facebook

CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologizes for the layoffs, which represent the first large-scale workforce reduction in the company's 18-year history.

Meta, the parent company of the social media platform, says a configuration change caused the issue with users' feeds early Wednesday morning.

The ruling amounts to an immediate ban of Facebook and Instagram in Russia, where both platforms are already blocked. WhatsApp, which is owned by the same company, is still allowed.

Attorney General Ken Paxton asserts that the company, which recently rebranded itself as Meta, violated state law when it captured users' facial features without proper consent. Paxton was also questioned if his choice of venue for the announcement had anything to do with one of his primary opponents.

The social network is under pressure over how its platform may be harmful to users and society at large.

The change comes as Facebook looks to recast its public image from battered social network to tech innovator focused on building the next generation of online interaction, known as the "metaverse."

Facebook posted on Sunday that the high-skilled workers will help build "the metaverse," a futuristic notion for connecting people online. The social network isn't the only one working on the concept.

In the aftermath of damning testimony that its platforms harm children, the tech company outlined new safety features like prompting teens to take a break from Instagram.

Facebook said late Monday that "the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change" and that there is "no evidence that user data was compromised as a result" of the outage.

Elected republican leaders in the state say they are concerned about censorship, but actions silencing other voices paint different picture.