Facebook is considering forming a commission to advise on thorny issues related to global elections, according to a report Wednesday from The New York Times. The company has begun to approach academics and policy experts, who The Times says could potentially weigh in on issues ranging from political ads to election misinformation. What's more, it is not just US elections where a commission could find itself weighing complicated election issues; the commission would also likely have a mandate to weigh in on closely watched elections in Hungary, Germany, Brazil and the Philippines.
But though the makeup of the election commission sounds like the Oversight Board — and could similarly let Facebook side-step ownership of controversial decisions — there could be an important difference, according to The Times. Whereas the Oversight Board weighs in on decisions that Facebook has already made (much like the Supreme Court considers contested court rulings), the election commission would have the latitude to proactively offer advice, even on matters where Facebook had not yet taken a public stance.
If Facebook goes ahead with outsourcing election-related decisions to an advisory committee, it would be a departure from its previous attempts to counter election misinformation, which have been largely reactive, and almost always imperfect. Even after a temporary ban on political ads ahead of the 2020 US election, some ads were still showing as active in Facebook's ad library. Facebook last year also endeavored to label ads from politically connected publications, and earlier this year moved to show users less political content altogether.
Though Facebook reportedly hopes to launch the commission ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, The Times also describes the outreach as preliminary, with no guarantee that Facebook will move forward on this.
YouTube has removed 1 million videos for dangerous COVID-19 misinformation since February 2020, according to YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mahon.
Mahon shared the statistic in a blog post outlining how the company approaches. misinformation on its platform. “Misinformation has moved from the marginal to the mainstream,” he wrote. “No longer contained to the sealed-off worlds of Holocaust deniers or 9-11 truthers, it now stretches into every facet of society, sometimes tearing through communities with blistering speed.”
At the same time, the Youtube executive argued that “bad content” accounts for only a small percentage of YouTube content overall. “Bad content represents only a tiny percentage of the billions of videos on YouTube (about .16-.18% of total views turn out to be content that violates our policies),” Mahon wrote. He added that YouTube removes almost 10 million videos each quarter, “the majority of which don’t even reach 10 views.”
Facebook recently made a similar argument about content on its platform. The social network published a report last week that claimed that the most popular posts are memes and other non-political content. And, faced with criticism over its handling of COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation, the company has argued that vaccine misinformation isn’t representative of the kind of content most users see.
Both Facebook and YouTube have come under particular scrutiny for their policies around health misinformation during the pandemic. Both platforms have well over a billion users, which means that even a small fraction of content can have a far-reaching impact. And both platforms have so far declined to disclose details about how vaccine and health misinformation spreads or how many users are encountering it. Mahon also said that removing misinformation is only one aspect of the company’s approach. YouTube is also working on “ratcheting up information from trusted sources and reducing the spread of videos with harmful misinformation.”
You can't escape viral TikTok songs. They're everywhere, and you're bound to hear them over and over again if you spend time on any social media platform. If you actually like listening to TikTok earworms, you can now also listen to them on SiriusXM. The satellite radio service has launched TikTok Radio, a full-fledged music channel dedicated to viral hits from the platform that's now available in vehicles, on desktop, connected devices and on the SXM app.
According to the companies, the channel will sound like a radio version of the platform's "For You" feed. In fact, some of TikTok's most popular creators will be presenting music and sharing stories about the viral hits you can listen to. They named Billy (@8illy), Cat Haley (@itscathaley), HINDZ (@hindzsight), Lamar Dawson (@dirrtykingofpop) and Taylor Cassidy (@taylorcassidyj), in particular, though the channel will feature more creators in the future.
One of the shows you can look forward to is The TikTok Radio Trending Ten, which will have the creators presenting the current most popular songs on the platform. It will stream every Friday at 3PM ET with replays throughout the weekend. You can also listen to it anytime through the SXM app. DJ Habibeats (@djhabibeats) and DJ CONST (@erinconstantineofficial) will also serve as the channel's resident DJs and will mix trending hits live simultaneously on TikTok and Tiktok Radio every Fridays and Saturdays starting at 7 PM ET.
Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer of SiriusXM, said in a statement:
"Our groundbreaking new channel with TikTok is a first-of-its-kind, capturing the pulse of the global music culture, vibrancy and vitality found on the entertaining social platform and recreated as a full-time music channel on live national radio and our streaming platforms. The creators, who are also presenting the music on TikTok Radio, are deeply involved in the channel and will reflect the unique sound and personality of TikTok that is so enmeshed with today's music culture and community. TikTok creators will be delivering new audio experiences for our listeners as they tap into the latest music trends on TikTok."
Earlier this week, Facebook introduced tools to help people in Afghanistan lock down their accounts. Clubhouse, the social audio app, is doing the same thing. The company announced on Twitter that it was proactively making some changes to the privacy settings for users in Afghanistan. Specifically, for users who "haven't been active," Clubhouse is hiding their photo and bio and making it harder to find the accounts in search.
Users are free to then add back any information they feel comfortable sharing, and they can also reach out to support to make their account "more discoverable." As noted by The Verge, Clubhouse says that all the actions it is taking are reversible, and that these changes won't affect users' followers. The company also says that users can use pseudonyms rather than real names for safety purposes.
This move comes about a month after Clubhouse came out of beta and opened its service to everyone. More crucially, it comes as the Taliban has taken control of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan; the militant organization is using social media to help change perceptions. The US still considers the Taliban a terrorist organization, and as such Facebook has banned all content from the group. There hasn't been a similarly straightforward statement from Clubhouse, but it's clear the company is thinking about how to protect its users in the region.
Facebook's introducing new tools to help people in Afghanistan lock down their accounts’ privacy settings. The “one-click” tool will activate privacy settings for timeline posts, and prevent profile photos from being downloaded or shared, Facebook’s Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement.
The feature will encourage users to "limit what unknown people can see," according to screenshots shared by Gleicher. The tool won’t be available on Instagram, but the photo sharing app is pushing “pop-up alerts” that will explain ways to lock down those accounts as well.
Facebook
Gleicher added that the company is also temporarily hiding friends lists of accounts in the country, and he encouraged people with Facebook friends in Afghanistan to change privacy settings for their friends list as well. “We’re working closely with our counterparts in industry, civil society and government to provide whatever support we can to help protect people,” he said. “And we've stood up a special operations center to respond to new threats as they emerge.”
It took Facebook several hours to pull down a livestream from a man suspected of making a bomb threat at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. According to Politico, the unidentified man, who approached the Library of Congress in a pickup truck and told police he had a bomb in the car, streamed live on Facebook for multiple hours as police negotiated with him. The video "circulated widely" before Facebook finally took it down.
On Twitter, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the company had taken down the stream and the man's profile and is "continuing to investigate" the matter.
It's not the first time Facebook has had to scramble to prevent a disturbing live stream from spreading. In 2019, the company raced to pull down more than a million copies of a live stream recorded by a mass shooter in New Zealand, in an effort that took multiple days.
Starting today, some Facebook users in the US will see Reels, Instagram’s take on TikTok-like short-form videos, appear throughout the company's main app, the social media giant told The Verge. If Facebook enrolls you in the test, you’ll see the clips appear nestled in the News Feed and within Groups. The experiment is an expansion to an existing one Facebook is running in Canada, India and Mexico.
In addition to watching Reels on the platform, you can record them directly from the Facebook app. Moreover, much like with Stories, Instagram users can cross-post the clips to Facebook. The company told The Verge the test is in part a response to the popularity of the format, with interest in the clips growing "especially quickly."
Whatever you think of them, it’s safe to say short-form videos are here to stay, and Facebook isn’t the only company intent on integrating the format into its mainline app. Just last month, YouTube rolled out tools for creating Shorts to users in 100 countries and started paying out creators from the $100 million fund it created to support the format.
Am I a weirdo for liking in-person meetings? Sure, they can go on too long, be scheduled far too often and distract from your core work. But even before the pandemic made them an exotic memory, I always loved the energy of being in a room with other people, finding the same creative wavelength, working towards a common goal. There's no video chat app that can replicate that. So, what about VR?
We've already seen companies like Spatial take a stab at virtual meetings, where you can chat with others, inspect objects and even explore 3D environments from the comfort your home with a VR headset. Now Facebook's Oculus is entering the fray with Horizon Workrooms, an ambitious attempt to capture the best aspects of in-person meetings for Oculus Quest 2 users.
To be clear, Workrooms isn'tFacebook Horizon, its long-awaited multiplayer VR playground. But it is part of the company's overall vision for the Horizon universe, one entirely devoted to collaborating in meeting rooms and classrooms. And despite being so focused, it's still a showpiece for Facebook's VR ambitions, tapping into the company's expressive avatars, spatial sound, hand tracking and mixed-reality capabilities. You'll even be able to stream your PC desktop in VR to take notes or goof off during meetings (just like real life!).
After spending an hour in a Horizon Workrooms demo, it's clear that Facebook still has plenty of work left to do. There were a few connection issues, avatar glitches and at one point I got booted out entirely. But when it was running smoothly, it was the closest I've felt to being in an live meeting since March of last year.
But let me start from the beginning. After creating a Workrooms account, I installed the PC companion app and the Workrooms Quest 2 app. Once I booted it up in VR, I was surprised that it recommended putting my controllers down and enabling the Quest 2's hand-tracking. Outside of demos for that feature, I can't think of any Oculus apps that have done the same. After that, I customized a goofy avatar — an idealized version of myself with purple hair and no beer belly — and mapped out the edge of my desk so Workrooms can accurately place me in front of virtual tables.
Facebook
As soon as I hopped into my Horizon Workrooms demo, it was instantly clear why Oculus recommended hand-tracking. I waved to a PR rep, and as I struggled to unmute myself, I was able to throw a thumbs up to confirm I was hearing her. I shouted hello to CNET's Scott Stein, who was sitting a few seats away, and his audio sounded appropriately far off. We all spent way too much time staring at our hands and testing the limits of the Quest 2's finger tracking capabilities (for the record, rolling your hands over each other like a wannabe raver can easily scramble things).
Even though I was in a swanky virtual room, with a stylized deer head wearing VR goggles on the wall, and ceiling-tall windows overlooking expansive lake and mountain rage somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, sitting desk-side with others felt vaguely normal. We made small talk about our families and our vastly different locations (including folks in California, New Jersey, London and myself in Atlanta). I could see who was working on Macs and PCs, based on the virtual accessories in front of them. And along the wall there were also video feeds from other Facebook reps calling in from their PCs, which reminded me of the enormous video conferencing screens in many meeting rooms.
To see my keyboard and mouse, I hit a button to enable pass-through mode, which projected grey-scale footage of my actual desk inside of Workrooms' VR environment. It wasn't crystal clear, but it was enough to touch-type notes in Evernote by streaming my PC desktop. If you're running an Apple Magic Keyboard or a specific Logitech model, you'll also be able to see your keyboard in VR, so you won't have to deal with the pass-through video.
Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's head of VR and AR, said during the demo that he believes there's "something missing" with video calling, and that there's a strong pull towards VR collaboration apps as a solution. Of course, that's exactly what you'd expect Facebook's VR lead to say. But he has a point.
Video calls are a fantastic way for seeing people and maintaining social connections. But when it comes to getting work done, they can get old fast. Everyone's audio comes in from one channel; it's hard to make eye contact in large group chats; and the entire session just lives on your computer or phone screen. There's no sense of actually being in a space with others. Bosworth says that Facebook has been using Workrooms internally for about six months, and he's noticed some clear benefits. In particular, he can remember specific meetings better thanks to the immersion of sitting beside people in VR with realistic spatial audio.
Facebook
Of course, virtual reality can also make meetings awkward in entirely new ways. I quickly learned that I couldn't look closely at someone's avatar if they were sitting nearby, because it actually felt like I was staring at them. I couldn't reach for a cup of water on my real-world desk, because it was sitting in front of my neighbor's virtual space. I also had to be careful about where I placed my hands, because the Quest 2's hand tracking could make things look... suspect, if they're under your desk.
All of that awkwardness culminated when Mark Zuckerberg crashed our demo and sat in the virtual chair beside me. He sketched out his overall vision for Horizon as a stepping stone for his metaverse ambitions. But as he was speaking, I was also trying hard to keep my virtual cool: Don't stare! Don't be weird with your hands! Pay attention and be respectful! I thought I was doing pretty well in the heat of the moment, but a recording of our session looked like I was performing some sort of interpretive dance beside the world's fifth richest man. (Thankfully, that footage isn't meant for public consumption.)
Zuckerberg only stopped by for a few minutes, but the fact he made an appearance at all is telling. Workrooms isn't some side project: It's a significant component of what he wants Facebook to become. You can see that in the app's more ambitious features, like a whiteboard that can grow as long as you'd like. You can sketch out thoughts by holding your Oculus controller straight up, so that you can use the end like a massive pen. And if you want to stretch your legs, you can assign a blank wall in your room to serve as your life-sized whiteboard. You can also change the size and layout of your workspace at will, allowing you to move from a circular conference table to something that resembles a classroom.
Facebook
Perhaps because Zuckerberg wants Workrooms to be a success, the company is also making it more accessible to people who don't want Facebook accounts. You can join a session via video chat by creating a Workrooms account, which is separate from Oculus and Facebook logins. If you want to enjoy the experience in VR, though, you'll need a Facebook account to use the Quest 2. Maybe letting people peek at the 2D Workrooms experience could encourage them to go virtual.
The company is also being up-front about security and privacy, saying that it won't use conversations or materials from Workrooms sessions to inform Facebook ads. You'll also be able to report individuals and entire groups if they're harassing you or violating community standards. That was a major concern when I demoed Facebook Horizons last year; the idea of a VR playground sounds great, but how do you make it safe for everyone?
If anything, Horizon Workrooms tells us that Zuckerberg's metaverse ambitions are more than just marketing fluff. He paid $2 billion for Oculus, after all, and Facebook has continually invested in VR development and content. You don't spend that sort of money if you don't have a vision for the future.
When he stopped by our demo, Zuckerberg told us he used to scribble code in his notebook during middle school. As soon as he got home, he would type it up with the hopes of building an immersive world to hang out with friends. Workrooms isn't the perfect VR collaboration solution yet, but it could be the start of what the younger Zuckerberg envisioned. After all, the metaverse won't be built in a day.
Back in March, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published a report linking more than two-thirds of vaccine misinformation online to12 individuals. That statistic has been widely cited since, including by lawmakers and government officials, as proof that Facebook has failed to control lies about COVID-19 vaccines.
Now, five months later, Facebook says it has banned more than 36 accounts, groups, and Pages associated with these misinformation “superspreaders.” The company says it’s taken other actions to make other content associated with these individuals less visible, as well.
“We have also imposed penalties on nearly two dozen additional Pages, groups or accounts linked to these 12 people, like moving their posts lower in News Feed so fewer people see them or not recommending them to others,” Facebook said in a statement. “We’ve applied penalties to some of their website domains as well so any posts including their website content are moved lower in News Feed. Notably, some accounts associated with the group remain online, which Facebook says is because they are either “inactive,” not posting rule-breaking content or have only shared “a small amount” of such content.
Facebook has taken issue with the CCDH’s report since it was first published, disputing its methodology and its conclusion. In its latest statement, the social network said “there isn’t any evidence” to support the report’s claim that 73 percent of vaccine misinformation is linked to the group, which includes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joseph Mercola, Del Bigtree and other prominent anti-vaccine activists. Yet the report has become a headache for the company as it was cited by the US Surgeon General last month in a health advisory warning the public of vaccine misinformation online. Overall, the company has removed around 3,000 groups, pages and accounts for repeatedly breaking its rules against COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation during the pandemic, though the company still hasn’t shared stats on how often such misinformation is being viewed.
In a statement, CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed said that Facebook had “grossly misrepresented” the research. “Facebook has grossly misrepresented CCDH and Anti-Vax Watch's research while continuing to withhold the data that show how many of its users have been exposed to disinformation fueling vaccine hesitancy. CCDH and Anti-Vax Watch continue to be fully transparent about their methodologies, which rely on publicly available tools for tracking audience and content reach.”
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook has taken a much tougher stance on health misinformation than it has in the past, removing millions of posts for sharing misinformation. Now, we know just how many accounts, groups and pages have been banned from the platform for repeatedly breaking those rules: 3,000.
Facebook shared the stat as part of its community standards enforcement report, which measures how the company enforces its rules. The number may seem low given the vast amount of misinformation on Facebook about the pandemic and the vaccines.The company also said that more than 20 million pieces of content have been removed and more than 190 million have warning labels between the start of the pandemic in 2020 and this past June.
But the relatively low number of bans — just 3,0000 — tracks with findings by researchers who say that just a few individuals are responsible for the vast majority of vaccine mistruths on social media.
During a call with reporters, Facebook’s VP of Content Policy Monika Bickert, said the company has had to continually evolve its policies, and that it now removes 65 types of vaccine falsehoods, such as posts saying COVID-19 shots cause magnetism. She also noted that some groups have used “coded language” to try to evade the company’s detection, which can pose a challenge.
Facebook’s handling of vaccine misinformation has been in the spotlight in recent months as government officials, including President Joe Biden, have said Facebook should do more to counter mistruths about the COVID-19 vaccines. On its part, Facebook says that vaccine hesitancy has declined by 50 percent in the US, according to its surveys, and that its COVID-19 Information Center has reached 2 billion people.
