawler, Richard (October 4, 2021). "Facebook is down, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus VR". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref>

The outage cut off Facebook's internal communications, preventing employees from sending or receiving external emails, accessing the corporate directory, and authenticating to some Google Docs and Zoom services.<ref name="verge">"Locked out and totally down: Facebook is scrambling to fix massive outage". The Verge. October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref><ref name=":72">Lawler, Richard (October 4, 2021). "Facebook is down, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus VR". The Verge. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref> The outage had a major impact on people in the developing world, who depend on Facebook's "Free Basics" program, affecting communication, business and humanitarian work.<ref>Schapiro, Avi Asher; Teixeira, Fabio (October 5, 2021). "Small businesses to aid: How Facebook outage upended lives". Thomson Reuters. Retrieved October 6, 2021.</ref><ref>Carpenter, Scott (October 4, 2021). "Zuckerberg Loses $6 Billion in Hours as Facebook Plunges". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 5, 2021.</ref><ref>"Facebook Outage Causes Share Drop, Zuckerberg Loses US$5.9B Net Worth – October 5, 2021". Daily News Brief. October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.</ref>

Facebook's chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, wrote an apology after the downtime had extended to several hours,<ref>"UPDATE: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Back Online After Hours-Long Global Outage - CBS San Francisco". www.cbsnews.com. October 4, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2023.</ref><ref>"Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Back Online". Voice of America. October 4, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2023.</ref> saying, "Teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible."<ref>"Facebook begins recovery after major outage took apps offline". The Japan Times. October 5, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2023.</ref>

Shutdown of facial recognition

On November 2, 2021, Facebook announced it would shut down its facial recognition technology and delete the data on over a billion users.<ref>Metz, Rachel. "Facebook is shutting down its facial recognition software". CNN. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.</ref> Meta later announced plans to implement the technology as well as other biometric systems in its future products, such as the metaverse.<ref name="BIFacialRecog">Hamilton, Isobel Asher (November 4, 2021). "Meta says it's getting rid of facial recognition on Facebook — but that won't apply to the metaverse". Business Insider. Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.</ref>

The shutdown of the technology will reportedly also stop Facebook's automated alt text system, used to transcribe media on the platform for visually impaired users.<ref name="BIFacialRecog" />

In February 2023, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would start selling blue "verified" badges on Instagram and Facebook.<ref>Dellatto, Marisa. "Meta Launching $12-Per-Month Verification Service—Following Twitter's Lead". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.</ref>

Website

File:Original-facebook.jpg

Profile shown on Thefacebook in 2005

Previous Facebook logo in use from August 23, 2005, until July 1, 2015

Technical aspects

The website's primary color is blue as Zuckerberg is red–green colorblind, a realization that occurred after a test undertaken around 2007.<ref>Smith, Zadie (November 25, 2010). "Generation Why?". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on October 23, 2015. Retrieved February 15, 2014.</ref><ref>Jose Antonio Vargas (September 20, 2010). "LETTER FROM PALO ALTO: THE FACE OF FACEBOOK". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on June 26, 2014. Retrieved February 15, 2014.</ref> Facebook is built in PHP, compiled with HipHop for PHP, a "source code transformer" built by Facebook engineers that turns PHP into C++.<ref>Zhao, Haiping (February 2, 2010). "Developer Blog – HipHop for PHP: Move Fast". Facebook Developers. Facebook. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2013.</ref> The deployment of HipHop reportedly reduced average CPU consumption on Facebook servers by 50%.<ref name="Ars Technica BTS">Paul, Ryan (April 5, 2012). "Exclusive: a behind-the-scenes look at Facebook release engineering". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on July 4, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref>

2012 architecture

Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an interview in 2012 with Facebook build engineer Chuck Rossi, Facebook compiles into a 1.5 GB binary blob which is then distributed to the servers using a custom BitTorrent-based release system. Rossi stated that it takes about 15 minutes to build and 15 minutes to release to the servers. The build and release process has zero downtime. Changes to Facebook are rolled out daily.<ref name="Ars Technica BTS" />

Facebook used a combination platform based on HBase to store data across distributed machines. Using a tailing architecture, events are stored in log files, and the logs are tailed. The system rolls these events up and writes them to storage. The user interface then pulls the data out and displays it to users. Facebook handles requests as AJAX behavior. These requests are written to a log file using Scribe (developed by Facebook).<ref name="high scalability">"Facebook's New Real-time Analytics System: HBase To Process 20 Billion Events Per Day". Highscalability.com. March 22, 2011. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2012.</ref>

Data is read from these log files using Ptail, an internally built tool to aggregate data from multiple Scribe stores. It tails the log files and pulls data out. Ptail data are separated into three streams and sent to clusters in different data centers (Plugin impression, News feed impressions, Actions (plugin + news feed)). Puma is used to manage periods of high data flow (Input/Output or IO). Data is processed in batches to lessen the number of times needed to read and write under high demand periods. (A hot article generates many impressions and news feed impressions that cause huge data skews.) Batches are taken every 1.5 seconds, limited by memory used when creating a hash table.<ref name="high scalability" />

Data is then output in PHP format. The backend is written in Java. Thrift is used as the messaging format so PHP programs can query Java services. Caching solutions display pages more quickly. The data is then sent to MapReduce servers where it is queried via Hive. This serves as a backup as the data can be recovered from Hive.<ref name="high scalability" />

Content delivery network (CDN)

Facebook uses its own content delivery network or "edge network" under the domain fbcdn.net for serving static data.<ref>"The Evolution of Advanced Caching in the Facebook CDN". April 7, 2016. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2020.</ref><ref>Dwarakanath, Navya (August 12, 2019), What I Learned About How Facebook Infrastructure Serves Our Photos</ref> Until the mid-2010s, Facebook also relied on Akamai for CDN services.<ref>"An Analysis of Facebook Photo Caching – Meta Research". Meta Research. Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021.</ref><ref>"Does Facebook use any other CDN apart from Akamai? Encountered fbcdn.net subdomain that does not belong to Akamai". Web Applications Stack Exchange. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved May 20, 2020.</ref><ref>Farahbakhsh, Reza; Cuevas, Angel; Ortiz, Antonio M.; Han, Xiao; Crespi, Noel (2015). "How far is Facebook from me? Facebook network infrastructure analysis". IEEE Communications Magazine. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 53 (9): 134–142. arXiv:1705.00717. doi:10.1109/mcom.2015.7263357. ISSN 0163-6804. S2CID 7987529.</ref>

Hack programming language

On March 20, 2014, Facebook announced a new open-source programming language called Hack. Before public release, a large portion of Facebook was already running and "battle tested" using the new language.<ref>Metz, Cade (March 20, 2014). "Facebook Introduces 'Hack', the Programming Language of the Future". Wired. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2017.</ref>

User profile/personal timeline

Each registered user on Facebook has a personal profile that shows their posts and content.<ref>Knibbs, Kate (December 11, 2015). "How Facebook's design has changed over the last 10 years". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref> The format of individual user pages was revamped in September 2011 and became known as "Timeline", a chronological feed of a user's stories,<ref>Schulman, Jacob (September 22, 2011). "Facebook introduces Timeline: 'a new way to express who you are'". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref><ref>Gayomali, Chris (September 22, 2011). "Facebook Introduces 'Timeline': The 'Story' of Your Life". Time. Archived from the original on August 17, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref> including status updates, photos, interactions with apps and events.<ref name="TNW Timeline">Panzarino, Matthew (September 22, 2011). "Facebook introduces radical new profile design called Timeline: The story of your life [Video]". The Next Web. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref> The layout let users add a "cover photo".<ref name="TNW Timeline" /> Users were given more privacy settings.<ref name="TNW Timeline" /> In 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Pages for brands and celebrities to interact with their fanbases.<ref>Weaver, Jason (March 30, 2012). "The Evolution of Facebook for Brands". Mashable. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref><ref>"Before Graph Search: Facebook's Biggest Changes". PC Magazine. Ziff Davis. January 15, 2013. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref> 100,000 Pages^{[further explanation needed]} launched in November.<ref>Hof, Rob (November 6, 2007). "Facebook Declares New Era for Advertising". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref> In June 2009, Facebook introduced a "Usernames" feature, allowing users to choose a unique nickname used in the URL for their personal profile, for easier sharing.<ref>Parr, Ben (June 9, 2009). "Facebook to Launch Vanity URLs for All". Mashable. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref><ref>O'Neill, Nick (June 9, 2009). "Facebook Begins Rolling Out Free Profile Usernames For Vanity URLs". Adweek. Beringer Capital. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref>

In February 2014, Facebook expanded the gender setting, adding a custom input field that allows users to choose from a wide range of gender identities. Users can also set which set of gender-specific pronoun should be used in reference to them throughout the site.<ref>Crook, Jordan; Constine, Josh (February 13, 2014). "Facebook Opens Up LGBTQ-Friendly Gender Identity And Pronoun Options". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref><ref>"Facebook expands gender options: transgender activists hail 'big advance'". The Guardian. February 14, 2014. Archived from the original on February 13, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref><ref>Oreskovic, Alexei (February 13, 2014). "In new profile feature, Facebook offers choices for gender identity". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref> In May 2014, Facebook introduced a feature to allow users to ask for information not disclosed by other users on their profiles. If a user does not provide key information, such as location, hometown, or relationship status, other users can use a new "ask" button to send a message asking about that item to the user in a single click.<ref>Machkovech, Sam (May 16, 2014). "Facebook adds naggy "ask" button to profile pages". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref><ref>Stampler, Laura (May 19, 2014). "Facebook's New 'Ask' Button Gives You a Whole New Way to Badger Friends About Their Relationship Status". Time. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2017.</ref>

News Feed

News Feed appears on every user's homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events and friends' birthdays.<ref>Sanghvi, Ruchi (September 6, 2006). "Facebook Gets a Facelift". The Facebook Blog. Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2008.</ref> This enabled spammers and other users to manipulate these features by creating illegitimate events or posting fake birthdays to attract attention to their profile or cause.<ref>"Facebook: Celebrate Your Birthday Every Day". Colnect blog. Archived from the original on July 23, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2010.</ref> Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, others were concerned that it made it too easy for others to track individual activities (such as relationship status changes, events, and conversations with other users).<ref>Lacy, Sarah (September 8, 2006). "Facebook Learns from Its Fumble". BusinessWeek. New York. Archived from the original on November 6, 2006. Retrieved June 28, 2008.</ref> Zuckerberg apologized for the site's failure to include appropriate privacy features. Users then gained control over what types of information are shared automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent user-set categories of friends from seeing updates about certain types of activities, including profile changes, Wall posts and newly added friends.<ref>Gonsalves, Antone (September 8, 2006). "Facebook Founder Apologizes in Privacy Flap; Users Given More Control". InformationWeek. New York. Archived from the original on March 2, 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2008.</ref>

On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a patent<ref>US patent 7669123 </ref> on certain aspects of its News Feed. The patent covers News Feeds in which links are provided so that one user can participate in the activity of another user.<ref>"US Patent No. 7669123". Social Media. March 1, 2010. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2010.</ref> The sorting and display of stories in a user's News Feed is governed by the EdgeRank algorithm.<ref>"EdgeRank". EdgeRank. October 29, 2007. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2013.</ref>

The Photos application allows users to upload albums and photos.<ref>Arrington, Michael (May 24, 2007). "Facebook Launches Facebook Platform; They are the Anti-MySpace". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref> Each album can contain 200 photos.<ref>"Share More Memories with Larger Photo Albums". Archived from the original on May 10, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2010.</ref> Privacy settings apply to individual albums. Users can "tag", or label, friends in a photo. The friend receives a notification about the tag with a link to the photo.<ref>"Photos". Facebook. Archived from the original on July 31, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2008.</ref> This photo tagging feature was developed by Aaron Sittig, now a Design Strategy Lead at Facebook, and former Facebook engineer Scott Marlette back in 2006 and was only granted a patent in 2011.<ref>Shontell, Alyson (May 13, 2011). "The First 20 Facebook Employees: Where Are They Now?". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2019.</ref><ref>Cutler, Kim-Mai (May 17, 2011). "Facebook Wins Patents For Tagging in Photos, Other Digital Media". Adweek. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2019.</ref>

On June 7, 2012, Facebook launched its App Center to help users find games and other applications.<ref>"Facebook to launch App Center". The Times Of India. June 8, 2012. Archived from the original on June 8, 2012.</ref>

On May 13, 2015, Facebook in association with major news portals launched "Instant Articles" to provide news on the Facebook news feed without leaving the site.<ref>"Introducing Instant Articles – Facebook Media". fb.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2015. Retrieved May 15, 2015.</ref><ref>"Facebook launches "Instant Articles"". Preview Tech. May 14, 2015. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved May 15, 2015.</ref>

In January 2017, Facebook launched Facebook Stories for iOS and Android in Ireland. The feature, following the format of Snapchat and Instagram stories, allows users to upload photos and videos that appear above friends' and followers' News Feeds and disappear after 24 hours.<ref>Constine, Josh (January 25, 2017). "Facebook Stories puts a Snapchat clone above the News Feed". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref>

On October 11, 2017, Facebook introduced the 3D Posts feature to allow for uploading interactive 3D assets.<ref>Franklin, Rachel (October 11, 2017). "Building Connections Through Creativity and Opening VR to Everyone". Oculus. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved February 28, 2018.</ref> On January 11, 2018, Facebook announced that it would change News Feed to prioritize friends/family content and de-emphasize content from media companies.<ref>Isaac, Mike (2018). "Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 12, 2018. Retrieved January 17, 2018.</ref>

In February 2020, Facebook announced it would spend $1 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) to license news material from publishers for the next three years; a pledge coming as the company falls under scrutiny from governments across the globe over not paying for news content appearing on the platform. The pledge would be in addition to the $600 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) paid since 2018 through deals with news companies such as The Guardian and Financial Times.<ref>Ziobro, Paul (February 24, 2021). "Facebook to Spend $1 Billion on News Content Over Three Years". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.</ref><ref>"UPDATE 1-Facebook says it inadvertently blocked content during Australia news ban". finance.yahoo.com. February 24, 2021. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.</ref><ref>Barker, Alex. "Facebook pledges to pay $1bn for news". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.</ref>

In March and April 2021, in response to Apple announcing changes to its iOS device's Identifier for Advertisers policy, which included requiring app developers to directly request to users the ability to track on an opt-in basis, Facebook purchased full-page newspaper advertisements attempting to convince users to allow tracking, highlighting the effects targeted ads have on small businesses.<ref>"Facebook Takes Out Full-Page Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's iOS Privacy Changes". MacRumors. December 16, 2020. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.</ref> Facebook's efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, as Apple released iOS 14.5 in late April 2021, containing the feature for users in what has been deemed "App Tracking Transparency". Moreover, statistics from Verizon Communications subsidiary Flurry Analytics show 96% of all iOS users in the United States are not permitting tracking at all, and only 12% of worldwide iOS users are allowing tracking, which some news outlets deem "Facebook's nightmare", among similar terms.<ref>Datti, Sharmishte (May 12, 2021). "Apple's App Tracking Transparency Becomes Facebook's Nightmare: Only 4% Allow Tracking". gizbot.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.</ref><ref>"Apple Might Have Just Put and End to Facebook". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.</ref><ref>"Apple vs Facebook: 96 Percent Users Disabling App Tracking So Far, Claims Report". www.news18.com. May 9, 2021. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.</ref><ref>Heisler, Yoni (May 11, 2021). "New data shows how devastating Apple's new anti-tracking feature is for Facebook". BGR. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.</ref> Despite the news, Facebook has stated that the new policy and software update would be "manageable".<ref>"Facebook Says Impact of iOS 14.5's App Tracking Transparency Will Be 'Manageable'". MacRumors. April 28, 2021. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.</ref>

Like button

The "like" button, stylized as a "thumbs up" icon, was first enabled on February 9, 2009,<ref>Kincaid, Jason (February 9, 2009). "Facebook Activates "Like" Button; FriendFeed Tires Of Sincere Flattery". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref> and enables users to easily interact with status updates, comments, photos and videos, links shared by friends, and advertisements. Once clicked by a user, the designated content is more likely to appear in friends' News Feeds.<ref>Mangalindan, JP (April 21, 2015). "Facebook Likes don't go as far as they used to in News Feed update". Mashable. Archived from the original on October 19, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>Constine, Josh (September 6, 2016). "How Facebook News Feed Works". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref> The button displays the number of other users who have liked the content.<ref>"Like and React to Posts". Facebook Help Center. Facebook. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref> The like button was extended to comments in June 2010.<ref>Albanesius, Chloe (June 17, 2010). "Facebook Adds Ability to 'Like' Comments". PC Magazine. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on January 26, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref> In February 2016, Facebook expanded Like into "Reactions", choosing among five pre-defined emotions, including "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", or "Angry".<ref name="verge-reactions">Newton, Casey (February 24, 2016). "Facebook rolls out expanded Like button reactions around the world". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>Stinson, Liz (February 24, 2016). "Facebook Reactions, the Totally Redesigned Like Button, Is Here". Wired. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>Garun, Natt (May 3, 2017). "Facebook reactions have now infiltrated comments". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref><ref>Cohen, David (May 3, 2017). "Facebook Just Extended Reactions to Comments". Adweek. Beringer Capital. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref> In late April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new "Care" reaction was added.<ref name="Verge: Care button">Lyles, Taylor (April 17, 2020). "Facebook adds a 'care' reaction to the like button 5". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 23, 2022. Retrieved May 2, 2020.</ref>

Instant messaging

Facebook Messenger is an instant messaging service and software application. It began as Facebook Chat in 2008,<ref>Hendrickson, Mark (April 6, 2008). "Facebook Chat Launches, For Some". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> was revamped in 2010<ref>Siegler, MG (November 15, 2010). "Facebook's Modern Messaging System: Seamless, History, And A Social Inbox". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on October 19, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> and eventually became a standalone mobile app in August 2011, while remaining part of the user page on browsers.<ref>Kincaid, Jason (August 9, 2011). "Facebook Launches Standalone iPhone/Android Messenger App (And It's Beluga)". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref>

Complementing regular conversations, Messenger lets users make one-to-one<ref>King, Hope (April 27, 2015). "Facebook Messenger now lets you make video calls". CNN. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> and group<ref>Statt, Nick (December 19, 2016). "Facebook Messenger now lets you video chat with up to 50 people". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> voice<ref>Hamburger, Ellis (January 16, 2013). "Facebook launches free calling for all iPhone users in the US". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> and video calls.<ref>Constine, Josh (April 27, 2015). "Facebook Messenger Launches Free VOIP Video Calls Over Cellular And Wi-Fi". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> Its Android app has integrated support for SMS<ref>Arthur, Charles (December 4, 2012). "Facebook turns Messenger into a text message killer". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> and "Chat Heads", which are round profile photo icons appearing on-screen regardless of what app is open,<ref>"Chat Heads come to Facebook Messenger for Android". The Verge. Vox Media. April 12, 2013. Archived from the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> while both apps support multiple accounts,<ref>Perez, Sarah (February 11, 2016). "Facebook Tests SMS Integration in Messenger, Launches Support For Multiple Accounts". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> conversations with optional end-to-end encryption<ref>Greenberg, Andy (October 4, 2016). "You Can All Finally Encrypt Facebook Messenger, So Do It". Wired. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> and "Instant Games".<ref>Constine, Josh (November 29, 2016). "Facebook Messenger launches Instant Games". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> Some features, including sending money<ref name="US-feature">Constine, Josh (March 17, 2015). "Facebook Introduces Free Friend-To-Friend Payments Through Messages". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> and requesting transportation,<ref>Hawkins, Andrew J. (December 16, 2015). "Facebook Messenger now lets you hail an Uber car". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> are limited to the United States.<ref name="US-feature" /> In 2017, Facebook added "Messenger Day", a feature that lets users share photos and videos in a story-format with all their friends with the content disappearing after 24 hours;<ref>Vincent, James (March 9, 2017). "Facebook's Snapchat stories clone, Messenger Day, is now rolling out globally". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> Reactions, which lets users tap and hold a message to add a reaction through an emoji;<ref name="verge-mentions">Vincent, James (March 23, 2017). "Facebook Messenger gets reactions for individual messages and @ notifications". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> and Mentions, which lets users in group conversations type @ to give a particular user a notification.<ref name="verge-mentions" />

In April 2020, Facebook began rolling out a new feature called Messenger Rooms, a video chat feature that allows users to chat with up to 50 people at a time.<ref name=":02">O'Flaherty, Kate. "Facebook Users Beware: Here's Why Messenger Rooms Is Not Actually That Private". Forbes. Retrieved May 14, 2020.</ref> In July 2020, Facebook added a new feature in Messenger that lets iOS users to use Face ID or Touch ID to lock their chats. The feature is called App Lock and is a part of several changes in Messenger regarding privacy and security.<ref>Kastrenakes, Jacob (July 22, 2020). "Facebook Messenger can now lock your chats behind Face ID". The Verge. Retrieved July 23, 2020.</ref><ref>Mendiratta, Hemant (August 7, 2020). "How To View Only Unread Messages On Facebook Messenger". TechUntold. Retrieved September 14, 2021.</ref> On October 13, 2020, the Messenger application introduced cross-app messaging with Instagram, which was launched in September 2021.<ref>"Facebook Messenger releases cross-app group chats, further integrating with Instagram". TechCrunch. September 30, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2022.</ref> In addition to the integrated messaging, the application announced the introduction of a new logo, which will be an amalgamation of the Messenger and Instagram logo.<ref>"The Future of Messaging is Now". Messenger News. October 13, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.</ref>

Businesses and users can interact through Messenger with features such as tracking purchases and receiving notifications, and interacting with customer service representatives. Third-party developers can integrate apps into Messenger, letting users enter an app while inside Messenger and optionally share details from the app into a chat.<ref>King, Hope (March 25, 2015). "7 big changes coming to Facebook". CNN. Archived from the original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> Developers can build chatbots into Messenger, for uses such as news publishers building bots to distribute news.<ref>Newton, Casey (April 12, 2016). "Facebook launches a bot platform for Messenger". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> The M virtual assistant (U.S.) scans chats for keywords and suggests relevant actions, such as its payments system for users mentioning money.<ref>Statt, Nick (April 6, 2017). "Facebook's AI assistant will now offer suggestions inside Messenger". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref><ref>Constine, Josh (April 6, 2017). "Facebook Messenger's AI 'M' suggests features to use based on your convos". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref> Group chatbots appear in Messenger as "Chat Extensions". A "Discovery" tab allows finding bots, and enabling special, branded QR codes that, when scanned, take the user to a specific bot.<ref>Constine, Josh (April 18, 2017). "Facebook Messenger launches group bots and bot discovery tab". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2017.</ref>

Privacy policy

Facebook's data policy outlines its policies for collecting, storing, and sharing user's data.<ref name="Data Policy">""Data Policy"". Facebook.com. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.</ref> Facebook enables users to control access to individual posts and their profile<ref>"Search Privacy". Facebook. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2009.</ref> through privacy settings.<ref name="Choose Your Privacy Settings">"Choose Your Privacy Settings". Facebook. Retrieved September 10, 2009.</ref> The user's name and profile picture (if applicable) are public.

Facebook's revenue depends on targeted advertising, which involves analyzing user data to decide which ads to show each user. Facebook buys data from third parties, gathered from both online and offline sources, to supplement its own data on users. Facebook maintains that it does not share data used for targeted advertising with the advertisers themselves.<ref>Ortutay, Barbare (March 25, 2018). ""What Facebook's privacy policy allows may surprise you"".</ref> The company states:

"We provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people seeing their ads and how their ads are performing, but we don't share information that personally identifies you (information such as your name or email address that by itself can be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give us permission. For example, we provide general demographic and interest information to advertisers (for example, that an ad was seen by a woman between the ages of 25 and 34 who lives in Madrid and likes software engineering) to help them better understand their audience. We also confirm which Facebook ads led you to make a purchase or take an action with an advertiser."<ref name="Data Policy" />

As of October 2021^[update], Facebook claims it uses the following policy for sharing user data with third parties:

Apps, websites, and third-party integrations on or using our Products.
When you choose to use third-party apps, websites, or other services that use, or are integrated with, our Products, they can receive information about what you post or share. For example, when you play a game with your Facebook friends or use a Facebook Comment or Share button on a website, the game developer or website can receive information about your activities in the game or receive a comment or link that you share from the website on Facebook. Also, when you download or use such third-party services, they can access your public profile on Facebook, and any information that you share with them. Apps and websites you use may receive your list of Facebook friends if you choose to share it with them. But apps and websites you use will not be able to receive any other information about your Facebook friends from you, or information about any of your Instagram followers (although your friends and followers may, of course, choose to share this information themselves). Information collected by these third-party services is subject to their own terms and policies, not this one.
Devices and operating systems providing native versions of Facebook and Instagram (i.e. where we have not developed our own first-party apps) will have access to all information you choose to share with them, including information your friends share with you, so they can provide our core functionality to you.
Note: We are in the process of restricting developers' data access even further to help prevent abuse. For example, we will remove developers' access to your Facebook and Instagram data if you haven't used their app in 3 months, and we are changing Login, so that in the next version, we will reduce the data that an app can request without app review to include only name, Instagram username and bio, profile photo and email address. Requesting any other data will require our approval.<ref name="Data Policy" />

Facebook will also share data with law enforcement if needed to.<ref name="Data Policy" />

Facebook's policies have changed repeatedly since the service's debut, amid a series of controversies covering everything from how well it secures user data, to what extent it allows users to control access, to the kinds of access given to third parties, including businesses, political campaigns and governments. These facilities vary according to country, as some nations require the company to make data available (and limit access to services), while the European Union's GDPR regulation mandates additional privacy protections.<ref name=wsj15>Wilberding, Kurt; Wells, Georgia (February 4, 2019). "Facebook's Timeline: 15 Years In". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 6, 2019.</ref>

Bug Bounty Program

On July 29, 2011, Facebook announced its Bug Bounty Program that paid security researchers a minimum of $500 ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) for reporting security holes. The company promised not to pursue "white hat" hackers who identified such problems.<ref>"Facebook". Facebook. Retrieved August 4, 2014.</ref><ref>"Facebook Offers $500 Bounty for Reporting Bugs: Why So Cheap". PC Magazine. Retrieved January 18, 2015.</ref> This led researchers in many countries to participate, particularly in India and Russia.<ref>Bug Bounty, Facebook. "Facebook Bug Bounty". Facebook Security. Retrieved April 3, 2014.</ref>

Reception

Userbase

Facebook's rapid growth began as soon as it became available and continued through 2018, before beginning to decline.

Facebook passed 100 million registered users in 2008,<ref>Schroeder, Stan (August 26, 2008). "Facebook's 100 Million Users: How Much are They Worth?". Mashable. Retrieved June 4, 2017.</ref> and 500 million in July 2010.<ref name="500 million">Wauters, Robin (July 21, 2010). "Zuckerberg Makes It Official: Facebook Hits 500 Million Members". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved June 4, 2017.</ref> According to the company's data at the July 2010 announcement, half of the site's membership used Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site by mobile.<ref name="Quiet revolution">Arthur, Charles; Kiss, Jemima (July 21, 2010). "Facebook reaches 500 million users". The Guardian. Retrieved March 23, 2017.</ref>

In October 2012, Facebook's monthly active users passed one billion,<ref name="One billion users">Smith, Aaron; Segal, Laurie; Cowley, Stacy (October 4, 2012). "Facebook reaches one billion users". CNN. Retrieved June 4, 2017.</ref><ref>Kiss, Jemima (October 4, 2012). "Facebook hits 1 billion users a month". The Guardian. Retrieved June 4, 2017.</ref> with 600 million mobile users, 219 billion photo uploads, and 140 billion friend connections.<ref name="Billion statistics">Ionescu, Daniel (October 4, 2012). "Facebook rules the social networking world with 1 billion users". PC World. International Data Group. Retrieved June 4, 2017.</ref> The 2 billion user mark was crossed in June 2017.<ref>Welch, Chris (June 27, 2017). "Facebook crosses 2 billion monthly users". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved June 27, 2017.</ref><ref>Constine, Josh (June 27, 2017). "Facebook now has 2 billion monthly users ... and responsibility". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved July 1, 2017.</ref>

In November 2015, after skepticism about the accuracy of its "monthly active users" measurement, Facebook changed its definition to a logged-in member who visits the Facebook site through the web browser or mobile app, or uses the Facebook Messenger app, in the 30-day period prior to the measurement. This excluded the use of third-party services with Facebook integration, which was previously counted.<ref>Cohen, David (November 6, 2015). "Facebook Changes Definition of Monthly Active Users". Adweek. Beringer Capital. Retrieved June 4, 2017.</ref>

From 2017 to 2019, the percentage of the U.S. population over the age of 12 who use Facebook has declined, from 67% to 61% (a decline of some 15 million U.S. users), with a higher drop-off among younger Americans (a decrease in the percentage of U.S. 12- to 34-year-olds who are users from 58% in 2015 to 29% in 2019).<ref name=Heeti>Abrar Al-Heeti, Facebook lost 15 million US users in the past two years, report says, CNET (March 6, 2019).</ref><ref name=Statt>Nick Statt, Facebook's US user base declined by 15 million since 2017, according to survey, The Verge (March 6, 2019).</ref> The decline coincided with an increase in the popularity of Instagram, which is also owned by Meta.<ref name=Heeti /><ref name=Statt />

The number of daily active users experienced a quarterly decline for the first time in the last quarter of 2021, down to 1.929 billion from 1.930 billion,<ref>"Facebook: Daily active users fall for first time in 18-year history". BBC News. February 3, 2022.</ref> but increased again the next quarter despite being banned in Russia.<ref>"Daily Facebook users up again after first-ever decline". BBC News. April 27, 2022.</ref>

Historically, commentators have offered predictions of Facebook's decline or end, based on causes such as a declining user base;<ref>Heaven, Will (June 14, 2011). "Is this the beginning of the end for Facebook?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012.</ref> the legal difficulties of being a closed platform, inability to generate revenue, inability to offer user privacy, inability to adapt to mobile platforms, or Facebook ending itself to present a next generation replacement;<ref name="Silverman 2012">Silverman, Matt (June 13, 2012). "The End of Facebook: What Will It Take to Kill the King of Social?". Mashable.</ref> or Facebook's role in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.<ref>Bilton, Nick (October 27, 2017). "This Could Be the End of Facebook". Vanity Fair.</ref>

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Facebook popularity. Active users (in millions) of Facebook increased from just a million
in 2004 to 2.8 billion in 2020.<ref name=wsj15 />

Population pyramid of Facebook users by age As of 2010^[update]<ref>"December Data on Facebook's US Growth by Age and Gender: Beyond 100 Million – Inside Facebook". Inside Facebook. January 4, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2014.</ref>

Demographics

The highest number of Facebook users as of October 2018 are from India and the United States, followed by Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.^{[citation needed]} Region-wise, the highest number of users are from Asia-Pacific (947 million) followed by Europe (381 million) and US-Canada (242 million). The rest of the world has 750 million users.<ref>Khan, Aarzu (August 19, 2018). "Number of Facebook Monthly Active Users Worldwide, By Region – DGraph". Dazeinfo. Retrieved February 4, 2019.</ref>

Over the 2008–2018 period, the percentage of users under 34 declined to less than half of the total.<ref name="wsj15" />

Censorship

In many countries the social networking sites and mobile apps have been blocked temporarily or permanently, including China,<ref>Wauters, Robin (July 7, 2009). "China Blocks Access To Twitter, Facebook After Riots". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> Iran,<ref>"Iranian government blocks Facebook access". The Guardian. May 24, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> Vietnam,<ref>"MAP: Here Are the Countries That Block Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube". Mother Jones. March 28, 2014.</ref> Pakistan,<ref>"Pakistan lifts Facebook ban but 'blasphemous' pages stay hidden". The Guardian. May 31, 2010.</ref> Syria,<ref>"Syria Restores Access to Facebook and YouTube". The New York Times. February 9, 2011. Archived from the original on February 10, 2011.</ref> and North Korea. In May 2018, the government of Papua New Guinea announced that it would ban Facebook for a month while it considered the impact of the website on the country, though no ban has since occurred.<ref>"Facebook to be banned in Papua New Guinea for a month". BBC News. May 29, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.</ref> In 2019, Facebook announced it would start enforcing its ban on users, including influencers, promoting any vape, tobacco products, or weapons on its platforms.<ref>Kaya Yurieff (December 18, 2019). "Instagram influencers can no longer promote vaping and guns". CNN. Retrieved December 19, 2019.</ref>

Criticisms and controversies

"I'm here today because I believe Facebook's products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy. The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people."

—Frances Haugen, condemning lack of transparency around Facebook at a US congressional hearing (2021).<ref>"Facebook whistleblower hearing: Frances Haugen calls for more regulation of tech giant – live updates". The Guardian. October 5, 2021. Archived from the original on October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.</ref>

"I don't believe private companies should make all of the decisions on their own. That's why we have advocated for updated internet regulations for several years now. I have testified in Congress multiple times and asked them to update these regulations. I've written op-eds outlining the areas of regulation we think are most important related to elections, harmful content, privacy, and competition."

—Mark Zuckerberg, responding to Frances Haugen's revelations (2021).<ref>Hamilton, Isobel Asher (October 6, 2021). "Mark Zuckerberg says whistleblower's claims that Facebook places profit over people 'don't make any sense.' Read his full response to the whistleblower's testimony" – via businessinsider.com.</ref>

Facebook's importance and scale has led to criticisms in many domains. Issues include Internet privacy, excessive retention of user information,<ref>Aspen, Maria (February 11, 2008). "How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 12, 2008. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> its facial recognition software, DeepFace<ref>Anthony, Sebastian (March 19, 2014). "Facebook's facial recognition software is now as accurate as the human brain, but what now?". ExtremeTech. Ziff Davis. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Gannes, Liz (June 8, 2011). "Facebook facial recognition prompts EU privacy probe". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> its addictive quality<ref>Robinson, Bill (February 10, 2014). "Facebook: The World's Biggest Waste of Time?". HuffPost. Retrieved March 3, 2018.</ref> and its role in the workplace, including employer access to employee accounts.<ref>Friedman, Matt (March 21, 2013). "Bill to ban companies from asking about job candidates' Facebook accounts is headed to governor". NJ.com. Advance Digital. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref>

Facebook has been criticized for electricity usage,<ref>Wauters, Robin (September 16, 2010). "Greenpeace Slams Zuckerberg For Making Facebook A "So Coal Network" (Video)". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> tax avoidance,<ref>Neate, Rupert (December 23, 2012). "Facebook paid £2.9m tax on £840m profits made outside US, figures show". The Guardian. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> real-name user requirement policies,<ref>Grinberg, Emanuella (September 18, 2014). "Facebook 'real name' policy stirs questions around identity". CNN. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> censorship<ref>Doshi, Vidhi (July 19, 2016). "Facebook under fire for 'censoring' Kashmir-related posts and accounts". The Guardian. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Arrington, Michael (November 22, 2007). "Is Facebook Really Censoring Search When It Suits Them?". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> and its involvement in the United States PRISM surveillance program.<ref>Greenwald, Glenn; MacAskill, Ewen (June 7, 2013). "NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others". The Guardian. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> According to The Express Tribune, Facebook "avoided billions of dollars in tax using offshore companies".<ref>"Paradise Papers reveal hidden wealth of global elite". The Express Tribune. November 6, 2017.</ref>

Facebook is alleged to have harmful psychological effects on its users, including feelings of jealousy<ref>"How Facebook Breeds Jealousy". Seeker. Group Nine Media. February 10, 2010. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Matyszczyk, Chris (August 11, 2009). "Study: Facebook makes lovers jealous". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> and stress,<ref>Ngak, Chenda (November 27, 2012). "Facebook may cause stress, study says". CBS News. CBS. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Smith, Dave (November 13, 2015). "Quitting Facebook will make you happier and less stressed, study says". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> a lack of attention<ref>Bugeja, Michael J. (January 23, 2006). "Facing the Facebook". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on February 20, 2008. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> and social media addiction.<ref>Hough, Andrew (April 8, 2011). "Student 'addiction' to technology 'similar to drug cravings', study finds". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>"Facebook and Twitter 'more addictive than tobacco and alcohol'". The Telegraph. February 1, 2012. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> According to Kaufmann et al., mothers' motivations for using social media are often related to their social and mental health.<ref>Kaufmann, Renee; Buckner, Marjorie M.; Ledbetter, Andrew M. (August 3, 2017). "Having Fun on Facebook?: Mothers' Enjoyment as a Moderator of Mental Health and Facebook Use". Health Communication. 32 (8): 1014–1023. doi:10.1080/10410236.2016.1196513. ISSN 1041-0236. PMID 27463860. S2CID 25726659.</ref> European antitrust regulator Margrethe Vestager stated that Facebook's terms of service relating to private data were "unbalanced".<ref>Osnos, Evan (September 17, 2018). "Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy?". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 15, 2018.</ref>

Facebook has been criticized for allowing users to publish illegal or offensive material. Specifics include copyright and intellectual property infringement,<ref>Setalvad, Ariha (August 7, 2015). "Why Facebook's video theft problem can't last". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> hate speech,<ref>"Facebook, Twitter and Google grilled by MPs over hate speech". BBC News. March 14, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Toor, Amar (September 15, 2015). "Facebook will work with Germany to combat anti-refugee hate speech". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> incitement of rape<ref>Sherwell, Philip (October 16, 2011). "Cyber anarchists blamed for unleashing a series of Facebook 'rape pages'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> and terrorism,<ref>"20,000 Israelis sue Facebook for ignoring Palestinian incitement". The Times of Israel. October 27, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>"Israel: Facebook's Zuckerberg has blood of slain Israeli teen on his hands". The Times of Israel. July 2, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> fake news,<ref>Burke, Samuel (November 19, 2016). "Zuckerberg: Facebook will develop tools to fight fake news". CNN. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Staff, Our Foreign (June 1, 2017). "Hillary Clinton says Facebook 'must prevent fake news from creating a new reality'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Fiegerman, Seth (May 9, 2017). "Facebook's global fight against fake news". CNN. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> and crimes, murders, and livestreaming violent incidents.<ref>Grinberg, Emanuella; Said, Samira (March 22, 2017). "Police: At least 40 people watched teen's sexual assault on Facebook Live". CNN. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Grinberg, Emanuella (January 5, 2017). "Chicago torture: Facebook Live video leads to 4 arrests". CNN. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref><ref>Sulleyman, Aatif (April 27, 2017). "Facebook Live killings: Why the criticism has been harsh". The Independent. Retrieved June 3, 2017.</ref> Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content.<ref>Medrano, Kastalia (January 25, 2018). "Facebook Spreads Viral Fake News Story About Vaccines". Newsweek.</ref><ref>"Facebook will not remove fake news – but will 'demote' it". BBC News. July 13, 2018.</ref><ref>Funke, Daniel (March 6, 2019). "Forget fake news stories. False text posts are getting massive engagement on Facebook". Ponyter.</ref> Sri Lanka blocked both Facebook and WhatsApp in May 2019 after anti-Muslim riots, the worst in the country since the Easter Sunday bombing in the same year as a temporary measure to maintain peace in Sri Lanka.<ref>"Sri Lanka Riots: Sri Lanka imposes nationwide curfew after anti-Muslim riots". Times of India. Reuters. May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.</ref><ref>"Sri Lanka blocks social media after worst anti-Muslim violence since Easter Sunday attacks". The National. May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.</ref> Facebook removed 3 billion fake accounts only during the last quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019;<ref name="Sullivan">Sullivan, Mark (May 23, 2019). "Facebook catches 3 billion fake accounts, but the ones it misses are the real problem". Fast Company.</ref> in comparison, the social network reports 2.39 billion monthly active users.<ref name="Sullivan" />

In late July 2019, the company announced it was under antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.<ref>Cox, Kate (July 25, 2019). "The FTC is investigating Facebook. Again". ars Technica. Retrieved August 11, 2019.</ref>

The consumer advocacy group, Which?, claims that individuals are still utilizing Facebook to set up fraudulent five-star ratings for various products. The group has identified 14 communities that exchange reviews for either money or complimentary items such as watches, earbuds, and sprinklers.<ref>"Facebook still being used to arrange fake reviews - Which?". BBC News.</ref>

Privacy

Facebook has faced a steady stream of controversies over how it handles user privacy, repeatedly adjusting its privacy settings and policies.<ref name="auto2">Ingram, David; Fioretti, Julia (March 29, 2018). "Facebook cuts ties to data brokers in blow to targeted ads". Reuters. Retrieved February 5, 2019.</ref>

Since 2009, Facebook has been participating in the PRISM secret program, sharing with the US National Security Agency audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs from user profiles, among other social media services.<ref>Simpson, David; Brown, Pamela (September 30, 2013). "NSA mines Facebook, including Americans' profiles". CNN. Retrieved September 30, 2013.</ref><ref name="usa1">Johnson, Kevin; Martin, Scott; O'Donnell, Jayne; Winter, Michael (June 15, 2013). "Reports: NSA Siphons Data from 9 Major Net Firms". USA Today. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2013.</ref>

On November 29, 2011, Facebook settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises.<ref>"Facebook Settles FTC Charges That It Deceived Consumers By Failing To Keep Privacy Promises". FTC. November 29, 2011. Retrieved November 29, 2011.</ref> In August 2013 High-Tech Bridge published a study showing that links included in Facebook messaging service messages were being accessed by Facebook.<ref>"Social networks: can robots violate user privacy?". August 27, 2013. Archived from the original on September 3, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2014.</ref> In January 2014 two users filed a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that their privacy had been violated by this practice.<ref>Van Grove, Jennifer (January 2, 2014). "Facebook sued for allegedly intercepting private messages". CNet. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 16, 2015.</ref>

On June 7, 2018, Facebook announced that a bug had resulted in about 14 million Facebook users having their default sharing setting for all new posts set to "public".<ref>"Facebook bug set 14 million users' sharing settings to public". June 7, 2018. Retrieved June 7, 2018.</ref>

On April 4, 2019, half a billion records of Facebook users were found exposed on Amazon cloud servers, containing information about users' friends, likes, groups, and checked-in locations, as well as names, passwords and email addresses.<ref>"Millions of Facebook Records Found On Amazon Servers". Hack Hex. April 4, 2019. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.</ref>

The phone numbers of at least 200 million Facebook users were found to be exposed on an open online database in September 2019. They included 133 million US users, 18 million from the UK, and 50 million from users in Vietnam. After removing duplicates, the 419 million records have been reduced to 219 million. The database went offline after TechCrunch contacted the web host. It is thought the records were amassed using a tool that Facebook disabled in April 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica controversy. A Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement: "The dataset is old and appears to have information obtained before we made changes last year...There is no evidence that Facebook accounts were compromised."<ref>"Facebook confirms 419 m phone numbers exposed in latest privacy lapse". The Guardian. September 5, 2019. Retrieved September 7, 2019.</ref>

Facebook's privacy problems resulted in companies like Viber Media and Mozilla discontinuing advertising on Facebook's platforms.<ref>Reaz, Shaer (August 28, 2020). "Cutting ties with a giant: Viber CEO on Facebook relations and #StopHateForProfit". The Daily Star. Retrieved September 27, 2020.</ref><ref>"We're proud to join #StopHateForProfit". Mozilla Corporation. Mozilla Foundation. June 24, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.</ref>

Racial bias

Facebook was accused of committing "systemic" racial bias by EEOC based on the complaints of three rejected candidates and a current employee of the company. The three rejected employees along with the Operational Manager at Facebook as of March 2021 accused the firm of discriminating against Black people. The EEOC has initiated an investigation into the case.<ref>"Facebook faces US investigation for 'systemic' racial bias in hiring". The Guardian. March 6, 2021. Retrieved March 6, 2021.</ref>

Shadow profiles

A "shadow profile" refers to the data Facebook collects about individuals without their explicit permission. For example, the "like" button that appears on third-party websites allows the company to collect information about an individual's internet browsing habits, even if the individual is not a Facebook user.<ref name="verge shadow profiles">Brandom, Russell (April 11, 2018). "Shadow profiles are the biggest flaw in Facebook's privacy defense". The Verge. Retrieved June 28, 2019.</ref><ref>"How Facebook can have your data even if you're not on Facebook". USA Today. Retrieved April 13, 2018.</ref> Data can also be collected by other users. For example, a Facebook user can link their email account to their Facebook to find friends on the site, allowing the company to collect the email addresses of users and non-users alike.<ref>Hill, Kashmir (November 7, 2017). "How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You've Ever Met". Gizmodo. Retrieved June 28, 2019.</ref> Over time, countless data points about an individual are collected; any single data point perhaps cannot identify an individual, but together allows the company to form a unique "profile".

This practice has been criticized by those who believe people should be able to opt-out of involuntary data collection. Additionally, while Facebook users have the ability to download and inspect the data they provide to the site, data from the user's "shadow profile" is not included, and non-users of Facebook do not have access to this tool regardless. The company has also been unclear whether or not it is possible for a person to revoke Facebook's access to their "shadow profile".<ref name="verge shadow profiles" />

Cambridge Analytica

Facebook customer Global Science Research sold information on over 87 million Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica, a political data analysis firm led by Alexander Nix.<ref>Lewis, Paul; Wong, Julia Carrie (March 18, 2018). "Facebook employs psychologist whose firm sold data to Cambridge Analytica". The Guardian. Retrieved March 20, 2018.</ref> While approximately 270,000 people used the app, Facebook's API permitted data collection from their friends without their knowledge.<ref>Franceschi-Bicchierai, Lorenzo (March 19, 2018). "Why We're Not Calling the Cambridge Analytica Story a 'Data Breach'". Motherboard. Retrieved March 20, 2018.</ref> At first Facebook downplayed the significance of the breach, and suggested that Cambridge Analytica no longer had access. Facebook then issued a statement expressing alarm and suspended Cambridge Analytica. Review of documents and interviews with former Facebook employees suggested that Cambridge Analytica still possessed the data.<ref>Rosenberg, Matthew; Confessore, Nicholas; Cadwalladr, Carole (March 17, 2018). "How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions". The New York Times.</ref> This was a violation of Facebook's consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. This violation potentially carried a penalty of $40,000 ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.</ref>) per occurrence, totalling trillions of dollars.<ref>Timberg, Craig; Romm, Tony (March 18, 2018). "Facebook may have violated FTC privacy deal, say former federal officials, triggering risk of massive fines". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 25, 2018.</ref>

According to The Guardian, both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica threatened to sue the newspaper if it published the story. After publication, Facebook claimed that it had been "lied to". On March 23, 2018, The English High Court granted an application by the Information Commissioner's Office for a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's London offices, ending a standoff between Facebook and the Information Commissioner over responsibility.<ref>"UK High Court grants Cambridge Analytica search warrant to ICO". CNBC. March 23, 2018. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018.</ref>

On March 25, Facebook published a statement by Zuckerberg in major UK and US newspapers apologizing over a "breach of trust".<ref>"Facebook boss apologises in newspaper ads". BBC News. March 25, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.</ref>

You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again.
We've already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we're limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.
We're also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.
Finally, we'll remind you which apps you've given access to your information – so you can shut off the ones you don't want anymore.
Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.

On March 26, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into the matter.<ref>Ivanova, Irina (March 26, 2018). "Facebook stock rebounds after FTC investigation news". CBS News. Retrieved March 26, 2018.</ref> The controversy led Facebook to end its partnerships with data brokers who aid advertisers in targeting users.<ref name="auto2" />

On April 24, 2019, Facebook said it could face a fine between $3 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>) to $5 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>) as the result of an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On July 24, 2019, the FTC fined Facebook $5 billion, the largest penalty ever imposed on a company for violating consumer privacy. Additionally, Facebook had to implement a new privacy structure, follow a 20-year settlement order, and allow the FTC to monitor Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Cambridge Analytica's CEO and a developer faced restrictions on future business dealings and were ordered to destroy any personal information they collected. Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook also implemented additional privacy controls and settings<ref name="guar1">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> in part to comply with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which took effect in May.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook also ended its active opposition to the California Consumer Privacy Act.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Some, such as Meghan McCain have drawn an equivalence between the use of data by Cambridge Analytica and the Barack Obama's 2012 campaign, which, according to Investor's Business Daily, "encouraged supporters to download an Obama 2012 Facebook app that, when activated, let the campaign collect Facebook data both on users and their friends."<ref>"Funny, When Obama Harvested Facebook Data On Millions Of Users To Win In 2012, Everyone Cheered". Investor's Business Daily. March 19, 2018.</ref><ref name="forbes.com">"Why Are We Only Now Talking About Facebook And Elections?". Forbes. March 19, 2018.</ref><ref name="news.com.au">"Former Facebook staffer, Obama campaign boss reveal concerns about Facebook data". News.com.au. March 21, 2018.</ref> Carol Davidsen, the Obama for America (OFA) former director of integration and media analytics, wrote that "Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn't stop us once they realised that was what we were doing".<ref name="forbes.com" /><ref name="news.com.au" /> PolitiFact has rated McCain's statements "Half-True", on the basis that "in Obama's case, direct users knew they were handing over their data to a political campaign" whereas with Cambridge Analytica, users thought they were only taking a personality quiz for academic purposes, and while the Obama campaign only used the data "to have their supporters contact their most persuadable friends", Cambridge Analytica "targeted users, friends and lookalikes directly with digital ads."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Breaches

On September 28, 2018, Facebook experienced a major breach in its security, exposing the data of 50 million users. The data breach started in July 2017 and was discovered on September 16.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook notified users affected by the exploit and logged them out of their accounts.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In March 2019, Facebook confirmed a password compromise of millions of Facebook lite application users also affected millions of Instagram users. The reason cited was the storage of password as plain text instead of encryption which could be read by its employees.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On December 19, 2019, security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered a database containing more than 267 million Facebook user IDs, phone numbers, and names that were left exposed on the web for anyone to access without a password or any other authentication.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In February 2020, Facebook encountered a major security breach in which its official Twitter account was hacked by a Saudi Arabia-based group called "OurMine". The group has a history of actively exposing high-profile social media profiles' vulnerabilities.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In April 2021, The Guardian reported approximately half a billion users' data had been stolen including birthdates and phone numbers. Facebook alleged it was "old data" from a problem fixed in August 2019 despite the data's having been released a year and a half later only in 2021; it declined to speak with journalists, had apparently not notified regulators, called the problem "unfixable", and said it would not be advising users.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Phone data and activity

Facebook acquired Onavo's virtual private network to harvest usage data on its competitors.

After acquiring Onavo in 2013, Facebook used its Onavo Protect virtual private network (VPN) app to collect information on users' web traffic and app usage. This allowed Facebook to monitor its competitors' performance, and motivated Facebook to acquire WhatsApp in 2014.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Media outlets classified Onavo Protect as spyware.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="Mashable">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In August 2018, Facebook removed the app in response to pressure from Apple, who asserted that it violated their guidelines.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued Facebook on December 16, 2020, for "false, misleading or deceptive conduct" in response to the company's use of personal data obtained from Onavo for business purposes in contrast to Onavo's privacy-oriented marketing.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In 2016, Facebook Research launched Project Atlas, offering some users between the ages of 13 and 35 up to $20 per month ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>) in exchange for their personal data, including their app usage, web browsing history, web search history, location history, personal messages, photos, videos, emails and Amazon order history.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="Recode Jan 2019">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In January 2019, TechCrunch reported on the project. This led Apple to temporarily revoke Facebook's Enterprise Developer Program certificates for one day, preventing Facebook Research from operating on iOS devices and disabling Facebook's internal iOS apps.<ref name="Recode Jan 2019" /><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Ars Technica reported in April 2018 that the Facebook Android app had been harvesting user data, including phone calls and text messages, since 2015.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Facebook has been collecting call history and SMS data from Android devices The Verge</ref> In May 2018, several Android users filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook for invading their privacy.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In January 2020, Facebook launched the Off-Facebook Activity page, which allows users to see information collected by Facebook about their non-Facebook activities.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The Washington Post columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler found that this included what other apps he used on his phone, even while the Facebook app was closed, what other web sites he visited on his phone, and what in-store purchases he made from affiliated businesses, even while his phone was completely off.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In November 2021, a report was published by Fairplay, Global Action Plan and Reset Australia detailing accusations that Facebook was continuing to manage their ad targeting system with data collected from teen users.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The accusations follow announcements by Facebook in July 2021 that they would cease ad targeting children.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Public apologies

The company first apologized for its privacy abuses in 2009.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook apologies have appeared in newspapers, television, blog posts and on Facebook.<ref name="auto3" /> On March 25, 2018, leading US and UK newspapers published full-page ads with a personal apology from Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg issued a verbal apology on CNN.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In May 2010, he apologized for discrepancies in privacy settings.<ref name="auto3">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Previously, Facebook had its privacy settings spread out over 20 pages, and has now put all of its privacy settings on one page, which makes it more difficult for third-party apps to access the user's personal information.<ref name="auto2" /> In addition to publicly apologizing, Facebook has said that it will be reviewing and auditing thousands of apps that display "suspicious activities" in an effort to ensure that this breach of privacy does not happen again.<ref name="auto1">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In a 2010 report regarding privacy, a research project stated that not a lot of information is available regarding the consequences of what people disclose online so often what is available are just reports made available through popular media.<ref name="christofides2011">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In 2017, a former Facebook executive went on the record to discuss how social media platforms have contributed to the unraveling of the "fabric of society".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Content disputes and moderationLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

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Facebook relies on its users to generate the content that bonds its users to the service. The company has come under criticism both for allowing objectionable content, including conspiracy theories and fringe discourse,<ref name=":0">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> and for prohibiting other content that it deems inappropriate.

Misinformation and fake news

Facebook has been criticized as a vector for fake news, and has been accused of bearing responsibility for the conspiracy theory that the United States created ISIS,<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> false anti-Rohingya posts being used by Myanmar's military to fuel genocide and ethnic cleansing,<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> enabling climate change denial<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting conspiracy theorists,<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> and anti-refugee attacks in Germany.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="RottingDemocracyBeauchamp">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The government of the Philippines has also used Facebook as a tool to attack its critics.<ref name="PhilippinesEtter">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In 2017, Facebook partnered with fact checkers from the Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network to identify and mark false content, though most ads from political candidates are exempt from this program.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> As of 2018, Facebook had over 40 fact-checking partners across the world, including The Weekly Standard.<ref name=":10">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Critics of the program have accused Facebook of not doing enough to remove false information from its website.<ref name=":10" /><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook has repeatedly amended its content policies. In July 2018, it stated that it would "downrank" articles that its fact-checkers determined to be false, and remove misinformation that incited violence.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook stated that content that receives "false" ratings from its fact-checkers can be demonetized and suffer dramatically reduced distribution. Specific posts and videos that violate community standards can be removed on Facebook.<ref name=":1">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In May 2019, Facebook banned a number of "dangerous" commentators from its platform, including Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Paul Nehlen, David Duke, and Laura Loomer, for allegedly engaging in "violence and hate".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In May 2020, Facebook agreed to a preliminary settlement of $52 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>) to compensate U.S.-based Facebook content moderators for their psychological trauma suffered on the job.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Other legal actions around the world, including in Ireland, await settlement.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In September 2020, the Government of Thailand utilized the Computer Crime Act for the first time to take action against Facebook and Twitter for ignoring requests to take down content and not complying with court orders.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Threats and incitement

Professor Ilya Somin reported that he had been the subject of death threats on Facebook in April 2018 from Cesar Sayoc, who threatened to kill Somin and his family and "feed the bodies to Florida alligators". Somin's Facebook friends reported the comments to Facebook, which did nothing except dispatch automated messages.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Sayoc was later arrested for the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts directed at Democratic politicians.

Terrorism

Force v. Facebook, Inc., 934 F.3d 53 (2nd Cir. 2019) was a case that alleged Facebook was profiting off recommendations for Hamas. In 2019, the US Second Circuit Appeals Court held that Section 230 bars civil terrorism claims against social media companies and internet service providers, the first federal appellate court to do so.

Hate speech

In October 2020, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan urged Mark Zuckerberg, through a letter posted on government's Twitter account, to ban Islamophobic content on Facebook, warning that it encouraged extremism and violence.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In October 2020, the company announced that it would ban Holocaust denial.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In October 2022, Media Matters for America published a report that Facebook and Instagram were still profiting off advertisements using the slur "groomer" for LGBT people.<ref name="carter_20221013">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The article reported that Meta had previously confirmed that the use of this word for the LGBT community violates its hate speech policies.<ref name="carter_20221013"/> The story was subsequently picked up by other news outlets such as the New York Daily News, PinkNews, and LGBTQ Nation.<ref name="assuncao_20221014">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="wakefield_20221014">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="villarreal_20221014">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Violent Erotica

There are ads on Facebook and Instagram containing sexually explicit content, descriptions of graphic violence and content promoting acts of self harm. Many of the ads are for webnovel apps backed by tech giants Bytedance and Tencent.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

InfoWars

Facebook was criticized for allowing InfoWars to publish falsehoods and conspiracy theories.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name=":3">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook defended its actions in regards to InfoWars, saying "we just don't think banning Pages for sharing conspiracy theories or false news is the right way to go."<ref name=":3" /> Facebook provided only six cases in which it fact-checked content on the InfoWars page over the period September 2017 to July 2018.<ref name=":1" /> In 2018, InfoWars falsely claimed that the survivors of the Parkland shooting were "actors". Facebook pledged to remove InfoWars content making the claim, although InfoWars videos pushing the false claims were left up, even though Facebook had been contacted about the videos.<ref name=":1" /> Facebook stated that the videos never explicitly called them actors.<ref name=":1" /> Facebook also allowed InfoWars videos that shared the Pizzagate conspiracy theory to survive, despite specific assertions that it would purge Pizzagate content.<ref name=":1" /> In late July 2018, Facebook suspended the personal profile of InfoWars head Alex Jones for 30 days.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In early August 2018, Facebook banned the four most active InfoWars-related pages for hate speech.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Political manipulation

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As a dominant social-web service with massive outreach, Facebook have been used by identified or unidentified political operatives to affect public opinion. Some of these activities have been done in violation of the platform policies, creating "coordinated inauthentic behavior", support or attacks. These activities can be scripted or paid. Various such abusive campaign have been revealed in recent years, best known being the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. In 2021, former Facebook analyst within the Spam and Fake Engagement teams, Sophie Zhang, reported more than 25 political subversion operations and criticized the general slow reaction time, oversightless, laissez-faire attitude by Facebook.<ref name="auto7">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="auto6">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="auto5">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Influence Operations and Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior

In 2018, Facebook stated that during 2018 they had identified "coordinated inauthentic behavior" in "many Pages, Groups and accounts created to stir up political debate, including in the US, the Middle East, Russia and the UK."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Campaigns operated by the British intelligence agency unit, called Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, have broadly fallen into two categories; cyber attacks and propaganda efforts. The propaganda efforts utilize "mass messaging" and the "pushing [of] stories" via social media sites like Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Israel's Jewish Internet Defense Force, the Chinese Communist Party's 50 Cent Party and Turkey's AK Trolls also focus their attention on social media platforms like Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In July 2018, Samantha Bradshaw, co-author of the report from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at Oxford University, said that "The number of countries where formally organised social media manipulation occurs has greatly increased, from 28 to 48 countries globally. The majority of growth comes from political parties who spread disinformation and junk news around election periods."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In October 2018, The Daily Telegraph reported that Facebook "banned hundreds of pages and accounts that it says were fraudulently flooding its site with partisan political content – although they came from the United States instead of being associated with Russia."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In December 2018, The Washington Post reported that "Facebook has suspended the account of Jonathon Morgan, the chief executive of a top social media research firm" New Knowledge, "after reports that he and others engaged in an operation to spread disinformation" on Facebook and Twitter during the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In January 2019, Facebook said it has removed 783 Iran-linked accounts, pages and groups for engaging in what it called "coordinated inauthentic behaviour".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In March 2019, Facebook sued four Chinese firms for selling "fake accounts, likes and followers" to amplify Chinese state media outlets.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In May 2019, Tel Aviv-based private intelligence agency Archimedes Group was banned from Facebook for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" after Facebook found fake users in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook investigations revealed that Archimedes had spent some $1.1 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>) on fake ads, paid for in Brazilian reais, Israeli shekels and US dollars.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook gave examples of Archimedes Group political interference in Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Niger and Tunisia.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab said in a report that "The tactics employed by Archimedes Group, a private company, closely resemble the types of information warfare tactics often used by governments, and the Kremlin in particular."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On May 23, 2019, Facebook released its Community Standards Enforcement Report highlighting that it has identified several fake accounts through artificial intelligence and human monitoring. In a period of six months, October 2018-March 2019, the social media website removed a total of 3.39 billion fake accounts. The number of fake accounts was reported to be more than 2.4 billion real people on the platform.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In July 2019, Facebook advanced its measures to counter deceptive political propaganda and other abuse of its services. The company removed more than 1,800 accounts and pages that were being operated from Russia, Thailand, Ukraine and Honduras.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it was announced that the internet regulatory committee would block access to Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On October 30, 2019, Facebook deleted several accounts of the employees working at the Israeli NSO Group, stating that the accounts were "deleted for not following our terms". The deletions came after WhatsApp sued the Israeli surveillance firm for targeting 1,400 devices with spyware.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In 2020, Facebook helped found American Edge, an anti-regulation lobbying firm to fight anti-trust probes.<ref name="ae">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The group runs ads that "fail to mention what legislation concerns them, how those concerns could be fixed, or how the horrors they warn of could actually happen", and do not clearly disclose that they are funded by Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In 2020, the government of Thailand forced Facebook to take down a Facebook group called Royalist Marketplace with one million members following potentially illegal posts shared. The authorities have also threatened Facebook with legal action. In response, Facebook is planning to take legal action against the Thai government for suppression of freedom of expression and violation of human rights.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In February 2021, Facebook removed the main page of the Myanmar military, after two protesters were shot and killed during the anti-coup protests. Facebook said that the page breached its guidelines that prohibit the incitement of violence.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On February 25, Facebook announced to ban all accounts of the Myanmar military, along with the "Tatmadaw-linked commercial entities". Citing the "exceptionally severe human rights abuses and the clear risk of future military-initiated violence in Myanmar", the tech giant also implemented the move on its subsidiary, Instagram.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In March 2021, The Wall Street JournalTemplate:'s editorial board criticized Facebook's decision to fact-check its op-ed titled "We'll Have Herd immunity by April" written by surgeon Marty Makary, calling it "counter-opinion masquerading as fact checking."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook guidelines allow users to call for the death of public figures, they also allow praise of mass killers and 'violent non-state actors' in some situations.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In 2021, former Facebook analyst within the Spam and Fake Engagement teams, Sophie Zhang, reported on more than 25 political subversion operations she uncovered while in Facebook, and the general laissez-faire by the private enterprise.<ref name="auto7" /><ref name="auto6" /><ref name="auto5" />

In 2021, Facebook was cited as playing a role in the fomenting of the 2021 United States Capitol attack.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Russian interference

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations for "engaging in operations to interfere with U.S. political and electoral processes, including the 2016 presidential election."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Mueller contacted Facebook subsequently to the company's disclosure that it had sold more than $100,000 ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>) worth of ads to a company (Internet Research Agency, owned by Russian billionaire and businessman Yevgeniy Prigozhin) with links to the Russian intelligence community before the 2016 United States presidential election.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In September 2017, Facebook's chief security officer Alex Stamos wrote the company "found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June 2015 to May 2017 – associated with roughly 3,000 ads – that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Clinton and Trump campaigns spent $81 million ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>) on Facebook ads.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

The company pledged full cooperation in Mueller's investigation, and provided all information about the Russian advertisements.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have claimed that Facebook had withheld information that could illuminate the Russian propaganda campaign.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Russian operatives have used Facebook polarize the American public discourses, organizing both Black Lives Matter rallies<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> and anti-immigrant rallies on U.S. soil,<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> as well as anti-Clinton rallies<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> and rallies both for and against Donald Trump.<ref>"Russians Staged Rallies For and Against Trump to Promote Discord, Indictment Says". Fortune. February 17, 2018.</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook ads have also been used to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims by simultaneously sending contrary messages to different users based on their political and demographic characteristics in order to sow discord.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>"Exclusive: Russian-bought Black Lives Matter ad on Facebook targeted Baltimore and Ferguson". CNN. September 28, 2017.</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Zuckerberg has stated that he regrets having dismissed concerns over Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Russian-American billionaire Yuri Milner, who befriended Zuckerberg<ref name="auto4">"Kremlin-owned Firms Linked to Major Investments in Twitter and Facebook". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – ICIJ. November 5, 2017.</ref> between 2009 and 2011, had Kremlin backing for his investments in Facebook and Twitter.<ref name=":13">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In January 2019, Facebook removed 289 pages and 75 coordinated accounts linked to the Russian state-owned news agency Sputnik which had misrepresented themselves as independent news or general interest pages.<ref name=DaFN>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook later identified and removed an additional 1,907 accounts linked to Russia found to be engaging in "coordinated inauthentic behaviour".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In 2018, a UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee report had criticised Facebook for its reluctance to investigate abuse of its platform by the Russian government, and for downplaying the extent of the problem, referring to the company as 'digital gangsters'.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name=":6">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

"Democracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised 'dark adverts' from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use every day," Damian Collins, DCMS Committee Chair<ref name=":6" />

In February 2019, Glenn Greenwald wrote that a cybersecurity company New Knowledge, which is behind one of the Senate reports on Russian social media election interference, "was caught just six weeks ago engaging in a massive scam to create fictitious Russian troll accounts on Facebook and Twitter in order to claim that the Kremlin was working to defeat Democratic Senate nominee Doug Jones in Alabama. The New York Times, when exposing the scam, quoted a New Knowledge report that boasted of its fabrications..."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Anti-Rohingya propaganda

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In 2018, Facebook took down 536 Facebook pages, 17 Facebook groups, 175 Facebook accounts, and 16 Instagram accounts linked to the Myanmar military. Collectively these were followed by over 10 million people.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The New York Times reported that:<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

after months of reports about anti-Rohingya propaganda on Facebook, the company acknowledged that it had been too slow to act in Myanmar. By then, more than 700,000 Rohingya had fled the country in a year, in what United Nations officials called "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

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Anti-Muslim propaganda and Hindu nationalism in India

A 2019 book titled The Real Face of Facebook in India, co-authored by the journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Cyril Sam, alleged that Facebook helped enable and benefited from the rise of Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Ankhi Das, Facebook's policy director for India and South and Central Asia, apologized publicly in August 2020 for sharing a Facebook post that called Muslims in India a "degenerate community". She said she shared the post "to reflect my deep belief in celebrating feminism and civic participation".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> She is reported to have prevented action by Facebook against anti-Muslim content<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name=":4" /> and supported the BJP in internal Facebook messages.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In 2020, Facebook executives overrode their employees' recommendations that the BJP politician T. Raja Singh should be banned from the site for hate speech and rhetoric that could lead to violence. Singh had said on Facebook that Rohingya Muslim immigrants should be shot and had threatened to destroy mosques. Current and former Facebook employees told The Wall Street Journal that the decision was part of a pattern of favoritism by Facebook toward the BJP as it seeks more business in India.<ref name=":4">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook also took no action after BJP politicians made posts accusing Muslims of intentionally spreading COVID-19, an employee said.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On August 31, 2020, the Delhi Assembly began investigating whether Facebook bore blame for the 2020 religious riots in the city, claiming it had found Facebook "prima facie guilty of a role in the violence".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On September 12, 2020, a Delhi Assembly committee said in a statement that it had asked Facebook India head Ajit Mohan to appear before it on September 15, leading to Facebook objecting and moving the Supreme Court of India against the decision.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On September 15, Facebook skipped the Delhi Assembly panel hearing.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On September 20, the Delhi Assembly panel issued a new notice asking Facebook to appear before it on September 23.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On September 22, Facebook India vice-president and managing director Ajit Mohan moved the Supreme Court against the summons of the Delhi Assembly Committee.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On September 23, the Supreme Court granted him relief and ordered a stay to the summons, with the Central government later backing the decision.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> A former Facebook employee told a Delhi Assembly panel on November 13 that the violence could have been 'easily averted' if the social media giant had acted in a 'proactive and prompt manner'.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On December 3, the Delhi Assembly moved the Supreme Court for intervention in the case.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On February 4, 2021, the Delhi Assembly panel issued a fresh notice to Facebook India to testify on the riots, avoiding specific notice to Mohan, by asking a senior, responsible officer from the company to appear before the panel.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The Union government submitted in the Supreme Court that Facebook could not be made accountable before any state assembly and the committee formed was unconstitutional.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On February 24, Mohan challenged summons issued by the Delhi assembly for failing to appear before it as a witness in connection with the 2020 riots in the Supreme Court, saying that the 'right to silence' is a virtue in present 'noisy times' and the legislature had no authority to examine him in a law and order case. The Supreme Court reserved its judgment for the case.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On July 8, the Supreme Court refused to quash the summons and asked Facebook asked to appear before the Delhi assembly panel.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On 23 September 2023, it was reported that Facebook had delayed for about a year when in 2021, it removed a network of accounts ran by India's Chinar Corps which spread disinformation that would put Kashmiri journalists in danger. The delay and the previously not publicized takedown action were due a fear that its local employees would be targeted by authorities, and that it would hurt business prospects in the country.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Company governance

Early Facebook investor and former Zuckerberg mentor Roger McNamee described Facebook as having "the most centralized decision-making structure I have ever encountered in a large company."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Nathan Schneider, a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder argued for transforming Facebook into a platform cooperative owned and governed by the users.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes states that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has too much power, that the company is now a monopoly, and that, as a result, it should be split into multiple smaller companies. Hughes called for the breakup of Facebook in an op-ed on The New York Times. Hughes says he is concerned that Zuckerberg has surrounded himself with a team that does not challenge him and that as a result, it is the U.S. government's job to hold him accountable and curb his "unchecked power".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Hughes also said that "Mark's power is unprecedented and un-American."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Several U.S. politicians agree with Hughes.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager has stated that splitting Facebook should only be done as "a remedy of the very last resort", and that splitting Facebook would not solve Facebook's underlying problems.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Litigation

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The company has been subject to repeated litigation.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Its most prominent case addressed allegations that Zuckerberg broke an oral contract with Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra to build the then-named "HarvardConnection" social network in 2004.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On March 6, 2018, BlackBerry sued Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp subdivision for ripping off key features of its messaging app.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In October 2018, a Texan woman sued Facebook, claiming she had been recruited into the sex trade at the age of 15 by a man who "friended" her on the social media network. Facebook responded that it works both internally and externally to ban sex traffickers.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In 2019, British solicitors representing a bullied Syrian schoolboy, sued Facebook over false claims. They claimed that Facebook protected prominent figures from scrutiny instead of removing content that violates its rules and that the special treatment was financially driven.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="facebookjamalrobinson">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

The Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of New York state and 47 other state and regional governments filed separate suits against Facebook on December 9, 2020, seeking antitrust action based on its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsUp among other companies, calling these practices as anticompetitive. The suits also assert that in acquiring these products, they weakened their privacy measures for their users. The suits, besides other fines, seek to unwind the acquisitions from Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On January 6, 2022, France's data privacy regulatory body CNIL fined Facebook a 60 million euros for not allowing its internet users an easy refusal of cookies along with Google.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

On December 22, 2022, the Quebec Court of Appeal approved a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Facebook users who claim they were discriminated against because the platform allows advertisers to target both job and housing advertisements based on various factors, including age, gender, and even race.<ref name="Facebook-lawsuit">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The lawsuit centres on the platform's practice of "micro targeting ads", claiming ads are ensured to appear only in the feeds of people who belong to certain targeted groups. Women, for example, would not see ads targeting men, while older generation men would not see an ad aimed at people between 18 and 45.<ref name="Facebook-lawsuit"/>

The class action could include thousands of Quebec residents who have been using the platform as early as April 2016, who were seeking jobs or housing during that period.<ref name="Facebook-lawsuit"/> Facebook has 60 days after the court's December 22 ruling to decide to appeal the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. If it does not appeal, the case returns to the Quebec Superior Court.<ref name="Facebook-lawsuit"/>

Minors exposed to sexual content on VR apps

In February 2022, a BBC News researcher posing as a 13-year-old girl witnessed grooming, sexual material, racist insults and a rape threat on the VRChat app. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children head of online child safety policy Andy Burrows added the investigation had found "a toxic combination of risks". The BBC researcher downloaded VRChat from an app store on Facebook's Meta Quest headset, with no age verification checks – the only requirement being a Facebook account. The BBC News researcher created a fake profile to set up her account – and her real identity was not checked.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> While Oculus has a form where users can report abuse, the Center for Countering Digital Hate claims Meta rarely takes them seriously; although reporting 100 policy violations on Oculus, they did not receive a response. Imran Ahmed, the charity's chief executive, branded it "a cesspit of hate, pornography and child grooming."<ref>Roper, Matt (February 9, 2022). "Predators use virtual reality chatroom to target children on popular gaming device." Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved February 27, 2022.</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

ImpactLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Scope

A commentator in The Washington Post noted that Facebook constitutes a "massive depository of information that documents both our reactions to events and our evolving customs with a scope and immediacy of which earlier historians could only dream".<ref name=WashPost_20190508 /> Especially for anthropologists, social researchers, and social historians—and subject to proper preservation and curation—the website "will preserve images of our lives that are vastly crisper and more nuanced than any ancestry record in existence".<ref name=WashPost_20190508>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Economy

Economists have noted that Facebook offers many non-rivalrous services that benefit as many users as are interested without forcing users to compete with each other. By contrast, most goods are available to a limited number of users. E.g., if one user buys a phone, no other user can buy that phone. Three areas add the most economic impact: platform competition, the market place and user behavior data.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook began to reduce its carbon impact after Greenpeace attacked it for its long-term reliance on coal and resulting carbon footprint.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In 2021 Facebook announced that their global operations are supported by 100 percent renewable energy and they have reached net zero emissions, a goal set in 2018.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook provides a development platform for many social gaming, communication, feedback, review, and other applications related to online activities. This platform spawned many businesses and added thousands of jobs to the global economy. Zynga Inc., a leader in social gaming, is an example of such a business. An econometric analysis found that Facebook's app development platform added more than 182,000 jobs in the U.S. economy in 2011. The total economic value of the added employment was about $12 billion ($Template:Formatprice in 2022 dollars<ref name="inflation-US" group="">1634–1699: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1700–1799: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 1800–present: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>).<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Society

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Facebook was one of the first large-scale social networks. In The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick stated that Facebook's structure makes it difficult to replace, because of its "network effects".Template:POV statement As of 2016, it is estimated that 44 percent of the US population gets news through Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> A study published at Frontiers Media in 2023 found that there was more polarization of the user-base on Facebook than even far-right social networks like Gab.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Mental and emotional health

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Studies have associated social networks with positive<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> and negative impacts<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> on emotional health.

Studies have associated Facebook with feelings of envy, often triggered by vacation and holiday photos. Other triggers include posts by friends about family happiness and images of physical beauty—such feelings leave people dissatisfied with their own lives. A joint study by two German universities discovered that one out of three people were more dissatisfied with their lives after visiting Facebook,<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref name="CNN studies" /> and another study by Utah Valley University found that college students felt worse about themselves following an increase in time on Facebook.<ref name="CNN studies">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Professor Larry D. Rosen stated that teenagers on Facebook exhibit more narcissistic tendencies, while young adults show signs of antisocial behavior, mania and aggressiveness.

Positive effects include signs of "virtual empathy" with online friends and helping introverted persons learn social skills.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> A 2020 experimental study in the American Economic Review found that deactivating Facebook led to increased subjective well-being.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In a blog post in December 2017, the company highlighted research that has shown "passively consuming" the News Feed, as in reading but not interacting, left users with negative feelings, whereas interacting with messages pointed to improvements in well-being.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

PoliticsLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

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In February 2008, a Facebook group called "One Million Voices Against FARC" organized an event in which hundreds of thousands of Colombians marched in protest against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In August 2010, one of North Korea's official government websites and the country's official news agency, Uriminzokkiri, joined Facebook.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

During the Arab Spring many journalists claimed that Facebook played a major role in the 2011 Egyptian revolution.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> On January 14, the Facebook page of "We are all Khaled Said" was started by Wael Ghoniem to invite the Egyptian people to "peaceful demonstrations" on January 25. According to Mashable,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". in Tunisia and Egypt, Facebook became the primary tool for connecting protesters and led the Egyptian government to ban Facebook, Twitter and other websites on January 26<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> then ban all mobile and Internet connections for all of Egypt on January 28. After 18 days, the uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign.

In a Bahraini uprising that started on February 14, 2011, Facebook was utilized by the Bahraini regime and regime loyalists to identify, capture and prosecute citizens involved in the protests. A 20-year-old woman named Ayat Al Qurmezi was identified as a protester using Facebook and imprisoned.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In 2011, Facebook filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a political action committee under the name FB PAC.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In an email to The Hill, a spokesman for Facebook said "Facebook Political Action Committee will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

During the Syrian civil war, the YPG, a libertarian army for Rojava recruited westerners through Facebook in its fight against ISIL.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Dozens joined its ranks. The Facebook page's name "The Lions of Rojava" comes from a Kurdish saying which translates as "A lion is a lion, whether it's a female or a male", reflecting the organization's feminist ideology.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

In recent years, Facebook's News Feed algorithms have been identified as a cause of political polarization, for which it has been criticized.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> It has likewise been accused of amplifying the reach of 'fake news' and extreme viewpoints, as when it may have enabled conditions which led to the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook first played a role in the American political process in January 2008, shortly before the New Hampshire primary. Facebook teamed up with ABC and Saint Anselm College to allow users to give live feedback about the "back to back" January 5 Republican and Democratic debates.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Facebook users took part in debate groups on specific topics, voter registration and message questions.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Over a million people installed the Facebook application "US Politics on Facebook" in order to take part which measured responses to specific comments made by the debating candidates.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> A poll by CBS News, UWIRE and The Chronicle of Higher Education claimed to illustrate how the "Facebook effect" had affected youthful voters, increasing voting rates, support of political candidates, and general involvement.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

The new social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, connected hundreds of millions of people. By 2008, politicians and interest groups were experimenting with systematic use of social media to spread their message.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> By the 2016 election, political advertising to specific groups had become normalized. Facebook offered the most sophisticated targeting and analytics platform.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> ProPublica noted that their system enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of "Jew hater", "How to burn Jews", or, "History of 'why Jews ruin the world".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook has used several initiatives to encourage its users to register to vote and vote. An experiment in 2012 involved showing Facebook users pictures of their friends who reported that they had voted; users who were shown the pictures were about 2% more likely to report that they had also voted compared to the control group, which was not encouraged to vote.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In 2020, Facebook announced the goal of helping four million voters register in the US, saying that it had registered 2.5 million by September.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

The Cambridge Analytica data scandal offered another example of the perceived attempt to influence elections.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The Guardian claimed that Facebook knew about the security breach for two years, but did nothing to stop it until it became public.<ref name="auto">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Facebook banned political ads to prevent the manipulation of voters in the US's November's election. Industry experts suggestedLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". that there are several other ways for misinformation to reach voters on social media platforms and blocking political ads will not serve as a proven solution to the problem.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

India

Ahead of the 2019 general elections in India, Facebook has removed 103 pages, groups and accounts on Facebook and Instagram platforms originating from Pakistan. Facebook said its investigation found a Pakistani military link, along with a mix of real accounts of ISPR employees, and a network of fake accounts created by them that have been operating military fan pages, general interest pages but were posting content about Indian politics while trying to conceal their identity.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> Owing to the same reasons, Facebook also removed 687 pages and accounts of Congress because of coordinated inauthentic behavior on the platform.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Culture

Facebook and Zuckerberg have been the subject of music, books, film and television. The 2010 film The Social Network, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and went on to win three Academy Awards and four Golden Globes.

In 2008, Collins English Dictionary declared "Facebook" as its new Word of the Year.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> In December 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary declared its word of the year to be the verb "unfriend", defined as "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook".<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

Internet.org

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In August 2013, Facebook founded Internet.org in collaboration with six other technology companies to plan and help build affordable Internet access for underdeveloped and developing countries.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> The service, called Free Basics, includes various low-bandwidth applications such as AccuWeather, BabyCenter, BBC News, ESPN, and Bing.<ref name=":5">Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref><ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref> There was severe opposition to Internet.org in India, where the service started in partnership with Reliance Communications in 2015 was banned a year later by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). In 2018, Zuckerberg claimed that "Internet.org efforts have helped almost 100 million people get access to the internet who may not have had it otherwise."<ref name=":5" />

Environment

Facebook announced in 2021 that it will make an effort to stop disinformation about climate change. The company will use George Mason University, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the University of Cambridge as sources of information. The company will expand its information hub on climate to 16 countries. Users in other countries will be directed to the site of the United Nations Environment Programme for information.<ref>Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".</ref>

References

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External links

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Facebook at Curlie

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Facebook

History

2003–2006: Thefacebook, Thiel investment, and name change

2006–2012: Public access, Microsoft alliance, and rapid growth

2012–2013: IPO, lawsuits, and one billion active users

2013–2014: Site developments, A4AI, and 10th anniversary

2015–2020: Algorithm revision; fake news

2020–present: FTC lawsuit, corporate re-branding, shut down of facial recognition technology, ease of policy

October 4, 2021, global service outage

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Minors exposed to sexual content on VR apps

ImpactLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

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