Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) surges in early trading session on quietly reabsorbed its “Connectivity” division’s resources. According to TechCrunch, the division was the home of previous Facebook’s experimental internet and telecommunications activities for almost a decade, from satellites to drones to applications and other more traditional infrastructure.
Meta considered splitting Connectivity’s remaining personnel and projects across its Infrastructure and Central Products businesses. The Internet.org and Free Basics initiatives would effectively deliver Facebook and certain packaged services for free in areas where connectivity was expensive.
The division recognized the significance of fiber backhaul and reliable conventional wireless infrastructure for the drones and lasers to function properly. Meta collaborated with the Telecom Infra Project to develop new software, hardware, and standards to improve the accessibility and maintainability of telecommunications networks.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google and Meta invested in underwater cables and fiber that suit their objectives as well as public transportation. Meta announced the layoff of around 11k individuals, or 13% of its overall workforce, spanning the Family of Apps and Reality Labs sectors.
Throughout a lawsuit, Meta is accused of amplifying hate speech in Africa
Meta Platforms Inc. is facing a $2 billion compensation case in Kenya’s high court, accusing the firm of abandoning Africans by amplifying hate speech and incitement to violence on Facebook.
Ethiopian scholars Abrham Meareg and Fisseha Tekle, as well as Kenyan human rights organisation Katiba Institute, brought the complaint, which was sponsored by legal NGO Foxglove. According to court documents, Meareg’s father, chemistry professor Meareg Amare, was shot and killed outside his house last November after a series of inflammatory messages targeted him for assault.
The petitioners believe that the public needs protection from Facebook’s “woeful failure to manage violence on its platform” and its design that “promotes and prioritizes hateful, inciting and hazardous content,” according to court files reviewed by Bloomberg News.
To keep people’s interest, Meta, which produced $117.9 billion in sales in 2021, utilizes a recommendation algorithm on Facebook that recommends material that users are more likely to interact with. According to the court filings, this allows consumers to be offered more advertising, allowing the corporation to maximize income.
“Content that encourages violence may and does lead to offline violence,” according to the papers.
Meta claims it invests in implementing its hate speech and instigation of violence policies.
“Our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia is guided by feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions,” the business said in a statement. “We apply local knowledge and experience, and we continue to expand our skills to detect offending content in the country’s most frequently spoken languages, including Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya.”