CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

CompuServe, Prodigy et al.: What Web 2.0 can learn from Online 1.0: “(Industry Standard)
Everyone’s abuzz about Web 2.0, and it’s no wonder. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are some of the Internet’s most popular destinations, offering users unprecedented freedom to share content, engage in conversations and exchange ideas like never before. How short our memories are. Before everyone connected to one massive Internet, a variety of smaller commercial online services with names like CompuServe, GEnie, Prodigy, Delphi and, of course, America Online (AOL) ruled the roost. Some were launched as long ago as the late 1970s, and many were text-based with nary a graphic to be found. Each charged hourly or monthly fees to a national (and sometimes international) audience in exchange for access to its private network. In addition, there were many smaller Bulletin Board Systems, or BBSs, that were also accessed by use of modems and phone lines. see also Timeline: The evolution of online communities.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

EU – Social networking giants are subject to EU data protection laws: “(OUT-LAW News)
Social networking sites are legally responsible for their users’ privacy, Europe’s privacy watchdogs have confirmed. The committee of data protection regulators has said that the sites are ‘data controllers’, with all the legal obligations that brings. Users of the sites are also data controllers with legal obligations when they are posting on behalf of a club, society or company, the opinion said. The committee of Europe’s data protection regulators, the Article 29 Working Party, has published its opinion on the legal status of social networking operators such as Facebook and MySpace. It has said that the sites cannot escape their legal obligations just because content on them is often produced and posted by users.See Opinion 5/2009 on online social networking. See also Article 29 Working Party on online social networking(EDRI-gram).

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(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Web 2.0 not liable for real-world assaults, says court: “

Decency Act deflects MySpace suits

Social networking sites like MySpace are not liable if underage users are sexually assaulted by people they meet on the website, a California appeals court has ruled.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Social networking giants are subject to EU data protection laws, say regulators: “Social networking sites are legally responsible for their users’ privacy, Europe’s privacy watchdogs have confirmed. A committee of data protection regulators has said that the sites are ‘data controllers’, with all the legal obligations that brings.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Participants of the conference Safer Internet for Children adopted the Prague Declaration – Ministry of the interior of the Czech Republic

The Czech Ministry of Interior in cooperation with the European Commission, organized a ministerial conference „Safer Internet for Children – fighting together against illegal content and conduct on-line’, held in Prague on April 20, 2009. The Czech Republic was represented by the Minister of Interior Ivan Langer and the Police President Oldřich Martinů.
The conference was dedicated to the process of improving cooperation of all stakeholders in the field of promoting safer internet and mobile communications, especially for children. To conclude with, participants adopted the Prague Declaration (pdf, 99 kB).

„International protection of children is one of the key Ministry of Interior priorities and we have paid increased attention to all related activities. One of our key ideas is the Prague declaration, which we drafted and presented to the conference participants. The Prague Declaration, which we adopted today, wishes to enhance cooperation of all stakeholders across Europe and establish conditions for safer use of the Internet by children’, said the Czech Minister of Interior Ivan Langer, and presented the flower symbolizing the Prague Declaration.„I drew inspiration from the nature in spring and I will use this flower to explain the idea behind our Declaration. In the centre, we have the child, and the petals symbolize activities to secure the child’s protection. The first petal represents the member states which bear responsibility for both political and legislative measures. In this respect, I very much welcome representatives of Switzerland and Norway, who decided to join the Prague Declaration. Our flower, in the spirit of the Czech Presidency motto ‘Europe without Barriers’ thus helped remove barriers not only among the member states, abut also the ‘27’ and the two countries which are not members of the Union. The second petal represents the European cooperation. The key stakeholders here are the European Commission and, primarily, EUROPOL and INTERPOL. The improved cooperation and coordination of individual member states will allow EUROPOL and INTERPOL to better detect and investigate for example criminal networks organizing child pornography. The rest of petals are equally important since they represent various institutions and organizations, such as industry associations, Internet Service Providers (ISP), mobile telephony providers, social networks, NGOs, or schools, which should ideally be in the front line of the Internet awareness rising among children‘.

One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of the Safer Internet programme for 2009 – 2013, the budget of which is €55 million. This significant sum of money is, as explained by Richard Swetenham, a representative of the European Commission, dedicated to both awareness rising and activities to suppress illegal content and harmful conduct on-line, including improved policing.

The conference participants had an opportunity to attend several interesting workshops led or attended by remarkable speakers.

* Cyberbullying – Professor Georges Steffgen, University of Luxemburg, presented outcomes of a research targeting detection of cyberbullying and possible reactions to this phenomenon. The European Commission presented a video, which draws the public attention to the issue of cyberbullying via social networks.

* Self-regulation by mobile telephony providers – speakers presented outcomes of an agreement concluded between leading European providers and the European Commission on joint efforts in the field of protection of children using mobile telephones. One of the most significant provisions of the agreement is the parent control over the adult only content and the implementation of awareness rising campaigns for both children and their parents.

* Social networks – the European Commission presented data revealing that, in Europe only, social networks already have 41,7 million users. Only last year, their numbers rose by 35 per cent. It is estimated that in 2012, social networks will have over one hundred million users.

In the afternoon, participants concentrated primarily on the police cooperation. Pierre Reuland, a representative of INTERPOL, presented ICAD (the INTERPOL Child Abuse Image Database), which has, since 2001, helped protect over 750 children from 35 countries from sexual exploitation. Paul Durrant, a representative of the European Association of Internet Service Providers (EuroISPA), spoke on the role of telecommunication providers in the content filtering. The Czech Minister of Interior, Ivan Langer, says: „To detect perpetrators, we have to put together individual elements of the complex mosaic. We are like archaeologists looking for pieces of an ancient vase. To draw the complete picture, we have to secure cooperation of all stakeholders and, at the same time, make the best use of all elements of modern technology, which have the capacity to pull all pieces together‘.

Markéta Matlochová
Spokesperson for Czech Presidency of the EU, Ministry of the Interior

Social network sites ‘monitored’: “Social networking sites like Facebook could be monitored by the government under anti-terror plans.”

(Via BBC News.)

Social Networking: Commission brokers agreement among major web companies.

(10/02/2009) 17 leading web firms have signed for the first time a European agreement to improve the safety of under 18s who use social networking sites. These include Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu. Social networking sites are an emerging social and economic phenomenon, attracting 41.7 million regular users in Europe and changing the way we interact with each other on the Web.

The use of social networks has grown over the past year by 35% in Europe and is expected to more than double to 107.4 million users by 2012. To make sure that social networks continue to grow, young users need to feel safe when expanding their networks or sharing any personal information. The agreement signed today in Luxembourg at the Safer Internet Day organised by the European Commission will empower teenagers to deal with potential risks they may face online, like cyberbullying or revealing personal information.

“The Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU” have been developed by social networking services providers in consultation with the European Commission, as part of its Safer Internet Plus Programme, and a number of NGOs, to provide good practice recommendations for the providers of social networking and other user interactive sites, to enhance the safety of children and young people using their services.”

Read full text of the Principles.

25 Most Shocking Crimes in Social Media History | Masters in Criminal Justice: “25 Most Shocking Crimes in Social Media History

By Laura Milligan

The popularity and near necessity of social media sites has grown tremendously in the last few years, helping small businesses make connections, giving freelancers and students the chance to network with people they’d never be able to meet otherwise, and allow a place for all kinds of interest groups to chat and make friends online–from gardeners to book lovers to sports junkies. There is a dangerous and corrupt side to social media creators and users; however, and the ability to create fake profiles and violate privacy and copyright rules is still more than possible. Read below for 25 of the most shocking crimes in social media history.

Watchdog wags finger at waffly privacy policies: “

Companies must cut the gobbledegook

Privacy policies are full of jargon and are designed to reduce organisations’ liability rather than to help people understand what their personal data might be used for, the UK’s privacy watchdog has said.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Facebook, MySpace, YouTube are ‘recruiting tools for hate groups’ | NEWS.com.au

By staff writers and wires November 19, 2008 08:25am

THE popular websites MySpace, Facebook and YouTube are being used as recruiting tools by extremist groups, experts have warned.

“(These websites) are the ‘killer apps’ of the internet today, and they’re used by millions, but the virus of hate certainly has infected those technologies,” Christopher Wolf, chair of the International Network Against CyberHate (INACH), told the Global Summit on Internet Hate Speech.

“The internet toolbox that is available to hatemongers has had a number of new items added to it over the last several years,” Mr Wolf said, citing Web 2.0 features such as blogs, social networks, video sites and instant messaging.

Deborah Lauter, national director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League, said extremist groups “use these social-networking sites and they create a community, a community of hate and it has very real consequences.”
(more…)