The FBI, one of the world?s most reputable and powerful intelligence agencies, was put on the defensive this week, when it was revealed that a translator working for the department had access to confidential files and leaked these to an anonymous blogger. At the centre of the FBI blogging scandal is Shamai Leibowitz, who worked on a contract basis as a linguist for America?s Federal Bureau of Investigation. But what the professionals at the FBI curiously overlooked was the linguist?s less than innocuous past. As an Israeli citizen and lawyer, Leibowitz went as far as to leak information on a judge in his home country, resulting in his immediate dismissal. Even more troubling for the FBI is how they could have possibly missed the warning signs, when a simple Google search reveals controversial aspects of Leibowitz?s past, most of which would disqualify him for work involving a top secret security clearance.</p> <p>According to media reports, Leibowitz has lodged a guilty plea for leaking five separate FBI documents to an unidentified blogger, during his tenure as Hebrew interpreter for the FBI. But a quick Google research would have made it perfectly clear to the FBI that verbal political activism is what they could expect from Leibowitz. The Israeli lawyer had published blogs and articles on the most controversial and polarizing topics, including one call written as a blogger in which he encouraged soldiers in Israel to refuse to service in the occupied Palestinian Territories.</p> <p>Davin Schoen was just one of the American lawyers interviewed by journalists, who labelled the hiring of someone by the FBI with such a potentially risky past as bizarre. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Schoen noted that Leibowitz was not only a dual citizen?which often alone sounds alarm bells?but he was clearly a ?character? with strong, controversial opinions and who knew how to use and manipulate blogs.

A Facebook group devoted to tackling the growing problem of prostitution and drug abuse in one of Montreal?s poorest neighbourhoods has decided to shut down, due to concerns that members of the group might face harrassment or abuse from those opposed to their message. The French-language group, entitled ?Prostitution en Plein Jour? (Prostitution in Plain Sight), had hundreds of members according to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and enlisted local residents of the working class district of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve to add pictures documenting the problem of prostition in their neighbourhood.</p> <p>The Facebook group ultimately included dozens of candid camera shots of prostitutes waiting for clients at street corners, pimps, as well as drug dealers in the area. While the group?s goal was to raise awareness of this problem and to offer concerned residents a forum to vent their frustrations, Fr</p>

A mother in Florida sparked a passionate debate earlier this month, when she decided to tweet about her son?s death, less than an hour after she found that he had drowned in the family?s swimming pool. Shellie Ross was at home with her two young sons and was doing some gardening in the backyard. She reportedly lost sight of her two year old son for a few minutes, during which time the toddler fell into the pool and drowned. Paramedics arrived to the scene at 5:38pm, and Ross was already back on Twitter tweeting to her followers about the accident at 6:14pm. Ross asked her Twitter followers to ?pray like never before.? But it was too late?the toddler was pronounced dead and only two hours later, Ross was back on Twitter in order to inform her followers that she was ?remembering her million dollar baby.?</p> <p>The backlash directed at the grieving mother?s tweets was swift and brutal, even from people she assumed were her most supportive followers. Some questioned whether a little less time on Twitter and more time supervising a two year old toddler would have prevented the tragedy. Others wondered whether it was even appropriate to post such a tragedy on a social networking tool with such a trivial, innocuous name such as ?Twitter,? and if tweets should not instead be reserved for more mundane, cheerful or non-serious status updates.</p> <p>But Dan Liechty of Illinois State University?s Social Work Department argued that Ross did nothing wrong by reaching out to her followers on Twitter. While a decade ago it would have been a natural reaction to reach for the telephone after a tragedy in order to seek comfort from friends and loved ones, in the 21st century, online communities increasingly serve to provide this type of support. But this incident shows where the boundaries of friendships formed through social networking sites really are and society?s preconceived notions of what is and is not appropriate to publish on Twitter.

The world?s largest social networking site might have thought that the new privacy options it introduced last week would finally quell criticism that it does not adequately safeguard personal information provided by users. But it looks like Facebook?s newest changes have only increased privacy concerns with at least one major organization filing a formal complaint with America?s Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Electronic Privacy Information Centre was infuriated when Facebook?s widely publicized privacy enhancements actually ended up putting more private information in the public domain than ever before.</p> <p>Facebook?s new privacy options mean that unless users actively limit what the general public can see on their profile, the default setting actually allows strangers to access more private information than before. While it is true that it is no longer possible to join a regional or city network and access the profiles of others in this group, it is now possible to see Facebook wall posts and pictures on the profiles of millions of Facebook users who did not previously make this information public.</p> <p>Marc Rotenberg, the Centre?s director, noted that is was unacceptable that over 100 million Americans who use Facebook will now have their privacy compromised due to the relaxed default settings. A major problem with the new Facebook settings is that just about anyone can now read the status updates of total strangers, unless the given Facebook user actually decides to limit this information. Previously, these updates would not have automatically been made public. The American Library Association and the Consumer Federation of America agree with the Centre?s concerns and support the official complaint against Facebook.

Bloggers are getting increasingly passionate about the raging health care debate in the United States and it looks like Independent Senator Joe Lieberman?s wife has become the centre of negative attention from liberals in the Blogosphere. Jane Hamsher, a prominent liberal blogger in the US, has called on the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to fire its spokeswoman, Hadassah Lieberman, because of what her husband thinks about President Barack Obama?s health care reform initiative. Lieberman, formerly a Democrat, is a centrist senator who has consistently opposed the more extensive universal health care package?including a publicly-run insurance system?that liberal Democrats have so keenly supported. In fact, the Democrats need 60 votes in the senate to block a Republican filibuster and delay tactics, but Lieberman has been reluctant to help the government avoid this situation.</p> <p>It would appear that Hadassah Lieberman?s only transgression as spokesperson for one of the most prominent breast cancer foundations in the world is that her husband holds views that are unpalatable to liberal supporters of health care reform. But this is enough for Hamsher to write on her blog that Mrs. Lieberman?s presence represents a conflict of interest. To be fair, Hamsher?s impassioned response is not surprising. The blogger has had to battle breast cancer on three separate occasions. Hamsher believes that Mr. Lieberman represents the interests of wealthy, private insurance companies that fervently oppose President Obama?s reforms, while the senator?s wife has also been keen to represent the interests of major pharmaceuticals, rather than ordinary Americans seeking affordable health care.</p> <p>This is not the first time that bloggers have gone after the Liebermans. Washington Post?s columnist and blogger Ezra Klein reportedly wrote that Senator Lieberman?s opposition to extensive health care reform and a public option was tantamount to ?directly causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people.? The blogger has since removed the word ?directly? from his post.

James Chartrand, a popular blogger and experienced freelance writer who publishes a site entitled Men With Pens revealed that he is not a man after all. A Canadian woman in her early thirties is actually the one blogging behind her male pseudonym about the ins-and-outs of copywriting and online freelancing. Chartrand is hardly the first female writer to mislead her readers about her gender. Nineteenth century authors such as George Sand and George Eliot were actually women, but few would have thought that web and media-savvy women in the 21st century would have to take up a male name in order to succeed.</p> <p>Yet this is precisely what Chartrand claimed happened to her. In a blog post entitled ?Why James Chartrand Wears Women?s Underpants,? the prominent blogger explains that when she wrote using her real name, she struggled getting her clients to take her seriously and she often found herself without freelancing projects. Chartrand claims to now be earning up to three times what she did when her name gave away her gender and far fewer clients or readers are second guessing her articles. While Chartrand feels that pretending to be a male blogger and freelancer ensured that more people accepted her work and advice, and appreciated her talent, she also used this as an opportunity to do away with the sexist innuendoes that came her way. Prior to becoming James, Chartrand feared being teased for working from home as a freelancer, and could not bare to consider the thought of what these same people would say if they discovered that she spent the whole day in her kitchen?working on her laptop?and that she was also a stay-at-home mother.</p> <p>Only one question remains: will readers of Men With Pens learn to accept that their favourite blogger is not who they thought ?he? was? The reaction to Chartrand?s actions is telling. Few condemn the blogger, but many more expressed surprise that this form of chauvinism still exists in the 21st century.

Celebrities have long played an active role in charitable works and they frequently speak out for social causes, even while the more cynical observer might suggest that much of this apparent good will is for show, fame and personal publicity, rather than out of altruism. Lindsay Lohan almost certainly gave fodder to those who scorn Hollywood and celebrity culture, by misleading her Twitter followers about how she saved more than three dozen children from the grimy world of human trafficking in India. The only problem for Lohan was that shortly after she sent out a tweet telling her Twitter followers about these latest good deed, it turned out that she did not even visit India at the time, let alone save 40 children from trafficking.</p> <p>According to Lindsay Lohan?s tweet, she was travelling to India last week to start working on a BBC documentary and ended up ?saving? some 40 kids during an anti-trafficking raid lasting nearly five hours. The only problem is that a non-governmental organization based in India found out about Lohan?s claims on Twitter and immediately asserted that the American actress and the BBC were not even present when the trafficking raid took place in New Delhi. In fact, Lohan was probably not even in the country at the time?she was likely just about to board her plane, en route to India. The BBC quickly intervened, so as to ensure that this story which spread through Twitter would not damage its efforts at creating a documentary. The media giant pointed out that Lohan did not actually claim to be physically present when the raid took place. This may be true, but with Lohan?s tweet talking about how ?over 40 children [were] saved so far, within one day?s work,? and how it is far preferable to do this than answer tabloid critics, it is not nefarious to take this misleading post to mean that the actress herself claimed to have saved dozens of children in a twenty-four hour period.

Lawyers in Florida might just find themselves a little lonelier these days, after the state?s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee ruled that judges should never accept Facebook friendship requests from attorneys who may appear before them in court. The Committee is reportedly concerned that judges who add practicing lawyers in the state to their Facebook page may create the perception of a conflict of interest and the potential of judicial corruption. In fact, if a lawyer adds a judge to his/her Facebook friends list, it may appear to laypeople as though the attorney shares a special relationship with the court and thus have an unfair advantage.</p> <p>While the Committee?s ban may seem like a reasonable way to avoid conflict of interest situations in the courtroom, some social networking specialists wonder whether or not Facebook usage is prevalent among Florida judges in the first place. According to a report in the Palm Beach Post, a clear majority of judges in the state do not have a Facebook account yet. In fact, an aid to Florida county Judge Barry Cohen noted that the justice could ?barely turn on a computer,? let alone use Facebook. As such, the Committee?s decision may be aimed more towards the future, when this proportion is likely to change and many more judges will almost certainly use the world?s largest social networking site.</p> <p>But there was dissent among members of the ethics committee, with some pointing out that adding someone as a Facebook friend does not necessarily imply any type of bond in the physical world.

A virtual row on Facebook between Canadian teenagers led to a physical fight and injuries, according to a report by Sun Media. A small group of young men in the Ontarian town of Chatham apparently got into an online argument on the world?s largest social networking site. One of the men decided that it was best if he went over to his Facebook friend?s house in order to resolve the dispute peacefully and check that there were no hard feelings. Yet when the young man knocked on the door, he was shocked to find</p>

Making effective use of social networking sites is crucial to corporate success, according to researchers at Boston College. The academics published one of the first major scholarly studies on the impact that Twitter and Facebook can have on companies both large and small, in the Harvard Business Review. The study found that while social networking sites can do a great deal to expand the profile of a business and ensure effective, free online marketing, the preponderance of Web 2.0 technology also means that companies can no longer assume that customers will not spread their criticism of products and services far and wide, or that disenchanted employees of the firm might not express their views online.</p> <p>For example, Germany?s Kaiser Permanente IT learned this lesson the hard way when someone working on one of the firm?s projects used his blog to discuss the errors that he believed his partners were making. As a result, Kaiser Permanente found itself on the defensive and was at the centre of largely unflattering media attention. Gerald C. Kane, one of the researchers at Boston College, noted that company executives have to realize that Twitter, Facebook and blogs are not like message boards were during the early days of the internet. Information spreads quicker and to a much wider audience now than it did eight or nine years, and one of the most important skills to acquire is to be able to react promptly to online news or opinions about a given company. While this allows companies to halt the spread of negative information, it also ensures that it develops important online contacts and potential partners. As such, Twitter accounts and official blogs are key tools to building and maintaining a positive online presence, as well as controlling the message that actually gets out into cyberspace.