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UPDATE: Facebook and Instagram appeared to be back online late Thursday afternoon after thousands reported outages in a widespread event that seemed start around 5:30 ET, according to website Downdetector. The issue follows an outage three weeks ago that took Facebook and Instagram offline for a few hours. At it’s…

Zoom stock was rattled Friday, falling 6%, after Facebook introduced Messenger Rooms, a product that will let users invite as many as 50 people to a video call with no time limit. Messenger Rooms is rolling out in some countries this week and will expand to the rest of the world in coming weeks, Facebook said. As…

Facebook Tuesday announced a $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms Limited, part of Reliance Industries, making the social media giant its largest minority shareholder. In a blog post, FB said the sizable investment “underscores our commitment to India, and our excitement for the dramatic transformation that Jio…

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s mix of so smart but so awkward struck again Wednesday as he told investors that his new goal is “not to be liked, but to be understood.” Facebook’s approach of seeking to be liked meant it didn’t always communicate its views clearly “because we were worried about offending,” he said on a…

Facebook, already under scrutiny for its data practices and vulnerability to malevolent global forces intent on weaponizing its networks, is now facing antitrust investigations in eight states and the District of Columbia. Among the areas the states will investigate are Facebook’s impact on advertising prices, data…

UPDATED with Instagram, Facebook issues resolved: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users are back in business Wednesday evening after the company said it had resolved issues that saw the services down for most of the day. There also have been outages on Twitter today relating to DM delivery and notifications. The…

Facebook’s time of transition, a seemingly unending phase since last year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal segued to a host of other corporate issues, is continuing with the exits of product chief Chris Cox and WhatsApp head Chris Daniels. Will Cathcart will take the place of Daniels at WhatsApp. Fidji Simo will be the…

Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the UK, is joining Facebook as its new head of global affairs and communications. The hire indicates the tech giant’s need to navigate choppy waters in terms of government regulation, especially in Europe, in the wake of several scandals over its manipulation of user…

The venerable Yahoo Messenger is shutting down on July 17, as corporate parent Oath figures out how to offer a product that can compete with WhatsApp, Snapchat, WeChat and a host of other messaging apps. Oath announced Yahoo Messenger’s demise today. “We know we have many loyal fans who have used Yahoo Messenger since…

The “Delete Facebook” train just got another passenger. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, who left Facebook last year was straightforward about his position on the social media network when he took to Twitter and simply said, “It is time. #deletefacebook.” His tweet — which reached over 21,000 of his followers — comes…

In this week's podcast, Deadline’s Executive Editor David Lieberman and host David Bloom examine whether Facebook paid too much with its $19 billion purchase of messaging service WhatsApp, ponder whether anyone should pay for the maker of blockbuster mobile game Candy Crush Saga now that it's filed for an IPO…

That’s the question investors are struggling to answer this morning as they recover from the shocking news last night that Facebook agreed to pay $16B (or $19B if you include some restricted stock) for WhatsApp. Analysts like the broad appeal of the messaging service which uses the Internet, as opposed to phone…