Mark Zuckerberg: 'Facebook Opposes SOPA And PIPA'

FROM: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/18/mark-zuckerberg-sopa_n_1214090.html#

The Huffington Post   Catharine Smith and Ramona Emerson   

First Posted: 1/18/12 05:52 PM ET Updated: 1/18/12 05:52 PM ET

Zuck has spoken.

On Wednesday, popular websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Google and Twitpic joined the ranks of an online protest over Congress' anti-piracy bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). For much of the day, these sites blacked out part of all of their content and posted notices urging visitors to stand against the bills, which would allow the U.S. government to shut down websites believed to be enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. According to opponents of SOPA and PIPA, the bills could hinder free speech on the web.

Social media giants Facebook and Twitter remained on the sidelines of the protest, though many had called for the sites to participate in a planned blackout. Instead, users took it upon themselves to "censor" content on their individual profiles. Elsewhere on the web, Reddit took down all of its pages and Wikipedia overlaid its articles with a notice asking users to "Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge."

Despite the social network's hands-off approach to the day of protests, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday reiterated his company's approval of the anti-SOPA movement. In a message posted on his Facebook wall, the CEO wrote the following:

The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet.

The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet.

Zuckerberg also took the protest day as an opportunity to tweet for the first time in nearly three years. Check out his tweet, below.

Defriending My Rapist

FROM: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/defriending-my-rapist/?ref=opinion

January 13, 2012, 4:05 pm

By DORRI OLDS

Facebook suggested I friend him. I guess our social networks overlapped. I guided the mouse toward his photo, and the little pointed hand hovered over his face. Fear and anger swelled up but curiosity won out and I clicked “Add Friend.” He accepted within minutes. Stunned, I wondered if he had forgotten raping me, or if he thought I had.

At 13, I was a lonely upper-middle-class Jewish nerd living on Long Island, in search of a tougher persona. He was part of an edgy crowd that hung out in a parking lot behind the school, sprawling over the cement steps like bored cats on a sofa. It was 1973, and the boys wore black leather jackets, smoked Marlboros and stashed pints of Tango and Thunderbird in their back pockets. One afternoon, making sure my long brown hair covered the blemish on my cheek, I went over and said, “Hi.”

That was really all it took. A few offered nods. One of the girls asked if I wanted to come out with them that night to the cemetery.

“Isn’t that spooky?” I whispered.

She laughed. Her voice had a ring of confidence mine never did, so I went, wearing — against Mom’s orders — a shimmery, low-cut shirt. As dusk fell we ambled past the wrought-iron gates, onto the lawn. The guys set down brown bags with bottles. I reached for the pint of Bacardi. Sweet rum burned my throat. With my eyes closed I was Keith Richards chugging onstage at Madison Square Garden.

“Wow, you can really drink,” he said.

I nodded with fake nonchalance, as if this were my forte instead of my first time. Two other girls wandered off with their boyfriends to make out, leaving me standing alone, feeling like a loser. I grinned in relief when one of the boys waved “c’mere,” as if to confide something. But then the boy grabbed me, clamped his hand over my mouth and threw me on the ground, shoving a knee into my hipbone. At first I thought it was a joke. Then four other guys surrounded me. I realized this had been planned.

With the other boys holding me down, he slammed on top of me.

“Is that how you like it?” he said. His breath stank of cigarettes and beer.

Another boy said, “She may have an ugly face, man, but she has a really nice body.”

I’m not sure which was sadder, that I believed my face was ugly or that I was flattered he liked my body. I tried to scream, but it came out muffled. They laughed. I gagged. They took turns. Then it was over. I pulled myself up, retrieved my pink Hanes and almost fell over getting my foot through the leg hole. I leaned against a tree for balance and tugged up my jeans, and then I started screaming.

One of them said: “Oh, man, this chick is nuts. Let’s go.” And they did.

With a child’s logic, I figured the boys thought I wasn’t a virgin because of my sexy shirt. Too ashamed to confide in my parents or older sisters, I tried to tell a teacher after class one day. I stood by her desk shifting my weight from one foot to the other. But I was afraid of being shunned at school if I reported it, so all I said was “See you tomorrow.”

From those early teen years until my mid-20s, I let boyfriends come and go like subway cars, certain that they would trick and humiliate me. If they liked me too much it scared me away. Loneliness plagued me. When I saw happy couples I wondered, How do they do that? I drank heavily, hoping to forget what had happened. But I couldn’t forget.

Kaye Blegvad

Thirty-eight years later, I browsed through the Facebook friends of the boy who was the first to rape me, noticing names I remembered from high school. In his recent photos were snapshots of a boy with his nose and a pretty teenage girl with long silky hair parted in the middle. He gripped a beer while his belly drooped over his jeans. I found some older photos of his wedding, him with a pretty young bride.

The first time I talked about the rape I was 26 and in a therapist’s office. “I can help you,” she said, but it wasn’t a quick fix. I was in my 40s when I met Steve. He had a troubled past too, so we fit. When I buried my face in his hair, the smell, the closeness, made me feel safe. It still does.

Now I clicked back to my rapist’s wall for a link to his wife’s profile and sent her a friend request. I decided that my revenge would be to blow up his marriage. I planned what I’d tell her if she confirmed my request. A montage of memories flooded my head until I felt so queasy I had to lie down.

But when I looked at my computer again, I saw she’d written on my wall. She posted a sideways smiley face and complimented the photos of my dog. How could I tell her? She’d done nothing to me. My rage belonged to her husband.

So I went back to his profile page and typed a private message: “I hope that night has haunted you. I was naïve and a virgin. I see you have a teenage daughter now. Better keep her safe from guys like you.”

I wanted to hate him and hurt him but realized that the only way to be free was to let it all go. When I defriended him I felt strong. The past was the past, and my mouth wasn’t covered anymore.

Facebook post could send Perth student to Bangladesh jail

FROM; http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/facebook-post-could-send-perth-student-to-bangladesh-jail-20120115-1q119.html#ixzz1jbsu2xf0

Aleisha Orr   January 15, 2012

A Curtin University student is facing the possibility of jail time in Bangladesh.

International student Muhammad Ruhul Khandaker, who is in his 20s, has been sentenced to six months in jail in his home country because of a Facebook post.

In August last year, Mr Khandaker who has been in Perth since 2009, copied and pasted a comment he had found on the internet on to his Facebook page.

Curtin University Guild president Ali Kirke said the comment was about drivers licences being given to unqualified drivers.

"He put a comment on his Facebook that the Bangladeshi government thought spoke against the Bangladeshi Prime Minister, then he got charges put against him and sentenced for not appearing in court," she said

Ms Kirke said Mr Khandaker was now fearful of having to return to Bangladesh.

"He is on a student visa at the moment, which I think is due to expire in about six months, once he’s finished studying, he will have to return to Bangladesh."

Ms Kirke said the Guild supported Mr Khandaker in his request to the Immigration Department to grant him a protection visa.

"We want international students to feel welcome and safe," she said.

"I'm all for free speech; it creates debate and gets questions answered.

"Facebook is a social forum, I believe it is important everyone has a way to express themselves and if we start to censor what we put on Facebook, there is a danger we will lose that free speech."

Ms Kirke said Mr Khandaker’s request for a protection visa had not been successful.

"They have told him to wait and see if the situation back home calms down," she said.

Judging Facebook relationships

Should jurists hear cases involving their 'friends'?

FROM: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/watchdog/mc-watchdog-judges-facebook-20120114,0,2268523,full.column

Paul Muschick

The Watchdog

10:25 PM EST, January 14, 2012

What is and isn't an appropriate use of Facebook and other social media usually is for the court of public opinion to decide.

But this week in Philadelphia, the question will be decided in a court of law.

Prosecutors want Philadelphia municipal court Judge Charles Hayden to recuse himself from hearing the drunken-driving case of state Rep. Cherelle Parker of Philadelphia because they are friends on Facebook.

Hayden has refused, and a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

The matter isn't the first and won't be the last time a Pennsylvania judge's credibility has been questioned because of social media. This case, though, is higher profile because Hayden already has ruled in Parker's favor in a key decision by suppressing some of the evidence against her.

Judges should be reining in their use of Facebook because as dispensers of justice, they must avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety. Even a superficial Facebook relationship can create that appearance.

"If it comes out in the course of a trial that that judge has friended one side or the other or one attorney or the other … it can create the perception that there is a relationship," said Lynn Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a nonpartisan nonprofit seeking to reform the court system.

While a state judicial committee is studying the issue as part of a broader ethics review, some judges already are doing what they can to avoid getting tangled in sticky Web issues.

"I defriended just about everybody on my Facebook," Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano said.

Dumping about 150 people wasn't easy, considering that unlike many Facebook users, he actually knows a lot of the people he was Facebook friends with, including lawyers. He wanted to avoid questions about his impartiality should those lawyers have cases before him.

"I think it makes people uncomfortable," Giordano said.

New Allentown District Judge Michael D'Amore is aware, too. In a recent article in The Morning Call, he said he's had to change how he uses Facebook "and delete and stop posting certain things and be careful with the things I do post."

Giordano said he knows of two other Northampton County judges who are on Facebook.

In Lehigh County, President Judge Carol McGinley told me she surveyed judges at a recent lunch and none of those in attendance, which was almost the entire bench, uses Facebook.

She said there are no county court rules against judges using Facebook, but she believes "it's a risky thing for a judge to do."

"It provides accessibility to the judge by people who shouldn't for one reason or another be able to access the judge," she said. "It risks the appearance and the reality of impartiality through inadvertent contact."

Lehigh County Judge Edward D. Reibman is among the non-users. He is ethics committee chairman of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges.

Reibman said no judge has asked the committee about social media issues, but the committee has invited a social media expert to explain how Facebook and similar venues work, and what judges might want to consider before using them.

He seconded Giordano's concern about judges having Facebook friendships with lawyers because other lawyers could question those connections.

He said judges can head off potential questions by disclosing social media or other social relationships with lawyers as some already do if they are golfing or family friends. Some lawyers might be fine practicing before a judge they know has a connection with opposing counsel, while others may not.

"Every judge has friends who are lawyers." Reibman said. "They practiced law with them, they were former associates."

The question becomes what, if anything, must be done if there is even a tenuous connection.

In the Philadelphia case, Hayden ruled there was no reason to recuse himself just because he is a Facebook friend of Parker. He said the situation is no different than if he and the representative attended the same church.

"The underlying issues are the same as they have been from the beginning of our courts," Hayden wrote in a November opinion. "We just have to use our critical thinking skills and common sense instead of getting hung up in the technology. How well do you know the person? Do you interact with them often? Do you consider them a friend?"

Parker's attorney has said the two do not know each other offline, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Hayden agreed to a request from Parker's lawyer to suppress evidence from the traffic stop. Hayden questioned the officers' ability to determine whether Parker was intoxicated and if there was probable cause to arrest her, according to court records.

Police stopped Parker at 12:18 a.m. April 30 after seeing her state-issued vehicle swerving and traveling the wrong way on a one-way street, court records say.

The attorney general's office is prosecuting the case. In its appeal to Philadelphia common pleas court, the attorney general's office says Hayden should recuse himself because his Facebook relationship with Parker "creates an appearance of impropriety and undermines public confidence in the judiciary."

That impropriety is "amplified" by Hayden's ruling against the arresting officers, which was based on facts "wholly lacking in evidence," the appeal says.

"The 'Facebook friendship' … in combination with the court's unsupported factual findings, raise a substantial doubt as to the jurist's ability to preside impartially," the appeal says.

The attorney general's office is prosecuting instead of the Philadelphia district attorney's office because the Web relationships in this case are even more tangled. The DA is Facebook and real-life friends with Parker and pulled his office off the case.

More details about this and another case in Cumberland County are on my blog at http://blogs.mcall.com/watchdog/. I will update the blog later with the results of Tuesday's hearing.

The Watchdog is published Thursdays and Sundays. Contact me by email at watchdog@mcall.com, by phone at 610-841-2364 (ADOG), by fax at 610-820-6693, or by mail at The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St., Allentown, PA, 18101. Follow me on Twitter at mcwatchdog and on Facebook at Morning Call Watchdog.

Copyright © 2012, The Morning Call

BBB names most prevalent scams of 2011

FROM: http://www.laredosun.us/notas.asp?id=19668

Saturday, January 14, 2012
By: Special to The Laredo Sun

LAREDO, Texas – Better Business Bureau investigates thousands of scams every year, from the latest gimmicks to new twists on old schemes.

Some scams quickly fizzle out, while others plague consumers year-round. In alphabetical order, here are 10 of the most prevalent scams of 2011:

Check Cashing Scam Selling items online turned into several scams in 2011. After posting an ad, you are contacted by someone inquiring about your item.

They send you a check for more than the amount they owe you, and then ask you to deposit it into your bank account and then send them the difference via Western Union.

The money you wired is gone instantly and the deposited check bounces after a couple of days, leaving you scammed out of the money you wired.

Door-to-Door Magazine Scam Companies that sell magazines primarily door-to-door are always near the top of BBB complaint data. Last year, many consumers complained they never received a single magazine after purchasing a discounted subscription promised by a sales person.

When consumers called to request a refund, many companies did not answer.

Facebook Viral Videos Scam With so much information shared online, it is easy for scammers to pretend to know potential victims. Viral videos claiming to show everything from grisly footage of Osama bin Laden’s death to the latest celebrity scandals were popular scams perpetrated by hackers, often times appearing to come from a “friend.” Once the link was clicked, malicious software was downloaded to your computer, which then hacked into your social media account and would send similar messages to your friends.

So, the next time you see a sensational headline for the latest viral video, resist the urge to peek or go to an authorized news source.

Hotel Identity Theft Scam Consumers complained they received a call in their hotel room in the middle of the night from the “front desk clerk” asking for his or her credit card number because his or her computer had crashed.

Scammers counted on sleepy consumers not catching on that the call was not from the hotel at all, but from someone outside who knew the direct-dial numbers for the guest rooms.

By the time morning rolled around, consumers found their credit card had been on a shopping spree. This scam was so prevalent that many hotels are now posting warnings in their lobby.

Mark Zuckerberg Sweepstakes Scam Sweepstakes and lottery scams come in many forms, but the bottom line is almost always this: You’ve won a large sum of money, and in order to claim it you have to send in a smaller amount of money.

This year’s top sweepstakes scam was an email claiming to be from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announcing the recipient won $1 million from the popular social networking site.

These kinds of scams often use celebrities or other famous names to make their offer seem more genuine. If you are not sure, don’t click on the link, but instead go directly to the homepage of the company mentioned.

Mortgage Relief Scam Because the federal government announced several mortgage relief programs this year, many sound-alike websites popped up attempting to fool consumers into parting with their money to save their home.

Some sounded like a government agency, or even part of a consumer organization. Most asked for an upfront fee and almost all left you in more debt than when you started.

National Automated Clearing House Association Scam Phishing usually occurs when you receive an email that baits you into giving personal information or downloads a virus to your computer if you click an embedded link.

A particularly malicious phishing scam last year disguised itself as official communication from the National Automated Clearing House Association, which facilitates the secure transfer of billions of electronic transactions every year.

The email claimed one of your transactions did not go through in the hopes you would react quickly and click on the link before thinking it through.

Online Job Scam The worst job-related scam of 2011 involved the online job application process. Job hunters received emails, visited websites and filled out online applications that all looked very professional.

Candidates were even interviewed (usually over the phone). Once offered the job, the candidate was asked to fill out a “credit report” or provide bank information to set up direct deposit.

The online forms provided were nothing more than a way to capture sensitive personal data – Social Security number, bank account information, etc. – that could easily be used for identity theft.

And, of course, there was no job.

Red Light Scam Many consumers were caught off guard when scammers impersonating Texas Department of Public Safety officials called demanding immediate payment on a red-light safety camera ticket.

The caller threatened to issue an arrest warrant unless the victim settled his or her outstanding debt. While DPS does encourage all violators to responsibly handle their citations, it does not collect traffic fines or oversee red-light cameras.

Trade Show Scam Consumers are not the only ones victimized by scams. Last year, several businesses were conned by organizers of trade shows or festivals that did not exist.

The businesses paid up front for booth space with the promise of reaching thousands of potential customers, only to have the event be moved to an undetermined future date or canceled completely.

Usually the contract contained a firm no refund policy.

Online Piracy Legislation Outcry Prompts White House Response

FROM: http://www.pcworld.com/article/248213/online_piracy_legislation_outcry_prompts_white_house_response.html

By Christina DesMarais, PCWorld Jan 15, 2012 7:51 AM

Online piracy legislation has caused such an outcry that the White House is now weighing in.

There's no doubt that online piracy bills debated in Congress within the last couple of months -- namely SOPA and PIPA -- have been highly controversial. Now the Obama administration has addressed the contentious issue.

On Saturday, the administration responded to petitions signed by tens of thousands of people opposing the legislation by releasing a statement indicating what it will, and will not support.

"While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet," reads the statement written by the president’s chief technology officials.

The bills under consideration in Congress -- the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate -- are intended to combat the theft of copyrighted materials by preventing search engines from sending users to sites where stolen materials are distributed. They would also allow people and companies to sue to stop what they believed to be theft of protected content. Such provisions have been opposed by free speech advocates who have said the legislation far exceeds its intended scope, and threatens the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.

President Obama

While the Obama administration said it strongly opposed central elements of Congressional efforts to enforce copyrights on the Internet, it also maintains that online piracy is "a real problem that harms the American economy, threatens jobs for significant numbers of middle class workers and hurts some of our nation's most creative and innovative companies and entrepreneurs."

To that, some people have taken issue.

"I've seen no discussion of credible evidence of this economic harm," wrote Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media and a self-avowed Internet activist, on his Google+ page.

Tim O'Reilly

In its statement, the White House asked petitioners to think about solutions to the problem and not just "what’s the wrong thing to do." It also said the administration would be inviting the organizer of the petition and a random sample of signers to a conference call to discuss the issue. After that, it promised to host an online event to get more input and answer questions.

The outcry against the antipiracy legislation indeed appears to be swaying lawmakers.

The White House statement follows news that the lead sponsor of SOPA said he will remove the much-debated provision that would require Internet service providers to block their subscribers from accessing foreign websites accused of infringing the copyrights of U.S. companies. That decision came a day after Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he plans to amend PIPA to take out a similar ISP provision, due to feedback from several groups.

Follow Christina on Twitter and Google+ for even more tech news and commentary and followToday@PCWorld on Twitter, too.

Facebook Finds Quieter Ways to Complain About Google’s Search+

FROM: http://allthingsd.com/20120113/facebook-finds-quieter-ways-to-complain-about-googles-search/

BY Liz Gannes January 13, 2012 at 5:00 am PT

While Twitter led the charge this week in publicly and unequivocally blasting Google’s new promotion of Google+ in its search results, Facebook stayed quieter.

Well, on the surface, at least. Multiple stories about Google and Facebook’s 2009 failed negotiations over a search deal can clearly be traced back to Facebook.

Facebook says it couldn’t come to terms with Google over how to handle private content; Google says Facebook wanted a clause that would have prevented Google from building its own social service.

Meanwhile, Facebook employees criticized Google’s moves in public status updates. Several prominent Facebookers shared and endorsed a Gizmodo article by Mat Honan about switching his default search engine to Bing after “Google broke itself.”

They included Pedram Keyani, an engineering manager who is a frequent public face of Facebook; Paul Adams, the former Google user experience researcher whose ideas about social circles were famously influential there, but who left for Facebook before Google+ launched; and Joe Lockhart, the former White House press secretary, who is now Facebook’s VP of global communications.

Keyani wrote of the Gizmodo story:

This is a pretty interesting read. Google became something we love because they always focused on speed and giving us the best results. They have made a pretty big departure from that with their most recent change.

They say fear is a great motivator (fear of facebook and twitter) but I think in this case it has also clouded their vision.

Google was my first real fulltime job the direction they are moving in makes me sad. I hope they find their way.

Bing, by the way, did end up signing that 2009 Facebook search deal that Google backed out of — and besides that, Microsoft is an investor in Facebook. Bing passed Yahoo to finally become the second-place U.S. search provider in December.

(Image courtesy of Flickr user thepeachmartini)

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Most Parents Monitor Kids on Facebook — And Have Their Passwords [INFOGRAPHIC]

FROM: http://mashable.com/2012/01/13/parents-monitoring-facebook/

1 hour ago by Samantha Murphy

If you think parents are keeping tabs on their kids’ Facebook profile pages and pictures, you’re absolutely right.

According to a new infographic released by market research firm Lab42, parents are keeping a watchful eye on their child via Facebook, with many checking out their pages daily (43%).

The study — which was conducted among 500 social media users – found that 92% of parents are Facebook friends with their children (of all ages) and more are turning to the site to monitor their kids’ interactions. Safety was named as the top reason for looking at their profiles (40%), followed by curiosity (15%).

But 55% of parents are also making sure the site isn’t it interfering with homework, chores or other activities. Other top concerns include not spending enough time with friends and family (45%), the potential of meeting strangers (41%), bullying others (17%) and being a victim of bullying (16%).

Meanwhile, a high majority – 72% — even have their kids’ Facebook passwords. (Lab42 didn’t provide details on which age demographics for their kids fall into this category.)

However, kids are also checking out their parent’s Facebook pages too. In fact, they are almost equally writing on their parent’s wall (54%) and commenting on photos (51%) as their parents. But even still, it’s mostly the parents initiating the friend requests, with 55% sending it rather than receiving.

Although most children make fun of their parents for their lack of Facebook knowledge (76%), most parents consider themselves very proficient (67%).

For more stats on parent-child interactions on Facebook, check out the infographic below.

Use Facebook’s Targeted Ads to Find Out How Many People Are Into Kinky Sex in Any Workplace

FROM: http://gawker.com/5875937/heres-how-many-facebook-employees-are-into-kinky-sex-according-to-facebook

BY Adrian Chen Jan 13, 2012 4:45 PM

Today I was playing around on Facebook's advertising interface, and found myself learning a little more than I want to know about Facebook's employees. Facebook is happy to tell prospective advertisers how many of its own workers are into kinky sex stuff. (40, FYI.)

You probably know that Facebook makes its money from letting advertisers precisely target users based on what they put in their Facebook profiles. Using Facebook's ad interface, you can target, for example, only male graduates of Dartmouth who live in New York and who have expressed interest in kickboxing and Harry Potter. Facebook's targeted ads make privacy advocates nervous, since they can do things like out individual gay users.

They can also shed light on the sexual practices of a whole company. To help advertisers, Facebook offers an estimate of the number of users that fall under the specific criteria selected. Unlike a normal Facebook search, this estimate includes people who have made their profiles private, since everyone sees ads regardless of their privacy settings. As you can see, Facebook says about 40 people who work for Facebook are into the, uh, non-traditional sexual practices I chose to target. Not bad for a company of 3,000 employees. (Of course, many people on Facebook claim to work at the company but don't, so a lot of these probably aren't employees. But that doesn't stop Facebook from claiming to sell access to 40 kinky Facebook employees.)

So, log in to Facebook, click on create an ad, and see what you can find out for yourself by targeting different organizations and interests. You can learn all sorts of interesting stuff. (Works best with large corporations, churches, or colleges):

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Megachurch pastor Jay Osteen recently called homosexuality a "sin." But he might want to know a few dozen members of his flock at Lakewood Church are openly gay men.

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Full size

Palestinian activists might use it to argue New York Times employees demonstrate a pro-israel bias.

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Incoming BYU freshmen will be interested to learn just how boring the next four years will be.

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Full size

A surprising number of employees of World Wrestling Entertainment have the musical taste of 13-year-old girls.

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And Coca-Cola may want to institute an anti-Pepsi progrom.

 

Author of U.S. online piracy bill vows not to buckle

FROM: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/us-usa-internet-piracy-idUSTRE80C04T20120113

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO | Thu Jan 12, 2012 8:37pm EST

 

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The lawmaker behind a bill to combat online piracy vowed on Thursday to press ahead in the face of fierce criticism from Internet giants such as Google and Facebook.

 

"It is amazing to me that the opponents apparently don't want to protect American consumers and businesses," Republican Representative Lamar Smith told Reuters in a telephone interview.

 

"Are they somehow benefitting by directing customers to these foreign websites? Do they profit from selling advertising to these foreign websites? And if they do, they need to be stopped. And I don't mind taking that on."

 

The Stop Online Piracy Act, which is before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chaired by Smith, aims to fight online piracy of pharmaceuticals, music and other consumer products by allowing the Department of Justice to seek federal court injunctions against foreign-based websites.

 

Smith said Internet counterfeiters cost American consumers, businesses, inventors and workers some $100 billion a year, though critics accuse him of exaggerating.

 

Under the bill, if a judge agrees that websites offer material that violates U.S. copyright laws, Internet service providers could be required to block access to foreign sites and U.S. online ad networks could be required to stop ads and search engines barred from directly linking to them.

 

Heavyweights such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit oppose the bill, which came under fire at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

 

Reddit chief executive Alexis Ohanian has said it would "cripple the Internet" and pledged to take his social media site dark for one day next week to protest the bill.

 

"This (SOPA) could potentially obliterate the entire tech industry - a job-creating industry," Ohanian wrote on his blog.

 

Smith stressed the bill would only affect websites based outside the United States and criticized opponents for failing to cite specific sections, saying many have failed to read it and were disguising their economic interests with rhetoric about Internet freedom.

 

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt told the Economic Club of Washington last month that the bill would "effectively break the Internet" and he compared Smith's efforts to the same type of censorship that Google has experienced in China.

 

"There are some companies like Google that make money by directing consumers to these illegal websites," Smith said. "So I don't think they have any real credibility to complain even though they are the primary opponent."

 

Smith has received numerous awards from conservative organizations for his opposition to efforts to expand the federal government's power.

 

But the Texas representative says giving Washington sweeping powers over the Internet is necessary to protect free enterprise.

 

Smith predicted the bill would pass the House. It was about halfway through the process of committee hearings and could go to the House floor in a matter a weeks, he said. The Senate was considering a similar measure.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Xavier Briand)

Facebook, Nice Girls and Self-Worth

FROM: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/girls-cyberbullying-facebook_b_1197215.html

Posted: 1/12/12 02:59 PM ET

By Soraya Chemaly

What girls say to each other on Facebook matters more than the possible threat of cyberbullying. It reflects what we teach kids about what's important and has real consequences.

Have you ever seen what happens when a teenage girl posts a new picture on Facebook? If she's popular, friends, boys but mainly other girls, reply with some variation of: "You look beautiful!" "Sexy girl!" "GORGEOUS!!"

They even get specific: "Nice butt!" "I wish my waist was THAT small!!!" "Bitch, (in the good way girls say it these days, of course) you look hot!"

In some alternate universe (and according to several competing superstring theories there are an infinite number) girls are doing this instead:

Posting a photo with a bio test: "I got an A on my advanced bio final today!!!" "No way!" "OMG! SO hot!" or Photo-hugging a book with accompanying post: "Just reading Tristam Shandy. LMFAO!" "Me, too! LMFAO2!" "I am SO SO SO SO SO SO jealous!"

Or talking about her athletic prowess, with accompanying video: "Scored the most awesome goal today! Look at this shot!" "You R AMAZING!" "O.M.G. That was the prettiest goal I've EVER seen." "Marry me!" (That last one always makes me burst out laughing.)

OK, I'll stop now. It's just so much fun over there.

Apparently, it's OK for girls to tout how they look, it's still not OK for girls to share what they accomplish or might be interested in. I am fortunate that most of the teenage girls I know are good, nice people. They are kind to one another. Supportive of their friends. Laugh readily and understand, for the most part, how lucky they are. And, I know that horrible, sometimes tragic, cyberbullying goes on. But, on any given day, it seems that for every genuinely mean girl, there are thousands of nice girls saying flattering things to one another online.

A girl's introduction to Facebook, and other social media sites often starts during early adolescence, when peer acceptance and relationships are most important to social and emotional development, particularly self-esteem.

By interacting in these ways, girls are being nice to one another. They're complimenting each other. They are telling each other something important about the world and their place in it. By the time girls are on Facebook they'd have to be living in the outer reaches of upper Mongolia not to know how important it is to be beautiful in our culture. They want their friends to be happy and succeed in that endeavor. What are the roots of self esteem in this equation? Primarily the way they look. And that's because it's what our culture tells them.

In addition to peer acceptance being important, adolescent girls develop a preoccupation with image. According to multiple research studies conducted by the American Psychological Association, girls are more likely than boys to emulate what they see in magazines, music videos, movies. Just as they are dealing with physical and emotional changes due to puberty (which always means healthy weight gain), they also have to deal with the unrealistic and unattainable cultural demands for female thinness, beauty and sexiness. Of course, ethnicity, culture, class and sexual orientation are important factors. But for girls of color and ethnic minorities, the implications are even less understood and perhaps even greater in terms of self-image.

Why does it matter why girls post these photos? Or, how they feel their friends' responses? Why is the timing, in terms of their socialization and development, crucial?

Here's what the American Psychological Association has to say:

Between the ages of 8 and 11 years, girls tend to be androgynous. They view themselves as strong and confident and are not afraid to say what they think. However, as they cross over into adolescence, girls begin to experience pressure toward more rigid conceptions of gender roles; they become more concerned with how women are "supposed to behave'' and with their physical and sexual attractiveness.

Early adolescence is particularly stressful on adolescent girls' friendships and peer relations, and often means a marked increase in indirect relational aggression. (Mean girls... ) Relational aggression is both more common in girls and more distressful to them. It includes behaviors such as spreading rumors or threatening withdrawal of friendship. It starts happening as girls negotiate power relations and, this is really important, affirm or resist conventional constructions of femininity. That when photographs and their comments come in to play and have more weight than might otherwise be ascribed to them. The photos and comments have power to define girls. Even girls who do not fit the mold of "traditionally" popular, beautiful and thin girl, if they are well-liked, are supported in this way - through compliments that focus almost entirely on looks, with smatterings of "You're so sweet!" and "You're so nice!" The opposite is also true. That's why cyberbullying can so quickly escalate to cause real harm.

There are several consequences and trends related to dynamic interplay of self image, body image, peer assessment, confidence:

In immediate terms, according to the NYU Child Study Center the emphasis on beauty, particularly an idealized, often sexualized and thin body, has implications for health:

• Eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression are the most common mental health problems in girls.
• 59 percent of 5-12th grade girls in one survey were dissatisfied with their body shape.
• 20-40 percent of girls begin dieting at age 10.
• By 15, girls are twice as likely to become depressed than boys.
• Among 5-12th graders, 47 percent said they wanted to lose weight because of magazine pictures.
• Health risks accompany girls' drop in self-esteem due to risky eating habits, depression,and unwanted pregnancy.
• Girls aged 10 and 12 (tweens) are confronted with "teen" issues such as dating and sex, at increasingly earlier ages. 73 percent of 8-12 year-olds dress like teens and talk like teens.

Dr. Anita Gurian, a clinical assistant professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine, describes it this way:

Starting in the pre-teen years, there is a shift in focus; the body becomes an all consuming passion and barometer of worth. Self-esteem becomes too closely tied to physical attributes; girls feel they can't measure up to society standards. Between 5th and 9th grade, gifted girls, perceiving that smarts aren't sexy, hide their accomplishments.

According to Beauty Redefined, based on studies done in the last five years, 66 percent of adolescent girls wish they were thinner, though only 16 percent are actually overweight.

And it is happening at younger and younger ages: A girl is 10 years-old when she starts emulating models she sees in ads and feeling deficient. Between 20 and 40 percent of 10 year-olds start dieting. Girls start pretending they are not that smart, because "smart" and "sexy" are more often than not portrayed as mutually exclusive binaries.

On a broad cultural scale, the impact of lower self esteem, a loss of a sense of agency and a perception that your worth is bound up in your attractiveness to men has serious consequences for equity. It's why I keep mentioning the movie Miss Representation, which traces the effects of mass media on girls and culture and illustrated the degree to which television, movies, videos, lyrics, magazine, the Internet and advertisements portray images of girls and women in a sexual manner, as the primary model of femininity for girls to emulate to the exclusion of almost everything else.

So, media messages both establish unhealthy, unrealistic ideals of thinness, sexiness and beauty while causing low self-esteem generated by a failure to meet those ideals.

Girls are working this out every day on Facebook. When they collectively post and comment, I think they are grappling with these issues in the way they can best. They acknowledge the reality of the situation that thin and pretty are important (sexy is really good, too), while trying to be supportive and complimentary, to offset the negative consequences of being held to this ridiculous and fetishized ideal of contemporary female beauty.

For me, it's simple, as long as we have gender equity imbalances -- in pay equity, political representation, story-telling (media), resource allocation -- then the currency of a female's worth will remain the way she looks because the primary traditional way of achieving agency in a woman's life has been to align herself with a man with the best access to resources. Resources to which women have had a vicarious relationship: money, property, political power, safety. Undoubtedly women's and girls' position in the world have improved enormously due to the fight for equal rights, but mainstream messages clearly continue to portray the world through the lens of girls and women as fetishized, feminine helpmeets.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the question "Why did she do that?" because it is often wielded as a weapon to blame girls and women for the ways in which they adapt to living in a sexist culture. My daughters, my nieces, their friends and teammates aren't, for the most part, obsessing in a single-minded way on their looks. They're just having fun, messing around with friends online. Yes, there is the usual focus on clothes, appearance, hair -- but they are working hard at being good students, healthy athletes and kind people. And, indeed, my daughters will mock me relentlessly when this posts for my concern since they are "Just fine, Mom!" And, yes, I know that athletics, particularly team sports, are a great way to build a great, healthy body-image for girls. It take more than that, however, to offset the relentless beauty pressure that girls are subjected to (as illustrated in this Dove campaign video that made the rounds last year).

However, it is still unsettling to me that what all of these girls, being educated in one of the fairest, most equitable societies on the planet, still chose to share in public: how they look instead, with the exception of "liking" things, what they do and what their opinions are. It's a tall order for any teen to go out on a limb to do these things -- but for girls in this context, where beauty and smarts are still in conflict and where looks are so important -- it's even harder.

There are many great resources, books and organizations working to change mass media's representation of a girls' value being rooted in her appearance and sex appeal. Check out the following if you are interested:

She Heroes
7 Wonderlicious
Black Girl Project
Adios Barbie
Princess Free Zone
Powered by Girls
Black Girls Rock!
Spark Movement
Miss Representation
BrainCake
Pigtail Pals
Girls' Leadership Institute

There is a short list, others can also be found here. In addition to addressing the first world issues of (compared to the rest of the world) affluent and educated girls who can afford to be on FaceBook, there are many organizations with similar goals internationally that you can find here at Amazing Women Rock -- an award winning web site and resource center which was started after its founder, Susan Macaulay, found that "women tend not to "blow their own horns," and as a result miss out on a lot of opportunities that life has to offer" -- that includes telling girls and boys that girls can aspire, with reasonable hope and ambition, to contribute to the greater good by more than just looking good.

Thanks, Likers!

Can coworkers be Facebook friends?

FROM:http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57354978/can-coworkers-be-facebook-friends/?tag=nl.e854

By Laura Vanderkam

MoneyWatch)

Facebook is personal. Work is professional. Different worlds, right?

Well, probably not as far as your young employees are concerned. According to a new survey of Facebook data by Millennial Branding, a "personal branding" advertising agency, young people keep Facebook only nominally personal. While 80 percent of those aged 18-29 list a school affiliation, only 36 percent list an employer affiliation.

The catch? Young people have "friended" an average of 16 colleagues each, according to the study, which was released Monday.

This means that even if they don't officially associate their Facebook persona with work, Gen Y's personal and work lives are blended, all the same.

In theory, this could be problematic. Post a photo from a Saturday night party and it's like posting it on the company bulletin board.

But in the grand scheme of things, your young employees' tendency to friend their colleagues on Facebook is part of a broader shift in the way we live. As people move between employers frequently (and Gen Y are job hoppers, spending just over two years at their first jobs, according to Millennial Branding), their loyalties are not to institutions, but to people. You and your colleague may work together now, but sooner or later, both of you will likely jump ship. One of you may later recruit the other at a different organization, use the other as a vendor, use each other as sources of information about different companies, possibly become business partners, or friendly competitors.

However the professional relationship unfolds, though, you can always be "friends." Work and life are a mishmash now, and Gen Y's Facebook friends reflect that.

How many of your colleagues are your Facebook friends?

Is it OK for teachers and students to be Facebook friends?

FROM: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/08/4170782/is-it-ok-for-teachers-and-students.html

mgutierrez@sacbee.com

Published Sunday, Jan. 08, 2012

High school teacher Jennifer Kennedy has a prepared response for students who send her "friend" requests on Facebook.

No. Or, at least not until they graduate.

It's a rule she said she shares with fellow teachers at Sacramento New Technology High School.

Increasingly, school district officials across the region and throughout the country are coming up with their own guidelines for what kind of online and electronic communication is acceptable between teachers and students.

Is it OK to be Facebook friends?

What about direct messages on Twitter?

Or text messaging from personal cellphones?

"We have a generation of kids who communicate this way," said Kennedy, who teaches sophomores and seniors. "If you say absolutely no Facebook or texting, you are cutting off an important relationship with students."

In districts with policies against such behavior, officials have said social media sites blur the line between the professional and private lives of teachers. And then there are the rare but widely reported allegations of abuse initiated or intensified through social media.

Last year, a McClatchy High School teacher pleaded no contest to charges he inappropriately touched a 16-year-old student. A police investigation found more than 1,200 messages between Brian Aguilar and the female victim. Aguilar is no longer employed by the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Those are the kind of abuses that have led some districts and states to step in.

Missouri passed a bill last year that banned electronic communication between teachers and students, but lawmakers revised the law after a judge warned it infringed on free speech. Now school boards have been asked to pen their own social media guidelines by March 1.

The Dayton Public School District in Ohio banned teachers from "friending" students on social networking sites or sending texts or instant messages.

Locally, Folsom Cordova Unified School District has adopted a new policy, which advises teachers not to add students as friends on a personal Facebook page and to avoid contacting students privately on a social media site or through text messaging.

"The policy is designed to articulate our expectations," said district spokesman Stephen Nichols. "There needs to be more dialogue about this. It's not going away."

Twin Rivers Unified School District is working on a policy that will address online and electronic communication between teachers and students, said district spokeswoman Trinette Marquis.

"We realize this is something we need to have in place," said Marquis, who added that the policy will likely provide guidelines for appropriate uses but not bar the use of it.

Elk Grove Unified and Sacramento City Unified do not have policies in place.

"It's something we've been exploring," said Elizabeth Graswich, spokeswoman for Elk Grove Unified.

Luther Burbank High School teacher Larry Ferlazzo said he'd like to see some training and guidelines, but that "it's pretty shortsighted" for districts to adopt policies forbidding online communication through social media sites.

Ferlazzo said he has exchanged school-related text messages with students and has previously friended a current student on Facebook, but his page is not a personal page. It mostly promotes his popular education blog.

"Obviously, there will be stories of abuses or inappropriate stuff, but that could be the case with any tool," Ferlazzo said. "If one student feels more comfortable contacting a teacher that way for a recommendation or about a homework assignment, why not?"

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