Social media websites in United States are almost half a decade old now and the statistics that broke news lately proves that social media websites have beaten porn in terms of traffic. The distance between the porn sites and social networks has remained steady over this time, despite a number of innovations by the former which are intended to attract visitors.

Similar results were presented by Hitwise, a UK-based web analysis platform which spotted that the average British web surfer spend more time on social media websites than on porn sites. According to the netcraft.com 2011 report of “Most visited websites” or the report of toptenreview.com, all social media websites are in the top 10, leaving porn behind in the competition.

The popularity of adult films cannot be denied as a form of entertainment. According to cnbc.com the porn business is so big that every second: $3,075 is spent on it, more than 28,000 internet users are viewing it and 372 internet users are using search engines to find it. Online, porn sites make up about 12% of all sites, taking in approximately $2.4 billion a year.

Developments in porn distribution includes credit card sales, web video and driving up the development of such technologies as 3D TV. According to David Amerland, a British NUJ journalist, editor and author of the best-selling “SEO Help: 20 steps to get your website to Google’s #1 page”, the main drive behind the consumption of porn online has to do with deep-rooted feelings of isolation and loneliness.

There is an explanation on the Toptenreview.com 2011 report of ‘Most Popular Websites’ why social networks are so popular:

Through social networking, people can use networks of online friends and group memberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends or create real–life friendships through similar interests or groups.

Besides establishing important social relationships, social networking members can share their interests with other like–minded members by joining groups and forums. Some networking can also help members find a job or establish business contacts. Most social networking websites also offer additional features.

In addition to blogs and forums, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video sections. Members can read bios of their favorite music artists from the artist’s profile page as well as listen to their favorite songs and watch music videos. The video section can include everything from member–generated videos from hundreds of subjects to TV clips and movie trailers.

Amerland expresses a similar opinion on socialmediatoday.com. He noticed that social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are personally invested and built online interaction. They are there to fulfill a human need to connect with new people, retaining friendshops, finding partners and lead a digital lifestyle.

He also noted that ECG studies of subjects carried out while accessing porn and social networks has shown that many of the same areas of the brain light up while visiting these websites. It suggests that the same form of addictive and compulsive behavior arises whether it be from adult films or social media platforms.

On August 15, 2011 the American Society of Addiction Medicine issued a public statement defining all addiction in terms of brain changes. “Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry.” Porn addiction is included on the list. Should we ask the question, when will social media addiction appear in this ranking?

The article Who Needs Porn When We Have Social Media? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Anonymous has been very active, posting videos via Youtube in order to attain a more just and positive world. All viral campaigns are aimed to encourage people to step up and make a difference in today’s unequal society.

On July 16, Internet hacking group Anonymous released a two-minute long video, plotting against Facebook. Their bone to pick with Facebook is its deception of users, regarding privacy on Facebook.

Facebook has legally maneuvered its terms and conditions so that it allows them to sell users’ private information with consent. Facebook has records of users’ logs and has access to said information, which is a breach of privacy. They know more about users than the people we come into contact with every day.

In order to send a message to Facebook and its users, as a result of its misappropriation of rights, Anonymous announced that on November 5 Facebook will illegally be shut down. The name Guy Fawkes was a trending topic on Twitter on August 10.

This date was not chosen at random; it is connected with their identity and is the idea behind the mask. The idea was inspired by Guy Fawkes, a man who is known for taking part in a failed plot to bring down King James in 1605.

Recent updates show that members of Anonymous are in a sort of civil war; the entire group is not in agreement with the idea of bringing Facebook down. In a Twitter post they say “#OpFacebook is being organized by some Anons.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that all of #anonymous agrees with it.” The message of the campaign is to bring awareness to the lack of privacy Facebook grants users when they agree to its terms and conditions upon joining.

Anonymous is not enthused about the gross violation of privacy put upon people, in order to provide advertisers with personal information, which makes the spamming of pages possible.

The message spread so quick that it inspired them to release a new video pertaining to the London riots that took place earlier this month. The operation is known as Operation Britain. The message was to motivate protestors to speak up for their rights on October 15 and to resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner.

They do not condone “thuggery” but support the reasoning for the actions that took place in London. In their message they say “The riots that we have witnessed over the last week, whilst violent and misguided are a product of decades of neglect inflicted on your country by various governments.

We do not condone mindless thuggery, but that does not stop us from seeing the reality behind it,”

Later in the video, Anonymous said, “Saturday October 15, 2011 will be your opportunity for rebellion. We call on Britain to unite and organise peacefully. Unions, anti-cuts groups, community organisations, students, activists, citizens: you know your political system is not fit for purpose,”

There is no definitive answer as to whether what Anonymous is doing is right

The article OpFacebook: Anonymous To Kill Facebook on November 5 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Recently Facebook Inc. has been working with the state of California concerning incarcerated prisoners who were illegally updating Facebook pages through the use of contraband cell phones and friends outside the prison.

Facebook has agreed to take down the Facebook page of any prisoner who has had his or her account updated either by that individual or by friends outside the prison. Any prisoner who had an existing account prior to being incarcerated will not have their pages deleted.

Prisons do not allow inmates to have cell phones, but, according to the NY Times January 2, 2011 article on the subject, they are often able to obtain these devices by bribing prison guards with up to $1,000 for a single phone.

While visitors are searched both on the way in and out of the prison, guards are not subject to the same searches. Currently, if a guard is found smuggling contraband into the prisoners, the guard is usually fired but no criminal charges are brought.

This has led Senator Alex Padilla to try to have Bill 26 passed in the next few weeks. If it is signed into law, it would make any corrections officer or civilian that provides a prisoner with a cell phone a crime punishable with up to a $5,000 fine and up to six months in jail. Additionally, the inmate who is found with the device would lose “non-restorable loss of time credit.”

This would increase the amount of time the inmate has to spend in prison before he can get out early on good behavior.  If the cell phone was involved in any crime that was committed, an additional 2-5 years would be added to the individual’s sentence.

The main motivation for prohibiting inmates from being able to maintain their Facebook accounts is to prevent continuing criminal activity and to protect any possible past victims from being contacted or stalked by their perpetrator.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) recently explained in their periodic newsletter on August 8 that a California inmate had sent accurate, up to date drawings of one of his victims to her home. He had been convicted of child abuse involving the victim seven years prior when the victim was ten years of age.

It was later determined that he had illegally acquired a phone with internet access and used the device to view his victim’s Facebook and Myspace pages, and then used the photos for his drawings.

This problem with prisoners illegally accessing the internet while incarcerated has only become a serious problem in the last few years. The CDCR newsletter reported that while in 2006 only 261 contraband phones were found in the possession of inmates, in 2010 that number jumped to over 7,284.

The increase in the availability and speed of portable internet through the use of smart phones is what has led the CDCR to elicit help from Facebook Inc. This intended to limit the criminal activity that is occurring within the prison system while they work to reduce the number of cell phones that fall into the hands of the incarcerated.

If you suspect that a Facebook account is being updated by an inmate or another person on behalf of the inmate, you can contact the CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights & Services toll free at 1-877-256-OVSS (6877) or e-mail victimservices@cdcr.ca.gov.

The article Facebook Agrees to Take Down Illegal Prisoner Pages appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A huge victory for Facebook after Sanford Wallace, 43, surrendered himself to the FBI after facing lawsuits with Facebook announced Attorney Melina Huaag  on August 4.

Wallace will be looking at 40 years in prison and $2 million in fines if found guilty, on six accounts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt on the indictment handed down on July 6.

Prosecutors said that the indictment was followed by a two year investigation on the Wallace, also known as “The Spam King”. According to the indictment, Wallace would send phishing messages, which are messages used to deceive people into revealing private information, to trick users into disclosing their password information from their Facebook account.

He would retrieve the information, then log onto their accounts and post spam messages on friends’ walls. After the spam was posted on their respective walls, they would then click on the link and be directed to the websites that paid Wallace for internet trafficking.

This took place between November 2008 and March 2009. The attack compromised 500,000 Facebook accounts and sent 27 million spam messages.

This was not Sanford’s first appearance in the Spamming business; back in 1990 Sanford became Spam’s biggest vocal defender. Cyber Promotions was a company led by Sanford, which sent out about 30 million junk emails a day in the 90’s.

The Federal Trade Commission accused Wallace and his spybot.net company of running an operation that administered spyware and was ordered by the New Hampshire Court Judgment to pay $4 million in fines in 2006 In addition to that court case, Myspace won $230 million in 2008, over junk messages sent to their members, applying the same tactic he utilized on Facebook members.

In 2009, Wallace was restricted from accessing any social networking site, after being sued by Facebook for crimes under the CAN-SPAM Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the California Anti-Phishing Act and was facing a hefty fine of $711 million along with an agreement forbidding him from the Spam business.

He violated that restriction and disappeared after his trial to flee from the punishment appointed to him. The charges brought before him today originated from this case two years ago.

Chris Sonderby, a lawyer for Facebook said “We will continue to seek and support the civil and criminal consequences for those who generate spam and others who try to harm Facebook or people who use our service.”

This has generated good feedback from Facebook users, knowing that their accounts will be safe from spammers and that Facebook is doing everything they can for justice.

After posting a $100,000 unsecured bond, Sanford was released. His next appearance in court is scheduled for August 22 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose. Wallace was banned from usage of any social networking sites yet again.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanthatcher/

The article Facebook Spam: Sanford Wallace Spams Facebook No More appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.