Meta and BlackRock form a $14bn venture to build an El Paso AI data centre
Meta and BlackRock form a $14bn venture to build an El Paso AI data centre

Meta has folded its half-built El Paso data centre into a joint venture with BlackRock, formalising a structure that keeps most of a $14bn project off its own books. Under the agreement, funds managed by BlackRock will own 80% of the Texas campus and M…

Meta’s latest courtroom losses expose a potential hole in social media’s strongest defense

Two jury losses are testing whether Section 230 protects the design choices behind social media feeds, giving plaintiffs a possible route around the industry’s strongest legal defense without rewriting the law yet.

Tennessee tells jury Meta knew Instagram harmed teens and stayed silent
Tennessee tells jury Meta knew Instagram harmed teens and stayed silent

A jury in Nashville heard this week that Meta once concluded, in its own internal language, that the features keeping teenagers glued to Instagram were “inherently at odds with well-being”, and that the company then chose to say nothing about it. The l…

Meta AI is moving into your Threads DMs, where awkward AI chats belong

Meta is giving Threads users a more private way to use its AI chatbot, letting you ask questions and get context on posts right inside your DMs.

Meta AI arrives in Threads DMs for all users worldwide
Meta AI arrives in Threads DMs for all users worldwide

Meta is rolling out Meta AI to Threads direct messages globally starting today. All users can now share posts, images, links, and videos with Meta AI in a one-on-one conversation, ask follow-up questions, and explore topics privately. The feature mirro…

Discord and Meta are being sued as defective products, not as publishers
Discord and Meta are being sued as defective products, not as publishers

The complaint says out loud what most cases like it only imply. It exists, its authors write, to challenge how Discord and Meta misuse “section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as a shield against accountability”. That single sentence explains the…

Meta is royally screwing up its smart glasses rollout 
Meta is royally screwing up its smart glasses rollout 

Across New York City, London, and Washington, DC, ads for Meta’s smart glasses have been plastered over with satirical posters from activist groups. One guerrilla ad calls these “the biggest advancement in pervert technology since the trenchcoat.” Another transposes the words “mass surveillance predator glasses” over influencer Kylie Jenner’s face, calling her out for partnering […]

Facebook and Instagram ran nudify-app ads from a single Chinese firm, watchdog says
Facebook and Instagram ran nudify-app ads from a single Chinese firm, watchdog says

Awatchdog group says Meta ran thousands of advertisements for apps that digitally undress women, and that the network placing them traces back to a single company in China. The finding lands on a platform that has spent more than a year insisting it is…

The vertical video takeover is here
The vertical video takeover is here

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on all things vertical video, follow David Pierce. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started For a while, every social and media platform […]

Modi breaks Instagram’s Reel record with 300 million views as student protests sweep India
Modi breaks Instagram’s Reel record with 300 million views as student protests sweep India

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted two selfie videos on Instagram as student protests swept the country, with the first Reel drawing more than 300 million views in 24 hours and breaking the platform’s record for a single clip. The 75-year-old l…