Tag: Facebook

Iran blocks access to Facebook in run-up to June elections

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Put this in the keeping-up-with-the-times category. Repressed countries like Iran can’t let technology get away from them. By all means, let’s “dialogue.” From the BBC America:

 

Facebook
Facebook says it is investigating reports of the ban

Iran’s government has blocked access to social networking site Facebook ahead of June’s presidential elections, according to Iran’s ILNA news agency.

ILNA suggested the move was aimed at stopping supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi from using the site for his campaign.

Facebook, which claims to have 175m users worldwide, expressed its disappointment over the reported ban.

So far there has been no comment from the authorities in Tehran.

‘Access not possible’

“Access to the Facebook site was prohibited several days ahead of the presidential elections,” ILNA reported.

 

Mousavi registers at the interior ministry in Tehran
Mr Mousavi was Iran’s prime minister when the post was abolished in 1989

It said that “according to certain Internet surfers, the site was banned because supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi were using Facebook to better disseminate the candidate’s positions”.

CNN staff in Tehran reported that people attempting to visit the site received a message in Farsi that said: “Access to this site is not possible.”

Facebook expressed disappointment that its site was apparently blocked in Iran “at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions”.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, is seen as one of the leading challengers to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 12 June elections.

His page on Facebook has more than 5,000 supporters.

 

Boomer flu on social networks: Fear the pandemic

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FacebookIt’s out there and there’s no stopping it. I mean old people taking over Facebook and Twitter:

Still, there’s no shortage of anecdotal evidence that sharing the online world can be a source of intergenerational strife. Take Will Smith (no, not the actor), for example. When this 33-year-old tech professional received a Facebook friend request from his father in March, he was floored. Not because he didn’t want to connect with his dad, but because doing so on the same network that he shared with so many peers and colleagues raised a host of complex concerns.

“My father, who I dearly love, has a tendency to forward e-mails that are off pretty off-color,” says Smith. “It’s probably nothing that would get me fired, but stuff that could earn me a trip to HR, if I ever opened them [at work]. My concern was that he would post that type of message on my Wall or in another public venue on Facebook without realizing it was a public venue. Since everyone from my immediate supervisor to the president of my company is in my friend list, there’s potential for bad things to happen. I don’t think anything actually would, but there was strong potential for embarrassment.”

To reduce the likelihood of a career-damaging dust-up, Smith sent his dad an e-mail in which he laid out what he considered reasonable limits for their online father-son bonding. Off-limits: “Politics, sex, jokes, things you find funny but offend me, comments about family members, any combination of the aforementioned items, and pretty much every e-mail you’ve ever sent me.”

Ultimately, Smith’s worst-case scenario never came to pass and—perhaps because that e-mail—his father never logged back into Facebook. But according to data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, people of the same age as Smith’s father are logging onto Facebook in droves, and Baby Boomers are now the fastest growing population on the social network.

Ultimately, disaster was averted in this case. But it’ll only be a matter of time before mom or dad is tweaking you with a “Yoo hoo, honey!” for all your friends to see.