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With one billion users around the world, safety and security should obviously top the list of Instagram's concerns. Today, the company announced another round of new initiatives to make Instagram a safer platform to use. The three-pronged approach mostly revolves around Instagram accounts with a large following, but there's also incoming updates to two-factor authentication that everyone will be able to take advantage of.

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Facebook says it has removed hundreds of Pages, accounts, and Groups that it identified as engaging in "coordinated inauthentic behavior." The activity, says Facebook, originated from Russia and Iran, featuring "distinct campaigns" that weren't linked between the two entities. The removed content was created with the intention of misleading people, according to the company.

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Following criticism, Facebook has announced the removal of 5,000 ad targeting categories that made it possible to discriminate against individuals based on ethnicity and similar things. Facebook has previously been called out about these ad targeting options, which critics say have been used to discriminate based on race.

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Facebook is using a new, secret rating to judge how trustworthy each user is, as the social network continues to battle against accusations that it's an incubator for fake news. The site's role in the manipulated 2016 US presidential election has prompted numerous changes to Facebook policy, but most users have been unaware that their truthfulness has quietly been assessed.

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The European Union is becoming the champion of digital privacy, safety, and fair play, whether you like it or not. And some companies definitely don’t. After the still controversial GDPR and its high-profile fine of Google for its monopoly over Android, the European Commission, the EU’s legal body, is turning its sights on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The body may start fining these platforms if they are unable to delete online terrorist propaganda within an hour after they have been flagged.

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The Department of Justice wants Facebook to give it access to encrypted voice chats as part of a criminal probe, according to a new report. The issue revolves around Messenger and its encrypted chats feature, which users can manually enable for specific conversations. The DOJ is reportedly seeking access to voice conservations made with the app.

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Facebook is updating its Messenger Kids apps with a new feature that enables kids to add their own friends...with permission, that is. The app is a variation of Facebook Messenger designed for children, enabling parents to control every aspect of the experience. Until now, only parents could add friends for kids, but now there's a second option.

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As part of its efforts to be more transparent and accountable for its political influence, Facebook has announced changes to the verification process for Pages with a large following. The social network will require additional measures from Page administrators to prove their identity, in part to make it harder for Pages to be run by fake or compromised accounts.

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Facebook today began removing Friends Lists Feeds from their main app and web browser site. This feature is one of a collection that'll be removed from the mix this year due to a culling of the weak of sorts. As a Facebook representative suggested, "We're shutting down this lesser-used feature to focus our efforts on improving the main News Feed experience."

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Facebook is cracking down on content that instructs the public on creating firearms using 3D printers. Blueprints for these weapons have been available online for years, raising concerns about safety and the technology's ability to circumvent existing gun laws. Facebook confirmed the removal to several media outlets today, saying the content is against its Community Standards.

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Facebook is trying to persuade banks to share your financial information with the social network, a further escalation of its personal data aggregation efforts. The company, still stinging from criticism around how it handled the Cambridge Analytica privacy disaster, has nonetheless faced renewed pressure from investors to increase engagement across its services.

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Social media titan Facebook is known for "borrowing" from — or flat-out acquiring — it's largest rivals, including Snapchat and Twitter, and now it appears to be entering the territory of Tinder and OKCupid. Following its first announcement back in May, Facebook's dating service feature has entered an internal testing phase among employees, and a sneak peek has been revealed this weekend.

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