On December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono sat down to talk to a small crew from San Francisco’s KFRC radio station in their Dakota Building apartment in New York. It was the only radio interview they gave to promote their album Double Fantasy, released three weeks earlier. For two hours and 45 minutes they spoke calmly, optimistically and, in Lennon’s case, in an almost messianic voice, about life. That night, returning home, Lennon would be shot dead by Mark David Chapman. Given the circumstances, the interview could be viewed as prophetic, which is Steven Soderbergh’s angle in his documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview, presented at Cannes in a special session.

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BRUSSELS, June 3 — Meta secured a partial victory today over the EU’s powers to regulate tech giants, as a top court ruled the bloc was wrong to slap tough rules on its Facebook Marketplace platform — but threw out an appeal over Messenger.

The US giant filed a challenge with the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg over both platforms’ designation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), one of several digital laws facing fierce criticism from tech giants and US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Meta faces strict rules and obligations after being designated a so-called “gatekeeper” under the DMA, and its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp apps are subject to extra scrutiny as “core platform services”.

In its challenge, Meta argued that Messenger and Marketplace were an extension of Facebook, and should not face stringent obligations of their own.

“By its judgment today, the General Court of the European Union annuls the decision designating Meta as a gatekeeper as regards Marketplace, while maintaining Meta’s designation for its interpersonal communications service Messenger,” the court said in a statement.

In practice, the European Commission had agreed in April last year to lift the designation of Marketplace, but Meta nonetheless welcomed the court decision — seen as a test of the EU’s powers to regulate the sector.

The Marketplace ruling “confirms that it should not have been designated in the first place”, a Meta spokesperson said.

“We are reviewing the court’s finding on Messenger and will consider our options,” they said.

In its challenge, Meta argued that Messenger and Marketplace were an extension of Facebook, and should not face stringent obligations of their own. — AFP pic

‘Erred in law’ 

The DMA comes with a list of do’s and don’ts for the world’s biggest digital platforms in an attempt to keep them in check and create an open online space.

Concerning the imposition of tougher rules on Marketplace, the court found the European Commission had “erred in law” on several counts.

It faulted the EU executive for failing to take into account changes made to the platform in mid-2023, and more broadly said its case “lacks sufficient reasoning”.

Regarding Messenger, however, the court agreed with the commission that it was “distinct from the Facebook social network”, noting that it was “offered by means of standalone applications” and that “Meta promotes tools that are specific to that service”.

The EU court in 2024 ruled against a similar bid by TikTok to challenge its DMA designation, a decision the company has appealed.

Alongside Meta and TikTok’s owner ByteDance, the other “gatekeepers” are Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking and Microsoft.

The EU last year imposed its first fines for breaking the DMA rule, hitting Meta and Apple with penalties of €200 million (RM923 million) and €500 million respectively.

The fines have given rise to accusations by Washington that the EU is deliberately targeting American companies, which Brussels denies. — AFP

Last year Time magazine included Pope Leo XIV among the 100 most important figures in the world in artificial intelligence (AI). It is no coincidence. Only eight days passed from his papal appointment to his first public remarks on the technology: “Truth is never separated from charity... Thus, truth does not distance us, but rather allows us to face with greater vigor the challenges of our time, such as migration, the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the protection of our beloved Earth,” he said in his second official address. His first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (magnificent humanity), is devoted precisely to this technology.

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Meta has reportedly removed a controversial facial recognition system, internally known as "Name Tag," that was discovered in the code of a companion app for its line of Ray-Ban smart glasses.

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A friend is upset because you didn’t “like” a photo from her last trip, but the truth is you haven’t even had a chance to see it. Instead of displaying it on your feed, Instagram prioritized showing you ads for food.

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TikTok executives decided not to disable notifications during school hours, ignoring recommendations from their own safety team, and paid millions of dollars to parents’ and teachers’ associations to promote the social network in schools. Snapchat sent alerts to teenagers while they were in class urging them to share what was happening in the classroom. Google executives knew that YouTube was recommending videos to students during the school day that were unrelated to their lessons. Meta paid “teen ambassadors” to promote Instagram and hand out gifts to their classmates.

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Oscar winner Mikey Madison and Jeremy Strong to star in film focused on fallout from whistleblower Frances Haugen

The first trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Social Network has landed.

The Social Reckoning has been described as a film that isn’t a “straight sequel” but one that will still revisit Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is addicted to money. The major labs developing AI models are intoxicated with the dollars that will finance the technology’s evolution. The three leading companies in the sector, Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX, have announced in recent days plans to go public to raise more funds in an endless race. Other long-established tech multinationals such as Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon have also launched financial operations in what is shaping up to be the biggest capital raising effort in the sector’s history.

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NEW YORK, June 2 — Meta is facing scrutiny after security researchers found that its AI‑powered support chatbot could be manipulated to grant unauthorised access to Instagram accounts.

Futurism reported that multiple users and cybersecurity researchers demonstrated how Meta’s automated support agent — designed to help with account recovery — could be tricked into handing over access links simply by claiming to be the account owner. In several documented cases, the bot allegedly provided password‑reset or login‑recovery URLs without verifying the requester’s identity.

According to the report, the vulnerability allowed attackers to bypass standard security checks, including two‑factor authentication, by exploiting the chatbot’s willingness to accept unverified claims. Screenshots shared by researchers showed the bot responding with recovery links after minimal prompting.

Meta told Futurism that it had taken action to address the issue, but did not specify what changes were made. The company also said it had not found evidence of “widespread abuse,” though researchers quoted in the article argued that the flaw was significant and easily exploitable.

Cybersecurity analysts warned that the incident highlights broader risks in deploying AI systems for sensitive support functions without robust verification safeguards. Some experts said the case underscores how AI‑driven customer service tools can unintentionally create new attack surfaces if not properly secured.

The report noted that several affected Instagram users have since regained control of their accounts.

In September 2021, The Wall Street Journal published the Facebook Files, a series of reports based on internal documents from the tech company that, among other things, showed its executives were aware of the harms Instagram and Facebook were causing young people. It was a bombshell. It triggered the biggest reputational crisis for Mark Zuckerberg’s company, which weeks later rebranded as Meta. The person behind it was engineer Frances Haugen, 42, who left her post at Facebook carrying 21,000 internal documents. The U.S. Senate summoned her to testify, and investigations were opened into her revelations.

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