Sources: USA Today
Meta Platforms is fined €390 million by the European Union, claiming that the company's collection of personal data from Facebook and Instagram accounts for personalized ads was in violation of EU privacy laws. 2023-01-4
Facebook and Instagram starts to allow users in Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and the Caucasus to promote violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the war in Ukraine, which is normally restricted, according to internal emails. A Meta spokesperson states that "As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as 'death to the Russian invaders.'" However, calls for violence against Russian prisoners of war and "credible calls for violence against Russian civilians" will remain prohibited. Death threats against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will also be permitted. Meta's spokesperson adds that they are, "for the time being, making a narrow exception for praise of the Azov Regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine National Guard," which was previously forbidden. 2022-03-10
Facebook, Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, renames itself to Meta Platforms. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the rename was done in order to reflect the company's diversification into other areas, such as virtual reality. 2021-10-28
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus experience an extended global outage that began at 15:39 UTC. Some experts believe that the outage was caused by a BGP update from Facebook. 2021-10-4
American technology company Facebook, Inc. reports that multiple Internet service providers in Myanmar have restricted access to its social networking services, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The company has urged authorities to restore connectivity. 2021-02-4
New Zealand news media company Stuff announces it will temporarily stop posting articles to Facebook and Instagram, saying they have not done enough to address fake news, hate speech, and false advertising. 2020-07-6
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are blocked in Turkey, while YouTube and WhatsApp are partially restricted. It is understood that the measures are intended to protect details surrounding troop and equipment deployments. 2020-02-27
Facebook and Instagram amend their advertising policies so that politicians are allowed to use influencers to promote their campaigns, in response to U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg using them to advertise his candidacy without being subjected to both sites' regulations on political ads. 2020-02-14
Facebook and Instagram ban political figures Alex Jones, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Paul Nehlen, David Duke and Laura Loomer, from their platforms and remove their pages for allegedly engaging in "violence and hate". 2019-05-2
Austrian privacy organization NOYB files complaints to regulators in four EU countries alleging that Facebook, Google, Instagram, and WhatsApp are violating the GDPR. 2018-05-25