Kentucky Coach John Calipari Gets Social Media

This article from the New York Times discusses how University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari uses social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and a personal website to engage with Kentucky fans and raise money for charity. While regular social media users might not be as popular as Coach Calipari, the Times article still gives a compelling example for the benefits of proactive online reputation management.

Facebook Faces Problems in Europe

GigaOm details Facebook’s most recent skirmish with European regulators over privacy-related issues. According to the post, “Swiss and German privacy authorities have told the Associated Press that they are looking at how Facebook — and possibly Google and other sites as well — allows its users to upload email addresses, photos and other content that either belongs to or includes people who haven’t given their consent to appear on the service. According to the AP story, this would likely include uploading pictures without getting the permission of everyone who appears in the photo, and could also affect the automated importing of email addresses that Facebook, Google and other social networks provide as a way of finding your friends when you join a new service.”

Harry McCracken Offers Cybersafety Tips

In a guest post for Fox News, Harry McCracken, the owner of Technologizer and the former editor-in-chief of PCWorld, offers a handful of tips for social media users to protect themselves from online scams and phishing schemes. In addition to offering specific examples, McCracken’s primary advice is for users to use “common sense and healthy skepticism” when they’re online.

Kevin Smith Gets Angry on Twitter…Again

Never one to shy from confrontation, film director Kevin Smith has lashed out at film critics from his Twitter feed using language profane enough to prevent me from rewriting it here. One would think Smith might have learned the error of oversharing on Twitter after his last angry rant about Southwest Airlines wound up hurting his public image more than helping it.

States Reconsider Criminal Punishment for Teen Sexting

If a teen takes a nude picture of him or herself and then sends it to a friend, would he or she be guilty of distribution of child pornography? If you asked a parent, the answer would likely be no. If you asked a judge or prosecutor, however and the answer might be yes. The reason for this discrepancy isn’t because the prosecutors are unfair, however, but rather because few laws exist to narrow the scope of child pornography offenses.

That may be changing however as, according to this article from Ars Technica, many states are now looking at ways to limit penalties for minors who engage in “sexting,” opting for misdemeanor punishments and mandatory counseling.

Twitter Spam Reduced to Less than 1% of Tweets

According to this article from ReadWriteWeb, Twitter is slowly but surely winning the fight against spammers. Since ratcheting up its anti-spam efforts in recent months, Twitter has reportedly reduced the percentage of spam tweets per day to less than 1%. Despite this progress, however, Twitter still relies heavily on user reporting, so if you see a spammer, tell Twitter.