CNN – Social Media/Technology

By Samantha Murphy Kelly and Seth Fiegerman, CNN Business Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower who released tens of thousands of pages of internal research and documents, said the social media company could “destroy” her for speaking out, but she believed that “as long as Facebook is operating in the dark, it is accountable to no

By Donie O’Sullivan, Clare Duffy and Sarah Jorgensen, CNN Business “I have to be thin,” “Eternally starved,” “I want to be perfect.” These are the names of accounts Instagram’s algorithms promoted to an account registered as belonging to a 13-year-old girl who expressed interest in weight loss and dieting. Proof that Instagram is not only

By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business Facebook is continuing to battle US regulators that are calling for the company to be broken up, this time asking a court to dismiss an amended antitrust complaint against it filed by the Federal Trade Commission. In a filing Monday to the US District Court for the District of Columbia,

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business The identity of the Facebook whistleblower who released tens of thousands of pages of internal research and documents — leading to a firestorm for the social media company in recent weeks — was revealed on “60 Minutes” Sunday night as Frances Haugen. The 37-year-old former Facebook product manager who worked

By Rachel Ramirez and Clare Duffy, CNN The life cycle of a smartphone begins in mines around the world. There, raw materials and rare earth metals are extracted from the planet in an energy-intensive process. Those materials get transported to factories where they’re refined, often using high temperatures and significant energy, and turned into components

By Rishi Iyengar and Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes concluded its fourth week on Friday, with the lengthiest witness testimony of the trial so far. That testimony has come from former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, who has been on the stand for four days and will continue

By Rachel Metz, CNN Business One mid-September evening in 2018, Joel Cusick found himself pointing a laser scanner at the butt of a bear named Otis. Cusick was taking a break from work, standing on a platform along the Brooks River in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve — a world-famous spot for bear watching,

By Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Carreyrou is responsible for breaking open the story of Theranos six years ago, prompting broader scrutiny into blood testing startup that would land its CEO and founder Elizabeth Holmes in a federal courtroom over criminal fraud charges. Perplexingly, Carreyrou’s name is among dozens of possible

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business A group of 21 current and former employees at Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos, co-signed an essay speaking out against what they describe as a toxic workplace where “professional dissent” is “actively stifled,” and certain male leaders routinely engage in sexist behavior. All but one of

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business Amazon’s vision for the future of home security includes drones flying over your roof, outdoor cameras that monitor for possible trespassers and cute robots patrolling indoors. During an invite-only press conference on Tuesday, the company showed off an autonomous, 20-pound dog-like robot named Astro with large, cartoon-y eyes on

By Rob McLean, CNN Business Neiman Marcus Group is alerting millions of customers that their online accounts may have been breached. The company said in a news release Thursday that it is notifying 4.6 million customers that information associated with their online accounts may have been obtained by a third party in May 2020. That

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business A Facebook executive was grilled by Senators on Thursday about the impact its apps have on younger users, two weeks after an explosive report indicated the company was aware that Facebook-owned Instagram could have a “toxic” effect on teen girls. The hearing, featuring Facebook’s global head of safety, Antigone

By Rachel Metz, CNN Business Google Maps is making it easier to find the latest information about wildfires as part of a push to ensure the immensely popular app is more useful during emergencies. On Wednesday, Google said it’s adding a new wildfire layer to Google Maps, which users will be able to turn on

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business YouTube will remove videos spreading misinformation about any approved vaccine, not only those aimed at preventing Covid-19, the company announced in a blog post Wednesday. In a statement provided to CNN Business, YouTube also confirmed it would remove the channels of “several well-known vaccine misinformation spreaders” under the new policy,

By Rachel Metz, CNN Business It’s been a busy year for Encode Justice, an international group of grassroots activists pushing for ethical uses of artificial intelligence. There have been legislators to lobby, online seminars to hold, and meetings to attend, all in hopes of educating others about the harms of facial-recognition technology. It would be

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business Amazon is continuing its quest to cover our homes and bodies with Amazon devices. At a livestreamed media event on Tuesday, the company showed off a handful of new Amazon-branded products, including an Echo device that hangs on the wall and acts as a digital whiteboard for the home,

By Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business The testimony of a former Theranos lab director is set to continue Wednesday in the criminal trial of the failed blood-testing startup’s founder and former CEO, Elizabeth Holmes. It will mark the third day that jurors will hear from the man who is now known to be the first

By Jessie Yeung, Swati Gupta and Meenketan Jha, CNN Business More than 25 million people across the Indian state of Rajasthan faced government-mandated internet shutdowns and restrictions on Sunday, in an effort to prevent cheating in a mass exam. Hundreds of thousands of candidates sat the Rajasthan Teacher Eligibility Test (REET), an exam that paves

By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business Activision Blizzard will pay $18 million to settle a lawsuit by a US government agency alleging harassment and discrimination, the firm said Monday. The gaming company, which owns hugely popular titles such as “Call of Duty,” “World of Warcraft” and “Candy Crush,” announced it had reached a settlement agreement with

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business TikTok has hit one of the most exclusive milestones in the tech industry. The company said in a blog post Monday that it now has more than 1 billion monthly active users around the world, making it the rare social media application not owned by Facebook or Google to claim

By Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business For a time, Elizabeth Holmes was a media darling. The college dropout who started her blood-testing company Theranos at 19 graced the cover of magazines such as Forbes, Fortune, and Inc. in her signature black turtleneck to help cultivate her image as “the next Steve Jobs.” She was upheld

By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business It was an eventful week in the closely-watched trial of Elizabeth Holmes, with witnesses who included scientists, medical professionals, a patient and even the former US Secretary of Defense laying out how the promise of Holmes’ blood testing company Theranos fell apart. Here’s what you need to know. The miscarriage

By Clare Duffy and Evan Perez, CNN Business Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and the US Department of Justice on Friday entered an agreement to defer prosecution of US charges against her until late 2022, after which point the charges could be dropped. The deal, which allowed Meng to return to China, could bring to an

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business The latest battle in office life may be over whether or not to keep the camera on during virtual meetings. One woman who works at a New York-based nonprofit told CNN Business she received an HR complaint in August for the first time in her career because she kept

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business Apple officially launched its next-generation iPhone 13 line on Friday, with four new smartphones hitting shelves and shipping to customers who secured their orders early. Last week, the company showed off its latest devices — the iPhone 13 mini, the iPhone 13, the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13

By Matt Egan, CNN Business The shortage of computer chips is raising the price of new and used cars, delaying shipments of electronics and holding back the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s a huge problem,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNN ahead of leading a White House meeting with manufacturers and users of

By Laura He, CNN Business Alibaba is dumping its shares in one of China’s largest TV broadcasters just months after it bought them, as the company comes under growing pressure from a government campaign to rein in Big Tech’s power and influence. Alibaba plans to sell its 5% stake in Mango Excellent Media, according to