A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: Facebook

May 09 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Court: No 1st Amendment protection for Facebook ‘like’

Court: No 1st Amendment protection for Facebook ‘like’

The AP:

Exactly what a “like” means — if anything — played a part in a case in Virginia involving six people who say Hampton Sheriff B.J. Roberts fired them for supporting an opponent in his 2009 re-election bid, which he won. The workers sued, saying their First Amendment rights were violated.

…

While public employees are allowed to speak as citizens on matters of public concern, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson ruled that clicking the “like” button does not amount to expressive speech. In other words, it’s not the same as writing out a message and posting it on the site.

I think I agree with Eugene Volokh’s disagreement with the ruling later in the article, but this is really quite new territory.

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Mar 11 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Facebook ‘friend’ offer exposes man’s other wife

Facebook ‘friend’ offer exposes man’s other wife

Manuel Valdes, AP:

Facebook’s automatic efforts to connect users through “friends” they may know recently led two Washington women to find out they were married to the same man, at the same time. That led to the man, corrections officer Alan L. O’Neill, being slapped with bigamy charges.

According to charging documents filed Thursday, O’Neill married a woman in 2001, moved out in 2009, changed his name and remarried without divorcing her. The first wife first noticed O’Neill had moved on to another woman when Facebook suggested the friendship connection to wife No. 2 under the “People You May Know” feature.

“Wife No. 1 went to wife No. 2’s page and saw a picture of her and her husband with a wedding cake,” Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told The Associated Press.

Wife No. 1 then called the defendant’s mother.

There’s a lot more to the story, but I’m ending the quote at this point because this is how it ran in yesterday’s paper. I’m not sure why the editors chose to cut it off at that exact point, but it was a hilarious place to do so.

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Jun 10 2011
Mark Twain, probably

French media tweet and poke ban

French media tweet and poke ban

French TV and radio presenters have been banned from mentioning social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter on air.

The country’s broadcasting watchdog has ruled that doing so would break guidelines on advertising.

Stations can still talk about services without naming them, it said.

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In a ruling, published online, the Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA), said: “Referring viewers or listeners to the page of the social network without mentioning it has the character of information.

“Whereas the referral by naming the social network in question has the character of advertising, contrary to the provisions of Article 9 of the decree of 27 March 1992 forbidding covert advertising.”

Crack reporting from the BBC’s Department of Things You Can’t Make Up.

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