This “version” of Blawg Review is actually located at Facebook. However, I’ve duplicated it here because reading chronologically using “Timeline” can be really, really annoying. So for those who would rather not submit to the Faceborg, here you go…
This week’s Blawg Review is presented in honor of the 28th Birthday of Mark Zuckerberg and the impending Facebook IPO, destined to make Zuckerberg enough money to buy a solar system. It is also presented with deepest and most sincere apologies to George Orwell.
It was a bright cold day in May, and the clocks were striking thirteen. On the telescreen in front of me, status updates were still babbling away about shopping trips, restaurants, or children. I sat back. A sense of complete helplessness descended upon me, and I sat gazing stupidly at the screen.
Suddenly, I began to write in sheer panic, I shared a link that “Lincoln Invented Facebook”. It was malreported, and Chris Taylor at Mashable (mashable.com) wrote about How the ‘Lincoln Invented Facebook’ Hoax Foold Some of the People .
I don’t know what made me pour out this stream of rubbish. But it was time for the Two Minutes Like.The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Like is not that you are obliged to act, but on the contrary, it’s impossible to avoid joining in. You scroll through your newsfeed, as status updates flash by, and within thirty seconds, any pretence is unnecessary. One moment you are “Liking” the status update of person you knew in elementary school and the next your great Aunt. It is possible, at moments, to switch your “Liking” this way or that by a voluntary act. But doing so may not be protected speech, as Brock Vergakis points out in his Law Technology News post Clicking Facebook ‘Like’ Button Ruled Not Constitutionally Protected Speech.
I had been reading Mashable about the Facebook IPO Pitch: Can It Win Big Investors and The Huffington Post about how “Eduardo Saverin, Facebook Co-Founder, Drops U.S. Citizenship, May Sidestep Taxes on IPO Profits when, my fingers slid voluptuously over the keyboard, updating my status in ALL CAPS:
DOWN WITH FACEBOOK
DOWN WITH FACEBOOK
DOWN WITH FACEBOOK
DOWN WITH FACEBOOK
DOWN WITH FACEBOOK
I sat back in my chair, slightly ashamed of myself. Maybe I was just caught up reading Rob Horning of The New Inquiry on Facebooking in the Age of Facebook. Or Will Wilkinson’s response at Big Think on Facebook and False Consciousness . I quickly edited my update to repost the Facebook slogans:
PUBLIC IS PRIVATE
FRIEND EVERYONE
THIS APP WILL RECEIVE ALL YOUR PROFILE INFORMATION AND TRACK YOUR POSTING HABITS
At that moment, the telescreen let out a piercing whistle. New Notifications. Four friends has also commented on my status update. My simple reposting of the Facebook slogans had received 25 “Likes”.
If there is hope, I thought, it lies in the proles. Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.
Maybe they are becoming conscious. The ACLU has a post about a company fighting the good fight, ACLU: Twitter Stands Up For One Of Its Users
But Facebook is not interested in the overt act: the like is all they care about. They do not merely track their enemies, they change them. That’s why Kashmir Hill, over at Forbes writes about the trend of employers seeking applicant’s social media data, in Why We Need a ‘Password Protection Act’ Against Employers.
A number of states have, or are looking to, expand privacy protections to social media and to keep prying employers out of our status updates: Friend Request Rejected: Maryland Bans Employers from Asking Employees for their Social Media Passwords, Delaware Proposes Facebook-Privacy Law , California is One Step Closer to Banning Employer Requests for Social Media Passwords.
Bradley Shear also has some insightful posts about how Colleges & Schools That Force Their Students to Facebook Friend Them May Be Violating the Stored Communications Act and how SNOPA (HR 5050) May Protect Insurance Companies From Schools and Businesses That Demand Access to Personal Password Protected Social Media Accounts.
And a Woman launches legal action to identify Facebook trolls.
But then I remember: who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. The proletarians will never revolt, not in a thousand years or a million. They cannot. I do not have to tell you the reason: you know it already. If you have ever cherished any dreams of violent insurrection, you must abandon them. There is no way in which Facebook can be overthrown. The rule of the Facebook is for ever.
In the UK, Aneela Akbar at Lawdit points to a case where Facebook leaves employee jobless.
And the Canadian Privacy Law Blog points out that, the FBI Seeking Wiretap-ready Internet, Like Canada” and offers another post about Cloud Computer and the Patriot Act: A Red Herring?
Timothy Flynn, The Law Blogger posts about the dangers of social media like Facebook and Twitter in jury trials, in Social Media Not Mixing with Jury Trials.
And James Goslee reminds us all at Lawyerist.com that Private Facebook Pages May Be Discoverable.
Facebook isn’t interested in the good of others; it is interested solely in advertising. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only advertising, pure advertising. Power through advertising. Facebook is setting up the way to sell ads off the site, as Kashmir Hill notes in Facebook Privacy Policy Change Paves Way For Off-Facebook Advertising they’ve updated their “Data Use Policy” to put the policy pieces in place.
And how responsible should lawyers be with social media anyway? Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice has a pretty good idea, and doesn’t disappoint with, And Now, For a Commercial Break.
Weeks or months must have passed. It would have been possible to keep track of the passage of time, had I been paying more attention to my Timeline.
Suddenly, a shrill trumpet-call pierced the air. It was a Notification! Someone had Shared my status update! The telescreen was pouring forth Shares and Likes. I poured myself a glass of Victory Gin and stared at the screen. My soul white as snow, I was updating my status with everything, sharing with everybody. I was posting photos and videos. Allowing myself to be tagged. The long hoped-for bullet was entering my brain.
I gazed up at that youthful face. Eight years it had taken me to learn what kind of smile was hidden behind that t-shirt and hoodie. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-sented tears trickled down the side of my nose. But it is all right, everything is all right, the struggle is finished. I’ve won the victory over myself. I love Facebook.
Next week’s Blawg Review comes from the esteemed Kevin Thompson of cyberlawcentral.com. Along with the works of George Orwell (particularly Politics and the English Language) I highly recommend you check it out. And don’t forget, Blawg Review has information about next week’s host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.