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Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, on Wednesday, announced its decision of pausing the F8 developer conference in 2022 as it gears up for new initiatives towards metaverse. Instead, Meta will organise its inaugural business messaging event called 'Conversations', which will be virtually held on May 19.Meta is pausing F8 this year "while we gear up on new initiatives that are all tailored towards the next chapter of the internet, and the next chapter of our company too: building the metaverse," Diego Duarte…

Hackers aligned with Russia broke into the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military officers and were working to upload videos of defeated and surrendering Ukrainian soldiers when the plot was disrupted, according to a report from Meta that details a troubling increase in social media disinformation this year.The report from the owner of Facebook and Instagram found a surge in content linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as well as an uptick in domestic disinformation and propaganda in countries around the…

Facebook owner Meta Platforms said on Thursday it had removed a network of social media accounts with ties to the Brazilian military that posed as fake nonprofits to play down the dangers of deforestation.Although the individuals involved in the network were active military personnel, Meta's investigation did not find enough evidence to establish if they were following orders or acting independently, said a person with knowledge of the matter.Meta's quarterly report could be damaging to Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro.…

Ukraine plans to urge about 50 additional tech companies, including in gaming, esports and internet infrastructure, to take action against Russia following a slew of earlier requests, a top Ukrainian government tech official told Reuters on Wednesday.Software giant Oracle responded within three hours on Wednesday to a tweet from Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation calling on it to stop doing business in Russia amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.Deputy digital minister Alexander Bornyakov showed Oracle's…

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, global technology companies have joined governments and the international business community in cutting ties with the world's largest country over its ongoing military actions. Companies including Apple, Google, and Meta are restricting the availability of their products and services to Russian users. Similarly, AMD, Dell, TSMC, and Intel are amongst the tech firms limiting or ending sales in the country. While some businesses are complying with new economic and trade sanctions,…

Facebook Gaming was supposed to be the social media giant's answer to Amazon.com Inc.'s Twitch — a place to watch people play video games. Four years after its promising launch, the service has turned into an eerie digital ghost town where some of the most-watched accounts aren't even gamers, some of the top live streams aren't even live, and a large portion of the real gamers' video views have disappeared. The typical fare on a game-streaming site involves a player narrating as they play. But on a recent February…

Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke has been working on technology that helps people navigate and enjoy places in the real world since he helped create Google Maps nearly 20 years ago. So it's not surprising that he isn't a fan of the current hyperbole surrounding the notion that technology is poised to hatch a “metaverse" — a three-dimensional simulation of the actual world populated by digital avatars of ourselves gathering with friends, family and colleagues to play, work and experience other aspects of an artificial life so…

Meta is testing new tools that will allow creators to sell virtual items and effects within Meta's social virtual reality app, Horizon Worlds. The new feature is rolling out to a select number of creators in the US and Canada where Horizon Worlds is currently available. Creators selling items will see a Commerce tab and gizmo within the app's Create mode. Additionally, Meta is testing a creator bonus programme in the US, where creators are paid for building worlds that attract the most time spent. Creators will be paid…

A Russian court on Thursday slapped a series of small fines on Google for failing to take down contentious YouTube videos about the Kremlin's military operation in Ukraine.The Moscow court ordered the US tech behemoth to pay a total of $135,000 (roughly Rs. 1 crore) for ignoring the state media regulator's orders to remove posts alleging heavy Russian losses in Ukraine.One of the videos showed an alleged phone conversation between Russian soldiers and their relatives back home in which the troops complained of numerous…