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WELCOME TO THE Weird Wide Web – where we take a look at the week’s best offerings in tech and social media news.
Facebook offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion but the messaging service’s founder was having none of it. So what does this mean for the tech world? Digital Trends will tell you.
If you’re looking to kill some time today, have a go at what-would-i-say.com. It basically comes up with suggestions for things you’d be likely to say, based on your Facebook past. This author tried it and it is, admittedly, quite accurate:
These two ladies are looking for funding for a toy that lets you send messages to your little one through a cute mailbox shaped like an animal. You do all of this using your smartphone and the child can even reply by speaking to the toy.
So the PS4 has launched in North America and Canada and most gamers who queued up for hours to get their hands on the coveted new console are satisfied with it. Many have already been using the new function that allows you to share game pictures online:
However a small number of users reported having problems with the new console, such as logins or a loss of video signal. Sony told IGN that the number of affected systems represents less than 0.4 per cent of shipped units to date, which is within expectations for a new product introduction.
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Facebook should be broken up
@Peter Laurent: into what? If they were split into multiple social media platforms then one of the platforms would emerge as the dominant player anyway because the whole point is to be connected with people which is a bit difficult if you have a quarter of the people you know on one each of four separate platforms. It’s probably a natural monopoly, which is fine as long it is recognised as such and regulated accordingly. But they barely seem to be regulated at all at present which is a problem.
@winston smith: i think you maybe miss the point…with respect….there is basically a duopoly of facebook and google that take in as much as 75% of all digital ad revenues around the world , this is making them beyond giants in each market , both of them have gobbled up any major evolving platform , instagram , whatsapp , youtube etc and dominance in digital currency etc etc on the way – there is a need for sensible regulation – monopolistic behaviour is not healthy in free markets – traditionally were broken up in the us for good reason as anti-trust – they themselves know that there needs to be a sensible regulated market but of course will suck up as much cash as possible while they can – saying that a social giant will always emerge as being the biggest cos thats the point ignores that they dont have the same company that owns instagram , the same company that owns messaging , or the in google case the same company owns search and then also gets to own / dominate in video ( paid a billion for youtube ) – and then theres there is the whole issue of having stiff regulations for mainstream media – but giving a free pass to social media and allow them claim they are not really media companies – there are a ton of things required to try regulate these mega industries properly. The US is already on that track about breaking up for a reason – we of course will be petrified that the big employers in dublin might be damaged and will likely spin it like hell that regulating tech giants is somehow a bad thing. welcome to ireland.
@Dave Hammond: fair enough on the YouTube and whatsapp and similar subsidiaries, but I wouldn’t agree that all monopolies should be broken up. Some industries have natural monopolies, and id say social media like the main Facebook site is such a monopoly. Breaking up these sort of monopolies usually ends up bad for consumers (think the EU deciding that a country the size of Ireland needed competition in electricity supply, or that sky shouldn’t be allowed monopolise premier league coverage: both resulted in higher costs to consumers). Natural monopolies should be treated almost as though they are public utilities because they can’t be allowed completely dictate price if there’s no competition to correct to market price. Agree re the media bit, facebook should be treated as publishers.
@winston smith: agree , when they talk about breaking up – they essentially are talking about instagram , youtube , whatsapp etc etc – the legitimate concern is that they essentially become too big and difficult to regulate at all. Your point about monopoly is still misguided imo , anti-trust legislation was designed to encourage competition – any market where monopoly emerges needs to be regulated and some controls are required – it is a fallacy that breaking up monopolies is bad for consumers – you must have very short memory of you think that an aer lingus monopoly charging 500 quid to get to london or Telecom Eireann taking a year to install a phione in the house is somehow better than having regulated competitive markets instead.
@Dave Hammond: aerlingus wasn’t a natural monopoly though. A natural monopoly is where an industry will inevitably become a monopoly if left to its own devices. Those industries certainly need to be regulated but forcing competition into the industry causes increased costs to consumers as high infrastructural costs or other barriers to entry being borne by multiple players reduces economies of scale. The below link is an explanation about these sort of industries, they’re quite common in countries like Ireland, and our power supply was a naturally monopolistic industry until regulators intervened and forced competition.
@winston smith: thanks winston but I have my MBA a good few years now and understand the economics of monopoly – everything I outlined in my comments still stands. thanks.
Who gets that money I wonder.
@Greg Ward: Those fat cat politicians in their huge mansions!!!!!
@Tweety McTweeter: oh yeh all those greedy politicians get the fines transferred into their own accounts What kind of g0bshoites are on this site
@Ben: loads
@Ben:
Or are they party political activists?
Allegedly the Irish government are considering legal action against US Regulators to stop the $5 billion Facebook fine…
This may be perceived as toxic 4.2/10
@Robin Basstard: ahh yes the journal toxic software algorithms are legendarily shoite
@Robin Basstard:
Link?
To comment here please log on with your Facebook or Twitter acc given me a break ffs..
Any chance the Irish authorities might fine Facebook for interference in Irish referendums?
It’s ironic considering there were double the number of unregulated Pro Abortions ads over the course of the referendum, they blatantly suppressed one side in favour of another, this should be a real cause for concern.
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/referendum-ireland-advertising
Any chance the Irish media might report on these scandalous issues? Not a chance, they are just as complicit, they know about this and stories like this but are not publishing.
@eric nelligan: The Pro-Life ads were banned because they were filled with deliberate misinformation and lies, it’s well known that social media platforms are cracking down on Fake News and propaganda so no surprise those dishonest ads were banned.
@Graham Wilson: it was a bad strategy in any case. The misinformation and lies just caused the voter to deeply distrust any information coming from that side.
@Sean: Very true.
Fakebook days are numbered
@Johnny Conway: $16.9 billion profits in Q4 2018 along with growing daily and monthly active users, people have been using that tired line for the last 10 years.
@Graham Wilson: he means Facebooks days are numbered because hey will be forcefully broken up not because users will leave.
@J: Will you start an event on Bookface, or will I?
Only one way to stop social media control of data and that’s stop using them. Fines are futile unless it’s a enough to damage the cash flow of the company.
Make them irrelevant by not using them.
$5bn sounds like a lot but this company has grown by over $200bn so far this year alone. A large part of that is due to how ruthless they are with people’s data and privacy. Zuckerberg is probably crying himself laughing at this number.
“Facebook’s stock value increased 1.8% after the fine was announced, closing at nearly $205, the highest it has been all year.”
Imagine you got a fine for something and then found out your overall wealth increased by way more as a result
@RogerRamjet: that’s not uncommon actually. If a company is under investigation and the market presumes that they’ll be fined then the amount of the fine will be estimated and priced into the stock price. If the fine turns out to be less than the market had estimated then you will see a bounce in the stock price. The negative impact on the stock price would have occurred when the investigation was announced, now that it’s concluded there is a slight recovery of the negative impact that occurred previously.
Fook fakebook
This may be perceived as toxic 2.0
Said that ages ago and was laughed at as a tin foil hat…..my mate in uk posted couple years ago him and his wife were talking about goin on a Caribbean cruise the following year, he got up next morning with cruises adverts on Facebook both their phones were on table as they were talking, happened to me few months ago…
That’s like a small tiny car dent to Facebook. It’d be better if they shut down and dissolved the entire company, it’s a disgusting corporation which people need to realise and get off.
@Dan Skelton: people’s choice vs your choice … I do not think that is going to happen for awhile
The method through the millenniums … divide and conquer.
while we are about it, let’s break up EU, USA, Russia, China, as they all have too many members too.
have your say