On Monday, Meta announced that it will be offering paid subscriptions to Europeans for ad-free use of Instagram and Facebook in November. The American giant thus intends to comply with the RGPD, which requires it to ask for their consent before presenting them with targeted advertising. Users in the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein “will have the choice of continuing to use both social networks free of charge” with personalized ads, “or subscribing to stop seeing ads”.

Each subscriber will have to pay 9.99 euros per month if they pay via a computer, or 12.99 euros if they pay via mobile applications. And from March 1, each additional account will add 6 to 8 euros to the monthly bill. What will users of these networks do? We asked them.

The least we can say is that the news isn’t very appealing. Or not at all: all the people who responded to our call for testimonials will be staying with the free version. I wouldn’t pay a cent to go on Facebook,” says Michel, who has set up a group on the platform to help people with disabilities. It’s totally scandalous and inappropriate. Philippe is adamant – “I’ll never pay for a social network! -while Françoise expresses her weariness – “there’s no way I’m going to take out ANOTHER subscription just to avoid ads….”. And while Jean-Jacques says “stop the one-upmanship”, Mylène points out that “life is expensive enough as it is”.

More resistant, some are even thinking of saying stop. ” It’s either the free version or account deletion,” Laurence angrily declares. ” I’m ready to leave the networks if one day payment becomes compulsory,” continues Gilles. And Mokpsy goes even further: “I’m simply going to close my accounts, because in practical terms, they’re useless!

“We don’t get anything for free anymore”.

Others won’t go for the paid version, but with less rancor. I don’t mind the ads,” says Vanessa, “so I’ll stick with the free version. I use Facebook for entertainment, not business,” she explains. Apolline continues: “I don’t use Instagram, only Facebook I find useful, so advertising, why not, as long as it doesn’t become polluting”.

I don’t know,” concludes Ryan. Paying not to see ads isn’t right, because they’ve been forced on us. But, he concedes, “I understand that nothing is free these days”..

Source : https://www.20minutes.fr/high-tech/meta/4060216-20231101-version-payante-pub-facebook-instagram-lecteurs-tout-emballes

Google rolls out its fourth Core Update of the year

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Social network TikTok, owned by Chinese group ByteDance, announced that it had removed four million videos deemed illegal or harmful in the EU in September, according to a report published on Wednesday. The platform claims to have a staff of 6,125 dedicated to content moderation in the European Union alone, out of a total of 40,000 responsible for protecting its users worldwide.

“The vast majority of actions taken by TikTok against illegal or harmful content are taken proactively” because they violate the social network’s rules, the group said in a report on its moderation activity within the 27 EU countries. “These withdrawals far outnumber those relating to user reports,” he emphasized.

With the aim of increasing transparency, the publication of such a report every six months is an obligation imposed by the new European legislation on digital services (DSA), which came into force at the end of August for 19 very large platforms, including TikTok.

Over the past two weeks, the European Commission has also launched investigations into X (ex-Twitter), Meta (Facebook, Instagram) and TikTok, demanding details of the measures they are implementing to combat the spread of “false information” and “illegal content”, following the Hamas attacks on Israel.

In its first transparency report published on Wednesday, TikTok, which claims 134 million monthly active users across Europe, said it was “proud” of its efforts, while acknowledging that it “still has work to do”.

The social network explains that it has introduced a tool enabling its community of European users to report illegal content, in line with DSA obligations. TikTok claims to have received 35,000 reports relating to 24,000 videos in the first month. Action was taken against 16% of them, deemed illegal or contrary to internal rules.

The median time between reporting and action was 13 hours, the group explained, underlining the difficult legal analysis it had to conduct to be fair and consistent, while taking into account freedom of expression.

Those involved in content moderation also rely on automated tools. A third of them work in English. The department also employs 869 German speakers and 687 French speakers. The team includes speakers of the EU’s 24 official languages, as well as people capable of monitoring publications in Turkish and Arabic, two frequently used languages.

Source : https://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/tiktok-a-supprime-4-millions-de-videos-nuisibles-en-septembre-dans-l-union-europeenne-20231025