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Meta wants to make its AI hardware slicker and more fashion-forward. It also needs to make its software more usable. The way to do all that appears to be hiring design maestros away from Apple.
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Meta is facing its biggest existential threat in its history. Years after the Federal Trade Commission first sued the social network in an attempt to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, the trial that will shape its future is finally underway. FTC v. Meta began last month when CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand, and is expected to last for several weeks.
The FTC is hoping to prove to US District judge James Boasberg that Meta's acquisitions of its one-time rivals were anticompetitive and hurt US consumers. Meta, meanwhile, has argued that Instagram and WhatsApp were only able to grow to the billion-user services they are because of its investment into them over the last decade or more.
While the case is unlikely to be fully settled anytime soon, the trial has successfully uncovered tons of new details about the inner workings of Meta and its approach to potential competitors. And testimony from former execs like Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom and longtime COO Sheryl Sandberg have shed new light on the company's past.
Instagram's former CEO speaks
Facebook's 2012 acquisition of Instagram is a central part of the FTC's case against Meta. The government has argued that Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram in order to neutralize it as a competitor
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In a development that can only be seen as positive, non-consensual deepfake porn site Mr. Deepfakes has shut down for good, reports 404 Media. This news comes due to the site losing one of its service providers.
"A critical service provider has terminated service permanently. Data loss has made it impossible to continue operation," a notice on the site reads. "We will not be relaunching. Any website claiming this is fake. This domain will eventually expire and we are not responsible for future use. This message will be removed around one week."
As sites continued to crack down on non-consenual deepfake porn, Mr. Deepfakes became an open space for it. Users could upload videos and connect with creators to commission videos. People also used it as a way to collaborate on new techniques, share their methods and provide datasets. All of it was with the goal of creating this non-consensual media, sometimes with a strong likeness to real people.
The creator of Mr. Deepfakes is still technically anonymous. However, German newspaper Der Spiegel reportedly tracked down one of the individuals behind it, a 36-year-old in Toronto.
Governments across the world have been taking steps to make sexually explicit deepfakes illegal. Last week, the
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