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Sarah Frier Profile
Sarah Frier

@sarahfrier

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In charge of big tech coverage at Bloomberg. Author of NO FILTER: The Inside Story of Instagram, from @simonschuster .

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2008
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram is now published!!! Now you can read it and tell me what you think:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
“Dave, you’re the kind of customer I’m happy to lose.” - Jeff Bezos
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Snapchat is permanently banning Trump. Statement from company:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Ok, used an app to turn off the iPhone color correction. Here’s what it really looks like out there in San Francisco, at 10 in the morning. (It’s getting darker)
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
7 years
Every journalist, no matter the beat, covers politics now.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Wow. Google announcing YouTube's annual ad revenue for the first time. YouTube ads generated $15 billion!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
It's infuriating that movies and shows so often depict fictional female journalists sleeping with sources to get their stories. In this movie, they're portraying a REAL REPORTER doing so, with no evidence, and she's not alive to defend herself.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Behold Mark Zuckerberg’s revised origin story for Facebook, as a way to give people voice during the Iraq war. (And compare to the Harvard Crimson on Zuckerberg’s hot-or-not tool in 2003 )
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
Elon Musk tells Twitter staff bankruptcy is possible, sources say. Yoel Roth, the head of trust and safety, and Robin Wheeler, who was leading that big Twitter spaces call with advertisers, are both now out, sources add. Also, no more free food.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
The rumor is that KPop fans and TikTokers reserved a lot of tickets with no intention of going, to mess up the attendance expectations and the data-gathering operation. If you are one of those people/have any sense of the size of that effort I want to hear from you!
@parscale
Brad Parscale
4 years
Just passed 800,000 tickets. Biggest data haul and rally signup of all time by 10x. Saturday is going to be amazing!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Wowww the FTC calls for the Facebook and Instagram acquisitions to be unwound.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
The advertiser boycott of Facebook is accelerating. Coca Cola just joined. The changes Mark Zuckerberg announced today didn’t seem to help much.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
And earlier today, Twitter deleted Bolsonaro tweets. This is a defining moment: companies willing to shut down disinfo from world leaders if they have the World Health Organization to back them up on what counts as harmful
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Theory: everyone is into Marie Kondo and the Great British Baking Show because our lives and politics are so crazy that it’s nice to be brought into an alternate reality where people are kind to one another and accomplish goals that have nothing to do with the internet
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
The main thing we all realized when reporting out this story: - The contractors listening to voices were all horrified, and saw an obvious violation - the companies were all surprised by the discomfort. Listening to audio to improve their AI was a natural next step for the tech.
@BW
Businessweek
4 years
NEW COVER: Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are listening to your most intimate moments. Here's how the world’s biggest companies got millions of people to let temps analyze some very sensitive recordings
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
The wording of Twitter's notice at the bottom doesn't make it sound like a warning about the tweet -- it makes it sound like a warning about mail-in ballots.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
thank you @matt_levine . putting a deal "on hold" is not a thing
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Time for some personal news... After YEARS covering social media companies, chronicling their transformation into giants, writing a book about Instagram, I’m moving on from the day-to-day beat and transitioning to a senior writing role, covering tech power more broadly.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Instagram: "We don’t want Instagram to be such a competition." *tests removing likes* Teens: *turn their profiles into "business" accounts for more detailed metrics, making their contact info public*
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
“It makes no sense paying Bay Area rent if we can earn our salary living elsewhere.” With offices are closed for months, workers plot their exodus. my latest for @BW
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
I miss New York. I just accidentally paid $18 for a bagel in SF.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Facebook allowing lies in political ads got Aaron Sorkin’s attention. In his piece, he delivers some behind-the-scenes detail about how Sheryl Sandberg handled “The Social Network” movie....
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Fire smoke blocking out the sun in San Francisco this morning. This is 7:40am. There are so many fires in and around the state.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
More updates coming, but context: - Bezos' current net worth is $130B. this is his biggest philanthropic investment ever - This comes after Amazon critiqued by employees for the environmental costs of fast shipping
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Facebook says it will now remove all photos and videos posted from the protest because at this point they are promoting criminal activity
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
In the immediate run up to the U.S. presidential election and on Election Day, the homepage of YouTube is set to advertise just one candidate: Donald Trump. great scoop @mhbergen @joshuabrustein
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Scoop: An internal white paper at Facebook shows in detail how Trump's campaign was better at leveraging Facebook's advertising tools than Clinton's campaign.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
The cool thing about Tiktok/Instagram/YouTube: anyone with talent can build a following. But it’s much easier to turn that following into $$$ from brands if you’re white. I talked to highly followed Black creators about inequality in the new Hollywood:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Facebook has been careful to keep Trump and conservatives happy— appeasing those in power while the company faces regulatory risk. Wrote a cover story w/ @KurtWagner8 about why it’s a problem for the upcoming election.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
Meanwhile, the Twitter buyout debt banks are trying to offload is going for 60 cents on the dollar, per scoop by my colleagues:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
LOOK WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL!!!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
If creators get Instagram $ to make videos for IGTV, they aren’t allowed to talk about politics or social issues. Just as Facebook makes a big deal about supporting “free speech.” Scoop with @Lucas_Shaw
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
I’m writing a book about Instagram! It’ll be the whole story, from the founding ‘til today, focusing on the product’s growth and cultural impact. Portfolio at Penguin is publishing. I’m really excited to take this on.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
“Many NFT aficionados refute the suggestion that they’re dealing in digital Beanie Babies. They say Beanie Babies didn’t have the same sense of community (they did), that they weren’t as high-profile (they were)”
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
On Instagram’s 10th birthday, I’m reminding you: - Facebook has never disclosed Instagram’s revenue - Facebook hasn’t given updated Instagram user numbers since 2018. These are important for the public to know, especially during antitrust scrutiny.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Facebook extending the block on Trump indefinitely/for at least the next two weeks
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
1 year
Fewer workers are opting in to Musk’s “hardcore” Twitter than anticipated. So they’re having meetings with key folks as the deadline nears. Musk even softened his tone on work from home, sources say: by @KurtWagner8 @daveyalba
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Facebook confirms that ALL its employee-only internal iOS apps (the apps testing every product in the works, as well as internal employee resource apps, for transportation etc) are offline. They say they're trying to negotiate with Apple right now.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
A very 2020 thing: Home listing in Oakland touting a "nice backdrop for Zoom calls"
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Jeff Bezos posts on Instagram that he plans to commit $10 billion towards addressing climate change.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Mingling with an unexpectedly attractive and pleasant person at your tech holiday party? It's possible they're paid to be there. Modeling agencies told me they're increasingly staffing secret "atmosphere models" for parties in an industry dominated by men.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Twitter takes a stand
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
hey Twitter employees -- thanks for building and caring about this app. laid off or not, you are appreciated. good luck in what's next.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
Sticking point in the negotiations between Musk and Twitter, per sources. Musk wants to add a line that it's contingent on financing. But the original deal had no such contingency:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Examples on TikTok
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
1 year
And Musk's day gets worse: The US government is still scrutinizing the Twitter deal, aiming to review the confidential agreements he made with foreign investors for national security concerns
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
This is awful. @BrandyZadrozny is an incredible journalist uncovering the dark corners of social media, and helping us understand the scope of the problem.
@NBCNewsPR
NBC News PR
4 years
Statement from NBC News:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
A Facebook spokesman says the company is still investigating — and considering the possibility of refunds for advertisers
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Polled a college class I spoke to yesterday. Nobody cared/most hadn’t heard about Clubhouse yet. Several of them still used Facebook. Instagram was still key. And Snapchat they used every single day.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
How Facebook revolutionized scamming. Must-read by @ZekeFaux
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Trump posting the stuff he posted to @potus on the @TeamTrump account now. We’ll see if Twitter takes similar swift action.... they could go all night with surrogate accounts
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
My book, No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, is out in April and available for preorder now! You can buy it and it’ll show up on launch day!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 months
We got an internal memo @lindayaX sent to staff today. She's doubling down and telling staff to watch Musk's DealBook interview. “Our principles do not have a price tag, nor will they be compromised — ever." by @EdLudlow
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Facebook just removed posts and ads by @TeamTrump . “We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate. Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
My sources say the Instagram founders are leaving after increased tension with Mark Zuckerberg over the direction of the product. IG culture/priorities very different from FB. See my April story for background:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Exchange with Rep. Castor got very testy. She got him to admit Facebook tracks people when they're not logged in, even people who are not Facebook users.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Hi SF earthquake twitter, just a reminder that this week will be the 30th anniversary of Loma Prieta (I was exactly one month old, in a park in Fremont, and my mom says all the birds rose and the dogs started barking before the earth shook 😮)
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
This is so reminiscent of the days following the Cambridge Analytica news, during which Facebook just kept saying it wasn’t a hack, and didn’t apologize. That strategy didn’t work for them then...
@mikko
@mikko
3 years
Facebook assures us that it’s important that your phone number was not stolen from Facebook by hacking. It was stolen by scraping.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Biden campaign says Facebook disinformation “shredding the fabric of our democracy” after the election
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
New: Elon Musk had some Tesla engineers visit Twitter HQ today to assess the company's code, ahead of the deal closing. via @KurtWagner8 @EdLudlow
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Congressman Adam Schiff sends letters to Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, asking why they allow so much misinformation about vaccines
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
When my dad worked for Disney in the 90s, they had some program to get employees from the business side to dress up in those big, sweaty costumes and be characters in Disneyland for a day. Facebook could do that, but for content moderation.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Down 23% now. I just want to emphasize, Facebook has NEVER fallen this much in response to an earnings report. If this change holds tomorrow, it'll be the biggest post-earnings decline ever
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Twitter bios!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Facebook employee speaks out
@jasontoff
Jason Toff
4 years
I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we’re showing up. The majority of coworkers I’ve spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Twitter acted fast on this
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Okay I’ve heard from so many people who say they did this or that their kids/friends/people in their network did this. Huge viral effort but hard to say exactly how much it contributed to the low turnout. Here’s our story:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Home, wearing a rope from the construction site he was found at. Thank you Alex, random nice dude.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
1 year
Confirmed with sources that Instagram is working on a Twitter competitor (a separate app) for release this summer. It might eventually be compatible with open solutions like Mastodon. Credit to @liahaberman @MattNavarra @CaseyNewton for earlier deets
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Huge: Instagram was actually a bigger, and more effective, Russian influence tool than Facebook was, according to data analyzed for Senate Intel. “More content was created on Instagram, and overall Instagram engagement exceeded that of Facebook.”
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
This is a major cultural moment!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Instagram has officially become too complicated
@KurtWagner8
Kurt Wagner
4 years
Instagram, which was once known for its simplicity, has become too cluttered and complicated as Facebook keeps stuffing it with new features to fight off competitors. Good newsletter this morning from Instagram expert @sarahfrier
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
There are a ton of Facebook internal emails out now from parliament. The biggest reveal here isn’t the data privacy stuff— it’s how ruthless Facebook is as a competitor.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
It’s time! I’m now on my book leave, taking a break from my day job to write constantly. I’m working to bring you the definitive inside story of Instagram, explaining its growth and impact on our lives. You can read it in 2020, if all goes according to plan!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Wow
@andyorrock
Andy Orrock
3 years
@BradStone @sarahfrier Also, Sarah, you should find a paper copy, or 20, of today's FT.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Facebook's political ad verification rules blocked ads about -beans -hair waxing -shrubbery because they contained the word "Bush." and ads about - baseball - theater - free food at church for kids because they were from towns called "Clinton"
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
1 year
update: employees who were departing speculated that so many were leaving, along with their knowledge of how the product works, that the social network may have trouble fixing problems or updating systems during its normal operations.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Sheryl Sandberg at the Morgan Stanley conference: "I think sometimes people forget the good things that happen on Facebook." Talks about a post where someone said they diagnosed their own cancer via Facebook. Given all the medical misinformation on FB, that was an odd example...
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
5 years
Facebook wonders why people don’t trust them. It’s because of things like this: Two-factor authentication, which requires a phone number, is something Facebook has recommended as a safety feature. Now they’re using the phone number for other purposes.
@zeynep
zeynep tufekci
5 years
See thread! Using security to further weaken privacy is a lousy move—especially since phone numbers can be hijacked to weaken security. Putting people at risk. What say you @facebook ?
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
4 years
Important point in the story: this wasn’t some self-service purchase. The Trump campaign worked with Google sales reps to negotiate it.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
10 years
Finally got an alert that the iPhone I left in a NYC cab this summer was found... near Bangladesh. http://t.co/jMH10IeQVQ
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
1 year
Elon Musk, who spent months concerned about the level of bot activity on Twitter, loves to rely on Twitter polls, which new research shows are easily manipulated by bots-for-hire, @daveyalba reports:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Co-founder of WhatsApp. Owned by Facebook. Wow.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Wow, Facebook misses on revenue, monthly users and daily users. Stock falling.
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
3 years
Update: someone found him!! Yay! Thank you all!
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
Scoop: The controversial cryptocurrency project that Mark Zuckerberg once defended in front of Congress is unraveling after regulatory pressure. Diem exploring a sale of assets:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
2 years
Twitter's advice for Ukranian users looking to delete their accounts or sensitive information on them quickly:
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
To address fake news — Facebook: -3rd party fact checkers -Algorithm ranked by news trustworthiness poll -“how to spot fake news” education - less news in feed - publishers in political ad database - not being “arbiters of truth” Apple: -human editors
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@sarahfrier
Sarah Frier
6 years
Zuckerberg will address the public in the next 24 hours, aimed at regaining trust, we’ve confirmed.
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