Chris Christie, left, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, center, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, talk about the donation at an “Education Nation” Summit in New York last year (AP Photo/Richard Drew).

No good deed comes unpunished, right? The ACLU today filed a lawsuit [PDF] against pretty much everyone in Newark (not to mention Governor Chris Christie) to get to the bottom of Mark Zuckerberg’s not-at-all-suspicious $100 million donation to the city’s school system last year. They don’t want to stop the donation, they just want to find out how it came to be, and the Newark is not making that easy. Essentially the suit seems to come down to the question “whose leg do you have to hump to get some transparency here?”

The ACLU’s motion comes on behalf of the 30-year-old Newark advocacy group The Secondary Parent Council which, since April 5, has been trying to get copies of communications regarding the massive donation from everyone including Mayor Cory Booker, Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, former education commissioner Bret Schundler, deputy commissioner Rochelle Hendricks, the Newark City Council and members of the state legislature. At first the City Clerks office seemed to be okay with the request, though they thought it would take a bit, but then they weren’t.

After numerous requests (and promises from the Clerks office that the communications were forthcoming) the city suddenly changed its mind on July 12 and told the SPC that “a Custodian has no legal duty to conduct research to locate records potentially responsive to the Complainant’s request.” Further they say that Booker’s involvement in securing the donation “were not made in the course of the Mayor’s official duties and are therefore exempt from disclosure under OPRA [the Open Public Records Act]” and even if it were the city says he is protected by executive privilege (how Cheney!). Needless to say neither the SPC or the ACLU liked that. So they’ve decided to sue.

“As parents, as taxpayers and as citizens, we have a need and right to know how the money pledged to Newark’s public schools will ultimately serve Newark’s public school students,” Laura Baker, who filed the open records request as a representative of the SPC and has a granddaughter in Newark public schools, said in a statement.

The motion filed today argues that the SPC (and taxpayers in general) “have a strong interest in ensuring that the appropriate public officials, rather than private individuals, decide how to allocate the donated funds; or alternatively, an interest in knowing to what extent the private provenance of these funds affects the allocation of decisions.”

  Facebook has reinstated the posting rights of several activists after the company’s spam filter incorrectly blocked their access to the site.

The affected users received an apology email from Facebook, which denied that the individuals’ accounts were blocked because of their views.

“Your account was mistakenly blocked from posting on Pages,” the email read. “These systems aren’t directed at any particular cause or point of view. However, no system is perfect, and ours occasionally make mistakes. We’re investigating the system that caused the block and making changes to help prevent future errors.”

The blocked users included Pittsburgh-based Gloria Forouzan, who has actively protested natural gas drilling, according to the AP, which first broke the story. She and others frequently posted on the Facebook Page for Gasland, an Academy Award-nominated documentary that the AP said has become a gathering point for opponents of natural gas drilling.

In a statement, Facebook said the account suspensions were a mistake and denied any political motivations.

“Facebook is not—and has never been—in the business of disabling accounts or removing content simply because people are discussing controversial topics. On the contrary, we want Facebook to be a place where people can openly express their views and opinions, even if others don’t agree with them,” Facebook said. “It’s also incorrect to assume that in every case where a person’s account is disabled, or a piece of content is blocked or removed, it’s because of the nature of the content itself.”

Facebook bans certain content, like nudity, pornography, hate speech, and threats of violence, but “sensitive topics are not against our policies,” the site said. If Facebook does pull something, it’s usually for one of two reasons: Facebook has received a complaint, reviewed the content, and deemed it inappropriate; or it was flagged by an automated system that monitors spam and other annoying behavior.

“Examples of behavior that might be flagged include having a high percentage of friend requests ignored or marked as spam, or sending lots of friend requests or messages to members of the opposite sex who are not your friends,” Facebook said. “We’re constantly building and refining these systems to protect the people who use Facebook. Of course, no system is perfect, and ours occasionally make mistakes. When this happens, we work quickly to fix it and learn from it, and to apologize to those affected.”

Facebook tackled this subject in a late June blog post, in which it said it was working on ways to improve spam and abuse warnings.

“Using information from your reports and what we know about how the average person uses Facebook, we’ve identified certain common patterns of unacceptable behavior,” the company said at the time. “We can’t share all of the details of how these systems work because if we did, the spammers might try to get around them. However, they’re designed to automatically detect suspicious behavior, block it and warn the person who’s engaging in it to slow down.”

This is not the first time Facebook has been accused of censoring specific topics. Critics have said the site was guilty of “stifling criticism of director Roman Polanski over his sexual abuse charges [and] curbing support for ending U.S. travel restrictions on Cuba to blocking opponents of same-sex marriage”; charges Facebook denied.

 

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

 

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Facebook Activists

Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook Spam Filter

Facebook And YouTube:What do you do when you’re already the number one website for sharing photos? Go after videos. In a report released today by online measurement firm comScore, Facebook ranked as the third largest website for viewing videos online in the month of July, with Google Sites and Vevo ranking as the first and second largest.

With more than 51 million unique video views in July, Facebook beat out popular video sites like Microsoft, Viacom, Yahoo and even Hulu, the online video streaming site that has had supposed interest from Google. Google Sites, which includes the Google-owned YouTube, ranked as the top video viewing site with close to 160 million views. Just ahead of Facebook was Vevo, a site for watching music videos that secured more than 62 million unique views.

Interestingly, while Facebook ranked third on this chart, it still has a lot of catching up to do in terms of the amount of time each viewer spends on the site watching videos. The company averaged 17.9 minutes per viewer, while Vevo almost tripled that with 66 minutes and Google Sites had a whopping 353.7 minutes. The difference makes sense because YouTube and Vevo revolve around video as their main content, while Facebook features multiple types of media, including photos.

Another report by comScore shows Facebook growing in unique website visits for July with more than 162 million — that’s an increase of almost 2 million from June and another 3 million from May. However, the very sites Facebook beat out in video are still at the top of the charts for website traffic, including Yahoo and Microsoft.

Next Story: Miramax launches app for watching movies on Facebook
Previous Story: Are daily deals a bubble or just the new kid at school?

 

 

Tags: unique views, video, video players

Companies: Facebook, Google, VEVO, Youtube

Facebook And YouTube

Facebook And Yahoo

Facebook And Google Sites

Facebook And Movies

Facebook Could Get Teachers Fired

A Missouri public schoolteacher is seeking to stop a state law limiting teachers’ contact with students on social networks, calling it unconstitutional and a violation of protected free speech rights.

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The prohibitions against online use are part of a broader law seeking to protect children from sexual predators in the classroom.

The law, formally titled the “Amy Hestir Student Protection Act,” was signed by Gov. Jay Nixon July 14 and goes into effect Aug. 28. It forces school districts to draft a policy by Jan. 1, 2012 that, among other protections, prohibits teachers from entering private communication with students and former school-age students via Facebook and other social networks.

RELATED: Will Missouri ‘Facebook Law’ spook teachers away from social media?

In her class action complaint filed in federal court, teacher Christina Thomas is seeking a temporary injunction against the law, saying it violates her free speech rights protected by the first and 14^th amendments.

So This Facebook Law Can Also Include The Teachers’ Children?

Although the law was intended to guard students against sexual predators, Ms. Thomas says it “is unconstitutionally vague in that it fails to provide people of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct it prohibits, authorizes, or encourages.” She says the law is unnecessarily broad and even puts teachers in jeopardy when using social networks to communicate with their own school-age children.

Facebook Law Challenged  By The US Court

The Missouri Teachers Association is also challenging the law on similar grounds. The organization’s separate complaint, filed in state court Friday, calls the law “so vague and overbroad” that lawmakers “cannot know with confidence what conduct is permitted and what is prohibited and thereby ‘chills’ the exercise of first amendment rights of speech, association, religion, collective bargaining and other constitutional rights by school teachers.”

Sen. Jane Cunningham (R), who sponsored the bill, defends the law, saying it “in no way stops communication with students.” The law says teachers can only communicate online with students if the website “is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian.”

Anthony Rothert, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, which is representing Thomas, says his client was alarmed after she learned her school district would impose disciplinary action against teachers if it discovered teachers were using Facebook even when communicating with their own children or others of school-age involved in outside school activities such as Sunday school class, athletic teams, or Scout troops. Mr. Rothert says Thomas has three school-age children of her own.

“She’s facing the choice of either defying what she was told by her employer or refraining from doing it even though she might not be caught,” Rothert says. Either way, “both of those constitute enough of an injury under the first amendment to get relief.”

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By Geoffrey A. Fowler

Starting on Thursday, Facebook users will find a slew of new options to manage who gets to see what they share on the site.

Facebook

Experienced Facebook users will likely notice that many of the privacy and sharing settings that used to be buried on settings pages have been brought up front, to the home page and profile page.

In advance of a planned roll-out on Thusday, Facebook has begun publishing a series of pages on the site to educate users on the changes.

Here are a few things to note:

–Every time you publish on Facebook, you’ll find a box that gives you control over which sorts of friends will get to see it. Facebook calls this the “inline audience selector.” This might be familiar to users of Google+, who have the power to select “circles” for sharing right next to where they post.

–You can now share your location as part of any Facebook post, even if you’re not doing it from a smartphone. You can identify the location yourself, or if you’re working from a PC or laptop, Facebook will make a suggestion for where it thinks you are. You can turn this off or on.

–You can now change the sharing settings for your own post after it has been published. Previously, you could only select who saw your post when you first published it.

–You now have more power over being tagged by other users in photos or other posts. This can keep embarassing photos from appearing on your own profile page. But to exercise this feature, called “profile review,” you will have to go into the “manage how tags work” section of your privacy settings to turn it on. It appears this is turned off by default.

–You no longer have to be someone’s Facebook friend to be tagged by him or her. Now any Facebook user can be tagged in a photo–but, if you’ve got the new “profile review” turned on, you can exercise control over tags. If you are tagged by a non-friend, regardless of if you have it the review feature turned on, you will have to approve it before it posts.

–If there’s somebody you really don’t like, you can not only choose to not be their Facebook friend, but you can also block them entirely. Blocking somebody means they can never tag you again, and that all of your past mutual interactions will disappear. Should you change your mind later, you can unblock–but all of your past mutual interactions on Facebook are gone forever.

Readers, what do you think of the changes?

 

Part of the current Facebook campus in Menlo Park, Calif., where employees are starting to move in.

(Credit:
Tom Krazit/CNET)

Facebook is outdoing itself.

The world’s leading social network topped out at 162 million monthly unique visitors in July–a record high–and it’s now the third largest video-sharing site in the United States, just behind Vevo (No. 2) and YouTube (No. 1), according to ComScore’s newest data.

With this type of surging growth, no wonder Facebook needs new digs.

Today it was revealed in the San Jose Mercury News that a second Facebook campus is in the works, even as employees are just starting to migrate from the company’s current location in Palo Alto, Calif., to a sprawling new headquarters in nearby Menlo Park. The 57-acre site, previously occupied by Sun Microsystems, is currently approved to house up to 3,600 Facebook employees. But Facebook is hoping to get eventual approval from the city to house more than 9,000 employees, according to the report.

The new 22-acre campus, the Mercury News reports, would be located just southwest of the main campus and could accommodate 2,800 additional staffers. Construction is slated for early 2013.

“While the locations of the buildings and the related infrastructure have been outlined, we are still working on the final design and are excited about the potential for the site,” a Facebook representative said.

“They’re not going to grow to 9,600 people overnight, but if they want to get to that size in the next couple of years you have to start planning things now,” said a person familiar with the company. “Given the players going after Facebook, they want to be ready if they need to grow.”

  The author of a bill that has triggered lawsuits and confusion
over online communication between teachers and students now is
willing to work through what she describes as ambiguity in the
legislation.

Staffers for Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, said Tuesday
they will sit down with representatives of a leading state teachers
union to review provisions that some say could effectively stop the
use of Facebook between teachers and students.

But it’s unclear whether both sides can secure a quick
remedy.

The negotiations come just days before the controversial bill is
scheduled to take effect on Sunday. Critics say it would have
widespread consequences, potentially cutting off even the most
innocent online exchanges between teachers and students, such as
questions about homework assignments or an upcoming athletic
practice.

The Missouri National Education Association and Cunningham’s
office say they want to work together on a cleanup bill that would
disarm a dispute attracting national attention. The two sides hope
the matter can be taken up as early as next month, when the
Legislature convenes a special session.

“We don’t feel as though (the bill) was a mistake, we just want
to remove any ambiguity,” said Kit Crancer, chief of staff for
Cunningham.

But it’s likely up to Gov. Jay Nixon to determine whether the
session should take on the issue.

On Monday, Nixon ordered the Legislature to return to the
Capitol in September for a special session. His order limits their
work to a certain list of topics, such as local control of the St.
Louis Police Department. The governor has the authority to call for
a special legislative session and define its scope. The Legislature
has similar power but only with the approval of three-fourths of
its members.

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste issued a statement Tuesday
emphasizing Nixon’s desire to keep a tight focus on the
proceedings.

“We must have a crisp, efficient session, and that is why the
governor included those items he did in his call,” Holste said in
an email, without elaborating.

The teacher legislation — known as the Amy Hestir Student
Protection Act — was named after a woman who said she was sexually
abused as a young girl by a teacher. The law includes a measure
that says districts must develop policies by Jan. 1 about
electronic communication between teachers and students.

Some districts say the law will make it illegal for teachers to
include students among their Facebook friends, including their own
children.

That is a misinterpretation, Crancer said. Because of the
confusion, a cleanup bill may be needed, he said.

Otto Fajen, legislative director for Missouri NEA, said that by
acting during the September special session, lawmakers would have a
chance to clarify the issue before school boards are required to
adopt policies in January.

“If the education community and sponsor of the original
legislation can find a common sense solution,” he said, “we will
formally ask the governor to consider the legislation for a special
session.”

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern
Missouri has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Ladue
teacher Christina Thomas and others who say the new law is broad,
vague and violates First Amendment rights.

Anthony Rothert, an ACLU attorney, said dozens of teachers from
several districts have called his office with concerns about the
new law.

Last week, the Missouri State Teachers Association filed its own
lawsuit fighting the new regulation. The association asked a judge
in Cole County Circuit Court to stop the social media part of the
law from going into effect until the constitutionality can be
determined.

 

About 1.5 million active users are already creating mischief and mayhem with the Facebook debut of Electronic Arts‘ award-winning, life simulating game “The Sims Social” on Facebook.

EA has a deep history in Facebook gaming, and “The Sims Social” joins the powerful Sims brand, which has sold 140 million units since its launch 10 years ago,with translations into 22 different languages in 60 different countries.

Sims games allow players to create and live a virtual, simulated life on a computer.

Players create their Sims, or computer personalities, in any likeness they choose and experience every aspect of their Sims’ social lives, including building a variety of relationships with their real Facebook friends.

With “The Sims Social,” the fun begins when players are presented with challenges, such as forming romantic attachments, flirting, joking or getting married.

They can build dream homes, take showers together, or play pranks on each other.

The challenges are designed to create embarrassing, funny or tension-filled interactions between you and your Facebook friends through news feed updates or wall posts.

The game has been available in five languages and recently won the 2011 Best Browser Game Award from Gamescom.

“The Sims Social” app is free and available from the brand’s Facebook page.  The game also has a fan page that boasts more than 7 million likes to date.

EA’s Play Label teamed up with Playfish, its social games division, to develop the game marking the first collaboration between the two groups.

John Earner, general manager of Playfish’s London Studio, said in a press release that the collaboration paid off with unique new features.

When we created “The Sims Social,” it was important for us to incorporate the deep gameplay nuances The Sims Studio has perfected and leverage what Playfish does best –- develop compelling, cutting-edge social-gaming experiences,Our deep knowledge of the Facebook gaming platform enables us to continue to enable dynamic new features, quests and game updates on a regular basis so “The Sims Social” remains fresh and fun.

Readers, what do you think of “The Sims Social?”