"The undersigned organisations condemn Meta’s recent decision to restrict the Facebook and Instagram accounts of independent NGOs, researchers, and civil society figures from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is the latest in a pattern of major technology companies, including Meta, acting as enforcement arms for repressive governments in the Gulf. We call on Meta to uphold its human rights responsibilities and ensure that users’ content is not arbitrarily restricted.

Since 30 April 2026, Gulf-focused NGOs ALQST for Human Rights and Democratic Diwan, as well as Saudi researcher Abdullah Alaoudh and human rights defender Yahya Assiri, have had their Facebook accounts rendered “unavailable” in Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi government, in a form of “geo-blocking”. Similar restrictions have been imposed in the UAE, including against an academic. According to Meta's publicly available content restriction reports, over 100 Facebook pages and Instagram accounts have been restricted since March 2026. This follows a similar pattern on X (formerly Twitter). Most recently, the Saudi government requested that a number of X accounts belonging to prominent Saudi activists be geo-blocked. As of the publication date (20 May), X had not complied.

The undersigned organisations consider these measures arbitrary, discriminatory, and a direct violation of the right to freedom of expression and access to information. Affected users were notified that Meta acted in response to a “local legal requirement” or a “request from a government” (i.e. Saudi Arabia and the UAE), demonstrating the company’s willingness to comply with demands from state authorities that routinely suppress, surveil, and criminalise online expression."

https://www.alqst.org/en/post/meta-blocks-human-rights-accounts-from-reaching-audiences-in-saudi-arabia-and-the-uae

#SocialMedia #SaudiArabia #UAE #Censorship #Meta #Instagram #Facebook

US Top News and Analysis | Google gives first glimpse of new AI glasses ahead of fall launch

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Google unveiled its first audio‑only smart glasses at the 2026 I/O developers conference, showing off a new wearable that delivers Gemini‑powered voice assistance directly into the ear instead of a visual display. The company said the glasses, built in partnership with Samsung, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, will work with Android and iOS devices and launch later this year as part of a broader collection. A live demo had product manager Nishtha Bhatia use the glasses to summon Gemini, place a DoorDash order, read text messages, add calendar events, get turn‑by‑turn directions, and even capture photos that could be transformed by Google’s AI image generator “Nano Banana.” The reveal positions Google against rivals such as Meta, whose Ray‑Ban and Oakley smart glasses sold 7 million units in 2025, as well as Apple, Snap and Alibaba, all of which are developing their own AI‑enabled eyewear.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/google-gives-first-glimpse-of-new-ai-glasses-ahead-of-fall-launch-.html

#Google #Samsung #Meta #ShahramIzadi #NishthaBhatia

Feed: All Latest | Meta Employees Are Scrambling to Use Up Benefits Ahead of Layoffs by Paresh Dave, Lauren Goode, Zoë Schiffer

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Meta employees are rapidly using up their annual $2,000 flexible benefit and a $200 audio‑gear credit—buying items like Apple AirPods—on the eve of a scheduled layoff of roughly 8,000 workers, roughly 10 % of its 80,000‑strong workforce. As the company prepares to cut jobs to free cash for AI data‑center investments, offices have grown empty, staff are polishing résumés, meeting off‑site, and sharing checklists of perks to claim before they disappear. Morale is low, with many feeling “paralyzed,” “coasting,” or “panicked,” especially after being reassigned to new AI teams and subjected to increased surveillance; Meta also plans to restructure the remaining 70,000 employees, moving 7,000 to AI initiatives and converting many managers to individual contributors, affecting a total of about 20 % of staff either through layoffs or role changes.

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/meta-employees-scramble-benefits-layoffs-ai/

#Meta #MarkZuckerberg #Apple #business_bigtech

The Guardian | Meta is rapidly reorganizing its workers’ jobs around AI: ‘Transfers aren’t optional’ by Varsha Bansal

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Meta is rapidly reshaping its workforce around artificial‑intelligence projects, mandating that more than 7,000 employees transfer to two newly created teams—one focused on AI‑cloud infrastructure and another building an internal AI agent called “Hatch”—and earlier moving about 1,000 engineers onto a data‑labelling group named Applied AI with “transfers aren’t optional.” The restructuring also trims managers’ direct reports, pushes many into individual contributor roles, and comes amid plans to lay off roughly 10 % of staff despite strong earnings, while a new internal monitoring tool records workers’ mouse movements, keystrokes and other computer‑use data to train Meta’s AI models. Employees, fearing an increasingly authoritarian culture, have organised petitions opposing the data‑collection practice, signed by over 500 staff, and are seeking to form a union with United Tech and Allied Workers in the UK. The moves reflect Meta’s race to catch up with rivals such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, highlighted by a $135 billion AI‑infrastructure budget and the recent launch of its Muse Spark model, but they have sparked growing discontent and uncertainty within the company’s workforce.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/19/meta-jobs-ai-transfers

#Meta #PeterHoose #AppliedAI #aiartificialintelligence #workcareers

The Guardian | Who’s behind the Facebook page posting hateful AI slop about the UK? The answer might lie in south Asia | Niamh McIntyre by Niamh McIntyre

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

The investigation reveals that a cottage industry of young men in Sri Lanka and Pakistan is using generative AI to produce hateful, anti‑immigrant “slop” for Facebook audiences in the UK, masquerading as patriotic British pages while earning substantial ad revenue—one Pakistani creator claims $1,500 a month and a Sri Lankan creator says he has made $300,000—by exploiting Meta’s algorithm that rewards emotionally charged, extremist content; the boom is driven by easy‑to‑use AI tools for generating videos, captions, and images, and by Meta’s reduced content‑moderation staffing, which together allow these creators to spread Islamophobic and far‑right propaganda with little oversight despite community‑standard violations.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/19/social-media-facebook-ai-slop-hateful-south-asia

#Meta #SouthAsia #Islamophobia #aiartificialintelligence #socialnetworking #GeethSooriyapura

Sweden Herald - Latest Sweden News | Meta is reorganizing ahead of layoffs, reassigning 7,000 employees to AI by Sweden Herald

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Meta is reorganizing its workforce ahead of a major layoff, moving 7,000 employees into new positions focused on developing AI products while also preparing to cut about ten percent of its staff—roughly 8,000 workers—this week, according to Bloomberg documents that cite internal plans and a company announcement made a month earlier. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is directing resources toward AI development across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

Read more: https://swedenherald.com/article/meta-is-reorganizing-ahead-of-layoffs-reassigning-7000-employees-to-ai

#Meta #MarkZuckerberg #businessnews

Hello #Mastdon #FediVersa friends and followers,

I’m not sure if it’s necessary to make an announce or if it’s even relevant to you: as the owner and admin of my own instance, I have suspended the domain for #Threads completely.

I don’t trust #Meta. Period.

I have enjoyed being here since more than a year now and I appreciate each and every active mutual follower. I hope together we can keep this space safe and secure.

#BlockMeta #BlockThreads

Instagramin kokeilussa oleva maksullinen tilaus mahdollistaa muiden käyttäjien tarinoiden katselun anonyymisti

Instagramin tarinat eli storyt jättävät normaalisti jäljen siitä, ketkä tarinan ovat katsoneet, mutta maksullisella Instagram Plus -tilauksella tarinan katselija voi kurkkia tarinat halutessaan anonyymisti.

https://dawn.fi/uutiset/2026/05/19/instagram-plus-maksullinen-tilaus

#instagram #instagramplus #sosiaalinenmedia #uutiset #meta

Wann wird die #republica zum BigTech-freien Safe-Space? #rp26 erneut mit problematischem Sponsoring

Die re:publica versteht sich als Ort für kritischen Austausch über Digitalisierung, Demokratie und Macht. Deshalb ist es problematisch, dass BigTech-Konzerne als Sponsoren und „Partner“ vertreten sind. Dieses Jahr sind es Google und Meta. Das normalisiert deren Macht und trägt zum Ungleichgewicht zwischen Monopol-Plattformen und Gesellschaft bei.

Das Sponsoring vermittelt den Eindruck, als seien diese Konzerne einfach nur „Teil des Diskurses“ oder "Stimme der Industrie" und nicht zentrale Treiber von Plattformmonopolen, Überwachungskapitalismus und Abhängigkeiten in unserer Gesellschaft.

Nach Angaben der #republica machen die Sponsoring-Einnahmen von #Google und #Meta zusammen nur rund 1,6 % der gesamten Sponsoring-Einnahmen aus. Die #republica könnte auf dieses Geld verzichten. Dass sie es nicht tut, ist eine bewusste Entscheidung.

Deshalb: Die nächste #republica muss ein BigTech-freier Safer Space werden.

Alt...

Bühne der Republica mit Google-Werbung

Alt...

Bühne der Republica mit Meta-Werbung

#Meta concediază 10% din angajați și mută mii de salariați către proiectele de 🧠#inteligențăArtificială.

🔗 https://wp.me/p9KpFA-5i46

#Știri #Tehnologie #InteligențaArtificială #AI

S it too meta to ask Meta AI how can one disable Meta AI?

#Meta #Facebook #AI

US Top News and Analysis | Meta layoffs starting this week stress harsh AI reality inside Zuckerberg’s company

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Meta is preparing its latest round of layoffs, cutting about 8,000 jobs—roughly 10% of its workforce—while scrapping plans to fill 6,000 open roles, and further cuts are expected later in the year. The reductions come as the company dramatically increases its AI spending, boosting its 2026 capital‑expenditure guidance by up to $10 billion to as much as $145 billion, and launching new AI initiatives such as an employee‑tracking tool for training digital agents. Employees report growing dread and a steep drop in internal ratings, citing morale issues, privacy concerns over data‑tracking, and skepticism about Meta’s scattered AI strategy. The layoffs follow earlier cuts in Reality Labs and other units, and come amid a broader tech‑industry wave of layoffs driven by AI‑related restructuring.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/18/metas-layoffs-starting-this-week-underscore-zuckerbergs-ai-reality-.html

#Meta #MarkZuckerberg #SusanLi #AI #Zuckerberg

💰 Meta's $10 billion Louisiana data center is getting $3.3 billion in tax breaks—more than seven years of the state's entire police budget | Fortune

｢ Hyperion will be exempt from state and local sales and use taxes on its data center equipment for the next 20 years, which includes the GPUs that train and develop AI models ｣

https://fortune.com/2026/05/14/meta-data-center-tax-break-hyperion-louisiana/

#datacenters #ai #meta

Reading this blow post makes you angry at vendor & platform lock in

Do something about it

# FIGHT

Athropy is used here

https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/the-slow-death-of-the-power-user/

#Slow #Death #Power #User #OpenSource# #programming #InfoSec #Closed #Source #meta #aplhabet #FB #enshittification

The New Republic | Trump Has Made Bank Off Stocks From Companies With Federal Contracts by Edith Olmsted

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Donald Trump has reportedly profited from millions of dollars in stock trades involving tech firms and government contractors that benefit from federal contracts, including Nvidia, AMD, Palantir, and others, according to a financial disclosure cited by NOTUS. The filing shows he bought sizable positions in Nvidia in early February and January 2026—coinciding with the company’s AI chip deals with Meta and subsequent approvals for sales to China—while also purchasing AMD stock that was later cleared for Chinese customers, and repeatedly buying and selling Palantir shares around large Department of Homeland Security contracts and his own public calls for investors to buy the stock. In the first quarter of 2026, Trump shifted from bonds to more than 3,600 individual trades, prompting the White House to claim his family was unaware of the transactions, a stance critics denounce as blatant corruption and market manipulation by the president who oversees the very agencies awarding these contracts.

Read more: https://newrepublic.com/post/210518/donald-trump-stocks-federal-contracts

#DonaldTrump #Nvidia #Meta #JensenHuang #AMD #Palantir #HomelandSecurity #WhiteHouse #AI #breakingnews #governmentcontracting #insidertrading #politics #republicanparty #stockmarket #stocks #technology

#Meta-Angestellte organisieren sich gegen dauerhafte Tastatur-Überwachung

Zahlreiche Personen lehnen die Aufzeichnung sämtlicher Aktivitäten, eingeschlossen der Mausbewegungen, ab. Es herrschen Unruhen unter den Angestellten

https://t.ress.at/AcFdw/

🧿 Exclusive: Meta employees protest against mouse tracking tech at US offices

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/meta-us-employees-organize-protest-against-mouse-tracking-tech-2026-05-12/

#meta #privacy #surveillance #ai

Meta: This technology allows our AI to scan photos and videos for visual clues about a person’s age that text might miss.

Also Meta: We want to be clear: this is not facial recognition.

🤡🤔

We took a look at Meta's announcement on how it plans to scan images using AI to detect if users are underage, find out more 👉 https://tuta.com/blog/meta-ai-analyses-pictures-detect-underage-users

#Meta #MetaAI

Alt...

Image shows a screenshot of Meta's news announcing new AI-powered age assurance measures

"ChatGPT allegedly shares your chat query topics, user IDs, and email addresses with Google and Meta, according to a new class action lawsuit filed today."

https://x.com/RobertFreundLaw/status/2054744664801210476

#ChatGPT #Google #Meta #Lawsuit #SEO

"A new class action lawsuit accuses OpenAI of sharing data including user chat queries and personal identifying information like emails and user IDs with the tech giants — and targeted advertising behemoths — Meta and Google, without obtaining proper user consent.

Filed yesterday in California, the lawsuit claims that OpenAI’s data-sharing with Google and Meta violates the California Invasion of Privacy Act, known as CIPA, as well as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. It points specifically to OpenAI’s integrations with Meta Pixel and Google Analytics, which are data-tracking and collection tools that facilitate targeted advertisements.

The data-tracking model described in the lawsuit — often referred to as “surveillance capitalism” — is the business that the modern internet is built on today. And OpenAI, like countless other tech companies, does include language in its privacy policy noting that it does collect, store, and share a range of consumer inputs and personal information."

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-personal-information-meta-google

#AI #GenerativeAI #OpenAI #Surveillance #Meta #Google #DataProtection #Privacy

@Silversnapples

Fuck #instagram and fuck #meta and fuck you for sharing this paywalled shit.

Exclusive: Meta employees launch protest against mouse-tracking tech at US offices

#privacy #righttoprivacy #meta
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/meta-us-employees-organize-protest-against-mouse-tracking-tech-2026-05-12/

> Yeah, by the way, we're going to fire you guys, not because of AI efficiencies, but because AI is too expensive to run… also you have to use more tokens… or you're fired.

#Meta

Cum oprești #Meta să folosească postările tale pentru AI.

🔗 https://yewtu.be/shorts/pAtK0qRA4fA

#Știri

Wired: Meta’s New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale https://www.wired.com/story/meta-layoffs-bad-vibes-mark-zuckerberg-ai/ @WIRED #Meta

The more you read this piece of excellent work the more you realize how much energy we, as the Open Source community, the programma's and the users, shall need to put in another to get a proper Balance Again

Read the section here.

Source:

https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/the-slow-death-of-the-power-user/

#Power #User #Walled #Garden #programming #InfoSec #privilege #feature #parameters #control #OpenSource against #Meta #FB #Alphabet #Enshittification #Google #Elon #Musk #Twitter #Facebook #WTF

Business Latest | Meta’s New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale by Paresh Dave, Lauren Goode, Steven Levy, Zoë Schiffer

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Meta is preparing to cut about 10 % of its workforce—roughly 8,000 jobs—adding to the 25,000 layoffs announced over the past four years, and employees describe the atmosphere as “historically low” morale, with unhappiness widespread except among senior executives. The dip in morale stems from a combination of factors: shrinking compensation (share‑based raises cut for two consecutive years), widening pay gaps, costly AI initiatives, mandatory installation of tracking software that records U.S. staff’s keyboard and mouse activity to train internal AI models, and recent legal setbacks that highlighted the company’s product harms. Workers are protesting the AI surveillance, some are trying to form a UK union with United Tech & Allied Workers, and many hope to be laid off to collect severance and health benefits. While Meta’s ad business continues to generate strong profits—nearly $27 billion in Q1—the company is simultaneously spending billions on AI talent and infrastructure, creating tension between high‑level financial performance and the everyday experience of employees who feel pressured, undervalued, and uncertain about their future.

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/meta-layoffs-bad-vibes-mark-zuckerberg-ai/

#Meta #AndrewBosworth #UnitedTech #AlliedWorkers #ModelCapability #AppliedAI #aipilled #business #business_artificialintelligence

#gutenMorgen
Ich schreibe hier gelegentlich als #Augenoptiker, weil ich immer wieder fassungslos bin, wie weit diese milliardenschwere Branche unter dem Radar der Bevölkerung läuft. Ich habe auch schon über die Krake #EssilorLuxottica geschrieben, die ausgerechnet eine Kooperation mit #meta eingeht. Muss ich tatsächlich hier, im Tummelbecken der IT-Fachleute, darüber schreiben, warum jegliche Art von #Smartglasses verboten werden MUSS?
#erstmalKaffee

https://ard.social/@tagesschau/116565269746561528

Times of India | Meta's highest-paid employee Alexandr Wang is not happy with 'just money motivated' tag for his team; says: People joined because there was high…

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Meta’s most‑expensive hire, 28‑year‑old Alexandr Wang—who runs the company’s SuperIntelligence Lab—says the narrative that his team joined “just for the money” is wrong. While Meta paid billions in cash and offered sign‑on packages worth up to $300 million, Wang argues that the real draw was the sheer amount of compute (as much as 30,000 chips per researcher), a high‑density talent pool and the freedom to pursue bold ideas without layers of approval. He notes that many recruits left well‑paying positions at OpenAI, Apple, DeepMind and Anthropic because Meta promised faster, less‑constrained research. The recruitment battle also featured personal touches—such as Mark Zuckerberg’s soup deliveries—to signal genuine interest in researchers’ work. Wang’s lab now includes former leaders from GitHub, Apple and OpenAI, underscoring Meta’s strategy of attracting top AI talent through resources and autonomy rather than salary alone.

Read more: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/metas-highest-paid-employee-alexandr-wang-is-not-happy-with-just-money-motivated-tag-for-his-team-says-people-joined-because-there-was-high/articleshow/131085258.cms

#Meta #AlexandrWang #ScaleAI #NatFriedman #RuomingPang #TrapitBansal #MarkZuckerberg

#WhatsApp Adds #Meta #AI #Chats That Are Built to Be Fully Private

The company says its new #IncognitoChat allows you to use its AI #chatbot without anyone else—including Meta—being able to access your conversations.
#privacy #security

https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-incognito-chat-meta-ai/

Threads users are pissed they can't block Meta's new AI chatbot

"Earlier today, Meta announced that it was testing a new Meta AI chatbot for Threads that would function a lot like Grok on X. Even though the "early beta" isn't available to most people on the platform yet, a number of Threads users have discovered its not possible to opt out of the feature or block chatbot's the account."

https://www.engadget.com/2171113/threads-users-are-pissed-they-cant-block-metas-new-ai-chatbot/

#FediPact #meta #threads