History, Present, Issues, and Critics. A journey from Facesmash to Facebook briefing on hurdles that came on way and featuring the Internet Censorship and SOPA debate.

1. FACEBOOK
History, Present, Issues, and Critics.
A journey from Facesmash to Facebook
briefing on hurdles that came on way and
featuring the Internet Censorship and
SOPA debate.
By:
Mohd Anwar Jamal Faiz
toughjamy@yahoo.com

2. SOCIAL NETWORKING
A social networking platform is an online service that
focuses on building and reflecting of social
networks or social relations among people. Almost all
social network services are web-based and provide
means for users to interact over the Internet, such
as e-mail and instant messaging.
We have seen Orkut, we know Google+, and we use
Twitter, but there are many more operated worldwide.
For instance The Sphere, Nexopia, Bebo, LinkedIn,
Hi5, Tuenti, and Skyrock. There are plenty more that
operate locally in different parts of world.

3. WHAT IS FACEBOOK
Facebook, again, is a social networking service and
website launched in February 2004, operated and
privately owned by Facebook, Inc.
These days, it is the biggest Social Networking portal.
Records say that as of January 2012, Facebook has
more than 800 million active users.
Founded in : Cambridge, United States (2004)
Founder(s):
• Mark Zuckerberg
• Eduardo Saverin
• Dustin Moskovitz
• Chris Hughes
Headquarters located at : Menlo Park, California, U.S.

4. FACEBOOK COMPANY
PROFILE
Facebook operates in Internet Service domain. And is
available to users worldwide. Founded my Mark
Zuckerberg.
Revenue : US$ 4.27 billion (approx)
Users: 800 million (approx till September, 2011)
Launched on : February 4, 2004
Employee strength is approximately 3400
Key people:
• Mark Zuckerberg (CEO)
• Chris Cox (VP of Product)
• Sheryl Sandberg (COO)
• Donald Graham (Chairman)
Webranking: It is obviously a Google PR1 website, with
Alexa page rank 2.
The biggest earning is due to advertising through Banner
ads, referral marketing, casual games

5. FACESMASH : YOUNG GUY,
HOT IDEAS !!
The journey started with a funny, controversial, yet a great
hit - Facesmash. Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facemash. And
this was the predecessor to Facebook.
Initially, the site was comparable to Hot or Not, and "used
photos placing two next to each other at a time and asking
users to choose the 'hotter' person". Zuckerberg had to hack
into the protected areas of Harvard's computer network
and copied the houses' private dormitory ID images.
Obviously the youth power and young gossips led to the
attraction of 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first
four hours online.
The site soon to be shut down later by the Harvard
administration. And, Zuckerberg was charged by the
administration with breach of security, violating
copyrights, and violating individual privacy, and faced
expulsion. Ultimately, however, the charges were dropped.

6. SMASH, SMASH, AND BOOM!!
Zuckerberg continued and On February 4, 2004, he
launched "Thefacebook". Soon he was accused by his
seniors for intentionally misleading them into
believing he would help them build a social network
called HarvardConnection.com. It was an intellectual
property theft and resulted into a lawsuit against
Zuckerberg, and subsequent settlement.
Finally, Facebook was incorporated in mid-2004, and
the entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been
informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company's
president.[27] In June 2004, The domain
'Facebook.com' was purchased in 2005 for $200,000.
So now, formally the world got facebook.co, which we
all are aware today.
Boom!!

7. CAN CRITICS BE SILENT?
Obviously No!!
And, Facebook was no exception!!
•Facebook has been blocked intermittently in several countries including
China, Iran, Uzbekistan,Pakistan,Syria, and Bangladesh on different bases.
•It has been banned in many countries of the world on the basis of allowed
content judged as anti-Islamic and containing religious discrimination.
•Banned at many workplaces to prevent employees from using it during
work hours.
•The user info privacy has also been an issue.
•Safety of user accounts has been compromised several times. Here I mean
that, hackers were successfull at their attempts on Facebook.
•In its initial days only, it settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source
code and intellectual property.
•November 2011 marked enormous Facebook user accounts being hacked
and their profile pictures were replaced with pornographic images.
•And, the latest by Indian court ruling against Facebook (and other
companies too) for 'offensive and objectionable content'

8. THE SOCIAL NETWORK :
MOVIE
The Social Network is a drama film directed by David
Fincher. It was adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book 'The
Accidental Billionaires'. The movie portrays the founding of
social networking website Facebook and the resulting
lawsuits. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures and was
released on October 1, 2010. the budget was $40 million.
The prominent star cast is as follows:
•Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg
•Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin
•Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker
•Armie Hammer as Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss
•Josh Pence as Tyler Winklevoss (body double for Armie Hammer)
•Max Minghella as Divya Narendra
The film received widespread acclaim, with critics praising
it for its editing, acting, score and screenplay. Some people,
including Zuckerberg himself, criticized the film for its
many inaccuracies.

9. INDIAN COURT RULING AGAINST
OFFENSIVE CONTENT IN
FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, YAHOO ETC.
There are some authorities across the globe and now even
Indian court that wants these (and 21 others) Internet
companies to develop a (? Big question mark!!) mechanism
to keep a check and remove from their Web pages those
materials which are deemed 'offensive and objectionable'.
A Delhi court sent a summons to the headquarters of foreign Internet
companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo on Friday, in a
private case against objectionable content online. It started with some RTI
Activists who found religious content on the sites that he considered
offensive, and filed a complaint with a Delhi court, prompting Additional
Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar to issue notices to 21 Internet sites
in December. Henceforth, The magistrate has asked the foreign entities and
Indian Internet companies mentioned in the complaint to appear before the
court on March 13. It has been warned that "Like China, we will block all
such web sites,". This was said by High Court Judge Suresh Kait said.
More details can be read at my blog
http://new-it-discussions.blogspot.com/2012/01/objectionable-content-in-google-fb.ht

10. SOPA ACT AND THE WORLD
Thousands of websites went dark in January 2012, to
protest the SOPA ACT (Stop Online Piracy Act).
This law is designed to thwart copyright infringement.
But it could do more harm to the Internet as a whole.
I, and thousands of Web experts across the globe see a
threat to the functionality of the Internet.
STOP SOPA Please!!
Internet-wise, be wise..
The debate of Internet Censorship is wide and very hot
these days. There is a dedicated page on Facebook
called ‘Internet Censorship Voyager’. People
supporting free internet should visit, like and
comment on the page.

11. MARK ZUCKERBERG
FACEBOOK COMMENT: ANTI-
PIRACY BILL
Post from Internet Censorship Voyager Blog.
Mark Zuckerberg commented on Antipiracy bill over his official Facebook
profile. He openly said -- We need "political leaders who are pro-internet.” Also
said that --- " Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to
oppose any laws that will hurt the internet. "
As you can see, there were 450,820 likes in 12 hours of post. Approximately 86,000
shares were done about this post. I Love Zuckerberg for this bold statement.
This article is dedicated to his innovations, courage and dedication towards free-
internet.

12. FINAL COMMENTS...
Founded in February 2004, Facebook has proved itself
to be an immensely useful, engaging, and attactive
social utility that helps people communicate more
efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers.
The technologies, easiness, APIs, projections, Apps,
and other tools by Facebook are just awesome. They all
help facilitating the share of information through the
social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world
social connections.
Facebook is open to All. Anyone can sign up interact
with the people they know in a trusted environment.
No wonder, Facebook is a part of millions of people’s
lives and half of the users return daily!!!

13. THANK YOU
I am Mohd Anwar Jamal Faiz, presently based at
Pune, India. Associated with the IT industry since 5
years and working with Internet technologies for past
one and a half decade.
Please send in your feedback at :
toughjamy@yahoo.com
You can read my blogs at :
http://new-it-discussions.blogspot.com/
http://internet-censorship-voyager.blogspot.com/
To read my complete Professional file:
http://www.meonshow.com/splash.php?uid=toughjamy