Facebook removes more pages in Philippines for misleading activity

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Facebook has continued its crackdown on coordinated misinformation in the Philippines.

The social media giant said on Friday it had taken down more than 200 pages, groups, and accounts in the country, which it said misled others about who they were and what they were doing.

“We’re taking down these Pages and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said in a statement online.

“In this case, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action.” Read more…

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Facebook launches searchable transparency library of all active ads

Now you can search Facebook for how much Trump has spent on ads in the past year, which Pages’ ads reference immigration, or what a Page’s previous names were. It’s all part of Facebook’s new Ad Library launching today that makes good on its promise to increase transparency after the social network’s ads were used […]

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Twitter and Google now under scrutiny for housing discrimination

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It appears that, just like misery, an investigation into possible discriminatory ad practices facilitated by a tech giant loves company. 

Following the March 28 revelation that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has filed charges against Facebook for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act, the Washington Post now reports that Google and Twitter are under investigation by the same agency. And for more or less the same thing. 

It turns out that HUD is looking into the super specific ad-targeting features offered by the companies in an effort to determine if they facilitate housing discrimination. An advertising platform that, say, allows the owner of an apartment complex to purposefully exclude certain groups — such as people of color — from seeing new listings would be in violation of the law.  Read more…

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Daily Crunch: Facebook faces discrimination charges

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. HUD hits Facebook with housing discrimination charges over ad targeting The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this morning hit […]

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HUD hits Facebook with housing discrimination charges over ad targeting

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this morning hit Facebook with charges of housing discrimination. The filing states that the the online giant has violated the Fair Housing Act through its ad targeting tools, which allow sellers to limit listings based on categories like race, sex and nation of origin. The charges are […]

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Microsoft gives 500 patents to startups

Microsoft today announced a major expansion of its Azure IP Advantage program, which provides its Azure users with protection against patent trolls. This program now also provides customers who are building IoT solutions that connect to Azure with access to 10,000 patents to defend themselves against intellectual property lawsuits. What’s maybe most interesting here, though, […]

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Dakar Network Angels begins startup investments in francophone Africa

The Dakar Network Angels network launched this month, making its first investment in francophone Africa to cleantech venture Coliba. The Ivorian startup—that uses a mobile app to coordinate waste recycling—will receive mentorship and a minimum of $25K in seed funds. The deal is part of Dakar Network Angels’ mission of convening experts and capital to […]

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Facebook finally bans white nationalism and white separatism

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Facebook is reversing course and banning white nationalism and white separatism from its platform.

Motherboard reported on Wednesday that Facebook is shifting its policy on white nationalism and white separatism and made the decision to ban them from the platform one day prior. Shortly after Motherboard’s report, Facebook posted a statement, titled “Standing Against Hate,” on its website confirming the policy update.

As part of the policy update, Facebook will also direct users searching for content related to white supremacy on its platform to Life After Hate, a nonprofit organization that provides support and education to help people leave hate groups and movements. Read more…

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Facebook is finally banning white supremacy that goes by other names

Facebook is abandoning a longstanding policy of allowing white supremacy to flourish on its platform under the guise of terms like white nationalism and white separatism. Motherboard first reported that the decision came out of a conversation on platform moderation out of Facebook’s Content Standards Forum yesterday and will go into effect next week. Under […]

View More Facebook is finally banning white supremacy that goes by other names

Facebook is finally banning white supremacy that goes by other names

Facebook is abandoning a longstanding policy of allowing white supremacy to flourish on its platform under the guise of terms like white nationalism and white separatism. Motherboard first reported that the decision came out of a conversation on platform moderation out of Facebook’s Content Standards Forum yesterday and will go into effect next week. Under […]

View More Facebook is finally banning white supremacy that goes by other names