TwitsMag Canada

by AFP         Source: Goole Hosted News

WASHINGTON — A self-described anarchist who used Twitter to help protestors evade police during the G20 summit is facing charges in a case that has drawn the attention of online freedom and civil liberties groups.

Elliot Madison, 41, was arrested in a Pittsburgh motel room on September 24 and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a follow-up raid on his New York apartment on Thursday.

According to the police complaint obtained by the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation and posted online on Tuesday, Madison and another man were in the motel room when police arrived.

“Both were observed seated in front of personal computers and telecommunications equipment, wearing headphones and microphones, with various maps, contact numbers and police and (emergency) scanners,” the complaint said.

“It was further observed that they had been in communication with various protestors, and protest groups, both by use of cellular communications equipment and Internet-based communications, more commonly known as ‘Twitter,’” it said.

“The observed ‘Twitter’ communications were noted to be relevant to the direction of the movement of protestors, and protest groups, in order to avoid apprehension,” the complaint said.

Madison was hit with three charges including helping protestors “avoid apprehension after a lawful order to disperse.”

Witold Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union, condemned the arrest.

“I guess if you have 5,000 police officers and a quarter-million dollars in fancy equipment, you have to do something with it,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Might as well go after some amateur ham radio operators in a motel room.

“If the police want to communicate privately, there are certainly ways to do that, and police radios are not one of those,” Walczak said. “How can it be a crime? It’s not a secure communication.”

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

Twitter has been forced to crack down on fake accounts after a number of celebrities including Cheryl Cole and David Miliband were targeted.

Source: telegraph.co.uk By: Aislinn Laing

Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams Photo: GETTY

In the past, the instant blogging site has seemed to tolerate fake accounts, even though some have attracted large numbers of followers and featured dubious claims about celebrities’ lives.

But now Tony La Russa, the coach of a US baseball team, has launched legal action over a fake account which he said featured “hurtful” comments about the deaths of two of his players.

The actor Ewan McGregor is also said to be considering legal action after nearly 20,000 followers of a bogus account set up in his name read updates about his personal life.

Other false accounts on Twitter include one in the name of Britney Spears, another for the Dalai Lama and one for the Queen.

Earlier this summer, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband was forced to deny comments attributed to him about the death of Michael Jackson.

Another Tweeter pretended to be jailed record producer Phil Spector, writing from his prison cell and another had former Mirror editor and Britain’s Got Talent judge congratulating followers for voting for Susan Boyle.

A fake Twitter set up account for George W. Bush attracted 1,100 followers. Recently, the hoaxer had the former US President saying of the Queen’s birthday: “Queenie Lizzie’s birthday party today. She’s lookin’ good for 110 years old, or however old she is.”

The fake profiles has even led to one enterprising individual setting up a website aimed a verifying Twitter accounts. Valebrity founder Steven Livingstone believes many of the fake accounts are set up to carry out direct marketing.

“People are making a lot of money out of it. Nobody knows who’s who on these sites,” he said.

Twitter struggles to prevent fake accounts being set up because it does not request proof of identity and until now, has tolerated them provided they do not claim to be genuine.

But following complaints, the website, which has six million users, is now testing a new system that guarantees genuine accounts with a tick next to the name.

“We’re working to establish authenticity, starting with well-known accounts that have had problems with impersonation or identity confusion,” a Twitter spokesman said.

kvolkmann@bizjournals.com

Twitter is suspending the accounts of some users whose computers have fallen victim to a well-known piece of malicious software that has targeted other sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The malware, Koobface, is designed to spread itself by checking to see if person is logged into a social network. It will then post fraudulent messages on the person’s Twitter account trying to entice friends to click the link, which then leads to a malicious Web site that tries to infect the PC.

The popular microblogging service has had a strong impact as a new communication platform, such as providing on-the-ground insight from participants in the recent protests over the presidential election in Iran. But it is also being targeted by fraudsters and hackers, who using it as a way to infect people’s PCs with malicious software.

Twitter is the latest site to be targeted by a Koobface variant, said Rik Ferguson, senior security advisor for Trend Micro. Other sites have included Bebo, Hi5, Friendster and LiveJournal, according to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

“Koobface has a long, inglorious history and has been relatively successful at infecting machines,” Ferguson said.

At least a couple hundred accounts have been infected by Koobface’s latest efforts, according to Ryan Flores, an advanced threats researcher, writing on Trend’s blog. When it made its first appearance a couple of weeks ago on Twitter, Koobface was just sending out three shortened URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) leading to malware. Flores wrote that Koobface is sending out more bad links this time around. (Full story here…)

CBC News

Despite all the media and celebrity chirping about Twitter, almost three-quarters of Canadian internet users weren’t aware of the social networking site three months ago, suggests an online survey by Ipsos Reid.

As well, only a tiny fraction of them ever used Twitter.

When asked “Are you aware of Twitter?” just 26 per cent of more than 824 respondents answered yes during the online survey conducted in March, Ipsos reported Thursday.

The latter were asked “Do you actually use it?” Of those, only six per cent — or about 1.45 per cent of respondents — said they did.

Twitter allows people to make brief online posts of up to 140 characters that can be viewed publicly and are automatically sent to other users who sign up to “follow” them, either online or via mobile devices.

Across the country, Quebecers were the least likely to bat an eyelid over Twitter, with only seven per cent saying they were aware of it, the survey found.

Awareness was higher among 18 to 34 year olds, at 32 per cent, than among older people. Those with university educations were more likely to be aware than those with high school education or less.

It was impossible to draw conclusions about the demographics of Canadians who actually use Twitter, as their numbers in the survey were too low, said Mark Laver, associate vice-president of Ipsos Reid.

Laver said he was “a little bit” surprised by the low awareness of Twitter.

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