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Twitter Inc. has acknowledged that after mobile users tap the "Find friends" feature on its smartphone app, the company downloads users' entire address book, including email addresses and phone numbers, and keeps the data on its servers for 18 months. The company also said it plans to update its apps to clarify that user contacts are being transmitted and stored. The company's current privacy policy does not explicitly disclose that Twitter downloads and stores user address books.

SNIPPET: "Reckless doesn't mean not dangerous. Quite the opposite. They may fail spectacularly, or be wildly successful. One thing I believe we can count on is that they will take risks, act swiftly, and burn as many assets as they have to along the way in order to do what Khamenei wants."

Two months after successfully marshaling public support to extend a payroll tax cut for all Americans, President Obama today is attempting to do it again. At the White House this morning, Obama will showcase supporters who were among the thousands that spoke out online and over social media in December to pressure Congress to compromise. But the deal was only temporary. Taxes will rise on 160 million Americans at the end of the month unless lawmakers act again, and congressional negotiators remain at impasse. “Your voices changed the debate and reminded Washington what was at stake,” Obama says in a...

Sarah Palin isn't seeking the GOP nomination for president. But if these "social media" numbers are any indication, more than twice the voters prefer Sarah Palin to Mitt Romney.  At present, 3,283,462 followers "like" Sarah Palin on her Facebook page. That is more than twice the number of those who, so far, have "liked" Mitt Romney on his Facebook,-1,469,434.Palin likewise smashes Romney on Twitter with 734,104 "followers" , while Romney has a mere 333,569 "followers".Perhaps this "follower" on Palin's Facebook echos the sentiment of many with this recent comment"["Happy Birthday Sarah !,-God bless you ! RUN SARAH RUN, for president you are the last...

(AP) -- The U.S. government is seeking software that can mine social media to predict everything from future terrorist attacks to foreign uprisings, according to requests posted online by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Hundreds of intelligence analysts already sift overseas Twitter and Facebook posts to track events such as the Arab Spring. But in a formal "request for information" from potential contractors, the FBI recently outlined its desire for a digital tool to scan the entire universe of social media — more data than humans could ever crunch. The Department of Defense and the Office of the Director...

Interpol has been accused of abusing its powers after Saudi Arabia used the organisation's red notice system to get a journalist arrested in Malaysia for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Kashgari, a newspaper columnist, fled Saudi Arabia after posting a tweet on the prophet's birthday that sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats. The posting, which was later deleted, read: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you … I will not pray for you." Clerics in Saudi Arabia called for him to be...

A young Saudi journalist is facing calls for his execution after tweeting remarks about the Prophet Mohammed, and the kingdom's top clerics are demanding his trial after denouncing him as an "apostate." On the occasion of the Muslim prophet's birthday last week, 23-year-old Hamza Kashgari tweeted: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you." "I will not pray for you," he added. The controversial tweet sparked a frenzy of responses -- some 30,000, according to an online service that tracks tweets in the Arab world....

The Saudi grand mufti on Friday called social-networking website Twitter full of lies, a day after the site announced that it would begin restricting Tweets in specific countries. The news from the social media platform is renewing questions over how it will handle issues of free speech as it rapidly expands its global user base... Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said in his Friday sermon in Riyadh that Muslims should avoid being a “source or feeding” Twitter, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported. Twitter was a place “in which people are invited to throw charges between them, and to lie...

Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'. Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting. The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?' After making their way through passport...

SNIPPET: "Chicago gangs are still spray-painting their graffiti on alley walls, train cars and viaducts — but they’re also using their smart phones and computers for “cyber-tagging,” according to the Chicago Crime Commission, which released an updated book on the city’s street gangs Thursday. They’re provoking their rivals with Internet graffiti and using social media to keep in touch with their associates, according to the commission. “They’re tagging websites with information that is provocative and incites violence,” said Jody Weis, former Chicago Police superintendent and president of the commission." SNIPPET: "Web chatter is a valuable tool for law enforcement officials...

Censoring Twitter Are you worried about Twitter's new guidelines? Yes, I think it's a huge blow to freedom of speech around the world No, I think they're doing it responsibly I'm not sure

Twitter has announced that it now has the technology to selectively block tweets on a country by country basis. In its blog, Twitter said it could "reactively withhold content from users in a specific country". But it said the removed content would be available to the rest of the world. Previously when Twitter deleted a tweet, it would disappear worldwide. --- In its blog post, Twitter explained that its international growth meant entering countries "that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression", citing France or Germany which ban pro-Nazi content as examples.

I receive "Tweets" from Obama's "attack watch" and have since the ridiculous site went into operation. They NEVER mention any Republican candidates other than Mitt Romney. Tonight is the FIRST TIME since the campaign began they have targeted Newt Gingrich. I think this is an EXCELLENT sign that the "Newt" has the country's attention and the Kenyan knows it. Here is their message: @AttackWatch: Gingrich tries discredited Saul Alinsky attack line against @BarackObama: OFA.BO/V9rZAb KEEP IT UP MR. SPEAKER

SNIPPET: "While these various elements of the jihadist network are distinct, the Internet brings them together, especially at the grassroots level. Videos, websites and online magazines indoctrinate aspiring militants in the jihadist ideology and provide a forum for like-minded individuals and groups."

2 informative tweets tonight: 1) "First night of our Florida polling: Romney and Gingrich are neck and neck." 2) "2 more people picked Mitt than Newt out of about 600 people we polled tonight...that's how close we're talking"

So, Michelle Obama joined Twitter today. Here's 25 people who aren't very happy about it.

Twitter lashed out at changes Google Inc unveiled for its search engine on Tuesday, describing the changes as "bad" for consumers and for Web publishers. Twitter, a microblogging service that allows its users to broadcast short, 140-character messages to groups of "followers," said Google's changes would make it tougher for people to find the breaking news often shared by users of its service. ... "We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and

Twitter reaction to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s 80-yard overtime touchdown pass Sunday night reached 9,420 tweets per second, placing the event in the number two spot on Twitter’s most-tweets-per-second list. The game-winning moment surpassed onstage confirmation of Beyonce’s pregnancy during MTV’s Video Music Awards in August (8,868 TPS) but fell well short of besting the online buzz sparked by Japanese anime movie Castle in the Sky in December (25,088 TPS). Twitter announced the new sports record Monday with this tweet: Twitter ✔ @twitter Last night @TimTebow lead the @Denver_Broncos to an overtime playoff win and a new sports Tweets...

During the Iowa caucuses tonight it wasn’t just the wind sending a chill into the hearts of presidential candidates.At 8:30 p.m., just after entrance polls started pouring in, Ron Paul tweeted a snarky shot at fellow Republican candidate Jon Huntsman.“@jonhuntsman we found your one Iowa voter, he’s in Linn precinct 5 you might want to call him and say thanks,” read the tweet that came from Paul’s verified Twitter account.The tweet from Paul’s account was deleted within half an hour of its being sent, but ABC News captured a screenshot.Screenshot from Twitter

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words - and tracking people who use them. Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS's 'watch' list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group. The words which attract attention range from ones seemingly related to diseases or bioweapons such as 'human to animal' and 'outbreak' to other, more obscure words such as 'drill' and 'strain'. The DHS outlined...

An online privacy group is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accusing it of not releasing records from the agency's covert surveillance of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. The DHS creates accounts solely to monitor social media sites and establish a system of records of the information gathered. The agency does not post information, seek to connect with other users, accept invitations to connect or interact with others according to a statement on their website. The agency scans social media sites for a list of words that include "dirty bomb," "hostage," "exercise," "task force," "explosion," "lockdown," "riot,"...

The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words - and tracking people who use them. Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS's 'watch' list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group. The words which attract attention range from ones seemingly related to diseases or bioweapons such as 'human to animal' and 'outbreak' to other, more obscure words such as 'drill' and 'strain'. The DHS also...

The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words--and tracking people who use them. Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS's 'watch' list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group. [Snip] The DHS outlined plans to scans blogs, Twitter and Facebook for words such as 'illegal immigrant', 'outbreak', 'drill', 'strain', 'virus', 'recovery', 'deaths', 'collapse', 'human to animal' and 'trojan', according to an 'impact asssessment' document filed

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an investor in some of the world's top companies, on Monday unveiled a $300 million stake purchase in fast-growing microblogging site Twitter, gaining another foothold in the global media industry. Alwaleed, a nephew of the Saudi king with a personal net worth estimated by Forbes magazine in March to be just below $20 billion, already owns a 7-percent stake in News Corp and has unveiled plans to start a cable news channel. The Twitter stake, bought jointly by Alwaleed and his Kingdom Holding Co investment firm, resulted from "months of negotiations,"...

RIYADH (Zawya Dow Jones) -- Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his Kingdom Holding Co. Monday announced their purchase of a $300 million stake in Twitter, calling it a strategic investment in a company they said is remaking the media landscape. The Twitter purchase represents the prince's drive "to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact," an emailed statement from Kingdom Holding quoted the Saudi prince as saying. Prince Alwaleed, rated by Arabian Business magazine as the Arab world's richest man, with more than $21 billion in wealth in 2011, had been cited in news reports since October...

Twitter stalking is protected free speech, judge rulesBy Andrew Couts | Digital Trends – 2 hrs 28 mins ago A San Francisco judge has declared cyberstalking on Twitter and blogs constitutionally-protected free speech, reports The New York Times. The ruling is a victory for the First Amendment. But like all things worth fighting for, it comes at a price. **SNIP** Titus ruled that, because no one was forced to read Cassidy’s posts and tweets — as opposed to a “telephone call, letter or email specifically addressed to and directed at another person” — they are considered free speech, not harassment,...

An Arkansas man who was sentenced to death for the murder of a 17-year-old boy has had his conviction overturned after a juror tweeted about pending deliberations--and the poor quality of courthouse coffee.

The Library of Congress and Twitter have signed an agreement that will see an archive of every public Tweet ever sent handed over to the library's repository of historical documents. "We have an agreement with Twitter where they have a bunch of servers with their historic archive of tweets, everything that was sent out and declared to be public," said Bill Lefurgy, the digital initiatives program manager at the library's national digital information infrastructure and preservation program. "The archives don't contain tweets that users have protected, but everything else — billions and billions of tweets — are there."

Quote: homeland.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-jihadist-use-social-media-how-prevent-terrorism-and-preserve-innovation Subcommittee Hearing: Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence | 311 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Dec 6, 2011 2:00pm On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation." The Committee will meet at 2:00 p.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building. Witnesses Mr. Evan F. Kohlmann Flashpoint Global Partners Mr. William McCants Analyst Analyst for the Center for Naval...

(Department of Homeland Security to step up monitoring of Twitter and other social network sites ) The wave of uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East that have overturned three governments in the past year have prompted the U.S. government to start developing guidelines for culling intelligence from Twitter and other social media networks. Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Caryn Wagner said the use of such technology in uprisings that started in December in Tunisia shocked some officials into attention. It prompted questions of whether the U.S. needs to do a better job of monitoring domestic social networking activity...

The old trolls at the Manchester Union Leader -- New Hampshire's largest paper -- have endorsed Newt Gingrich in the state's upcoming Republican primary. But the pundits on Twitter still had questions!... @jaketapper if a union boss says yes 2 Gingrich, that's reason enuff for conservative voters 2 say no #tcot The unions are now endorsing Newt...WTH Newt Gingrich Endorsed By New Hampshire Union Leader http://t.co/8sb727vK I thought the GOP considered 'unions the problem with America" ! Why in the world would a union leader back Newt or any republican candidate for that matter? Is it some type of rope...

One of the top complaints about wealth distributions holds that the vast majority of the people of the country are excluded from the vast majority of its wealth. Considering the "plight" of all of those 20-somethings at the various occupiers, one could be deluded into believing the truth of the 99% mantra. But what if that wasn't true? Considering there are many branches of the group, let's take a look at its main one, occupying near Wall Street, in New York. Seeing how the occupiers are using other people's food and bathrooms and some living in tents (with others still...

FWI- @AndrewBreitbart is in twitter fight right now. There are a bunch of Soros People putting out admitted false stories about him cheating on his wife with a man. They are feeding it to the press saying they have someone claiming to have slept with him. their justification is that he did it to Wiener so they are just doing it back to him. It is a coordinated attack from the left playing out on twitter and worth watching.

I've been compelled to do an article about the Kelly Thomas beating. I mentioned this off and on on YouTube and a few other places and it turns out that although as I have stated it proves that liberalism is the same as fascism that didn't stop some liberal from smearing me and my website. It turns out this beast broke into my twitter account and has been posting on twitter and various websites, myself posting the following abhorrent comment: Kelly Thomas was nothing but a psychotic Criminal bum and parasite who leeched off taxpayers and was a nuisance. If...

The BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston has dismissed homophobia claims against him as 'bonkers', after he used the term 'Queer Street'. Mr Peston used the term on his blog to describe the European financial crisis. He also posted a link to the blog on his Twitter account, where he has 95,000 followers. In praising the UK's handling of the situation, he wrote: 'The Debt Management Office, has taken a reassuringly long-term approach to managing the UK government's debts - and without its prudence, we might all be in Queer Street or Skid Row by now.' However, Mr Peston was criticised...

This isn't exactly the type of working Washington that Jay Inslee is seeking to build. Campaign officials for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said Thursday that a technical glitch led his Twitter account to follow a promoter of an Internet porn company. Inslee spokeswoman Jaime Smith says a volunteer had set up a program to automatically identify Twitter users who may be useful to engage on the social networking site. Staffers are no longer using the program, and Smith says the campaign stopped following the account Thursday after state Republicans pointed it out. Smith says Inslee does not directly manage his...

SNIPPET: "British Jihadi Anjem Choudary Tweets On March 19, 2011, British jihadi Anjem Choudary, spokesman for the banned Islam4UK organization, co-founder of Al-Muhajiroun, and spiritual advisor to the UK Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades (MAC),[18] launched a Twitter account and began tweeting. MAC made headlines last week for threatening a British MP who subsequently called on their activities to be closely monitored by law enforcement.[19] According to his Twitter account, Choudary is "a Muslim who believes that Islam is something we must believe in (Tawheed), live by (Shari'ah) and struggle and sacrifice for (by way of Daw'ah and Jihad)."[20] In...

JEDDAH: Saudi tweeters have created a hashtag called IsmOmi (Arabic for “my mother’s name”) in an attempt to break a longstanding taboo that prevents Saudi men from mentioning the name of their mothers. The hashtag enables them to say their mother’s name and allows them to bypass a critical society. Hashtags are created by adding # to a “tweet” on Twitter. They are terms invented to add to tweets on a given subject and build a community of tweets or build toward a “trending topic.” Saudi tweeters see this as a way to express their love and gratitude for their...

Well, this is a bit of a first. I responded to a comment by the esteemed representative from Minnesota (pronounced Minn-i-so-cold) and lo and behold, Mr. Ellison responded. Sooo... I thought I would share his tweet with the 'FReeps. The Republican Jewish Coalition published the following... RJCHQ RJC National @ .@keithellison will you be introducing legislation to remove the existing law impediments to funding UN agencies that subvert peace process? 1 hour ago (So, naturally I piled on)....... Nachumlist Nachumlist @keithellison Leaving corrupt UN agencies tainted with hatred is very much in the interest of the United States So, Mr....

Actor Alec Baldwin has launched a war of tweets with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos Baldwin's bombastic twitter attacks on Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has given the Republicans a perfect foil to use to solicit campaign funds--a liberal Hollywood elite actor who wants to raise taxes. "Don't think we haven't thought of that," a Senate GOP source said when asked if Baldwin will be the focus of a fund-raising effort. Even Democrats were scratching their heads over why Baldwin took a one-day story and kept it going. "What Alec Baldwin is doing is making Dean Skelos a man of...

"This is the biggest single Twitter controversy of the campaign. 48,000 mentions!" That was Mike Allen doing his best "look--a squirrel!" impression on today's Morning Joe. Pressed by Joe Scarborough as to whether Politico had any more details beyond its vague allegation that Herman Cain had made gestures "that were not overtly sexual but that made women uncomfortable," Allen's telling first instinct was to point to the story's popularity on a social networking site. View the video here.

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival awards in Old Street, London, the actor said that modern language "is being eroded" and blamed "a world of truncated sentences, soundbites and Twitter." "Our expressiveness and our ease with some words is being diluted so that the sentence with more than one clause is a problem for us, and the word of more than two syllables is a problem for us," he said. Fiennes, full name Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, said that students at drama schools were especially suffering thanks to social networking sites. "I hear it, too, from people at drama schools,...

Marine biologist Jo Wiszniewski has observed a fascinating approach to mating among the Port Stephens Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. According to a recent research paper published by the Journal of Animal Ecology, groups of male dolphins who put aside their sexual competitiveness and form alliances with each other to seek out and reproduce with females have better reproductive success than males who go it alone. “These results are fascinating because it demonstrates that male bottlenose dolphins need to cooperate with each other to maximise their reproductive success,” says Wiszniewski. The alliances are usually made up of two to four males and...

epublicans have again co-opted an Obama administration slogan to mock the president. On Monday, the GOP used Obama's #WeCantWait hashtag to criticize Democrats for the state of the economy. "#WeCantWait to make @BarackObama a one-term president," tweeted Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

It's being referred to as First Lady Michelle Obama's first official tweet, though she's tweeted before (kind of). The first lady tweeted solo for the first time Wednesday night before the first pitch was thrown at Game One of the World Series. After asking a few technical questions, she pushed the right laptop buttons and sent out her tweet pushing her "Joining Forces" agenda, giving hope to all Twitter-challenged people in America. "I did it!" she said, raising her hands in the air triumphantly. The tweet: "Military families serve our nation too. Let's show our appreciation by Joining Forces with...

"Why am I creepy? I’m hardly pro Palin, if that’s your insinuation."

Too funny! If you call for ending all wars and violence while worshiping at the feet of known terrorist Bill Ayers #YouMightBeAFleabagger / If you think economic policies should be judged by the hopes that inspired them rather than incentives they created, #YouMightBeAFleabagger / If you've disrupted food drives for the poor to 'fight against the rich' #YouMightBeAFleabagger

A good (old fashioned?) cyber-spat between San Diego County’s Republican and Democratic parties has broken out on — where else? — Twitter. According to California SB1411, which went became law on January 1, 2011, Tony Krvaric committed a criminal act when he posted as Democrat County Chairman Jess Durfee and when he took other identities: http://www.senatorsimitian.com/images/uploads/SB_1411_Fact_Sheet.pdf http://www.senatorsimitian.com/entry/malicious_e-personation_protection_effective_january_1/ This excerpt from the U-T article says it best (even if it is a quote by Democrat County Chairman Jess Durfee): "He doesn’t seem to spend his time doing the things that help build a party; rather he spends his time playing little...