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You Might Think Ethnic Cleansing Is Bad, But–

Alex Pareene · 12/16/15 04:50PM

Quick question. Which is worse for “democracy” and “discourse”: A prominent public figure, with a large following composed mainly of increasingly enraged (and generally well-armed) members of America’s dominant but shrinking ethnic majority, spending months issuing vocal and repeated calls for the elimination of certain religious and ethnic outgroups from the body politic; or the act of “unfriending” people with annoying or offensive beliefs on a social networking platform? The answer—or, at least, one Washington Post writer’s answer—may surprise you.

Vandals Attack Facebook Offices in Germany

Brendan O'Connor · 12/13/15 09:15PM

A group of 15-20 people wearing black clothes and hoods attacked the building housing Facebook’s offices in Hamburg, Germany, police said in a statement Saturday. Reuters reports that the vandals smashed glass, threw paint, and sprayed “Facebook dislike” on a wall. A Facebook spokesman said no one was injured.

Mark Zuckerberg Declares Himself "the Leader of Facebook"

Brendan O'Connor · 12/10/15 08:01PM

Mark Zuckerberg, founder, chairman, and CEO of Facebook, shared his thoughts yesterday on the place Islamophobia has on the billion-person-strong social network. (That is: there is no place for it.) In the process, he described himself as “the leader of Facebook.” Haha, what?

Brendan O'Connor · 11/11/15 11:00PM

The US Navy has chosen Facebook COO and corporate feminism brand ambassador Sheryl Sandberg to christen its newest attack submarine, the Virginia-class USS Massachusetts. “According to navy lore, sponsors are said to imbue a ship with their personalities,” the Associated Press reports. Lean in, sailor!

The Shitty Memes of the KKK

Sam Biddle · 11/05/15 07:06PM

A group claiming affiliation with Anonymous, the nebulous blob of hackers whose influence and credibility has waned a lot in recent years, just released what appears to be a (real) long list of KKK members. The only interesting part is how horrible their Facebook accounts are.

How to Fix iMessage’s Read Receipts: A Proposal

J.K. Trotter · 11/02/15 02:50PM

If you’ve ever used iMessage, the proprietary messaging platform for Apple devices such as the iPhone, you’ve probably developed an opinion (or a refined lack of opinion) about its “read receipts” feature. They’re based on a simple idea—what if you could automatically notify people that you had seen their messages?—yet have slowly become iMessage’s most controversial and divisive function. The app’s read receipts are the inspiration for unending teenage drama, the subject of ongoing public debate among professional writers, and the not-so-secret source of anxiety for many Millennial adults.

John Oliver Explains Why That Facebook Copyright Statement Is Dumb, and Maybe You'll Listen to Him

Jay Hathaway · 09/30/15 03:28PM

As every website has been attempting to inform you since 2012, copy-pasting several paragraphs of dense legal voodoo onto your Facebook wall does not somehow exempt you from the terms of service that bind all Facebook users. If Facebook decides it wants to start using your content in some way you don’t like, your legal options include: don’t put that content on Facebook. Or: stop using Facebook altogether. If you won’t believe us, please believe John Oliver.

That Dumb Old Facebook Copyright Hoax Is Going Around Again—Just Ignore It

Jay Hathaway · 09/29/15 08:49AM

The annual ritual of everyone you know sharing a meaningless copyright disclaimer on Facebook has begun again. And, just in case you didn’t get the message the first half-dozen times this has happened, you can’t opt yourself out of Facebook’s terms of service or change what they’re allowed to do with your content by copy-pasting some pseudo-legal boilerplate into your timeline.

New Button Coming

Kelly Conaboy · 09/15/15 04:07PM

Wish there were a “dislike” button? Well, damn—you should have wished for something much better. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that a “dislike” button is imminent for Facebook, the terrible social network that you hate.

Facebook Pulls College Kid's Internship After He Exposes Privacy Leak

Sam Biddle · 08/13/15 12:05PM

This spring, undergraduate coder and incoming Facebook intern Aran Khanna published a problem with Facebook Messenger, the most popular app on the entire iTunes Store: it was transmitting your location to everyone and you probably had no idea. Instead of rewarding his vigilance, Facebook fired him.