Facebook

The claim, brought by a group of Facebook users, alleges the platform's "ethnic affinity" option is racially biased.

The option is there to enable marketers to exclude certain demographics and target others.

Facebook said the lawsuit was "utterly without merit" and that it would defend itself "vigorously".

In order to leave a bigger impact on your professional life, the world’s biggest social network is now ready to challenge LinkedIn. It should be noted that LinkedIn was recently bought by Microsoft for $26 billion.

The country's Information Commissioner said she did not believe the firm had obtained valid consent for the move and added that people must be given "ongoing control" over their data.

Elizabeth Denham said that Facebook had agreed to "pause" its rollout but had not met all her demands.

Facebook has yet to publicly comment.

The California-based company bought WhatsApp in 2014 and pledged to keep the chat app independent.

However, in August, WhatsApp made changes to its privacy policy, prompting an investigation by the UK watchdog.

The shortcut, which is rolling out on both web and mobile, cannot be removed from your Favorites – it’s hard-coded.

The Elections 2016 hub, however, first appeared during the three presidential debates this year: September 26, October 9, and October 19. At the time, the company sent out notifications that directed users to the hub for discussion and video.

Now, it has gone live in the Favorites section where it will remain through Election Day.

In the same vein as the "live" space walk that wasn't live - broadcast on 26 October on the social network - a video of a sky-high maintenance job has racked up over six million views.

The Facebook pages for Interestinate and USA Viral this afternoon each posted a video claiming to be of a lightbulb being changed at the top of a 1,999ft (609m) tower.

How to spot a fake US election claim

On a conference call after its earnings report Wednesday, Facebook CFO David Wehner spooked investors by talking up plans for "aggressive investment" in 2017 even as it expects sales growth to slow.

"We expect to see ad revenue growth rates come down meaningfully [in 2017]," Wehner said.

The reason: Facebook expects slower growth in "ad load," or the number of ads it can put in front of users.

Facebook director Patrick Walker was visiting Norway following a row about the banning of an iconic Vietnam War image on the grounds of nudity.

He said changes were being made but news images may still fall foul of its policies on appropriate material.

Espen Egil Hansen, of Aftenposten, said Facebook still had "a long way to go".

Facebook had originally said the "Napalm girl" photo breached its rules on nudity, when it was posted and then removed by a Norwegian author in September.

By Monday, hundreds of thousands of people had checked in at Standing Rock Indian Reservation on the social networking site.

But many of them weren't anywhere near the location where demonstrators have been picketing the controversial $3.7 billion pipeline.

A post circulating on Facebook gave one possible explanation for the surge in activity, claiming that the mass check-ins were organized to prevent local law enforcement from tracking protesters on social media.

The sheriff's department denied that accusation on Monday, calling it "absolutely false."

The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information said that the social network had not obtained effective approval from WhatsApp's 35 million German users.

Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19bn (£14.6bn) in 2014 as a way to reach out to a younger audience.

It is to appeal against the order.

"We will work with the Hamburg DPA in an effort to address their questions and resolve any concerns," it said in a statement.

The data watchdog said that Facebook and WhatsApp were independent companies and should process their users' data as such.

The German chancellor said the secrecy around the algorithms used by online platforms threatened open debate.

Without greater scrutiny, many people could get a distorted or censored view of events, she said.

Google and Facebook told German paper Der Spiegel they gave the public a lot of information about how they worked.

Mrs Merkel's call for action follows work by German politicians to investigate how the software works.

'Informed citizens'