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Facebook (Meta) to Sack 12,000 Employees; Largest in Company’s History

Like Twitter, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, is planning to let go 15% of its workforce this week.

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Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram may lay off about 12,000 employees this week.

The lay off which represents about 15 percent of the company’s workforce is to cut down costs amid the looming recession. Last week, Meta announced it will halt the hiring process and subsequently restructure the company.

Additionally, according to the report published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the layoff could begin on Wednesday. If that happens, Meta will be joining a growing list of tech companies which include Twitter, Intel, and Microsoft that have retrenched thousands of employees. 

Investors King learnt that CEO, Mark Zuckerberg had hinted about the mass layoff during the company’s earnings call in October. He identifies the need to have a reduced workforce as the company intends to focus on a small number of high-priority growth areas. 

“In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organisation than we are today,” he noted. 

It will be recalled that Mark has faced a lot of backlash from Meta investors who have showcased worry about the company’s large size and humongous investment in “Metaverse” which they consider imaginary. 

Mark Zuckerberg has invested billions of dollars in his metaverse dream which he opined will succeed the mobile internet. 

In a recent interview with Verge Magazine, Mark noted that in the next five years, he wants people to think of Facebook as a “metaverse company” not as a social media company.

Metaverse is a virtual reality platform where users can connect and enjoy near-life experiences with the use of 3D. Metaverse aims to mimic the physical world through technology.

In a bid to drive his dream, Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta. However, his metaverse adventure has not been yielding the desired results despite the huge investment. 

Therefore, some of the company’s investors understand Metaverse to be a distraction to the company’s overall goal. Currently, Meta is facing a tough time with its stock price losing about $67 billion in value. 

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Meta Celebrates As Threads Platform Records 275m Active Users Monthly

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Meta’s social networking platform, Threads has recorded a whopping 275 million monthly active users.

The platform, in its bid to rub shoulders with X (formerly Twitter), described the feat as a milestone and closure to its competitive dream.

Adam Mosseri, Head of Threads and Instagram, made this known while expressing gratitude to users and acknowledging areas for improvement on the platform.

Recounting how Threads has been faring in the social media market since it was launched by Meta in July 2023 as a competitor to X, Mosseri submitted that a whole lot of transformation has taken place.

He explained how the platform achieved impressive sign-ups, reaching 100 million users in less than a week, saying engagements have been rising ever since.

Recalling how Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg reassured investors in April that Threads’ user growth was on track with his expectations, Head of Threads Instagram expressed optimism that the platform’s users would increase in months to come.

Zuckerberg also noted that the open internet server is a key feature in Threads and that it has contributed in making users accept the platform.

It would be recalled that in the months following its launch, Meta added various features to enhance the platform and address user needs.

The platform also got attracted to users through its concentration on integrating with ActivityPub and the decentralized protocol powering networks like Mastodon.

Investors King reports that Nigerians, known for their enthusiasm in embracing new ideas, especially those related to money and influence, are no exception to the increasing number of Threads’ active users.

Some of Nigerian users of the social media app have highlighted enhanced communication, creative expressions that the app’s features provide, opportunity for businesses and influencers to thrive, and empowerment of voices as merits of the platform which have contributed in endearing the app to more users across the globe.

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Telegram to Expose Users Who Use Platform For Criminal Activities, Share Data With Relevant Authorities 

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With a view to joining efforts at waging war against cybercrime and other illicit activities on social media, a popular messaging app, Telegram has reviewed its users’ privacy and protection policy by announcing its readiness to make personal details of defaulting users available to relevant authorities for investigation.

The Telegram Chief Executive Officer, Pavel Durov, in a post sighted by Investors King, disclosed that the reversal of the company’s privacy policy was in response to alleged criminal activities and other illicit events happening on the popular social messaging platform.

Durov declared that once Telegram gets valid legal requests for the provision of the users’ IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities, the management would not hesitate in obliging the court order.

He said the move is to attempt to control criminal activity on the platform and prevent abuse.

Recall that Telegram’s policy, before it was changed, limited user information sharing to cases involving terror suspects.

However, Telegram tinkered with the policy following the arrest of its CEO, Durov in France over allegations that the company pretended not to notice the alleged various crimes flourishing unchecked on the platform.

Investors King also gathered that policy reversal is not unconnected with the recent decision of the Ukrainian government to ban the use of Telegram by government officials, military personnel, and other defense and critical infrastructure workers because of national security concerns.

Meanwhile, after Durov was subsequently released on bail and ordered to stay in the country pending ongoing investigation, he made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate Telegram’s rules would now be made available to relevant authorities subject to valid legal requests.

The company further stated that if it receives a valid order from the relevant judicial authorities that confirms that any of its users is a suspect in a case involving criminal activities that violate the Telegram Terms of Service, it will perform a legal analysis of the request and may disclose affected user’s IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities.

It added that such data disclosures will be included in its periodic transparency reports, noting that the service may collect metadata such as IP address, devices and Telegram apps used, and the history of username changes to tackle spam, abuse, and other violations.

The platform has already featured the policy changes on its app as its search feature now removes problematic content and provides a new mechanism for users to report illegal search terms and material through the @SearchReport bot for subsequent review and removal by a human moderation team.

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Telegram Was Adding Nearly 500,000 Users Daily Before Durov’s Arrest

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Telegram

Ever since it launched in August 2013, Telegram has been an exceptionally popular social media platform and messaging app, thanks to its utility and focus on privacy.

Telegram’s strong growth continued well into 2024. Finbold’s research found that, between April 10 and July 22, the platform added more than 485,000 monthly active users (MoU) every day.

The growth ensured that, by the middle of the summer, Telegram’s user base stood at 950 million – meaning that approximately one-eighth of humanity was using the app.

While coming just 50 million shy of 1 billion users is a major milestone, it is interesting to note that the social media platform has, at times, boasted even stronger growth. For example, in July 2023, the CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, revealed that 2.5 million people signed up to Telegram daily.

EU’s shadow over Telegram

Despite Telegram’s popularity and momentum, the platform has been gaining a different kind of attention since August 24 when the French police arrested Durov at an airport near Paris.

Though President Emmanuel Macron and his government maintain that the arrest was not politically motivated, it has nonetheless sparked a strong backlash, with many interpreting it as a crackdown on privacy and free speech.

Indeed, even the allegations of poor moderation and failure to prevent illicit activity are founded, they, nonetheless, raise important questions in the debate on the balance between privacy, surveillance, and national security.

As Andreja Stojanovic, a co-author of the research, noted “Even if genuine and undisputable illicit activity on Telegram was detected, the arrest is still likely to make many question if, by the same logic, the entire police force of a nation should be prosecuted whenever any illegal activity takes place in a private home or a hotel room.”

Nonetheless, there are no guarantees the arrest will have a profound impact on Telegram itself and, indeed, the platform has already shown significant resilience to government pressure during the Russian 2018 ban.

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