Technology

Instagram co-founder: Zuckerberg saw us as a ‘threat’ to Facebook

Published

8 months ago

April 23, 2025

Instagram co-founder: Zuckerberg saw us as a ‘threat’ to Facebook

When Instagram was acquired for $1 billion in 2012, co-founder Kevin Systrom believed that joining Facebook would help Instagram’s “skyrocketing growth” reach even greater heights.

In some ways, it did. Instagram now has billions of users and has since “generated many multiples of that price and then some,” Systrom said on Tuesday from a Washington, DC courtroom. But according to him, that success often came in spite of, not because of, Facebook’s help.

While testifying in the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit to force the spin-off of Instagram and WhatsApp from Meta, Systrom said that CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly withheld critical resources from Instagram and constrained its growth to avoid harming Facebook’s engagement. To the chagrin of Meta’s attorneys, Systrom also made predictions about how, in hindsight, Instagram would have probably still succeeded on its own.

Over the course of about six hours, Systrom remained steady and confident on the witness stand. Zuckerberg himself sat in the same seat last week, describing how Instagram would likely not have become the social media powerhouse it is today without his help. In contrast, Systrom’s testimony portrayed Zuckerberg as a withholding and jealous boss. He described how he and Instagram’s other co-founder, Mike Krieger, quit in 2018 after growing increasingly frustrated with Zuckerberg’s meddling in Instagram’s operations.

In court, Systrom was presented with an internal chart from that same year detailing the feature integrations Facebook had made with Instagram. With the help of features like notifications promoting Instagram within Facebook and cross-posting between the apps, Instagram experienced growth, while Facebook saw a neutral effect.

Systrom said that, shortly before he and Krieger quit, Zuckerberg decided to end the feature integrations because, in Systrom’s view, he didn’t want Instagram to grow at the expense of Facebook. “We were a threat to their growth,” Systrom testified.

“If Instagram didn’t grow as quickly, Facebook wouldn’t shrink as quickly, or plateau as quickly,” Systrom said in court. “I don’t think he [Zuckerberg] ever said it out loud that way, but that was the only reason we were having this discussion.”

At the time, Instagram had just reached one billion users, which was about half of Facebook’s user base, with a fraction of the employees. Systrom felt that Zuckerberg was “underinvesting” in Instagram and giving it “zero resources,” which Systrom thought was “in stark contrast to the effort I was putting in.”

According to Systrom’s telling, ego played a role. Zuckerberg was “very happy to have Instagram in the family,” he testified. “But also, I think as the founder of Facebook, he felt a lot of emotion around which one was better, meaning Instagram or Facebook, and I think there were real human emotional things going on.”

“I think there were real human emotional things going on”

Systrom recalled other instances where Instagram was denied the resources it needed. When Mark Zuckerberg declared that video would be the next big shift in social networking, Facebook started allocating internal resources towards the push. The company initially allocated 300 employees to making video a prominent part of Facebook, while Instagram received no additional headcount.

Following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that embroiled Facebook in controversy over its privacy practices, Systrom stated that his organization received “zero” of the billions of dollars in trust and safety resources that Zuckerberg had publicly committed to spending. Instead, he said Instagram was given access to a centralized team that was more focused on Facebook. He also described how, years earlier, Zuckerberg suddenly yanked members of the Facebook growth team who had been deployed to help Instagram.

During cross-examination, Meta attorney Kevin Huff attempted to discredit Systrom’s testimony. He hardly gave an inch by maintaining that Instagram would have likely been successful as an independent company. “You deal in a world of probabilities,” he said. “You can never be sure. Some things you can be more sure of.”

Huff’s questioning of Systrom got tense on several occasions. His stone-faced, one-liner responses prompted rounds of laughter in the courthouse media room, though Judge James Boasberg rarely cracked a smile. When Huff brought up an early email Systrom sent to Zuckerberg crediting an integration with Facebook for much of Instagram’s early growth, Systrom said he was only emphasizing the benefit to appease Zuckerberg.

Huff then asked Systrom if he was lying to Zuckerberg in the email. Seemingly irritated, Systrom stared back and simply said, “Sir.”

Technology

The Game Awards 2025: all the news and announcements

Published

10 hours ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

The Game Awards 2025: all the news and announcements

The Game Awards are back once again to showcase a metric ton of commercials, provide the gaming public with their monthly dose of Muppets, and validate gamers’ opinions on which title should be named the Game of the Year. I don’t wanna say it’s a foregone conclusion what this year’s GOTY will be — Silksong may surprise us — but it’s pretty obvious that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the frontrunner and for good reason. It’s netted 12 nominations, the most out of this year’s contenders, including all five craft awards (Direction, Art, Music and Score, Narrative, and Audio Design).

On the announcements side, Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Games are planning something related to the Tomb Raider series. Keighley also probably had plans to reveal big news about Resident Evil: Requiem, but unfortunately it got spoiled early thanks to some leaked key art on the PlayStation Store. Here’s all the news, announcements, and trailers from The Game Awards 2025.

Technology

Malicious browser extensions hit 4.3M users

Published

11 hours ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Malicious browser extensions hit 4.3M users

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A long-running malware campaign quietly evolved over several years and turned trusted Chrome and Edge extensions into spyware. A detailed report from Koi Security reveals that the ShadyPanda operation affected 4.3 million users who downloaded extensions later updated with hidden malicious code.

These extensions began as simple wallpaper or productivity tools that looked harmless. Years later, silent updates added surveillance functions that most users could not detect.

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THIS CHROME VPN EXTENSION SECRETLY SPIES ON YOU

Malicious extensions spread through trusted browsers and quietly collected user data for years. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

How the ShadyPanda campaign unfolded

The operation included 20 malicious Chrome extensions and 125 on the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store. Many first appeared in 2018 with no obvious warning signs. Five years later, the extensions began receiving staged updates that changed their behavior.

Koi Security found that these updates rolled out through each browser’s trusted auto-update system. Users did not need to click anything. No phishing. No fake alerts. Just quiet version bumps that slowly turned safe extensions into powerful tracking tools.

NEW EMAIL SCAM USES HIDDEN CHARACTERS TO SLIP PAST FILTERS

WeTab functions as a sophisticated surveillance platform disguised as a productivity tool. (Koi)

What the extensions were doing behind the scenes

Once activated, the extensions injected tracking code into real links to earn revenue from user purchases. They also hijacked searches, redirected queries and logged data for sale and manipulation. ShadyPanda gathered an unusually broad range of personal information, including browsing history, search terms, cookies, keystrokes, fingerprint data, local storage, and even mouse movement coordinates. As the extensions gained credibility in the stores, the attackers pushed a backdoor update that allowed hourly remote code execution. That gave them full browser control, letting them monitor websites visited and exfiltrate persistent identifiers.

Researchers also discovered that the extensions could launch adversary-in-the-middle attacks. This allowed credential theft, session hijacking and code injection on any website. If users opened developer tools, the extensions switched into harmless mode to avoid detection. Google removed the malicious extensions from the Chrome Web Store. We reached out to the company, and a spokesperson confirmed that none of the extensions listed are currently live on the platform.

Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesperson told CyberGuy, “We have removed all the extensions identified as malicious on the Edge Add-on store. When we become aware of instances that violate our policies, we take appropriate action that includes, but is not limited to, the removal of prohibited content or termination of our publishing agreement.”

Most of you will not need the full technical IDs used in the ShadyPanda campaign. These indicators of compromise are primarily for security researchers and IT teams. Regular users should focus on checking your installed extensions using the steps in the guide below.

You can review the full list of affected Chrome and Edge extensions to see every ID tied to the ShadyPanda campaign by clicking here and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

How to check whether your browser contains these extension IDs

Here is an easy, step-by-step way for you to verify if any malicious extension IDs are installed.

For Google Chrome

Open Chrome.

Type chrome://extensions into the address bar.

Press Enter.

Look for each extension’s ID.

Click Details under any extension.

Scroll down to the Extension ID section.

Compare the ID with the lists above.

If you find a match, remove the extension immediately.

For Microsoft Edge

Open Edge.

Type edge://extensions into the address bar.

Press Enter.

Click Details under each extension.

Scroll to find the Extension ID.

If an ID appears in the lists, remove the extension and restart the browser.

183 MILLION EMAIL PASSWORDS LEAKED: CHECK YOURS NOW

Simple security steps can block hidden threats and help keep your browsing safer. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

How to protect your browser from malicious extensions

You can take a few quick actions that help lock down your browser and protect your data.

1) Remove suspicious extensions

Before removing anything, check your installed extensions against the IDs listed in the section above. Most of the malicious extensions were wallpaper or productivity tools. Three of the most mentioned are Clean Master, WeTab and Infinity V Plus. If you installed any of these or anything that looks similar, delete them now.

2) Reset your passwords

These extensions have access to sensitive data. Resetting your passwords protects you from possible misuse. A password manager makes the process easier and creates strong passwords for each account.

Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.

Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 at Cyberguy.com.

3) Use a data removal service to reduce tracking

ShadyPanda collected browsing activity, identifiers and behavioral signals that can be matched with data already held by brokers. A data removal service helps you reclaim your privacy by scanning people-search sites and broker databases to locate your exposed information and remove it. This limits how much of your digital footprint can be linked, sold or used for targeted scams.

While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

4) Install strong antivirus software

An antivirus may not have caught this specific threat due to the way it operated. Still, it can block other malware, scan for spyware and flag unsafe sites. Many antivirus tools include cloud backup and VPN options to add more protection.

The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.

Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.

5) Limit your extensions

Each extension adds risk. Stick with known developers and search for recent reviews. If an extension asks for permissions it should not need, walk away.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

ShadyPanda ran for years without raising alarms and proved how creative attackers can be. A trusted extension can shift into spyware through a silent update, which makes it even more important to stay alert to changes in browser behavior. You protect yourself by installing fewer extensions, checking them from time to time and watching for anything that feels out of place. Small steps help lower your exposure and reduce the chances that hidden code can track what you do online.

Have you ever found an extension on your browser that you didn’t remember installing or one that started acting in strange ways? How did you handle it? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

The Game Awards are losing their luster

Published

22 hours ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

It’s Game Awards season, y’all. That special time of the year when we gather together to celebrate video games and the people who make them… by watching expensive commercials briefly punctuated by the odd awards speech or musical performance. For better or worse, The Game Awards is the biggest night on the video game event calendar. But with the way things have been going, lately it’s been more “worse” than it has been “better.”

Between host and industry hypeman Geoff Keighley’s two video game vanity projects, The Game Awards is older and ostensibly more mature than Summer Game Fest. Conceived in 2014 as a way to celebrate both the people who make and play games, the show has always been part awards ceremony, part commercial product. That idea has been executed with varying degrees of success. (Remember the Schick Hydrobot?) But for the last few years, it’s felt like the awards part was increasingly getting in the way of the commercial part.

Alas, poor Hydrobot, we knew him well.

Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Schick

That was felt most acutely during the 2023 Game Awards. Developers accepting statues were often drowned out by music or cut off by teleprompters asking them to “please wrap it up” after their roughly 30 seconds of allotted time. Muppets and Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima, though, had no such time limits enforced on them, with Aftermath calculating that 13 acceptance speeches could have fit inside the five minutes Kojima took to explain his game / not-game OD.

2023 was also the first full year into the now endemic video game labor crisis that saw developers laid off by the tens of thousands while studios of popular games got shut down. That crisis went by that year’s game awards with no acknowledgement, angering developers further. “I’m incredibly disappointed in Geoff Keighley for his silence on the state of the industry this year,” Monomi Park senior environment artist Dillon Sommerville told The Verge in 2023.

How to watch The Game Awards

On Thursday, December 11th at 5PM PT / 8PM ET the TGAs will be streamed on Twitch and YouTube. This year, Keighley has also signed a deal to beam the show live via Prime Video where it’ll be free to watch for Prime subscribers.

Keighley, perhaps responding to the bad optics, acknowledged the continuing labor issue in 2024. The Game Awards also introduced a new category, Game Changer, with its inaugural award going to Amir Satvat, a business development director at Tencent who created a resource to help laid-off developers find jobs.

But in the months since the 2024 awards, Keighley has once again been accused of poor treatment of the people he’s supposed to be celebrating. In 2020, The Game Awards announced a new initiative called The Future Class, designed to celebrate game makers, “who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future of video games.” Inductees are honored during the broadcast and provided with networking opportunities, mentorship programs, and other resources throughout the following year. However, there have been reports alleging that Keighley has ignored Future Class concerns and that resources from the program have been materially lacking.

In 2023, the Future Class wrote an open letter to The Game Awards and Keighley demanding recognition of the war in Gaza. This wasn’t without precedent. In 2022, the awards show acknowledged the war in Ukraine. But Keighley didn’t respond to the letter, nor has he mentioned the Future Class that much either. The Game Awards hasn’t named a Future Class in the last two years and won’t be naming anymore according to Future Class organizer Emily Weir. “At this time, we are not planning a new Future Class for this year and do not have any active programming plans for Future Class,” she said in a statement to Game Developer.

Gif of a curly haired man named Pedro Eustache playing an alto flute

Pedro Eustache, affectionately known as Flute Guy, has confirmed he will be performing at The Game Awards.

Gif: The Game Awards

Like a lot of diversity and inclusion-minded programs, Future Class got started in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. But as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become publicly verboten in the rise of the Trump Administration and the online right, many companies, including game publishers, have diminished or jettisoned their DEI programs. While there has been no explicitly stated reason for the seeming shut down of the Future Class, it seems like The Game Awards is just doing what it always does — whatever’s popular at the time.

For as much as The Game Awards has lost the veneer of respectability among some of the people whose work it’s meant to celebrate, rest assured, it ain’t going anywhere. The Game Awards broadcast nets millions of viewers with a record-breaking 154 million livestreams in 2024. That’s a lot of eyeballs that developers pay a lot of money to get in front of. And even for those who don’t buy airtime, having your game featured at all during the presentation can net a big boost in sales. After Balatro was nominated for and won multiple awards last year including best debut indie, its publisher PlayStack shouted out the awards specifically for contributing to a huge increase in players.

More generally, the awards also provide a nice focal point for the disparate online gaming communities to gather around… and bitch about. E3 is long gone, and the other big events (not also run by Keighley) are the publisher-specific direct livestreams. With everything so fractured now, yelling with your friends or colleagues about how Hades was robbed for game of the year (an event I will never get over) is fun and something TGAs are singularly suited to provide. It is not the Oscars of gaming — DICE, the BAFTAs, and the International Game Development Awards (IGDA) pretty well take care of that. But if you want popularity, production values, and Flute Guy, there’s nothing like The Game Awards — even though some of the shine is starting to wear off.

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