Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said on Thursday (Aug 13) it had taken down more than 750,000 accounts it suspected were held by Australians aged under 16 since a world-first ban on teen accounts, and promised more action in the face of possible regulatory intervention.

The company said it had deactivated 462,000 suspect Instagram accounts and 294,000 suspect Facebook accounts from just before the Australian social media ban went live in December to June, up from 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts it said it had removed by January.

The world’s largest social media company has said it wants to comply with a law it and other platforms have vocally opposed, just as Australia’s internet regulator considers an enforcement lawsuit against platforms, including some that Meta owns, that it says have failed to take sufficient steps to comply with the law.

No other platforms have released compliance data that matches the date range given by Meta, but Australian government figures and multiple independent studies have shown more than eight in 10 under-16s were still on social media in the ban’s first three months.

The Australian government proposed the landmark law, which came into force on Dec 10, on concerns about social media’s impact on the physical and mental health of children and young teens.

With other countries around the world considering similar age-restrictions, Australia has accused the platforms of intentionally setting the ban up to fail, and has introduced a law to double the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million (US$69.75 million) and give the regulator greater document discovery powers.

PARLIAMENTARY HEARING ON FRIDAY

Representatives of Meta, TikTok, YouTube owner Google and Snap’s Snapchat are scheduled to give evidence in a parliamentary inquiry about the changes on Friday, as are regulatory and government officials.

“Enforcement is ongoing, and these numbers will continue to grow,” Meta said in a statement.

“We share the Australian Government’s goal of ensuring young people have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, and we are meeting our obligations under the law,” the company added.

A 2025 Australian trial of age assurance technology found products on the market could effectively support a ban. 

Most large platforms, including Meta’s, rolled out photo-based age estimation software, although they say they typically first subject users to age inference, or assuming a person’s age based on their online activity.

Meta said it was using AI to analyse user profiles for “contextual clues that an account may belong to someone under 16, such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades” and to analyse reports about suspected underage accounts. 

The company added that it had removed the option for a person to make more attempts to set up an account if their previous account was deleted. (CNA/ Reuters)

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A 59‑year‑old resident of Yakkala has been arrested by the Western Province North Crimes Division in connection with an organized vehicle robbery racket, Police said.

The arrest follows a complaint lodged on July 10, when a man reported that a van he had purchased for Rs. 4 million was forcibly taken by an armed group. 

Investigations revealed that nearly ten individuals, including the owner of a vehicle sales outlet in Balummahara, Mudungoda, were linked to the crime.

Police investigations uncovered that the suspects had been posting advertisements on Facebook to sell vehicles. 

After completing sales, they allegedly trailed buyers and robbed the vehicles in an organized manner. Several suspects, including the vehicle sales owner, have fled the area.

During a search at a vehicle sales outlet in Kalagedihena, Nittambuwa, officers seized two swords, two pistol magazines, three live rounds, and a jeep.

Authorities confirmed that complaints have also been received regarding two other robberies carried out in a similar fashion.

The arrested suspect was produced before the Gampaha Magistrate’s Court on July 14 and was remanded until July 16. 

The Western Province North Crimes Division is continuing further investigations. (Newswire)

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A Dutch court on Thursday ordered Meta Platforms to give Facebook and Instagram users an easier way to choose a timeline that shows posts in chronological order rather than being shaped by algorithms that track their activity and interests. 

The District Court of Amsterdam issued the preliminary injunction in summary proceedings, and it found that elements of both platforms violated the European Union’s Digital Services Act.

Meta Ireland has two weeks to provide users with a “direct and simple” option to select a non-profiled timeline, the order in which posts and pieces of media submitted by other users is displayed. The company’s platforms must ensure that this choice remains in effect even if an app or website is closed, or the user navigates to other sections.

Currently, user-chosen settings automatically revert from chronological order to an algorithm-based profiled recommendation system whenever the platform is reopened, a practice the ruling describe as a prohibited “dark pattern.” The court said this undermines freedom of information.

“People in the Netherlands are not sufficiently able to make free and autonomous choices about the use of profiled recommendation systems,” the court said. It noted that these protections are especially important ahead of the parliamentary election on Oct. 29.

The Dutch digital rights group Bits of Freedom, which brought the case, welcomed the ruling. “It is unacceptable that a few American tech billionaires can determine how we view the world,” spokesperson Maartje Knaap said.

Meta said it plans to appeal the ruling. “We fundamentally disagree with this decision,” the company said in a statement. The company said it already complies with the Digital Services Act, and that it informs its users in the Netherlands about how to turn off the profiled timeline setting. (NL Times)

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Meta’s social media giant Facebook experienced a brief outage on Thursday, affecting thousands of users globally, with the majority of reports coming from the US.

According to Downdetector , a platform that monitors service disruptions via user feedback, over 350 people flagged issues with Facebook. Around 53% of the complaints were related to the Facebook app, 24% reported that the website wasn’t working, and 22% said they faced problems logging into their accounts.

As per the outage tracking website, people across various regions in the US began experiencing problems with Facebook from around 2:00 PM (IST) onwards, with reports steadily increasing thereafter.

Users flooded rival social media platforms to confirm the outage, sharing both reports and a wave of humorous memes, check them out.

A user on X joked, “When I saw this error I thought my Facebook and Instagram got hacked, before I noticed that #Facebook in general is down”.

So far, Meta has not issued any official statement addressing the cause of the global Facebook outage. The tech giant is yet to confirm whether it was due to a technical glitch, server issues, or any other underlying problem. While users in the US and several other countries reported difficulties accessing the platform, Facebook services in India appear to be running smoothly without any noticeable disruptions. Many affected users took to other social media platforms, such as X to share their frustration and seek answers, but the company has remained silent on the matter.

The disruption appears to be far from over, as outage reports continue to climb. According to Downdetector, the number of users flagging issues with Facebook has risen from around 350 earlier to over 450 at the time of writing. This steady increase suggests that the problem may be spreading or affecting more users over time. (Times Now)

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A complaint has been filed with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) regarding social media posts linking President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and a woman.

Attorney-at-law Akalanka Ukwatte, who lodged the complaint on the President’s instructions, said the posts contain false and defamatory content aimed at damaging the President’s reputation and character.

The complaint requests an investigation into the operators of the social media accounts responsible for the posts, which were described as entirely baseless and misleading. (Newswire)

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The Sri Lanka Police says action will be taken against persons using expletive language to comment on its official Facebook page. 

Issuing a notice, the Police said that the department takes into consideration the opinions and criticisms of the public and implements necessary measures in this regard.

As such, the Police requested the public to use decent language to share their views on the Sri Lanka Police official Facebook page.

Pointing out that using expletive language only damages the character of the person commenting, the Police warned that action will be initiated against such persons in the future. (Newswire)

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Eight Mile Style, a company that owns some of Eminem’s most popular songs, is suing social media giant Meta over alleged copyright infringement.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Michigan, accuses the Menlo Park-based tech company of storing, reproducing and distributing Eminem’s music without obtaining the license to do so.

Eight Mile Style, which is based in Ferndale, Mich., is seeking at least $109 million from Meta and a court order to stop several alleged forms of copyright infringement.

Music is a big part of social media. On Meta’s platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, people add music in photos and videos they share publicly or with their friends and family.

But the way social media has changed the way people listen to and discover new songs has also sparked concerns from artists about whether they’re fairly compensated.

“Meta’s years-long and ongoing infringement of the Eight Mile Compositions is another case of a trillion (with a ‘T’) dollar company exploiting the creative efforts of musical artists for the obscene monetary benefit of its executives and shareholders without a license and without regard to the rights of the owners of the intellectual property,” the lawsuit said.

Meta said in a statement that it has licenses with thousands of partners globally and an “extensive” global licensing programs for music on its platforms.

“Meta had been negotiating in good faith with Eight Mile Style, but rather than continue those discussions, Eight Mile Style chose to sue,” the company said in an email.

Eight Mile Style owns and controls 243 compositions recorded by Eminem, a rapper and music producer that has created popular hits such as “Lose Yourself.” Meta did remove some of these songs including “Lose Yourself” from its music libraries, but other versions of the music including a piano instrumental cover and a karaoke version still remain on the platform, according to the lawsuit.

Meta not only allowed users who upload these songs to infringe on copyright but knowingly stored and reproduced them in its music libraries so users can use the music in videos and photos, the lawsuit alleges. Users have added Eminem’s music in millions of videos that have been viewed billions of times, according to the lawsuit.

Meta also unsuccessfully tried to obtain a license for Eminem’s songs as part of negotiations with the digital music royalty company Audiam even though the firm didn’t have the authority to give them that license.

“Meta executives have actively encouraged such rampant infringement in order to attract as many users as possible to, among other things, make advertising on their services more profitable for themselves,” the lawsuit said.

More than 3 billion people use one of Meta’s apps daily, and the company makes billions of dollars every quarter from advertising.

In the first three months of this year, Meta’s revenue reached $42.31 billion, an increase of 16% year-over-year. The company’s net income jumped by 35% to $16.6 billion in the first quarter.

This isn’t the first time Meta has faced legal issues over the use of Eminem’s music. In 2013, Eight Mile Style sued Facebook, alleging the social network used the Eminem song “Under the Influence” for an ad without their consent. (LA Times)

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A 20-year-old youth has been arrested on charges of sharing explicit videos and photographs of children to foreigners via Facebook, the Police said. 

According to the Police, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US had shared a report with the Bureau for the Investigation of Abuse of Children & Women of Sri Lanka in this regard.

In the report, the NCMEC had highlighted the activities of the 20-year-old man, after which the Police Bureau for the Investigation of Abuse of Children & Women had launched a probe into the matter.

Presenting facts to the Fort Magistrate’s Court, the Police had obtained a detailed report on the suspect’s mobile phone, after which they had apprehended the suspect in Ragama. 

A mobile phone and computer containing explicit content belonging to the suspect, a resident of Ragama, were taken into Police custody. 

The Police Bureau for the Investigation of Abuse of Children & Women of Sri Lanka is conducting further investigations. (Newswire)

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Papua New Guinea’s government has shut down social media platform Facebook, in what it describes as a “test” to mitigate hate speech, misinformation, pornography and “other detrimental content”. 

The test, conducted under the country’s anti-terrorism laws, began on Monday morning and has extended into Tuesday. 

Facebook users in the country have been unable to log-in to the platform and it is unclear how long the ban will go on for.  

The government’s move was not flagged ahead of the “test” on Monday — a move opposition MPs and media leaders have described as “tyranny” and an “abuse of human rights”. 

In a statement, PNG’s Police Minister Peter Tsiamalili said the initiative was to ensure “responsible usage” of social media platforms like Facebook while keeping “harmful content” out of public discourse.

“However, the unchecked proliferation of fake news, hate speech, pornography, child exploitation, and incitement to violence on platforms such as Facebook is unacceptable.

“These challenges increasingly threaten the safety, dignity, and well-being of our populace.”

Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform in the country, with an estimated 1.3 million users, or about half of the country’s estimated 2.6 million internet users. 

In comparison, Instagram has about 106,000 users. 

The platform is a critical tool for public discourse in the country, with many highly active forums used to discuss PNG politics and social issues. 

Yet, the government has been highly critical of Facebook with the platform often blamed for helping spread misinformation, particularly in light of a recent spate of tribal killings in the country.

It has long threatened a move against Facebook, after announcing a parliamentary inquiry into “media disinformation” in 2023.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been contacted for comment. (ABC)

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The Government Information Department has requested the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) to conduct a probe into a Facebook account that had shared a picture claiming President Anura Kumara Dissanayake had attended the funeral of drug kingpin ‘Makandure Madush’.  

In a letter addressed to the Acting IGP, the Government Information Department said that the picture had been circulated on Facebook by an individual identified as Tharanga Lakmal. 

The Government Information Department further pointed out that the individual had shared false information, causing an uproar on social media. 

The Acting IGP has been requested to conduct a probe into the matter and take the necessary legal actions in this regard. (Newswire)

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A 28-year-old man who had defrauded money by fraudulently accessing a Facebook account has been apprehended by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) at the Katunayake Airport.

The Police said a complaint was received in 2024 that the suspect had posed as a relative, gaining access to the victim’s Facebook account, after which he had defrauded a total of Rs. 700,000 on three occasions from the victim’s bank account.

An inspection of the affected bank account found that the suspect was residing in Qatar.

After having received a notice from the Department of Immigration and Emigration, the suspect was arrested upon his return to Sri Lanka yesterday.

The Colombo Crimes Division is conducting further investigations into the incident. (Newswire)

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The Colombo Magistrate’s Court has ordered the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to launch an investigation into the incident of a false report being published on the internet about President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during the last presidential election.

The incident is regarding the publishing of a false medical report on the Internet regarding the illness of the current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during the last presidential election.

The Colombo Magistrate’s Court ordered the CID to conduct a comprehensive probe, arrest the suspect involved in the incident, and produce the suspect in court.

The CID reported facts before the Colombo Magistrate Court today, based on a complaint made by lawyer Sunil Watagala. 

In his complaint, lawyer Sunil Watagala claimed this fake information had been uploaded to the internet through an account of a person identified as Subhash.

The CID informed the court today that an investigation is underway into the incident. (Newswire)

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President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has achieved a significant social media milestone, becoming the 6th Sri Lankan politician to surpass one million followers on Facebook.

This places him alongside former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, opposition MP Namal Rajapaksa, and former MP Ranjan Ramanayake who have similarly amassed large online followings of over one million. 

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the Sri Lankan politician with the highest number of Facebook followers, which is 1. 4 million, followed by his son Namal Rajapaksa with 1.3 million followers.

The list is as follows;

• Mahinda Rajapaksa – 1.4M
• Namal Rajapaksa – 1.3M
• Ranjan Ramanayake – 1.2M
• Maithripala Sirisena – 1.1M 
• Gotabaya Rajapaksa – 1M 
• Anura Kumara Dissanayake – 1M. (Newswire)

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One person was reported dead in a shooting incident involving a group of robbers and the Police in the Weragala area in Narammala.

According to Lankadeepa newspaper, a group of thieves who sell mobile phones at low prices had allegedly carried out a sword attack on four individuals who had arrived in a car to purchase a mobile phone.

Upon being informed of the situation, a group of Police officers arrived at the area during which the group of thieves had attempted to attack the officers as well, prompting them to open fire, resulting in the death of one person.

A Senior Police Officer said that the four victims who had been attacked with swords had been hospitalised with injuries. 

The victims had arrived in the Weragala area early last morning to purchase a high-end mobile phone for a lower price based on an advertisement that had been published on Facebook. 

Police investigations have found that the group of thieves had escorted the victims to a forest area and had prepared to rob them during which the victims had fought back resulting in the suspects attacking them with swords that were in their possession. 

After receiving information on the attack, officers attached to the Narammala and Polgahawela Police arrived at the location during which the suspects had attempted to attack them with swords as well.

In order to contain the situation, the Police officers had opened fire killing one person from among the suspects. 

The Narammala Police is conducting investigations into the incident. (NewsWire)

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The Facebook page of Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation of Sri Lanka, Pavithra Wanniarachchi has reportedly been compromised following a cyber attack. 

The official Facebook page of the minister now contains videos related to various content, including online games. 

It is assumed that the Facebook page had fallen victim to the cyber attack around last evening.

No official statement has been made from the Minister’s team as yet on the cyber attack. (NewsWire)

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Two individuals engaged in financial fraud by creating fake National Identity Cards (NIC) using photographs shared on social media have been arrested by the Cyber Crimes Unit of the Sri Lanka Police. 

Police Spokesman DIG Nihal Thalduwa said the suspects were found to have created fake documents to open accounts at private banks and to also obtain loans using the false information.

The suspects had defrauded the public and deposited money into the bank accounts opened using fake documents.

They had used information and images from social media to create fake National Identity Cards (NIC) and Driving Licences, among other documents, he told the media.

DIG Thalduwa further said that the suspects were arrested based on a complaint filed by an individual whose email and WhatsApp accounts had been hacked by the suspects to defraud him.

One suspect, who is a university graduate with knowledge related to computers, was found to have created the fake documents.

The Police seized 28 fake NICs, 32 fake driving licences, 3 mobile phones, 5 fake temporary driving licences, 18 SIM cards, and a computer from the suspect’s possession.

The chief suspect is a 35-year-old resident of Webada, Gampaha, while the other suspect is a 27-year-old also from Gampaha. 

The Police Spokesman said the Cyber Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department is investigating the matter. (NewsWire)

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A 19-year-old youth who had made a post on Facebook allegedly threatening President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been remanded. 

The suspect allegedly uploaded a Facebook post regarding the possibility of finding a sniper ahead of the President’s scheduled visit to the Eppawala area on September 07.

According to reports, the suspect was arrested by officials of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

The CID informed the court that investigations were underway to ascertain if there was any connection between this incident and the incident where an Army soldier residing in Eppawala fled with a T-56 weapon from the Kilinochchi Army Camp.

Taking into consideration the facts, the Colombo Magistrate’s Court remanded the suspect until September 08. 

The suspect is a 19-year-old resident of Mediyawa in Eppawala and employed as a bakery goods seller via three-wheeler, commonly known as ‘Choon paan’. (NewsWire)

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The official Facebook page of the Western Province Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Deshabandu Tennakoon has faced a cyber attack. 

Confirming the cyber attack, SDIG Tennakoon stated that posts shared via his Facebook page are not his views.

He urged the public to refrain from commenting on the posts published during the cyber attack.

SDIG Tennakoon further stated that measures are being taken to restore his official Facebook page. (NewsWire)

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The official Facebook account of Sri Lanka’s Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara was compromised following a cyber attack.

The Minister’s Facebook account was hacked during a live broadcast of a discussion on the proposed amendments to Sri Lanka’s labour laws.

Following the cyber attack, the hackers had added a link to the Facebook page linking it to a website that hosts pornographic content.

Minister Manusha Nanayakkara’s media unit stated that measures are underway to restore the Facebook account.

The media unit further stated that a written request has been made from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to conduct a special investigation into the incident. (NewsWire)

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Meta Platforms has announced it will slash a further 10,000 jobs in a second round of mass layoffs as the Big Tech industry braces for a deep economic downturn.

The Facebook-parent company said on Tuesday that it will reduce the size of its recruiting team and make further cuts in its tech groups in late April, and then its business groups in late May.

Meta has been engaged in a wider restructuring that will also see the United States-based company scrap hiring plans for 5,000 openings, cancel lower-priority projects and flatten layers of middle management.

“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a message to staff. “It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success.”

Zuckerberg said he believed “this new economic reality will continue for many years”.

Worries of an economic downturn due to rising interest rates have sparked a series of mass job cuts across corporate America: from Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to Big Tech firms including Amazon and Microsoft.

Meta, which is pouring billions of dollars to build the futuristic metaverse, has struggled with a post-pandemic slump in advertising spending from companies worried about the economic outlook.

Early last month, the company posted falling profits and its third consecutive quarter of declining revenue.

In response, Zuckerberg promised to turn 2023 into the “Year of Efficiency”. With the latest move, Meta expects expenses in 2023 to come in between $86bn and $92bn, lower than the $89bn to $95bn forecast previously.

The company’s shares jumped 6 percent in early trading on the news of the widely anticipated job cuts.

“As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs – and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long-term vision,” said Zuckerberg.

In November, Meta slashed its workforce by 11,000 in the first mass layoffs in its 18-year history. Its headcount stood at 86,482 at the end of 2022, up 20 percent from a year ago.

Meta and other tech companies hired aggressively for at least two years but have in recent months begun to let some of those workers go.

The tech industry has laid off nearly 290,000 workers since the start of 2022, with about 40 percent of them coming this year, according to layoff-tracking sites.

This month, Amazon paused construction on its second headquarters in Virginia in the US following the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history and its shifting plans around remote work.

Twitter has also carried out massive job cuts since the social media platform was bought by Elon Musk last year for $44bn.

The latest cuts of about 200 jobs last month took the company’s headcount down to fewer than 2,000 workers, according to the New York Times.

The newspaper found Twitter lost advertisers since Musk took over, with ads responsible for more than 90 percent of the company’s revenue. (AL Jazeera)

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