Facebook seeks to defend itself after scathing reports

San Francisco (AFP)

Sept 21, 2021

Facebook on Tuesday fired back after a series of withering Wall Street Journal reports that the company failed to keep users safe, with the social media giant noting an increase in staff and spending on battling abuses.

The company has been under relentless pressure to guard against being a platform where misinformation and hate can spread, while at the same time remain a forum for people to speak freely. It has struggled to respond.

A series of recent Wall Street Journal reports said the company knew its Instagram photo sharing tool was hurting teenage girls' mental health, and that its moderation system had a double standard allowing VIPs to skirt rules.

One of the articles, citing Facebook's own research, said a 2018 change to its software ended up promoting political outrage and division.

But Facebook said Tuesday it has spent more than $13 billion in the past five years on teams and technology devoted to fighting abuses.

Some 40,000 people now work on safety and security for the California-based tech giant, quadruple the number in the year 2016, according to Facebook.

"How technology companies grapple with complex issues is being heavily scrutinized, and often, without important context," Facebook contended in a blog post.

The social network launched an about.facebook.com/progress website to showcase work done to counter abuses.

Facebook's Nick Clegg also attacked the reporting in a blog post on Saturday, saying the articles were unfair.

"At the heart of this series is an allegation that is just plain false: that Facebook conducts research and then systematically and willfully ignores it if the findings are inconvenient for the company," he wrote.

The Journal stories cited, in part, studies commissioned by the company and which contained disturbing revelations like: "We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls."

Clegg said the stories selectively employed quotes in a way that offered a deliberately lop-sided view of the company's work.

"We will continue to ask ourselves the hard questions. And we will continue to improve our products and services as a result," he said in the closing lines of his post.

Facebook recently launched an effort targeting users working together on the platform to promote real-world violence or conspiracy theories, beginning by taking down a German network spreading Covid misinformation.

The new tool is meant to detect organized, malicious efforts that are a threat but fall short of the social media giant's existing rules against hate groups, said Facebook's head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.

Space Daily.

Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Facebook_seeks_to_defend_itself_after_scathing_reports_999.html.

Facebook removes accounts tied to Iranian exile group

April 07, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook said Tuesday it has removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an Iranian exile group and a troll farm in Albania. The accounts posted content critical of Iran's government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident group known as MEK. In many cases, the Facebook and Instagram accounts used fake profile names and photos.

Facebook determined the accounts were being run from a single location in Albania by a group of individuals working on behalf of MEK. Facebook found other telltale clues suggesting a so-called troll farm, in which workers are often paid to post content, including misinformation, to social media. Facebook says it removes such accounts based on how they behave, not on the material they post.

For one, researchers found that the activity seemed to follow the central European workday, with posts picking up after 9 a.m., slowing down at the end of the day, and with a noticeable pause at lunch time. Facebook, however, said it did not find evidence of people being paid.

“Even trolls need to eat,” said Ben Nimmo, who works on Facebook’s global threat intelligence investigations, on a conference call with reporters Tuesday. The National Council for Resistance in Iran, an umbrella group that includes MEK, said in a statement that that no accounts affiliated with it or MEK have been removed. The group also denied the existence of an Albanian troll farm affiliated with MEK.

MEK is a leading group opposing the Iranian government. It killed Americans before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and was labeled as a terrorist organization by the State Department until 2012. Nevertheless, U.S. politicians from both parties including Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich have given paid speeches to MEK in the past.

The network of fake accounts was most active in 2017 and again in late 2020, Facebook said. In all, more than 300 accounts, pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram were removed as part of the company's action. Around 112,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.

In some cases, the fake accounts used photos of Iranian celebrities or deceased dissidents. A small number of the more recent Instagram accounts appear to have used profile pictures that were computer generated.

Turkey's Parliament to Vote on Bill that Could Block Facebook, Twitter

Saturday, 25 July, 2020

Turkish lawmakers are preparing to vote on a bill that would effectively block social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube unless they comply with strict new regulations, Britain’s The Guardian reported.

“The draft legislation would force social media companies with more than 1 million daily users in Turkey to establish a formal presence in the country or assign an in-country representative who would be legally accountable to the Turkish authorities,” the newspaper said.

Companies or their representatives would then be required to respond within 48 hours to complaints about posts that “violate personal and privacy rights” and international companies would be required to store user data inside Turkey.

If they do not comply, Turkish authorities will be able to levy steep fines of up to $1.5 million and throttle sites’ bandwidth by up to 90%, effectively making them unusable, said the report.

The bill would also allow courts to order Turkish news websites to remove content within 24 hours, it added.

According to The Guardian, a vote is as yet unscheduled but is expected to pass with the support of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party and coalition partner.

The parliamentary justice committee approved the draft on Friday.

“We aim to put an end to insults, swearing and harassment made through social media,” the ruling party legislator, Ozlem Zengin, said earlier this week, adding that the measures sought to balance freedoms with rights and laws.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.
Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2410666/turkey%E2%80%99s-parliament-vote-bill-could-block-facebook-twitter.

Facebook takes down page of Palestine news site

October 11, 2019

Facebook on Wednesday deleted the page of the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) in a move, the news site says, which is part of its war on Palestinian content on social media networks.

The site’s management said Facebook provided them with no prior warning before deleting the page, which had nearly five million followers, without any justification.

They called on Facebook to reinstate the page and stop its battle against Palestinian content, saying they have contested the ban.

The Palestinian Information Center has previously been forced to suspend posting on Facebook after the social media giant banned the accounts of some of its directors. Member of management have also seen their accounts deleted and removed.

The blocking of the PIC’s page comes as part of an extensive campaign in recent weeks that included many Palestinian social media platforms.

The Palestinian Information Center was founded in December 1997 in Arabic, as the first Palestinian news site, dedicated to advocating the Palestinian cause and the Arab conflict with the Zionist occupier. It is biased in favor of the rights of the Palestinian people and their sanctities and the legitimate right to resist the occupier by all legitimate and internationally guaranteed means. It is the only Palestinian site that broadcasts its material in eight languages.

Earlier this week, journalists and activists in Palestine launched a social media campaign against Facebook’s censorship of Palestinian content.

Using the hashtag FBblocksPalestine, the drive hopes to bring to light “the threat posed by Facebook against Palestinian content, and to make it public, as well as reveal the double-standard policy of Facebook management in dealing with Israeli and Palestinian incitement on its site,” says Eyad Rifai, head of Sada Social Centre which is running the drive.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191011-facebook-takes-down-page-of-palestine-news-site/.

Can Zuckerberg's media blitz take the pressure off Facebook?

March 22, 2018

NEW YORK (AP) — In the wake of a privacy scandal involving a Trump-connected data-mining firm, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg embarked on a rare media mini-blitz in an attempt to take some of the public and political pressure off the social network.

But it's far from clear whether he's won over U.S. and European authorities, much less the broader public whose status updates provide Facebook with an endless stream of data it uses to sell targeted ads.

On Wednesday, the generally reclusive Zuckerberg sat for an interview on CNN and conducted several more with other outlets, addressing reports that Cambridge Analytica purloined the data of more than 50 million Facebook users in order to sway elections. The Trump campaign paid the firm $6 million during the 2016 election, although it has since distanced itself from Cambridge.

Zuckerberg apologized for a "major breach of trust," admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect users following Cambridge's data grab. "I am really sorry that happened," Zuckerberg said on CNN. Facebook has a "responsibility" to protect its users' data, he added, noting that if it fails, "we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people."

His mea culpa on cable television came a few hours after he acknowledged his company's mistakes in a Facebook post , but without saying he was sorry. Zuckerberg and Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, had been quiet since news broke Friday that Cambridge may have used data improperly obtained from roughly 50 million Facebook users to try to sway elections. Cambridge's clients included Donald Trump's general-election campaign.

Facebook shares have dropped some 8 percent, lopping about $46 billion off the company's market value, since the revelations were first published. While several experts said Zuckerberg took an important step with the CNN interview, few were convinced that he put the Cambridge issue behind hm. Zuckerberg's apology, for instance, seemed rushed and pro forma to Helio Fred Garcia, a crisis-management professor at NYU and Columbia University.

"He didn't acknowledge the harm or potential harm to the affected users," Garcia said. "I doubt most people realized he was apologizing." Instead, the Facebook chief pointed to steps the company has already taken, such as a 2014 move to restrict the access outside apps had to user data. (That move came too late to stop Cambridge.) And he laid out a series of technical changes that will further limit the data such apps can collect, pledged to notify users when outsiders misuse their information and said Facebook will "audit" apps that exhibit troubling behavior.

That audit will be a giant undertaking, said David Carroll, a media researcher at the Parsons School of Design in New York — one that he said will likely turn up a vast number of apps that did "troubling, distressing things."

But on other fronts, Zuckerberg carefully hedged otherwise striking remarks. In the CNN interview, for instance, he said he would be "happy" to testify before Congress — but only if it was "the right thing to do." Zuckerberg went on to note that many other Facebook officials might be more appropriate witnesses depending on what Congress wanted to know.

At another point, the Facebook chief seemed to favor regulation for Facebook and other internet giants. At least, that is, the "right" kind of rules, such as ones requiring online political ads to disclose who paid for them. In almost the next breath, however, Zuckerberg steered clear of endorsing a bill that would write such rules into federal law, and instead talked up Facebook's own voluntary efforts on that front.

"They'll fight tooth and nail to fight being regulated," said Timothy Carone, a Notre Dame business professor. "In six months we'll be having the same conversations, and it's just going to get worse going into the election."

Even Facebook's plan to let users know about data leaks may put the onus on users to educate themselves. Zuckerberg said Facebook will "build a tool" that lets users see if their information had been impacted by the Cambridge leak, suggesting that the company won't be notifying people automatically. Facebook took this kind of do-it-yourself approach in the case of Russian election meddling, in contrast to Twitter, which notified users who had been exposed to Russian propaganda on its network.

In what has become one of the worst backlashes Facebook has ever seen, politicians in the U.S. and Britain have called for Zuckerberg to explain its data practices in detail. State attorneys general in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey have opened investigations into the Cambridge mess. And some have rallied to a movement that urges people to delete their Facebook accounts entirely.

Sandy Parakilas, who worked in data protection for Facebook in 2011 and 2012, told a U.K. parliamentary committee Wednesday that the company was vigilant about its network security but lax when it came to protecting users' data.

He said personal data including email addresses and in some cases private messages was allowed to leave Facebook servers with no real controls on how the data was used after that. Paul Argenti, a business professor at Dartmouth, said that while Zuckerberg's comments hit the right notes, they still probably aren't enough. "The question is, can you really trust Facebook," he said. "I don't think that question has been answered."

Cambridge Analytica headquarters in central London was briefly evacuated Thursday as a precaution after a suspicious package was received. Nothing dangerous was found and normal business resumed, police said.

AP reporters Danica Kirka and Gregory Katz in London and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Egyptian military interrogates activist over Facebook status update

CAIRO (BNO NEWS) — Egyptian military prosecution officers on Sunday detained and interrogated activist Asmaa Mahfouz for allegedly writing a Facebook status against the military, the Al-Ahram state-owned newspaper reported.

The blogger and former April 6 Movement member is accused of inciting violence against the military and members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. She will remain in detention until a bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,355) is paid, according to reports.

Mahfouz was a member of the April 6 youth movement, which participated in the mass protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt in a 30-year-long regime. She is not the first activist to be summoned by the military prosecution, however.

Several of those arrested during clashes at Cairo’s Tahrir Square in late June were also being interrogated by the military prosecution on Sunday. Clashes erupted between families of those killed during the January 25 Revolution and Central Security Forces between June 28 and 29.

According to Amnesty International, at least 840 people were killed and over 6,000 people were injured in the violent repression that took place during the January uprising. Activists and protesters have been asking for the prosecution of those implicated in the killings of protesters.

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19452/egyptian-military-interrogates-activist-over-facebook-status-update/.

Will members of the hacker group Anonymous try to bring down Facebook?

By Joe Pompeo | The Cutline
Wed, Aug 10, 2011

Some members of Anonymous, the nebulous group of hackers whose high-tech activism has wreaked havoc on law enforcement agencies, government ministries and corporations, appear to have a new target in their cross-hairs: Facebook.

A threatening message on YouTube was allegedly disseminated by affiliates of the shadowy collective, which in recent days has hijacked the websites of the Syrian Defense Ministry (in protest of the restive nation's autocratic regime) and dozens of rural police offices in the United States (in retaliation for the recent arrests of some of the group's suspected cohorts). "If you're a willing activist or guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy," implores the narrator of the message, using a voice scrambler.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly been criticized for his alleged lack of concern for the privacy of his 700 million users.

"Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so they can spy on people all around the world," the Anonymous message, titled "Operation Facebook," claims. (It was uploaded on July 16, but it only began circulating widely around the web on Tuesday...)

"Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your privacy settings, and deleting your account is impossible," the statement continues. "Even if you delete your account, all of your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your account more private is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family. ... You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realize what we have done here is right. Think for awhile and prepare for a day that will go down in history: Nov. 5, 2011."

If successfully carried out, the allegedly pending attack would coincide with Guy Fawkes Day, a British celebration that commemorates a failed assassination attempt on King James I of England in 1605. Members of Anonymous are known to don masks resembling Fawkes.

A spokesman for Facebook declined to comment. But Anonymous weighed in on its Twitter account. The group initially claimed the YouTube video was a hoax, but later clarified: "#OpFacebook is being organized by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it." A subsequent tweet reads: "We prefer to face the real power and not to face to the same medias that we use as tools."

Some observers are skeptical about the authenticity of the threat.

"Why didn't this news spread like wildfire three weeks ago?" writes Emil Protalinski on ZDNet. "Whenever Anonymous or [affiliated hacker group] LulzSec declare a new target, the world definitely notices. Furthermore, while Guy Fawkes Day is a perfectly understandable choice, it's very far away. There are 112 days between July 16, 2011 and November 5, 2011: Anonymous rarely gives more than a few days notice, if at all."

Facebook group demands expelling Syrian ambassador

Wed, 10/08/2011

Facebook users have launched a campaign to gather 1 million signatures in support of expelling the Syrian ambassador to Cairo.

The users, most of whom belong to the Wasat Party, said Egyptians know how Syrians feel because they've also seen injustice.

The campaign's founders accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of committing crimes against humanity and called for putting him on trial.

It urged Egyptians to take part in the petition so as to persuade the government to expel the ambassador.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/485142.

Facebook uses YOUR face to promote products to other users

Thursday, December 22, 2011
by: Jonathan Benson

(NaturalNews) If you use Facebook and think your personal information is private and secure, think again. Back in January, the social media empire unveiled a new "Sponsored Stories" function that attaches user photos to the goods and services they "Like" in order to market such products to friends and acquaintances. A new lawsuit in California alleges that this practice violates numerous laws in the "Golden State," and perhaps elsewhere.

According to the allegations, Facebook's marketing initiatives violate California's Right of Publicity Statute as well as its unfair trade practices law. The allegations also claim Facebook is unfairly enriching itself at the users expense, which US District Judge Lucy Koh of San Jose apparently believes may be valid, as she recently rejected Facebook's petition to her court to have the suit dropped.

The plaintiffs claimed that using the faces and names of people without their permission is illegal. California's Right of Publicity Statute prohibits company's from using the names, voices, signatures, photographs, or likeness of individuals for the purpose of advertising, without their expressed permission. And since Facebook users were neither told about the Sponsored Stories program when it began, nor asked for permission to be a part of it, Facebook is in violation of the law, they claim.

Many Facebook users are still in the dark about how the site is using their personal data in general, including in the new Sponsored Stories program. Users were automatically "enrolled" in the program without their permission, and without being informed about it, back in January. And instead of an opt-in system, users are given the unannounced option to opt-out, at least in a limited form -- that is if they are able to successfully navigate Facebook's convoluted privacy section to find the section in which to do this.

Facebook, on the other hand, has implied in its limited response that its users are all "public figures," and that the statute does not apply to them. The social media site views the Sponsored Stories program as a type of "trusted referral" system, these being the words of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who also said that such a system is the "Holy Grail of advertising."

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/034463_Facebook_personal_information_privacy.html.

Baby named after Facebook Like button

JERUSALEM, May 18 (UPI) -- An Israeli couple said they were inspired by the "Like" button on Facebook when they named their daughter Like.

Lior and Vardit Adler told Israeli news site Galgalatz they felt the name was "modern and innovative," PC World reported Tuesday.

"In our opinion, it's the modern equivalent of the name Ahava (Love)," Lior Adler said, "It's just my way of saying to my fantastic daughter, 'love.'"

The couple's previous two daughters are named Pie and Vash, the Hebrew word for "Honey."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/05/18/Baby-named-after-Facebook-Like-button/UPI-92221305703800/.

Third Intifada page regains 27,000 fans in first day

31-03-2011

Al Qassam website- Occupied Jerusalem- The organizers of the third Palestinian intifada page on Facebook have gained over 27,000 fans in one day after the Facebook administration removed the page in response to official calls in Israel.

The page now includes opening statements condemning the Facebook administration and founder Mark Zuckerberg after they responded to pressure from Israel to close the page calling the Palestinians to take to the streets for a third intifada against Israel on May 15, which marks the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.

Facebook said it removed the page, which picked up a fan base of 350,000 in less than a month, claiming that it ”incites and contains calls for the use of violence against Jews.”

Israeli minister Yuli Eidelstein wrote the site's founder Mark Zuckerberg calling for the page's removal.

According to the Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot, the fear of a popular Palestinian revolution similar to what happened in the past, as popular uprisings continue in several Arab countries, has increased after the emergence of the page.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://qassam.ps/news-4354-Third_Intifada_page_regains_27000_fans_in_first_day.html.

Facebook founder hacked, site tightens security - Summary

Wed, 26 Jan 2011

San Francisco - Facebook announced a string of new security measures Wednesday, just a day after the fan page of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was hacked by a mystery invader.

The new controls allow users to access the site with one time passwords received over mobile phones that are preregistered to their accounts. The updated measures also allow users to see what computers their accounts are logged in from and if necessary remotely log them off.

Facebook will also broadly introduce a tool called social authentication to verify users by requiring them to identify photos of friends. Also new will be the ability to use secure wireless connection to access Facebook over public internet networks.

Facebook said that the measures were introduced to mark Data Privacy Day, which falls on Friday, rather than in response to the embarrassing security glitch that allowed a mystery hacker to take control of Zuckerberg's page.

The hacker posted a message decrying the company's attempts to cash in on its hugely successful site. Facebook declined to comment on the embarrassing security snafu, but did take down the compromised page.

"Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way?" said the message, which was posted just days after Facebook confirmed that it had raised 1.5 billion dollars from global investors at a valuation of around 50 billion dollars.

"Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it?" the message continued, referring to the founder of the Grameen Bank which has transformed millions of lives by extending microloans to poor people.

Zuckerberg's fan page has over 3 million followers and is probably managed by media assistants to the social networking magnate, according to cyber-security experts. The hackers may have stolen control of the page by guessing the password, sniffing it out over unsecured wireless networks, tricking Zuckerberg or the account manager into revealing it, or even surreptitiously gaining control of their computer.

"We don't know how the hack was perpetrated," said Paul Ducklin, head of technology at internet security firm Sophos. "Whatever happened in this case, it raises one more tough question: do you still trust Facebook with your online persona?"

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/364417,tightens-security-summary.html.

Facebook beats Google as most visited, searched, in 2010

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

San Francisco - Facebook passed Google as the most visited website in the US in 2010, according to a survey released Thursday by the web tracking firm Experian Hitwise.

The social networking site also claimed the top search term of the year, with variations on its name filling four of the ten most popular searches, the survey found. In all, Facebook searches accounted for 3.48 per cent of all web searches in the US in 2010, a 207-per-cent increase over 2009.

The study found that Facebook accounted for 8.93 per cent of all US website visits in the year, ahead of Google.com's 7.19 per cent and third-placed Yahoo Mail with 3.85 per cent.

However if all Google's various properties are taken into account, the web search giant did overtake Facebook with 9.85 per cent of all website visits. Microsoft's msn.com and bing.com also made it into the list of top ten websites, as did myspace.com.

Other terms in the top ten searches included "youtube," "craigslist," "myspace," "ebay" and "yahoo."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360215,google-visited-searched-2010.html.

Facebook bans Al Qassam English homepage

04-12-2010

Al Qassam website-Gaza –Social network service "Facebook" has disabled the official homepage of Al Qassam Brigades -Hamas military wing on Facebook website.

At the time that Zionist websites spread its hateful propaganda against the Palestinian people openly on its social network service, Facebook administration bans a lot of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian websites from spreading news or information related to exposing the violations by Zionist occupation against the Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank.

Al Qassam Facebook home page disappeared three days after it was posted on the official website (http://www.qassam.ps/index.html), however, the website did not harm the rules of the social networking while spreading his news, articles, statements and videos.

By its reckless and deliberate step, Facebook administration proves that it is a real cheap tool biased for the Zionist occupation in Palestine.

For our important role, we are the Al Qassam Brigades condemn strongly the reckless decision made by the Facebook administration on banning our official English website from establishing on the social network service Facebook and do call on all free people who believes in justice and freedom of expression, especially journalists from everywhere to express their displeasure with Facebook foolhardy move regarding the continued ban on the official English homepage of the Al Qassam Brigades Website on the social network service "Facebook"!.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://www.qassam.ps/news-3872-Facebook_bans_Al_Qassam_English_homepage.html.

Facebook unmasks new messaging system

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

San Francisco - Facebook unveiled a new messaging system on Monday that will allow users to see all their various message feeds in one location and which ups the rivalry between the social networking site and Google.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the service as "modern messaging" and said it would combine email, instant messages, Facebook messages and SMS, as well as giving Facebook's 500 million members their own "@Facebook.com" email addresses.

The Facebook service will store all messages for five years and also provide a social inbox that will automatically differentiate messages from friends, business and mass mailings, he said.

Modelled more on chat programs than email, the Facebook messages won't have a subject line or the ability to cc or bcc recipients. However, users will be able to attach pictures and videos, and in the coming months will also integrate with Microsoft Office so that users will be able to see Word, Excel and Powerpoint attachments directly in Facebook.

"We have tried to make it so people don't have to think about this stuff," said Zuckerberg, who dismissed media speculation that the new service may drive people away from their existing email providers.

"This is not an email killer," Zuckerberg said. "This is a messaging service that has email as part of it."

The initial deployment started Monday for US members and will gradually rollout to all Facebook members over the course of a few months.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353668,unmasks-new-messaging-system.html.

Facebook access restricted for several hours in Saudi Arabia

Sat, 13 Nov 2010

Riyadh - The social-networking website Facebook was restricted in Saudi Arabia for several hours on Saturday, according to users.

Users of the widely-popular Facebook were only able to access the website around sundown.

According to a source at the Telecommunications Agency in Saudi Arabia, the site was restricted most of the day because it did not conform with social values.

Facebook, which has over 200 million active users, was temporarily restricted in Pakistan and Bangladesh earlier this year due to a group on the website that was planning an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day", which lead to massive demonstrations by people in both Muslim- majority nations.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353404,facebook-access-restricted-for-several-hours-in-saudi-arabia.html.

Facebook group calls for boycott of Hong Kong fast-food chain

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

Hong Kong - Almost 3,000 people have joined a Facebook group calling for a boycott of Hong Kong's biggest fast-food chain in support of its workers.

The group, called Boycott the unscrupulous restaurant chain Cafe de Coral, was formed in response to changes in the pay structure of workers of the chain which it claims leave many with less take-home pay.

Under the new structure, workers who earn between 22 and 25 Hong Kong dollars per hour (2.83 and 3.22 US dollars) will receive a pay rise of between 2 and 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per hour. But they will no longer be paid for their 45-minute lunch break, a move which trade unions claim will equate to a pay cut.

The chain has 149 Cafe de Coral outlets in Hong Kong, plus around 150 others restaurants such as the Spaghetti House and Oliver's Super Sandwiches.

The Facebook group claims the new salary policy is unscrupulous.

Cafe de Coral has defended the new pay scale claiming it was crucial in the light of a new minimum wage law which is due to come into effect next year. It did not comment on the Facebook group.

Social Democrat party chairman Andrew To said the chain was using a legal loophole to get money from staff.

"It will encourage other companies in the sector to follow the practice and cut workers' lunch allowance," he told local newspapers earlier this week.

Legislators in the former British colony passed Hong Kong's first minimum wage law in July. A working party is expected to set the level in the coming months.

Trade unions have been pushing for a minimum wage of 4.2 US dollars an hour.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351447,hong-kong-fast-food-chain.html.

Defense, Facebook One and the Same

By Bob Brewin
04/29/10

While the average Facebook employee probably does not meet Defense Department attire or haircut standards, Defense Deputy Secretary William J. Lynn III told a group of Facebookers at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., on Wednesday that he viewed the two cultures as congruent.

In a sign that social media has been embraced by an at-first-reluctant Defense Department, Lynn told the employees, "You're very much a part of our world." He then added, "We're also very much a part of your world. We use social media just as other organizations do. It's a critical element for us."

Lynn is visiting Silicon Valley companies on his road trip, and he told Facebook workers that Defense needs a few good force-multiplier ideas from commercial pioneers.

Who would have thunk that a top Defense official would view Facebook and its technology as a force multiplier?

Source: Nextgov.
Link: http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2010/04/defense_facebook_one_in_the_same.php.

CENSORSHIP. Social network Facebook removes page of Taliban and al-Zawahiri

26 April 2010

According to democratic west media, the administration of social network Facebook has removed two pages of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and one page of al-Zawahiri as stabilization of democracy and unification; political views and ideology expressed there do not correspond to a prescribed and ordered people to think way in mature democracy.

Facebook administration did not report how to combine their ongoing censorship and repressions against dissenters with rights to freedom of speech recorded in so called "Democratic constitutions".

Videos of military operations of mujahedeen against the Western invaders in Afghanistan were posted on al-Zawahiri's page.

Western media reported that the page of al-Zawahiri could be opened through the site of IEA "The voice of Jihad", but it is turned off everywhere, apparently in order of further democratization of Western society.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/04/26/11957.shtml.

Google takes on Facebook and Twitter with new Gmail Buzz

San Francisco - Google on Tuesday launched a set of social networking tools for Gmail users, hoping to coax them to share photos, links and status updates without the need to visit sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Called Google Buzz, the new features were rolled out to a small number of Gmail account holders Tuesday and to the majority of users within the week.

It allows users to share photos, videos, web links, conversations with "friends" - defined as pre-existing Gmail contacts. Google said it may open Buzz up to outside users in the future.

The shared information goes into a special Buzz section of Gmail and also appears on Google's profile pages.

Google also launched special mobile phone apps for Buzz for Apple's iPhone and for smartphones powered by its own Android operating system.

Analysts said the move by Google was designed primarily to head off Facebook's advantage in the huge amounts of user data that it has amassed and which is highly attractive to advertisers.

Gmail has 167 million users, compared to Facebook's 400 million members.

"Our belief is that organizing the social information on the web - finding relevance in the noise - has become a large-scale challenge, one that Google's experience in organizing information can help solve," said Buzz project manager Todd Jackson.

"There's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/308377,google-takes-on-facebook-and-twitter-with-new-gmail-buzz.html.