Facebook has been hit by a series of data, privacy and hate speech scandals this year. Alex Hern, the Guardian’s UK tech editor, discusses how Mark Zuckerberg has responded. Plus the Guardian environment reporter Oliver Milman on returning to Paradise, California, after the deadliest fire in the state’s history
It has not been a good year for Facebook. The company has been hit by a series of scandals about data, privacy and hate speech. In March, the Guardian and Observer published the Cambridge Analytica Files, an investigation that revealed about 50 million US Facebook users had had their data harvested, largely without their knowledge or consent.
Alex Hern, the Guardian’s UK tech editor, discusses how Mark Zuckerberg responded to the crisis, and the others that followed, including Facebook’s involvement in human rights and environmental violations in Myanmar and its use of the PR firm Definers Public Affairs. Plus the Guardian environment reporter Oliver Milman returns to Paradise, California, and meets residents whose homes were destroyed by the deadliest fire in the state’s history.

Do people really want to watch HBO shows on Facebook?

“This is unacceptable and reprehensible behavior,” the Town of Paradise wrote on its Facebook page.

The mother of a 5-year-old Texas child whose first name is Abcde - pronounced "Ab-city"- is speaking out after she says the child was mocked by a Southwest Airlines employee who they say posted the daughter's boarding pass to social media while making fun of her name.
According to in Los Angeles, when the mother and daughter were getting on a plane at John Wayne Airport in Southern California to return to El Paso, a Southwest gate agent audibly mocked the child's name to those around her. Then, the agent took a picture of the boarding pass, which was later posted to Facebook.
"The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees," Traci Redford told the TV station. "So I turned around and said, ‘Hey if I can hear you, my daughter can hear you, so I'd appreciate if you'd just stop."

Facebook is in crisis. And the firm's chief operating officer, once the golden girl, is taking the heat.

Microsoft on Friday announced completion of the Marea undersea cable, which stretches 4,400 miles between Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Bilbao, Spain. A joint project of Microsoft, Facebook and global telecommunication infrastructure company Telxius, the cable lies more than 17,000 feet below the ocean's surface. It is the first cable to link Virginia and Spain.

Back when the Internet first came to be, there was the belief that the result would be more facts, less censorship, telligent discourse and less successful manipulation. Being able to converse with each other would lead people to be more honest, and our world increasingly would resemble a utopian ideal of peace and prosperity. Now, decades later, "fake news" has proliferated.

Rail passengers in the UK are now able to receive alerts on Facebook Messenger when their train is delayed or cancelled.

Analysts lower their outlook for Apple and Roku as Facebook impresses with stats on Facebook Watch.

Over the past couple of months, 4A Games released some new screenshots for Metro Exodus via its official Facebook page.