Rutgers student kills himself after two classmates posted video of his sex life on Internet

From: http://wireupdate.com/wires/10735/rutgers-student-kills-himself-after-two-classmates-posted-video-of-his-sex-life-on-internet/

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) – A Rutgers University student on Wednesday killed himself after two classmates filmed and then posted a video of his sex life on the Internet, the New York Daily News reported.

Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers, left his wallet on the George Washington Bridge before jumping to his death in the Hudson River after his sexual preferences were shown in the Internet video.

Clementi, 18, wrote a goodbye message on his Facebook page before committing suicide. His last post, dated September 22 at 8.42 p.m. EDT read: "Jumping of the gw (George Washington) bridge sorry." At least two people saw him standing on the south side of the bridge at around 8.50 p.m. EDT.

"Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words. They respectfully request that they be given time to grieve their great loss and that their privacy at this painful time be respected by all," Paul Mainardi, the family attorney, said.

Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei were arrested on Tuesday on cyber-voyeurism charges for streaming Clementi's sexual encounter on the Internet. Ravi posted on Twitter a message that read "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

The Twitter post was made on September 19, mere days before Clementi's suicide. Ravi and Molly, both aged 18, were charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy. Ravi was also charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for trying to arrange the airing of a second session on September 21.

The pair faces up to five years in prison per count. The two students were on the Piscataway campus less than a month before their arrests.

A Facebook memorial group created in honor of Clementi already has hundreds of members, many of whom are fellow graduates of Ridgewood High School in New Jersey where Clementi graduated last spring.

Facebook Becoming Passe Already: Social Network Content Creation Has Plateaued

From: http://mashable.com/2010/09/28/forrester-social-technographics/

With 500 million people using Facebook and Twitter seeing more thantwo billion tweets per month, one would assume that social media usage is skyrocketing. New research from Forrester suggests that while participation is on the rise, actual content creation may not be.

Forrester’s Social Technographics Profile analyzes consumer social behaviors and trends on an annual basis. Forrester classifies social network users by type: Creators, Conversationalists, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives. In the past year, their research shows no measurable growth in the Creators category — the audience that creates social content.

In the U.S., the Creator audience has actually dipped a percentage point from 24% in 2009 to 23% in 2010. Japan was the only country measured to show a rise in Creators, growing from 34% to 36% in the past year.

When it comes to social media, it would seem then that the average user feels most at home taking more passive actions, and that a majority of content creation is primarily limited to the existing content creator crowd. As Forrester reports, “One-third of online consumers in the U.S. regularly watch user-generated videos on sites like YouTube. But only 10% of U.S. online consumers upload videos they’ve created to public sites.”

Still, social networking is on the rise, according to Forrester. In the Joiners category (those that join social networks), most countries surveyed saw significant increases, including the U.S., which jumped from 51% to 59% between 2009 and 2010.

The Reading Rack: 'The Face of Facebook'

From: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/26/3057002/the-reading-rack-the-face-of-facebook.html

Published: Sunday, Sep. 26, 2010 

'The Face of Facebook'

The New Yorker, Sept. 20

Why does anyone post any personal information on their Facebook page?

After reading The New Yorker's recent profile of Facebook founder and Mark Zuckerberg, that question looms large.

Writer Jose Antonio Vargas digs deep into Zuckerberg's early exchanges in creating Facebook and comes up with this set of text messages while the wunderkind was at Harvard:

Zuck: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: just ask

Zuck: i have over 4000 emails, pictures addresses, sns

Friend: what? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: people just submitted it

Zuck: I don't know why

Zuck: they "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb f---s

Wow. That really makes me eager to share my life on Facebook. With friends like "Zuck," why is J. Edgar Hoover not on my friends list?

There are many times I fear The New Yorker is losing its edge, but Vargas' deep profile of Zuck is a compelling read. Much has been written about Zuckerberg, including a book, "The Accidental Billionaires," by Ben Mezrich. There's also a movie coming out in October about Zuck, written by Aaron Sorkin, titled "The Social Network."

Yet Vargas' piece is notable for his sweep, its intimacy and its fairness to Zuckerberg. Reading it, you get a sense of how Zuck uses Facebook to keep up with friends and colleagues, often disclosing revealing details about himself, such as the fact he likes to roast goats.

"Zuckerberg may seem like an over-sharer in the age of oversharing. But that's kind of the point," Vargas writes.

You'll also learn what Zuckerberg – dubbed "our new Caesar" by Vanity Fair recently – has in store for the future. These include new platforms that allow Facebook users to get recommendations on books, hotels, restaurants, movies and other entertainment based on recommendations by friends and others – kind of a Zagat guide put together by your best buddies.

Like so much on Facebook, this sounds irresistible – perhaps too much so. "Zuckerberg's ultimate goal is to create and dominate a different kind of Internet," Vargas writes.

Why would Internet users allow him to do this? As Zuck puts it, "They trust me."

– Stuart Leavenworth

Facebook, Twitter ask consumers to protect themselves

From: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/09/facebook-twitter-follow-banks-in-relying-on-consumers-to-protect-themeselves--/1

Sep 26, 2010

Want to socialize and bank safely online? Be prepared to be your own best bodyguard.

With self-replicating spamming wormsproliferating on popular social sites, officials at Facebook and Twitter say they've come to rely heavily on users to help them police postings. This follows a trend set by the banking industry, which now relies heavily on customers to keep themselves safe while banking online.

"To combat these threats, we need people to practice safe behavior online," says Facebook spokesman Simon Axten. "We advise people to be suspicious of anything that looks or feels strange – whether it's an unfamiliar link in a message from a friend who hasn't contacted you in a while, or a promise of something valuable if you take a certain action or provide personal information."

Twitter spokesman Sean Garrett warns users to be particularly wary of Tweets that lead you to services promising to gain you a ton of followers quickly. Garrett says you should avoid any pitches that asks you for a payment or requires you to follow a list of other users in order to participate. He highly recommends studying Twitter's extensive usage rules and best practices guidelines listed here.

Some cybersecurity and privacy experts believe Twitter and Facebook could be doing a lot more to make their respective services safer. "Twitter and Facebook, with their huge subscriber bases, appear to introduce new features and updates with out much beta testing," says Andy Hayter, a manager at tech security testing firm ICSA Labs. "Their reliance on releasing new features to the entire community, to be vetted in real time, has led to many security holes and privacy loopholes."

By Byron Acohido

"Harassment-by-Facebook" Case - Woman sues debt collector for contacting her family via Facebook

From: http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/article1123939.ece

By Curtis Krueger, Times Staff Writer 
In Print: Saturday, September 25, 2010

Melanie Beacham is on Facebook, the social networking site "that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them."

Unfortunately for her, those "others" include bill collectors.

Beacham, 34, of St. Petersburg, said she already had called her car finance company last summer to let people know she was on medical leave from her job, and getting a little behind on payments.

The company not only called her repeatedly to get her to pay up, she says, but it also looked at her Facebook page and found her sister and cousin.

Then the company sent Facebook messages to them, which worried the two, which led them to talk to other relatives, who got even more worried, she said.

"It was very stressful, it still is very stressful," said Beacham. "It was humiliating."

Beacham is suing Mark One Financial of Jacksonville seeking damages, and also seeking to prevent it from contacting "any friends and family members of the plaintiff, through Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking sites."

Bruce Newmark, managing director of Mark One, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Beacham's attorney, Billy Howard, said this is the first harassment-by-Facebook case he's come upon. But in a social networking age, he expects to find more.

"I've never seen a case like this, but it's no surprise because debt collectors are like any other business, they change according to their environment."

Kelli Burns, assistant professor of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida, said the incident "shows the dirty side of social networking. It really shows that it's not all about having fun and connecting with your friends."

Burns said college students have gotten the message that they shouldn't post prankish pictures of themselves online, because one day a potential employer might run across them. But people still need to remember that posting personal information opens it to all kinds of people.

For example, she said, Facebook lets people post their birthdays and list their relatives. But birthdays and mothers' maiden names often become online passwords, which you want to keep private.

Beacham said her problem began this summer when she took a medical leave from her job as an assistant in a chiropractor's office. That put her a little behind on her $361.95 monthly payments on her 2006 Chrysler Sebring. She missed one payment and was going into the second when she called the company to alert them, she said.

The lawsuit says the company began calling her six to 10 times a day, and she said they once called her 35 times in a single day.

"That's the invasion of privacy," her attorney, Howard, said. Under Florida law, he said, "You cannot communicate or contact anybody with such frequency as to be considered harassing."

Howard handles debt collection complaints for the "consumer protection division" of the Morgan & Morgan law firm. He said he looks at more than 100 such complaints every week, and "we handle hundreds of cases in litigation at a time." He said the weak economy has aggravated the situation.

The person who contacted Beacham's relatives on Facebook used the name "Jeff Happenstance" and left a phone number for the company, according to the lawsuit. Another time, someone texted her, urging her to call "Supervisor Dufffus."

Debt collectors are allowed to contact relatives if they are simply trying to find a debtor, said Anne Marie Millet, an investigator with the Pinellas County Department of Justice and Consumer Services. But Beacham said Mark One already was well-aware of how to contact her.

For its part, Facebook rules prohibit using profile information for commercial purposes, including debt collection, said spokesman Barry Schnitt. He said Facebook users can go to the "Block people" function in the privacy settings to prevent unwanted contacts, and they also can press the "Report" link at various places around the site to report abuses.

Beacham said she got so upset with the calls that she has offered to let Mark One repossess her car, but Mark One has not done so. In the meantime, she said, she is still paying off the car loan, but is still a month behind.

"I feel like I was harassed," she said. "I feel like I was treated unfairly. … Nobody should be treated by anyone the way they treated me."

Curtis Krueger can be reached at ckrueger@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8232.

Facebook outage spotlights social media addiction

From: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9187900/Facebook_outage_spotlights_social_media_addiction

By Sharon Gaudin

September 24, 2010

Frustrated Facebook users find themselves jonesing for updates when site crashes

Computerworld - After Facebook went down on Thursday, one thing was certain: People don't like to go without their favorite social networking site.

Industry watchers say Facebook users suffering through the two-and-a-half-hour outage were like drug addicts going through withdrawal. Facebook's more than 500 million users have grown accustomed to sharing updates about their cats and colleagues, and posting funny pictures of drunken friends and kids acting silly. They certainly don't like it when the social networking site goes down.

"This shows how integrated these tools have become to our everyday lives," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. "It has become nearly an addiction, and it is difficult for most of us to turn them off. Social networks have a status aspect to them, and we are hardwired to need status so they are very easy to become addicted to."

While Enderle said sites like Facebook have "nearly" become an addiction, others go even further.

This past summer, a report from The Oxygen Media Insights Group, which is part of a company that focuses on Web sites for women, noted that a majority of the women in a survey said they are addicted to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

More than half (57%) of the women polled said they communicate with people more online than they do face to face, and 39% called themselves Facebook addicts.

And analysts say social media's addictive qualities aren't only catnip for women. Men are also posting, uploading and checking out news feeds throughout the day.

That was evident on Friday, when Facebook suffered its second outage in as many days.

With Facebook offline, frustrated users flocked to vent their frustrations on Twitter and even resorted to e-mail, which has been viewed as retro since the advent of social networking.

One commenter, going by the name Thenar, tweeted, "@facebook You can't be down...it's unthinkable. Life IS FB for too many people. Redundancy is the key, guys. Now get to it."

Someone named BugFrog tweeted, "Congress considering emergency funds to help out Farmville farmers hurt by Facebook outage," while maxxhendriks joked, "Facebook is down! Users are roaming the streets shoving photos in people's faces and screaming "DO YOU LIKE THIS? DO YOU?"

While some users joked that U.S. worker productivity might skyrocket without Facebook, others said that instead of focusing on work, they spent their time complaining about the outage.

"Non-productive! Spent time: Googling problem, Tweeting-complaining," noted dstatler on Twitter.

Augie Ray, an analyst at Forrester Research, said he was in the same boat.

"I'm not sure I was more productive," he told Computerworld. "I used the Facebook outage as an opportunity for humor on Twitter. I tweeted things like, 'I feel so lonely & isolated all of a sudden. I was forced to have an actual face2face conversation with someone! #facebookdown.' And 'Did you know when you talk to a real person, their mouth moves? I'm used to chatting w/ profile pics & avatars! #facebookdown.' OK, I didn't say it was good humor!"

But Ray said the outage, and users' reactions to it, makes clear how connected people are with the site and with the friends and family they communicate with on it.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address issgaudin@computerworld.com.

Read more about Web 2.0 and Web Apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.

'The Social Network' Trailer / Preview

With $7 Billion, Can Zuckerburg Control His Image?

Facebook Users/Losers in a Panic When Site Goes Down

From: http://www.examiner.com/canada-cyber-safety-in-canada/facebook-users-get-their-fix-but-what-was-the-cause

September 24, 2010

Yesterday Facebook fans were in a frenzy when they were unable to reach the social networking site for two and a half hours. Some users complained of slow or intermittent connections, while others could not reach the site at all.

Facebook apologized to its users for what it called the worst outage in 4 years, explaining the reason for the outage as an invalid update they performed to the persistent copy of a configuration value.

You can read the entire statement here.

A conflicting report from ABC news claimed the cause of today's problem had not yet been disclosed but the technology blog TechCrunchnoted that the issue also affected Facebook's "Like" button that lives on Web sites across the Internet. TechCrunch also reported that Facebook Connect and Facebook Platform had also been affected.

Facebook also reported that “Engineers are still working on the problem, but say they do not believe a virus or cyber attack was behind the issue that made the website unaccessible and slow for users Thursday afternoon.”

I found the wording in this statement a bit strange. If the site was back up, the engineers would know exactly what had caused the outage. They neither deny or confirm if a cyber attack or virus was at the root of the problem.

Add to that the conflicting reports from Facebook and the oddities noticed by TechCrunch and something is fishy.

Would an invalid update cause the issues reported by TechCrunch, and why would Facebook be performing updates outside of a scheduled maintenance window? Why wouldn't the engineers know exactly what had caused the problem after they had fixed it?

We can only wait and see how Facebook's PR team decides to spin this one.

Facebook and Bebo child sex abuse postman jailed

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-11403984

24 September 2010 

A postman from Cornwall who used social-networking websites to abuse hundreds of children has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years.

Michael Williams admitted inciting sexual activity, grooming and distributing indecent images.

The 29-year-old, of Tresooth Lane, Penryn, approached children on Facebook and Bebo, Truro Crown Court heard.

He groomed them, asked some to perform sex acts over a webcam and arranged to meet others before abusing them.

The court heard the grooming and abuse took place between 2004 and 2009. He also pleaded guilty to voyeurism and possessing indecent images.

Devon and Cornwall Police have identified about 500 victims but believe hundreds were too scared to come forward and the actual total could be 1,000.

Williams, who admitted 27 charges, was described by police as a "predatory, manipulative and prolific offender".

'Sheer hell'

After creating at least eight fake online profiles, Williams targeted youngsters he met on his post round in his hometown, on school runs as a taxi driver, and in his role as secretary of Falmouth Town Football Club.

He sometimes posed as a teenager online and also dyed his hair different colours to disguise his identity.

He convinced some victims to meet him in parks, on beaches and at his home.

He was dismissed by Royal Mail after his arrest in February.

Det Insp Simon Snell of Devon and Cornwall said that Williams' victims had been "through sheer hell".

He said: "'Corrosive' is probably the best way to describe Michael Williams.

"He preyed on young people. He is dangerous and will remain so until he has had the correct treatment."

He added that Williams's crimes had "completely devastated" people in Penryn.

He said: "To have this kind of activity taking place in their community has been extremely distressing."

Facebook Feud Fuels Road Rage: Michigan Mother Torrie Lynn Emery Charged With Murder

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20017458-504083.html

September 24, 2010 7:37 AM


Posted by Caroline Black

PONTIAC, Mich. (CBS) A 23-year-old Pontiac woman is being charged with second-degree murder after she allegedly let a Facebook argument over a man get the best of her on the road.

Investigators say Torrie Lynn Emery, and 20-year-old Danielle Booth, of Pontiac, Mich., had been arguing on Facebook regarding a love interest; however, the virtual clash turned real-world deadly July 21 when Emery spotted Booth riding in a car driven by another woman, Alesha Abernathy, according to The Detroit Free Press.

Once Emery had them in her sights, her rage took over and she began to pursue them with her vehicle, ramming their car with hers, police told the Free Press.

A Pontiac police detective who witnessed the chase testified last month that both vehicles hit speeds of more than 80 mph.

Their reckless driving caused Abernathy to run a red light and get hit by a truck, killing Abernathy and critically injuring Booth. Booth is still recovering from her injuries, according to the paper.

Emery on the other hand drove away from the crash, but was soon stopped by a detective who discovered the woman's 3-year-old in the car.

Emery is scheduled to be arraigned in Circuit Court Oct. 6 on charges of second-degree murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and child abuse after a judge determined that there was enough evidence for her to stand trial.

According to The Detroit Free Press, the judge denied bond for Emery Wednesday, ordering her to stay in the Oakland County Jail.