Overall of Facebook- Galie Darwich

What is the first thing that it comes to your mind when you hear the word Facebook?...

Facebook have being changing its appearance through out the years. It looks more modern each time and leading its users to experienced the new technology era of the 21^st Century.  Facebook is transforming the way we express and interact with others on the web.  Through Facebook, the opinions of the users can be heard by many people; therefore, making a bigger impact on society.

Facebook users interact with their family and friends worldwide, share photos and opinions, reconnected with old friends and even an old crush.  Also, users can use fun applications, invite their friends to events, “connect across the web with social plugins,” play games and chat with friends (Goodwill Community Foundation).  Also, users can promote their businesses through Facebook (Goodwill Community Foundation).

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/facebook101/1.1

Facebook Court Case Studies & Examples- Charlotte MacKinnon

Ashley Payne, a 24 year old teacher from Georgia, was forced to resign from her teaching job after posting the picture above on her Facebook in 2009.  Payne is holding a glass of wine and a glass of beer in the photograph from a recent trip to Europe.  David McGee, the school principal, claimed that Payne “violated warnings ‘unacceptable online activities’ because the photo ‘promoted alcohol use,’ and her page also ‘contained profanity’” (CBSnews). 

Payne was told a parent of a student complained about Payne’s Facebook content to the principal.  Payne’s Facebook was private and she had never thought any student, parent, or fellow teacher would be looking at her photographs.  Payne was given the choice to either resign or be suspended; Payne chose to resign.  Payne later found out that no parent had called and complained, but that an anonymous email was sent to the principal about her photographs. 

Payne filed suit against the school shortly after resigning.  The Judge of the case later ruled against Payne, claiming that Payne’s writ of mandamus, lacked merit; the main reason was that her contact had already expired.  Georgia law tends to side with the employers in cases where employee resignation is forced (Downey). 

 

Courtney Lucas- Facebook Policy

Your information is the information that's obligated when you sign up for the site, as well as the information you choose to share. When you sign up for Facebook, you are required to provide your name, email address, birthday, and gender. Your information also includes the information you choose to share on Facebook, such as when you post a status update, upload a photo, or comment on a friend's story. Choosing to make your information public is available to anyone, including people off of Facebook. They use the information they receive about you in connection with the services and features provided to you and other users like your friends, advertisers that purchase ads on the site, and the developers that build the games, applications, and websites you use. While you are allowing them to use the information they receive about you, you always own all of your information unless it is for legal purposes. They may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request, like a search warrant, court order or subpoena, if they have a belief that the law requires them to do so.

Amina Smith-privacy

Mark Zuckerberg, 23, founded Facebook while studying psychology at Harvard University. A keen computer programmer, Mr Zuckerberg had already developed a number of social-networking websites for fellow students, including Coursematch, which allowed users to view people taking their degree, and Facemash, where you could rate people's attractiveness.

In February 2004 Mr Zuckerberg launched "The facebook", as it was originally known; the name taken from the sheets of paper distributed to freshmen, profiling students and staff. Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up, and after one month, over half of the undergraduate population had a profile.

History of Facebook, Jackie Martin

For my part of the project, I focused on the History of Facebook. Facebook is a social networking website that was launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg who was studying psychology at Harvard University. Zuckerberg had developed other social-networking websites including Coursematch, which allowed users to view other students taking their major or Facemash where you could rate other students attractiveness. Facebook's membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. Facebook opened up to other universities and eventually to highschool students. Now, Facebook is open to anyone. The Facebook homepage states Sign Up: "It's free and always will be." Shockingly, as of September 2012, Facebook has over one billion active users and more than half of those users use Facebook on a cellphone. Upon creating a Facebook users may create a personal profile which includes adding a profile picture and adding other users as friends or liking pages of interest. Entertainment Weekly included Facebook on its Best-of list saying "Before Facebook how on Earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers birthdays, bug our friends and play a rousing game of Scrabulous?"How did we? We didn't...Facebook allows us to essentially "stalk" other users through looking at their pictures or newsfeed activities. Another website called Facebook Detox states that Facebook is a complete waste of time. Another negative side to Facebook is that it limits direct communication. Instead, users communicate through a computer screen or mobile device. Although there are many negative sides to Facebook, it is beneficial in some ways. For example, Facebook allows its users to constantly stay in touch with friends and family all over the world. Facebook is famous for reuniting lost family members. Overall, Facebook is a bridge to connect people all over the world.

Articles- Melissa Soto

 For my part of this project, I looked in depth into the two articles listed on the syllabus. The first article, “ A Facebook court battle: Is liking something protected by free speech?”, is based on a case between an employee and his boss. Daniel Ray Carter Jr. is a deputy in the police force and signed onto his Facebook and simply "liked" a page. His boss, Sheriff Roberts, saw this and fired him. At this time Carter liked a page from another sheriff who was running against the current one. He along with other employees were fired for what he says was poor performance. He also said it had nothing to do with politics. Carter took this to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The ACLU and Facebook filed in favor of Carter saying that it is right to express his opinion. Unfortunately, U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson said that "merely liking a Facebook page is insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection". Director of ACLU, Ms. Glenberg is trying to find a way to protect our freedom of speech since it is changing due to all the new social media.

The second article "“Illinois Facebook law bans employers from violating your privacy” starts off questioning if you would give up your privacy for job. It also questions what you would do if you did not want to give up your privacy but had to because you needed money. This past month, of October 2012 Illinois became the second state, after Maryland, to pass HB 3782 which prohibits firms from asking for access to private social networks of their job applicants as well as their employees. This was tested when Robert Collins came back after a leave and was asked for his Facebook account. He gave it unwillingly but it with this he was able to keep his job. Athletes are also being looked at through their Facebook pages for inappropriate behavior, but don't need to give up their passwords.