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David Marcus, now head of Facebook Financial or F2, testifying about Facebook's proposed digital currency previously known as Libra, during a Senate Banking, House and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 16, 2019. The cryptocurrency was renamed Diem in December 2020.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Facebook should be given the "benefit of the doubt" by regulators in its ambitions to launch the cryptocurrency it backs and its digital wallet, the head of the company's financial services arm said on Monday.

David Marcus, the head of Facebook Financial, also known as F2, said he hopes both the cryptocurrency called Diem and the social networking firm's wallet Novi will launch next year.

"I hope that we get to participate with Novi and Diem and the big changes of 2021, pending regulatory approvals where we need to obtain them," Marcus said at the Singapore FinTech Festival, addressing a question on the biggest changes for financial services in the year ahead.

Facebook's cryptocurrency project has been a rollercoaster since it was announced last year, facing huge criticism from regulators, a scaling down of ambitions and a rebrand.

The cryptocurrency was initially called Libra and was designed to be managed by a non-profit consortium consisting of several companies called the Libra Association. Facebook had planned to launch a wallet called Calibra that would allow users to send this cryptocurrency to each other.

One Libra coin was initially supposed to be backed by a basket of currencies. But regulators raised a number of concerns from the impact Libra could have on financial stability to issues over data privacy and money laundering.

In April, the Libra Association scaled back plans and said it wouldoffer stable coins backed by just one nation's currency, rather than a single coin backed by several currencies.

And last week, the Libra Association changed its name to the Diem Association. Earlier this year, Facebook changed the name of its digital wallet Calibra to Novi.

Last month, the Financial Times reported that the cryptocurrency Diem is preparing to launch as early as January, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The Diem Association is currently waiting for approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority as the organization is based in Switzerland, the FT reported.

Marcus was not asked about this report specifically during the course of the panel.

Though Diem is described as a cryptocurrency, it is not like bitcoin which is perhaps the most well-known digital coin. It has a central organization behind it, something that bitcoin doesn't. It is also backed by fiat currency, again a point of difference with bitcoin.

The Facebook executive implored regulators, which have heavily criticized the company's cryptocurrency efforts, to give Diem and Novi a chance.

"I don't think what we are asking for is just immediate trust. I think what we're asking for is at least to have the benefit of the doubt," Marcus said.

He argued that Facebook could have built the cryptocurrency in a "closed way" only making it available to users of WhatsApp and Messenger, two apps that the company owns. But instead, the social network has entered a consortium with other companies.

"I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any company that has done this in recent history of actually building something, investing considerable amount of resources into it, and then saying ok, we are going to relinquish our power here and we are going to try to make it as open ecosystem as it can be and basically tie one or both hands in our backs when it comes to enabling competition on the very thing that we've created," Marcus said.

"I think all of those things that we've done which has created all kinds of complications in the execution of this vision is I think a good reason to give us the benefit of the doubt in terms of our intentions and what we plan to do here."

The push to launch Diem and Novi comes at a time when central banks are also exploring their own digital currencies. China has already begun some real-world trials of a digital yuan.

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Facebook hopes the cryptocurrency it backs will launch in 2021, top exec says - CNBC

In space no one can hear you scream. But on Earth?

On Thursday, FX chairman John Landgraf announced during Disneys regularly scheduled investor call that the network is developing a new Alien series for FX on Hulu. Noah Hawley, the writer and producer known for his work on Fargo and Legion, will helm the untitled Alien series. Ridley Scott, who directed the first Alien film and sequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, is said to be in talks to executive produce.

Landgraf said the series will blend both the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second, which was directed by James Cameron.

The show will be the first Alien story set on Earth, FX says apparently the Alien vs. Predator films dont count, which is understandable and the network promises a scary thrill ride set in the not-too-far-future.

There have been six Alien feature films to date (Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant) and two Alien vs. Predator spinoffs.

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Alien series coming to FX and Hulu from Fargo creator Noah Hawley - Polygon

A new report from App Annie today highlights some of the mobile app trends of 2020. TikTok has booted Facebook from its reign as the most-downloaded app while iOS and Android downloads are expected to hit 130 billion with global spending forecasted to hit $112 billion this year.

TikToks momentum has grown significantly over the last few years and 2020 it continued that trend to overtake Facebook as the most-downloaded app The App Annie report seen by Fast Company, highlights that TikTok jumped up 3 places in the rankings to become the most-popular mobile app.

Notably, the Trump administration also dropped its effort to make TikTok sell off its US operations this week. TikTok also leaped 15 spots to become the second highest revenue generating app for consumer spend behind Tinder.

However, Facebooks apps still make up the top four apps when its comes to monthly active users.

Looking at other big trends in the mobile space for 2020, global revenue for iOS and Android was up 25% for the year to $112 billion. No surprise here, but games made up 71% of the $112B and iOS took 65% of that total (as is typical) even though Android accounts for a greater volume of downloads.

The 130 billion downloads during 2020 represent a 10% increase compared to 2019 and again no surprise but business, streaming, finance, and shopping apps along with games saw the most growth during the pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, the time people spent in apps also grew in 2020, with the time spent in business apps growing 200% YOY, video streaming apps growing 40%, games 35%, finance and shopping apps 25%, and social and communication apps 20%.

Zoom had a monster year and its growth rocketed the app up 219 spots on the most-downloaded list to #4.

You can get access to the full App Annie report here.

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TikTok overtakes Facebook as most-downloaded app in 2020, global app spending hits $112B - 9to5Mac

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Social Networking 2020 GLOBAL OUTLOOK, RESEARCH, TRENDS AND FORECAST TO 2025 - Zenit News

A systematic review of research on how social networking sites influence depressive and anxiety symptoms reveals a poorly understood association between time spent on social sites and these symptoms. Citing studies lack of depth and poor design, researchers Elena Marie Piteo and Kelly Ward call for improved study designs to examine the benefits and harms of social media use.

Given social networking sites (SNSs) have become a pervasive part of the culture, it is critical to understand the ways in which they may be advantageous or detrimental to the mental health of young people, they write.

The last thirty years have seen an unprecedented rise in digital, networked technologies. Concern over the effects of these technologies, particularly on young people, is now about as popular as the usage of social media sites themselves. The pendulum has swung from the techno-salvationism emanating from Silicon Valley (and psychologists own enthusiasm for anonymous identity play in the 1990s) to deep suspicion and doubt about how social media affects mental health. Such sentiments suggest a mixture of unfulfilled promises and disturbing, unexpected consequences.

The social web tends to widen the generational gulf between digital natives and digital immigrants. Common discourse likens social media to addictive drugs that fill the void of addicted users, and studies link the use of social media with the risk of depression, anxiety, and worse overall well-being.

Yet, as social media continues to embed itself in global culture, affecting how we work, play, spend, vote, and relate to others, scholars are finally leveling decades of sharply divided empirical outcomes and popular opinion, pointing out that the polarized body of research on social networking sites and mental health would do well to inquire into how sites are used. For example, are users enhancing meaningful connections or comparing themselves to others?

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and Aquinas College reviewed 19 studies published in the last 15 years that assessed the relationship between social media and anxiety and depression symptoms in children and adolescents between 5 and 18 years of age. Despite a variety of methodological issues and confounding variables, significant associations were found across the literature.

Indeed, evidence has shown an association between the amount of time spent on social networking sites and higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. The authors urge us to interpret these results conservatively because effect sizes were small, and many studies were of poor quality. Surprisingly, few studies looked at the ways people engage social media and the relationship between these different styles and activities and anxiety symptoms.

Overall, the quality of the studies was poor to fair. All of the studies, except for four, were cross-sectional in design, which means that cause and effect cannot be inferred. Four studies did not clearly define demographic characteristics, including age range, and two studies had small sample sizes.

A big part of the problem is that lack of understanding of the robust possibilities of the digital world led early interest in this association to take social media for granted as a homogeneous thing to be studied quantitatively, in terms of time spent, rather than qualitatively, in terms of what happens on these sites. This is reflected in disregard for the sites that people were using and whether their participation was active (like posting reviews or communicating with a friend) or passive (scrolling a feed, watching news clips). Importantly, most studies fail to distinguish the emotional valence of activities: did the user console a bereaved friend, or did they watch videos of puppies licking each other?

They recommend that future studies measure results longitudinally and use validated, reliable ways of operationalizing social sites and depression and anxiety symptoms.

The effects of media tend to be small, but this does not mean that they are not important. Rather, there may be many dispositional, social, and contextual and developmental factors, which may actually influence this relationship.

They point to confounding factors that could explain this relationship, like fear of missing out, frequent social comparison and perceived social support. Future studies should hone in on the conditions by which social networking sites may interfere or enhance emotional regulation development in young people.

This study is part of a wave of research concluding that social media must be studied in greater and with greater complexity and nuance. Small effect sizes, confounding variables, different outcome measures across reviewed studies, and tremendous difficulty conceptualizing social media plague present efforts.

We may not be able to conclude much about the mental health effects of social media yet. Nevertheless, a rigorous, qualitative understanding of the social dynamics and actual activities on these sites holds great promise for making detailed recommendations that prioritize mental health without inadvertently suggesting that adolescents isolate themselves socially.

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Piteo, E. M., & Ward, K. (2020). Review: Social networking sites and associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents a systematic review. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 25(4), 201216. https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12373 (Link)

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Confusion Surrounds the Association Between Social Media and Mental Health in Adolescents - James Moore