Facebook pulled the trigger on Australian news — and shot itself in the foot Why has Facebook done this? The move is either a last-ditch attempt to gain concessions in the legislation or a simple cut-and-run by Facebook. The social media giant claims news publishers derive more value from news sharing than Facebook does. This is plausible, as news content makes up only4% of sharing on the platform, whereas many news sites gain a large fraction of their traffic from Facebook referrals....

Facebook hasannounceda number of new online safety features today. Firstly, ‘Two Factor Authentication’, which is designed to help prevent unauthorized access to your account, is being rolled out. The company says: “If you turn this new feature on, we’ll ask you to enter a code anytime you try to log into Facebook from a new device. This additional security helps confirm that it’s really you trying to log in.” The feature is similar to Google’s Two-step authentication and is a welcome addition to the company’s existing One-Time Password feature for when you’re logging in on public computers in libraries, airports and the like....

If you have created a new Page on Facebook for your brand or to promote a cause, you will likely have noticed that the social network bestows your new page with a unique URL that can be difficult to remember and even more difficult to share. However, the social network does offer the option to select a shorter, more memorable‘Vanity URL’ or unique usernamevia its service, but would require the Page to register at least 25 ‘Likes’ before its owner would be able to register it....

Facebook has redesigned the look of its friend request emails. Now when a user sends you a friend request, you may well get one that looks like the one below, with details about how many friends, photos and wall posts a user has, along with the number of groups they’re a member of. There’s also now a link to see all your pending friend requests. All Facebookreported the new design first, and sure enough, fellow TNW-er Brodie just sent me a friend request and there was the new look....

Facebook has finally revealed its official iPad app. This long awaited tablet version comes with multi-conversation chat, a photo browser etc. Persistent access to notifications, messages, and requests will also allow users to check for new alerts while bookmarking their previous place elsewhere in the app. Among the revealed features is the option to access third-party apps and games directly from the app, allowing users to jump directly to the App Store if available for download....