Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ), Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)
Facebook shares jump as brokers say usage concerns overblown (Reuters)
Shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) jumped 5.6 percent on Thursday after two investment brokerages upgraded their recommendations, arguing that concerns over the waning engagement of younger users were overblown. Still, the share price of the world’s largest social network is at a six-month low, partly due to fears that young users were beginning to cool their activities on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), in favor of newer services like Twitter and the increasingly popular photo messaging application, SnapChat. In midday trading, shares were up at $24.63.
Need to improve response to hate speech: Facebook (DNAIndia)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) admitted its systems to remove hate speech haven’t worked as well as the company had hoped, amid reports that advertisers were pulling their brands off the social network in the face of a backlash from women’s groups. In a blog post by its safety team late Tuesday, the company acknowledged there had been problems with removing content that would be considered examples of gender-based hate. “We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards. We need to do better – and we will,” the company said in the post.
Facebook says it fails to block violent content, some companies pull advertising (WashingtonPost)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) lost more than a dozen advertisers, some just temporarily, after a campaign drew attention to pages on the social network that promoted violence against women. Women, Action and the Media launched the campaign last week to get Facebook to end hate speech on its website and urged advertisers to pull their support. The content included pages that had grisly photos and mottos that encouraged rape, abuse and other violence against women. The campaign elicited more than 5,000 emails to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) advertisers and more than 60,000 posts on Twitter from supporters. Women, Action and the Media said that 15 companies agreed to pull advertising over the matter. Two of the biggest, Nissan and Zipcar, say they will resume advertising on the social network because of steps Facebook is taking to fix the problem.
Nasdaq to Pay $10 Million Over Handling of Facebook (WSJ)
NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) +1.77% will pay $10 million to settle alleged securities-law violations over problems that arose in its handling of the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) +5.01% stock-market debut last year, according to regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission in a statement Wednesday cited “poor systems and decision-making” as Nasdaq struggled to open up Facebook shares for trading last May following the social-networking company’s hotly anticipated initial public offering. The fine is the largest ever levied by the SEC against an exchange. Wall Street firms suffered an estimated $500 million in losses linked to the episode.
Facebook Posts Help Credit Bureaus Sniff Out Fraudsters (BusinessWeek)
Credit bureaus and payment companies are testing ways to use social media — say, a Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) post about a recently purchased Corvette — to verify a person’s identity and even assess consumer creditworthiness. Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s PayPal and Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) have begun trials to see whether social posts can help prove identities, and, in some cases, detect whether customers are lying about their finances. Users of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Pinterest Inc. and Twitter Inc. share personal details every day through public postings, status updates and location check-ins. That information is proving useful in validating identity, evaluating whether to make a loan and sniffing out fraud that cost U.S. online retailers $3.5 billion last year, according to CyberSource Corp. eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) set aside $580 million, or 4.1 percent of net revenue, to cover transaction and loan losses last year.
Facebook’s Sandberg Sees More Teens on Tumblr, Twitter (Bloomberg)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), owner of the world’s most popular social network, is facing increased competition for younger users from services run by Twitter Inc. and Tumblr Inc., according to Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. While more teens are turning to rival social networks, Facebook usage is still growing among that demographic, Sandberg said today in an onstage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. “Teenagers are using other things more,” Sandberg said. “At the same time, they continue to be very active, engaged Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) users.”
