Messages intended to suppress votes can be precisely delivered to particularly vulnerable and consequential groups of people via social media and keep millions of them from casting ballots, according to a new study that is the first to quantify the effect of this kind of microtargeting on voter turnout. A team led by a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recruited more than 10,000 people across the United States-a group representative of the country's voting population-to install an app that
We are delighted to welcome Annette Male as head of agency for Facebook in APAC. The role of agencies has never been more important as clients adapt to the changing media landscape in pursuit of growth and digital transformation. Annette's experience will be an asset as we explore new ways to invest and enable agencies of all sizes to take advantage of our platforms and tools.
Two years ago at MIPCOM, Facebook released a new set of APIs for media partners in attempt to capture more of the real time conversation around TV. Since then, Facebook has made its presence felt on red carpets, backstage, and even on TODAY, where the show's Orange Room leverages Facebook's 'trending' data in segments. Today at MIPCOM, Facebook is announcing new tools for broadcasters and fans that center on the participatory aspects of live TV.
After the week-long Twitter backlash which received over 50,000 tweets under the hashtag #FBrape, Facebook agreed to update its policies, releasing a statement acknowledging that its systems to monitor and remove gender-based hate speech had failed. The backlash prompted 15 major advertisers, including Nissan and Nationwide, to suspend their Facebook marketing campaigns, and highlighted some of the issues brands potentially face when it comes to online advertising.
To rub salt into the wound, your big brother Facebook just keeps motoring on. Taking all your best ideas and frankly doing them better, sometimes worse, but eventually doing them better too. And with 1.7bn users (a mere 1.4bn more than you), is doing so in front of more people, hence attracting more and more advertisers who continue to flock to them in their droves.
In documents recently uncovered by The New York Times, Facebook demonstrated why losing the attention of younger teen users was one of the biggest threats facing the business. "If we lose the teen foothold in the US we lose the pipeline," reads the internal memo from last October. It seems Facebook had hoped Instagram would engage early high school users (aged 13-15) in a bid to replenish Facebook's aging user base.
In 2025, the continent's top Facebook markets reveal where the largest user bases are and how gender shapes social media engagement. Despite increasing competition from short-form video platforms such as TikTok and X, Facebook's combination of low data consumption, wide smartphone compatibility, and deep integration with WhatsApp has preserved its dominance in Africa's digital ecosystem. Based on 2025 data from World Population Review, the African countries with the largest Facebook user bases are:
Meta announced on Monday that it would be sunsetting two once-major features on Facebook: The external "Like" and Comment" social plugins. In a post on its developer site, Meta shared that the FB Like and FB Comment buttons will officially be discontinued on February 10, 2026. According to Meta, developers won't have to do anything. The plugins will simply render as an invisible 0x0 pixel at the end date. Meta says none of these changes should impact any website's functionality.
Last June, I met a wonderful longtime member of our community, Tom LeNoble. I have been fascinated with his story of resilience ever since that first meeting. I instantly realized this is a special person! Well, it turns out all of us can now read about his amazing life's journey. His autobiography, My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels: In Control, Being Controlled, Out of Control!, is available now.
In a new ad called "Home For The Holidays," we see people making their way back home and various get-togethers being organized on Facebook. Created by agency Droga5 and set to Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's "Girl From the North Country," the spot expertly conjures the comfort and emotional security that only the warm embrace of old friends and familiar surroundings can provide.
One of the most common questions creators and brands ask: "Is my engagement rate good?" The answer depends on your follower count. A 5% engagement rate looks very different for a neighborhood café with 500 fans than for a news publisher with half a million. That's why we analyzed 52 million Facebook posts across 213,000 accounts with over 6.9 billion engagements collectively, to see how engagement rates shift by follower tier.
Some people like to keep it low-key. Others are eager to spark some open-ended conversations. The remaining love diving deep into the burning zone where statements uttered are so controversial they get the discussion sizzling in no time. And what for? Let's say if you have a burning unpopular opinion, you'd know why. And there's a safe corner of the internet known as the UnpopularOpinion subreddit that has had the most disputable points of view flowing since 2012.