big tech
Meta Verified: Paying for the Visibility That Used to Be Free
Meta Verified sells verification badges and increased reach for $12-15/month, converting platform safety features into a revenue stream.
Mar 37 min read
Company Profile
Meta
Social media conglomerate operating Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp while building a surveillance-grade advertising machine.
Why Meta Accountability Matters
Meta impacts users and businesses across the markets it operates in. Open Real News independently tracks Meta's corporate practices, pricing decisions, privacy policies, and service reliability. Our investigations aim to hold Meta accountable and help consumers make informed decisions about the products and services they use.
Browse our 26 articles below for in-depth reporting. We cover everything from hidden fees and data practices to service outages and executive decisions that affect Meta's users.
Coverage & Analysis (26)
consumer rights
Targeting Children: How Meta's Ad Platform Enables Marketing to Minors
Meta's ad platform allows advertisers to target teens with age-inappropriate products. Age verification failures let younger children see adult advertising.
Mar 27 min read
privacy
Ray-Ban Stories and the Law: Recording in a Two-Party Consent World
Meta's Ray-Ban glasses expose wearers to legal liability in two-party consent states and countries. Meta shifts all legal risk to users.
Mar 17 min read
big tech
Workplace by Meta Shutdown: Another Platform Rug-Pull for Businesses
Meta killed Workplace, forcing thousands of businesses to migrate internal communications with minimal notice and no migration assistance.
Feb 287 min read
workplace
Big Brother by Meta: Workplace Surveillance Tools for the Modern Office
Meta's workplace tools enable employers to monitor employee communications and collaboration patterns at unprecedented scale and granularity.
Feb 277 min read
geopolitics
Blood on the Platform: Meta's Role in the Myanmar Genocide
UN investigators determined Facebook played a 'determining role' in Myanmar's genocide. Meta employed a single Burmese-speaking moderator for 18 million users.
Feb 268 min read
geopolitics
Platform for Propaganda: Meta's Role in Election Interference Worldwide
Meta's platforms have been exploited for election manipulation in dozens of countries. The company's responses have been consistently too slow and too limited.
Feb 258 min read
fintech
Meta Pay: Connecting Your Financial Data to Your Social Graph
Meta Pay connects purchase data to social profiles. Every transaction adds to a behavioral profile that combines financial habits with social graph data.
Feb 247 min read
consumer rights
Meta's Real Name Policy: Protecting Safety or Enabling Discrimination?
Meta's real name policy forces vulnerable populations to choose between using their authentic identity and risking exposure on a platform that demands legal names.
Feb 237 min read
cybersecurity
Onavo: How Meta Used a VPN App as Corporate Spyware
Meta acquired Onavo VPN to spy on competitors. The 'privacy' app routed all user traffic through Meta's servers, revealing competitor usage patterns.
Feb 227 min read
privacy
The Face Database: Meta Built the World's Largest Facial Recognition System — Then 'Deleted' It
Meta built facial recognition templates for over 1 billion users. The company says it deleted them, but verification is impossible and the capability persists.
Feb 217 min read
privacy
Meta Tracks You Even If You Don't Have an Account: The Shadow Profile Problem
Meta creates shadow profiles of people who never signed up for Facebook, tracking them across the web and building profiles from contacts' uploaded data.
Feb 207 min read
privacy
Lab Rats With Smartphones: Meta's History of Experimenting on Users
Meta manipulated News Feeds to study emotional contagion in users without consent. The company has a documented history of treating users as lab subjects.
Feb 197 min read
ai ml
Your Photos Are Training Meta's AI: The Opt-Out That Doesn't Exist
Meta trains AI on billions of user photos posted to Facebook and Instagram. Opting out is nearly impossible outside the EU.
Feb 187 min read
big tech
The Metaverse Money Pit: Meta Has Burned Over $50 Billion on VR Nobody Wants
Meta's Reality Labs has accumulated over $50 billion in losses building metaverse products with fewer users than a mid-tier mobile game.
Feb 177 min read
consumer rights
Instagram Knew: Meta's Own Research Linked Its Platform to Teen Depression
Meta's internal research showed Instagram worsens teen body image and mental health. The company suppressed the findings and continued targeting young users.
Feb 168 min read
privacy
Meta's Surveillance Economy: The Real Product Is You
Meta harvests unprecedented volumes of personal data from 3 billion users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Their surveillance economy turns your private life into advertising revenue.
Feb 158 min read
geopolitics
Micro-Targeting Democracy: How Meta's Ad Platform Enables Political Manipulation
Meta's ad platform lets campaigns show different voters different messages on the same issue. Political micro-targeting undermines democratic discourse.
Feb 157 min read
privacy
Inside Meta Quest: The VR Headset That Maps Your Living Room and Tracks Your Eyes
Meta Quest VR headsets collect room scans, eye tracking, hand movements, and voice data. The most invasive consumer data collection device ever created.
Feb 147 min read
privacy
Threads: Meta's Twitter Competitor Collects Everything About You
Meta's Threads app collects health data, financial info, browsing history, and precise location. The most data-hungry text social platform ever launched.
Feb 127 min read
privacy
WhatsApp's Encryption Illusion: End-to-End Encrypted Messages, Wide-Open Metadata
WhatsApp encrypts message content but Meta harvests comprehensive metadata: contacts, timing, frequency, location, and device data that reveals as much as content.
Feb 107 min read
consumer rights
Facebook Marketplace: The Scam Platform Meta Refuses to Police
Facebook Marketplace fraud has exploded with fake listings, rental scams, and counterfeit goods. Meta's automated moderation catches a fraction of violations.
Feb 87 min read
big tech
Instagram's Reach Collapse: How Meta Suppresses Organic Content to Sell Ads
Instagram organic reach has collapsed from 16% to under 2%. Meta's algorithm changes force creators and businesses to pay for visibility once given freely.
Feb 67 min read
workplace
The Human Cost of Content Moderation: Meta's Exploitation of Kenyan Workers
Meta outsources content moderation to Kenyan workers paid $2/hour who review violent, sexual, and traumatic content with inadequate mental health support.
Feb 48 min read
privacy
Meta Ray-Ban Glasses: Wearable Surveillance That Bystanders Can't Detect
Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses can record video discreetly. The tiny LED indicator is invisible in most conditions, eliminating bystander consent.
Feb 27 min read
privacy
After Cambridge Analytica: How Meta's Data Exploitation Never Really Stopped
Meta promised reform after Cambridge Analytica. Years later, the company's data exploitation has only become more sophisticated and harder to detect.
Feb 17 min read
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