After Facebook acquired the popular GIF repository Giphy (reportedly for $400 million), the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation to determine if the merger would lessen competition. As part of that probe, it said Facebook couldn't continue with activities related to the merger (integrating products, merging teams and so on) without prior approval from the CMA. 

Now, the CMA has announced that it has fined Facebook £50.5 million ($70 million) for breaching those enforcement orders. "This is the first time a company has been found by the CMA to have breached an [order] by consciously refusing to report all the required information," the CMA said in a press release. 

The authority said that Facebook "significantly limited the scope of" updates required by the CMA, despite repeated warnings. Citing criticism by the Competition Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal, it noted that Facebook engaged in "what might be regarded as a high-risk strategy" around a "lack of cooperation" with the CMA.

The CMA said it also fined the company £500,000 ($700,000) for changing its Chief Compliance Officers twice without seeking consent. Facebook saw net revenue of $29.4 billion in 2020, so the fines are relative pocket change. However, its issues with the CMA aren't over yet, as the authority has yet to make a decision on the merger itself. In the meantime, it promised to "work constructively with the companies as things progress further." Engadget has reached out to Facebook for comment. 

The union representing film production crews has avoided a strike with an agreement that will see its members paid up to 30 percent more on streaming productions, The Verge has reported. The deal represents a win for International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) workers, who have typically been paid less for streaming shows than theatrical film productions and broadcast TV series in the US.

In an informational brief, IATSE tweeted that wages will increase for long-form, episodic and mini-series at up to 30 percent, depending on the classification. Those boosts depend on the size of the streaming company, with rates higher for services with 20 million or more subscribers. Longform productions between $20 and $32 million used to get discounts if they were headed to streaming services, but that will no longer be the case. 

On top of higher wages, members will also see improved workplace conditions. That includes employer funding of health and pension plans, along with revised terms for producers that tend rely a lot on overtime. In addition, "workers under the IATSE Basic Agreement across the US will be entitled to the same sick leave benefits as California members," the union stated.  

IATSE had warned that it would be taking a hard line with streaming services. "The most profitable companies on the planet do not need cut rates that were negotiated to address a once emerging distribution method. Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook should all pay industry standard wages to the professionals who crew their productions," the union told Deadline in July. 

IATSE members unanimously voted to strike this week if contract negotiations stalled, but that was narrowly avoided by a tentative agreement between the union and AMPTP group representing producers. However, it still needs to be ratified by union members, who could vote against it and send the parties back to the table. 

Pinterest is stepping up its efforts to lure creators to its platform, and making its app a little more like TIkTok in the process. The company showed off a number of new creator-focused features Wednesday to mark its annual “Creator Festival” event.

The changes include a redesigned home feed that separates the app into two tabs: “Browse,” which features a familiar grid of Pins, and “Watch” a new feed of full-screen vertical video that looks a lot like TikTok.

But instead of viral dances and catchy music, Pinterest’s Watch section is an endless feed of “Idea Pins,” the Stories-like feature the company launched earlier this year. Idea Pins allow creators to publish the kind of first-person video with narration or text overlays that you might find on platforms like TikTok. The feature has been central to the company’s creator-focused initiatives, though the company has been slower to embrace influencers than some competing platforms.

Pinterest

But with the new “Watch” feed, Idea Pins are moving front and center within the app, and will be served up to users in a swipeable, TikTok-like format. And, after initially limiting the format to a small group of vetted creators, Pinterest is adding features it hopes will spur more users to create Idea Pins of their own. A new “Takes” feature will allow users to riff off of other creators' Idea Pins, similar to the way creators may remix or respond to each other’s TikToks.

While TikTok may not be the platform most associated with creators, the company has been steadily ramping up its efforts to engage with more influential users. In addition to creator profiles and Idea Pins, the company also launched a $500,000 creator fund to provide direct financial support to creators from underrepresented backgrounds. And the company introduced dedicated monetization features to help creators make money via brand partnerships. 

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has said he "screwed up" communication with employees following a backlash over Dave Chappelle's The Closer, according to Variety. At the same time, he stood by the show, saying the company heavily values "artistic expression." His comments come just ahead of a planned walkout organized by LGBTQ+ staffers, creatives and allies. 

After debuting earlier this month, The Closer was met by a storm of criticism from the LGBTQ+ community, who called it transphobic. At the time, he told employees that Netflix would never allow titles "that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line." 

Now, Sarandos has said he regrets the way he handled the situation with employees. "Obviously, I screwed up that internal communication," he said in an interview with Variety. "First and foremost, I should have led with a lot more humanity. Meaning, I had a group of employees who were definitely feeling pain and hurt from a decision we made. And I think that needs to be acknowledged up front before you get into the nuts and bolts of anything."

Obviously, I screwed up that internal communication. First and foremost, I should have led with a lot more humanity. Meaning, I had a group of employees who were definitely feeling pain and hurt from a decision we made. And I think that needs to be acknowledged up front before you get into the nuts and bolts of anything.

At the same time, Sarandos said in a separate interview that "my stance hasn't changed" regarding to the decision to stream the special. "We do tell our employees upfront that we are trying to entertain our members, and that some of the content on Netflix you’re not going to like," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "The inclusion of the special on Netflix is consistent with our comedy offering [and is]… one of those times when there’s something on Netflix that you’re not going to like."

As part of the walkout, employees will reportedly have a list of demands for Netflix, and Sarandos has been meeting them to hear their views. He said that while the company is "deeply committed to inclusion," it's equally committed to "supporting artistic freedom with the creators who work at Netflix." He added that Netflix would not add a disclaimer in front of the special as employees requested, reasoning that Chappelle himself gives a warning at the beginning. 

Sarandos also addressed the issue of transparency in the company after an employee was fired for leaking internal company documents showing viewer figures for Netflix shows, including Chappelle's previous special. "We’re deeply committed to the culture of transparency," he told THR. "And it also depends upon a great deal of trust with our employees that we continue to secure, but we don’t plan on changing any of our internal operations around that."

According to Bloomberg, Netflix's pre-recorded call to shareholders announcing its third-quarter results gives us another glimpse at how successful Squid Game was. Around 142 million households worldwide watched the Korean-language show about debt—ridden individuals playing a deadly game for a cash prize worth tens of millions of dollars. That makes it the most-viewed new show in Netflix history, the publication said. 

Squid Game captured the "cultural zeitgeist" and claimed the number 1 spot in the streaming giant's rankings in 94 countries, including the US, Netflix has revealed. Since there's a huge demand for all things Squid Game, Netflix has also announced that consumer products based on the show are now on their way to retail. 

A few days ago, Bloombergobtained documents detailing the company's scores for "impact value" and "efficiency." Netflix has been pretty secretive on the metrics that make a title successful or not, and the documents showed how it measures series' and movies' success. Squid Game was a standout, generating $891.1 million in impact value, which is around 41.7 times — that's its efficiency score — its budget of $21.4 million.

Thanks in part to Squid Game's massive viewership, Netflix said it posted its best subscriber growth of the year. "As the quarter continued, we saw an acceleration in our growth," Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann said on the call. It welcomed 4.38 million subscribers in the third quarter, mostly from Asia and Europe, and it expects to get 8.5 million more customers in the final quarter of 2021.

Facebook is rebranding and changing its company name as soon as next week, according to The Verge. Apparently, the social media giant will have a new name that will reflect its focus on creating a metaverse. It's also possibly connected to its unreleased social virtual reality world called Horizon Worlds. The social network itself will likely retain the Facebook branding and will be under a new parent company, along with Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus. That would be similar to what Google did in 2015 when it put its various projects and divisions, along with itself, under its parent company Alphabet.

The Verge says the name change is a closely guarded secret at the moment and not even all senior leaders have knowledge about it. Mark Zuckerberg has long talked about wanting to make Facebook a metaverse company and has been taking steps towards that goal. Earlier this year, Facebook formed a team dedicated to building a metaverse, and just a few days ago, it talked about adding 10,000 "high-skilled" jobs across the European Union over the next five years to build its virtual and augmented reality experiences. It also released the Ray-Ban Stories augmented reality smart glasses in September.

We reached out to Facebook for a statement, and company spokesperson Joe Osborne said: "We don’t comment on rumor or speculation."

It's unclear how long Facebook been has planning on changing its name, but it's certainly a good distraction for the investigations it's facing and the bad press it's currently getting. Former executive-turned-whisleblower Frances Haugen provided the Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission with a treasure trove of internal documents, dropped several revelations about the company and accused it of choosing "profit over safety" — something Zuckerberg adamantly denied. 

In early October, she testified at a Senate hearing about research she says proves that the social network repeatedly lied about its platform, including the "efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems, and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages." Haugen has several ideas on what Facebook should change, but none of them has anything to do with changing its name. They include going back to chronological feeds from algorithmic ranking, adding some features that would prevent the spread of misinformation and opening Facebook research to people outside the company. 

The inspiration for a song can surface whether or not your full studio is available, and Roland has a solution for those spur-of-the-moment sessions. The music pioneer has introduced a free Zentracker app for Android and iOS that serves as a multitrack recorder for impromptu performances. You can add unlimited tracks (it defaults to four in the name of simplicity), draw on 200 audio loops and wield 16 audio effects while using familiar features like beat matching and looping.

You can save tracks to OneDrive, and Google Drive is "coming soon." The app is free as long as you have a Roland account, although Roland nudges you toward a Cloud subscription by limiting some effects, loop bundles, stem exports and other features to paying customers. You'll likely want a mixer like the Go: Mixer Pro-X to make the most of Zentracker, too.

There's an app for more formal productions. Roland is releasing a TR-Editor desktop app (below) that serves as a companion for machines like the TR-6S and TR-8S. You can browse sounds, program beats and tweak parameters from the comfort of your computer screen. While we're waiting on launch details as we write this, the software could be handy if you find the TR-series' on-device interface too cumbersome.

Roland

Microsoft is spicing up Flight Simulator with an expanded re-release, although this one may be more ambitious than some. It's releasingFlight Simulator: Game of the Year Edition on November 18th with both a heaping of new content as well as some meaningful feature upgrades. To start, there are five new stand-out aircraft, including the F/A-18 Super Hornet — you won't have to wait until the Top Gun expansion to buzz the tower in a fighter jet. You'll also get to fly the VoloCity air taxi, PC-6 Porter short-takeoff aircraft, the bush flying-oriented NX Cub and the single-seat Aviat Pitts Special S1S.

The GOTY upgrade adds eight airports, including Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Patrick Space Force Base. Eight cities will get photogrammetry detail upgrades, such as Helsinki, Nottinghm and Utrecht. There are accordingly new tutorials (such as bush flying and IFR) and Discovery Flights.

The update adds useful features, too. You'll have early access to DirectX 12 features, an improved weather system and a developer mode replay system, among other improvements.

Most notably, you won't have to pay for any of this as a veteran player— existing Flight Simulator owners will receive a free update on both Windows PCs and Xbox Series X/S. The paid GOTY release exists chiefly to entice first-timers. For everyone else, this is billed as a "thank you" upgrade that could keep them coming back.

Facebook is finally testing Novi, the digital wallet it’s been teasing for more than two years. Facebook’s payments chief David Marcus announced that the company is launching “a small pilot” of Novi in the United States and Guatemala with the goal of enabling family members to send remittances across borders.

“We’re doing a pilot to test core feature functions, and our operational capabilities in customer care and compliance,” Marcus wrote. “We’re also hopeful this will demonstrate a new stablecoin use case (as a payments instrument) beyond how they are typically used today.”

The fact that Novi is finally launching, even in a limited way, would seem like significant step forward for Facebook’s long-troubled crypto plans. However, the company is launching the wallet without Diem, its planned cryptocurrency (previously called Libra) that’s faced a wave of pushback from lawmakers and regulators around the world.

Instead, the initial pilot will use the Pax Dollar (USDP), a stablecoin that Marcus said has “been operating successfully for over three years and has important regulatory and consumer protection attributes.” He added that Facebook has partnered with Coinbase during the pilot.

News of the pilot has already sparked renewed criticism from lawmakers. On Tuesday, hours after Marcus’ initial announcement, a group of five Democratic senators sent a letter to Facebook asking the company “to immediately discontinue your Novi pilot and to commit that you will not bring Diem to market.” The letter cited the recent disclosures from a Facebook whistleblower, and the company’s “relentless pursuit of profits at the expense of its users.”

“Given the scope of the scandals surrounding your company, we write to voice our strongest opposition to Facebook’s revived effort to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet, now branded ‘Diem’ and ‘Novi,’ respectively,” the senators wrote. “Facebook cannot be trusted to manage a payment system or digital currency when its existing ability to manage risks and keep consumers safe has proven wholly insufficient.”

A spokesperson for Novi said that “we look forward to responding to the Committee’s letter,” but didn't elaborate. In his initial announcement, Marcus said the company remains committed to launching Diem. “I do want to be clear that our support for Diem hasn’t changed and we intend to launch Novi with Diem once it receives regulatory approval and goes live,” he wrote.

Facebook has reached separate settlements with the Department of Justice and Department of Labor over its hiring practices related to foreign workers. The settlements stem from allegations the Trump administration brought against Facebook in late 2020. At the time, the DoJ said the company had “inadequately advertised” at least 2,600 positions between 2018 and 2019 that were eventually filled by workers on H-1B visas.

The company allegedly employed a recruitment process that was intentionally designed to dissuade US workers from applying for positions it had set aside for temporary visa holders. Under the DoJ settlement, Facebook will pay $4.75 million to the federal government and up to $9.5 million to eligible victims.

The fines, while a drop in the ocean for a company like Facebook, represent the largest such penalties the Department of Justice has enforced as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act. More significantly, they're another piece of bad news for a company that has been mired in it in recent weeks. At the start of October, whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before Congress how Facebook’s algorithms have hampered its efforts to slow misinformation on its platforms. The company has also faced increasing scrutiny over its efforts to downplay internal research that shows its platforms can be harmful to some young users.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment.