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For several years now, Facebook has attempted to strengthen its reputation as a gaming and streaming platform, desperately trying to catch up to leaders like Twitch and YouTube. The social network has made some bold moves in the past, including deals to broadcast some of the biggest games from Activision Blizzard, including Call of Duty and Overwatch, along with esports events. Its latest is updating the main app with a dedicated gaming tab.

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Today a new program from Facebook was released in order to combat the sharing of intimate images without shared consent. This is sometimes referred to as "revenge porn" and it's become a major problem across all forms of social media in the past half-decade. Today Facebook's pilot program revealed over a year and a half ago live in a new security-aimed hub called "Not without my consent."

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Facebook just announced the loss of two of its most major executives. One was the Facebook head of product, the other was the head of WhatsApp. Chris Cox has apparently been wanting to leave the company for "a few years," according to company head Mark Zuckerberg. WhatsApp head Chris Daniels has also "decided to leave the company" - and Zuckerberg's used the same language in announcing the apparent self-made decisions by both leaders. If we analyze the language used by Zuckerberg in his note today, we can glean a bit before we move on to more grand analysis.

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Facebook was down yesterday, resulting in troubles with all of Facebook's various properties. This includes WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook proper. This is a good example for why one should not rely on one company to provide all of one's means of communication. Today Facebook revealed the reason why it had some troubles in the last day - a "server configuration change." I mean, yes I'm sure that's possible, but really?

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Facebook has been experiencing an outage that continues to impact some Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Oculus users. The issue has been ongoing for hours today, and though Facebook has acknowledged it multiple times, the reason for the outage remains unclear. In its most recent update, Facebook said that it can confirm the problem does not stem from a DDoS attack.

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A couple of agencies took a peek at how Advertising Giant Facebook uses info on mobile device owners without their consent. It's become apparent that more than a few very, very popular apps on both Android and iOS are guilty of this info sharing team-up. Using data trackers and process readers, both Privacy International and MobilSicher (mobile secure, in Germany) have provided basic lists of Facebook affiliate apps.

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Facebook has responded to criticism over anti-vaxxer and vaccination-related 'misinformation' that exists on its platform. The company will reduce the ranking of Pages and groups that spread this inaccurate information, though it won't be removing them from its platform. As well, Facebook plans to reject anti-vaccine ads, stop showing the content on Instagram Explore, and more.

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On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a radical change in focus for the beleaguered social media company, stating that it will shift to a privacy-focused platform emphasizing end-to-end encryption, increased user control over personal data, and more. The changes will take years to implement, according to Zuckerberg, who said in his announcement, "I believe working towards implementing end-to-end encryption for all private communications is the right thing to do."

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After months of talking about it, it seems that dark mode is finally rolling out to Facebook Messenger users. Facebook is playing a little game with this release, as dark mode isn't initially available as a toggle in settings. Instead, users need to unlock the feature through an emoji Easter egg before they can turn it on.

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It's almost too ironic that something that's meant to be used to increase security can also be used to invade one's privacy. Perhaps it isn't too surprising, however, that Facebook is the one doing it. The latest in the never-ending litany of privacy sins involves the already misused phone number you may have submitted for two-factor authentication or 2FA. Not only did Facebook use that for ads, it apparently also made it too easy for someone to hunt you down on Facebook with that same number.

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Content moderators on Facebook are going through hell to keep your feeds palatable. They sieve through videos of murders, suicides, explicit contents and other horrors day in day out. They have strict bathroom breaks and an annual salary of just $28,800. Their treatment certainly doesn’t make up for the daily torment. The Verge reported many workers have turned to smoking weed during breaks and questionable activities to take the edge off the trauma, not to mention the potential long-term psychological impact, which is an alarming concern.

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Nearly a year ago, Facebook vowed to launch a new feature called Clear History. With this, the company claimed, users would be able to wipe the data Facebook had collected about them from third-party websites and apps. The feature was described as similar to the way users can clear their browser history, but nearly a year has passed without its arrival. Following a concerning report last week, Facebook has announced that Clear History will launch this year.

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