Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, counts more than 3 billion monthly users across its family of apps. Now, it’s trying to build the next generation of services in virtual reality and the metaverse through Meta Quest headsets and Horizon Worlds — all while dealing with antitrust pressures, privacy concerns, and younger users shifting to other platforms.
This time the finding is in connection to Meta’s claims about privacy, and enforcement of its misinformation policies. The case stems from a 2021 lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general at the time, over claims related to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The judge will determine penalties next.
I chatted with Charlie Warzel over at The Atlantic to try to untangle this moment of massive outrage over smart glasses and Flock cameras. In August I reported on the service workers who encounter Meta glasses at their jobs, and the harassment — and social media clout — that sometimes follows.
The NYT takes a look at Mark Zuckerberg’s style metamorphosis from “robotic coder in a gray hoodie to fashion-conscious bro next door.” Unlike, say, the newly buff Jeff Bezos who loves a tight tee, Zuck is trying to find 20 polo-collared shirts with boxier ’fits favored by MMA fighters.
“That’s like a fun thing to go do, right? […] Everyone knows I’m in really good shape, so I don’t need to show my muscles.”
During a Meta Connect developer keynote today, the company showed off a “glimpse of the future” where multiple people were in a shared virtual world as playable characters but were also developing it in real time (including with the help of AI). I saw a live demo of it yesterday. As a concept, it’s pretty wild.
Check it out at the one hour and seven minute-mark of Meta’s Developer State of the Union.
Meta’s new tool is very cute — and heavily inspired by its open-source predecessor.
Check out the livestream from Meta Connect 2026 on YouTube. I’ll be watching.
Meta wants to stuff this guy into everything and entrust it with productivity, health, and relationship goals.
What Mark Zuckerberg needs to answer about Meta Glasses, Muse, and teen safety.
A new wave of AI-enhanced consumer creep-tech disregards the privacy of everyone but the wearer. The people have had enough.
The Verge cofounder got an extended sit-down with the Meta CEO at Connect yesterday. They covered “pervert glasses” and privacy, AI assistants and agents, and what exactly is going on with the Metaverse. He defends the company’s track record on privacy, and its future privacy plans: “More of the things that Meta is going to do going forward are going to look like WhatsApp.”
Next year, you’ll be able to play versions of Beat Saber, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Dual Destinies, and Tetris Effect in VR on the glasses just with your hands — no controller needed. When the glasses launch in the spring, Meta says more than 75 hands-enabled games will be available.
Meta is promising that “hundreds” of movies will be available “later this year” in the US, with “thousands of titles available internationally” when the new Meta VR Glasses launch in spring 2027.
Audio-only Ray-Bans have arrived alongside more camera-equipped glasses. What’s missing? Privacy controls to address the ‘perv glasses’ backlash.
Muse did a decent job with my to-do list, but boy is it handy with a credit card.
‘Pervert glasses.’ Thousands of lawsuits. Mark Zuckerberg wants to sweep it all away with a new bid on AI.
The subsea “Petal” cable will connect the US and France across 4,300 miles when it comes online in 2029. Meta says it will be the first transoceanic subsea cable to deliver 1 petabit of data per second using a multi-core fiber technology. “That’s roughly the network capacity required for 75% of the world’s population to stream music at the same time,” according to Meta.
The agent initially launched earlier this month on iOS, Android, and the web, but now, you can use it on your Mac computer, as announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. With Muse on Mac, the agent can do things like organize files, fill out forms, and pull information from apps including Messages, Calendar, and Notes, Meta says.
As part of a few new podcast-focused features for Threads, there are new podcast cards that will show up in posts and profiles that make the podcast stand out. Could be useful for creators trying to promote their show.
The industry is in a panic, but it’s been claiming to want legal guardrails for years — with few meaningful results.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Elon Musk have tentatively agreed to slow their roll, but Meta seemingly isn’t aligned. Mark Zuckerberg just tweeted each company has its own individual responsibility “to move at the pace required to train its models safely,” and claims Meta is already doing so.
He also prominently links to his manifesto from August, which contains this quote: “Any policy that slows American model releases -- even by a month -- could add significant risk to American leadership while letting foreign models race ahead.”
