The New Metaverse Gold Rush

The company formerly known as Facebook has bet big on the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg hyped the already popular term in October, when he changed the company’s name to Meta and led viewers through its dizzying vision of the future. But “the metaverse” is a much bigger and more confusing idea. 

From its origins in science fiction, it’s become a catchall for anything that mixes people’s physical and virtual lives. That includes virtual and augmented reality headsets; 3D virtual worlds like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft; and decentralized Web3 services including cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens or NFTs. Lots of “metaverse” proponents don’t agree on a single definition for the word or on how much people are already living in it. While Meta is making big investments, other companies have already built metaverse-style platforms some, like Second Life developer Linden Lab, years before Facebook even existed. Here, we delve into the ambiguities of 2021’s most omnipresent tech buzzword and why it might not look like any of these companies have predicted.

Facebook is Down, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, FB Messenger

Facebook is currently experiencing an outage impacting its family of sites including WhatsApp and Instagram. We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing Facebook app. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience. Most Facebook users are seeing an error message that says ‘This site can’t be reached.’ On Instagram, the error message shows as a 5xx Server Error message.

The outage is impacting users on both desktop and mobile. Just as Facebook’s Antigone Davis was live on CNBC defending the company over a whistleblower’s accusations and its handling of research data suggesting Instagram is harmful to teens, the company’s entire network of services suddenly went offline. A peek at Down Detector (or your Twitter feed) reveals the problems are widespread. While it’s unclear exactly why the platforms are unreachable for so many people, their DNS records show that, like last week’s Slack outage, the problem is apparently DNS (it’s always DNS). Cloudflare senior vice president Dane Knecht notes that Facebook’s border gateway protocol routes BGP helps networks pick the best path to deliver internet traffic have been “withdrawn from the internet.” Instagram.com is flashing a 5xx Server Error message, while the Facebook site merely tells us that something went wrong. The problem also appears to be affecting its virtual reality arm, Oculus. Users can load games they already have installed and the browser works, but social features or installing new games does not. The outage is thorough enough that it’s affecting Workplace from Facebook customers and, according to Jane Manchun Wong, Facebook’s internal sites. There’s no word yet from Facebook about what may be causing the problem or when those sites, including Messenger and WhatsApp, will be operational again, but we will update this article with more information when it’s available.

Facebook And Ray-ban’s Smart Glasses Release

Facebook and Ray-Ban are set to announce their smart glasses collaboration later today, September 9th, and right on cue Evan “Evleaks” Blass has posted a ton of alleged photos of the product lineup. The glasses are called Ray-Ban Stories, and other than the box it doesn’t look like Facebook branding appears anywhere on the product. Evleaks’ images include three distinct frame styles Wayfarer, Round, and Meteor and they all look pretty close to the classic Ray-Ban designs.

The difference, of course, is the presence of two cameras by the hinges on either side. There’s also a button along the top of the right temple, which could potentially be used to operate the cameras. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said of the glasses that they “have [Ray-Ban’s] iconic form factor, and they let you do some pretty neat things.” They don’t have screens for AR functionality, however, so we’re still in the dark about what those things might be. Zuckerberg said that the product is part of the company’s “journey towards full augmented reality glasses in the future,” and more advanced AR glasses are also in the works. For now, these pictures don’t do much to show how or whether Facebook has leapt beyond the capabilities of even Snap’s early Spectacles other than by making glasses that look like regular Ray-Bans, of course. We’ll hopefully have the answer to that question later today.

Facebook to Curb Private Groups Spreading Hate, Misinformation

 Facebook on Thursday said it is cracking down on private groups where hate or misinformation is shared among members.

The move comes amid a wider crack down on malicious and false content at the social networking giant which has led people to turn to private groups of like-minded members who can share content that is not available to the wider Facebook community.

"People turn to Facebook Groups to connect with others who share their interests, but even if they decide to make a group private, they have to play by the same rules as everyone else," Facebook vice president of engineering Tom Alison said in a blog post.

Alison said Facebook's community standards "apply to public and private groups, and our proactive detection tools work across both."

Facebook uses artificial intelligence to automatically scan posts, even in private groups, taking down pages that repeatedly break its rules or that are set up in violation of the social network's standards.

More than a million groups have been taken down in the past year for violating hate policies, according to Alison.

In the past year, Facebook has removed about 1.5 million pieces of content in groups for violating its policies on organised hate, with 91 percent of those posts found by automated software systems, according to Alison.

Over that same period, the leading social network has taken down about 12 million pieces of content in groups for violating policies on  hate speech, 87 percent of which was found proactively.

Facebook last month said it has removed hundreds of groups tied to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and imposed restrictions on nearly 2,000 more as part of a crackdown on stoking violence.

The moves, which were made across both Facebook and Instagram, were against accounts tied to "offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, US-based militia organizations and QAnon," the social media platform said in a blog post.

Under rules tightened on Thursday, administrators or moderators of groups taken down for rule-breaking will be temporarily blocked from forming new groups at Facebook.

People tagged for violating social network standards in groups will need to get moderator or administrator permission for any new posts for 30 days, and if what is cleared for sharing continues to break the rules the entire group will be removed, according to Alison.

Facebook will also start "archiving" groups that been without administrators for a long time, meaning they still exist but don't appear in searches and members can't post anything.

And, to promote getting information from authoritative sources, Facebook will no longer show health-themed groups in recommendation results.

Facebook has been struggling with hoaxes and misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to give users well-sourced information about the health emergency.

Facebook Challenges YouTube With Licensed Music Videos in the US

Facebook on Friday added licensed music videos to the social network in the US, challenging YouTube for the attention of online audiences. Facebook said users will be able to "come together" around official music videos, with the promise of premier content from J. Balvin, Karol G, Sebastian Yatra, and other artists.

"With official music videos on Facebook, we're creating new social experiences that are about more than just watching the video," music business development vice president Tamara Hrivnak and entertainment vice president Vijaye Raji said in an online post.

"We'll continue working with our music partners to build unique social experiences and bring music into the ways people connect and share."

The Facebook "music experience" was already available in India and Thailand, but is making its US debut this weekend, according to Hrivnak and Raji.

The roster of US partners included Sony Music Group, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and BMG.

Google-owned video-sharing service YouTube boasts more than 2 billion monthly users, many of those people tuning into music videos.

Facebook Video Calling Is Rolling Out A Suite Of New Products To Expand Its Capabilities In Video Chat!

Facebook Revamps Video Chat Features

Facebook video calling is one of the most efficient ways to connect with people around the world. Many social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, etc. provide this facility to the users.

However, Facebook is now rolling out a suite of new products to expand its capabilities in video chat.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Confirmation

CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirms the video chat in a Facebook Live presentation on April 24. We all know that the coronavirus pandemic prevents meeting in person. So, Facebook is coming up with several video chat features to help people stay connected at this time.

Messenger Rooms

Messenger room is a tool for starting virtual hangouts. It can hold up to 50 people at a time. This platform even allows your friends to drop in on you whenever they like. On the contrary, a company’s blog post tells something interesting too. It mentions that there will be no limit to the video chats from now on.

What About WhatsApp And Instagram?

However, since Mark holds the authority for even WhatsApp and Instagram, we can expect some modifications in them too. There is news that its also doubling the capacity of video calls on WhatsApp from four people to eight.

It is even adding Facebook video calling to Facebook Dating and new live-streaming features to both Facebook and Instagram.

Reason Behind The Idea

As we all know, Covid-19 pandemic has forced hundreds of millions of people to stay indoors. People are now relying on digital tools for nearly all of their work, school, and play. So, the reason behind taking such moves is the current pandemic outbreak.

It also supports creators and small-sized businesses. Facebook plans to add a feature that will let them charge for access to live-streamed events on Facebook Live. Some of those include online performances, classes and professional conferences.
Privacy And Security

Coming to the messenger rooms, users can create Rooms and control them in several ways. They can even choose who is allowed to join, limit the number of participants and remove them.

Presently, more than 700 million people are making calls on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp every day. So, we can be sure that there will be proper measures taken to ensure people’s safety.