meta

March 27, 2025 1:36 PM

Italy seeks payment from Meta, X and LinkedIn in landmark tax case

Italy has handed tax demands to Meta, X and LinkedIn in the last formal step in an unprecedented VAT claim against the U.S. tech giants that could have repercussions across the European Union, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. While it has been reported that Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta and Elon Musk's social network X were under investigation for alleged tax fraud, it had not been disclosed that Microsoft's LinkedIn unit was also caught up in Ita...

March 6, 2025 5:22 PM

Meta, Google urged to crack down on illegal online gambling in India: report

Big tech companies like Meta and Google must take stronger action against the rapidly growing illegal online gambling and betting market on their platforms in India, a new report said on Thursday. The Digital India Foundation report revealed that illegal gambling networks lure users through digital ads, social media, messaging platforms, and cryptocurrency-based payment systems. It called for stricter regulations and active collaboration between Indian regulators and tech companies to curb the ...

February 26, 2025 4:13 PM

Meta must face lawsuit claiming it prefers cheaper foreign workers

A federal judge on Tuesday said Meta Platforms must face a lawsuit claiming that the Facebook and Instagram parent prefers to hire foreign workers because it can pay them less than American workers. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco said three U.S. citizens who accused Meta of refusing to hire them though they were qualified may pursue a proposed class action. The plaintiffs - information technology worker Purushothaman Rajaram and software engineer Ekta Bhatia, both natural...

February 6, 2025 11:57 AM

Google introduces new class of cheap AI models as cost concerns intensify

Alphabet's Google on Wednesday announced updates to its Gemini family of large language models, including a new product line with competitive pricing to low-cost artificial intelligence models like that of Chinese rival DeepSeek. The tech giant offers several versions of Gemini that vary in price and performance. It already offered a lightweight variant known as "Flash" but its new "Flash-Lite" model is even cheaper. On Wednesday, Google released Gemini 2.0 Flash to the general public after pr...

January 15, 2025 3:32 PM

Meta apologises for Zuckerberg’s India election remark, calls it an ‘inadvertent error’

Social media giant Meta on Wednesday apologised to the Indian government for its Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s remarks on the 2024 General Elections, calling it an "inadvertent error" and reaffirming that India remains an “important country” for the company. The company was set to be summoned by a Parliamentary panel over "incorrect and irresponsible" remarks made by Zuckerberg, which were criticised for "spreading misinformation." In a post on the social media platform X, Meta In...

January 10, 2025 11:58 AM

Meta knew it used pirated books to train AI, authors say

Meta Platforms used pirated versions of copyrighted books to train its artificial intelligence systems with approval from its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a group of authors alleged in newly disclosed court papers. Ta-Nehisi Coates, comedian Sarah Silverman, and other authors suing Meta for copyright infringement made the accusations in filings made public on Wednesday in California federal court. They said internal documents produced by Meta during the discovery process showed the company knew the wor...

November 5, 2024 12:47 PM

South Korea fines Meta about $15 million over collection of user data.

South Korea has ordered Facebook owner Meta Platforms to pay 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million) in fines after finding it had collected sensitive user data and given it to advertisers without a legal basis, Seoul's data protection agency said. The U.S. tech giant obtained information from about 980,000 South Korean Facebook users on issues such as their religion, political views, and sexuality while failing to seek agreement from users, the Personal Information Protection Commission said in a s...

November 1, 2024 11:51 AM

Chinese researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta’s Llama

Top Chinese research institutions linked to the People's Liberation Army have used Meta's publicly available Llama model to develop an AI tool for potential military applications, according to academic papers and analysts. In a June paper reviewed by Reuters, six Chinese researchers from three institutions, including two under the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) leading research body, the Academy of Military Science (AMS), detailed how they had used an early version of Meta's Llama as a base f...

October 22, 2024 12:47 PM

Facebook owner Meta restarts facial recognition tech in ‘celeb-bait’ crackdown

Three years after Meta shut down facial recognition software on Facebook amid a groundswell of privacy and regulator pushback, the social media giant said on Tuesday it is testing the service again as part of a crackdown on "celeb bait" scams. Meta said it will enroll about 50,000 public figures in a trial which involves automatically comparing their Facebook profile photos with images used in suspected scam advertisements. If the images match and Meta believes the ads are scams, it will block ...

October 18, 2024 11:37 PM

Meta must face Massachusetts social media addiction lawsuit, judge rules

A Massachusetts judge rejected Meta Platforms' bid to dismiss a lawsuit by the state alleging the social media company purposely deployed features on its Instagram platform to addict young users and deceived the public about the dangers its product posed to the mental health of teenagers. Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp in Boston, in a decision made public on Friday, rejected Meta's request to dismiss claims by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell that it violated ...