Kuwait Twitter User Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison For Insulting Emir

This article is from Reuters. Read the original article here.

KUWAIT, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison for insulting the country's ruler on Twitter, a lawyer following the case said, as the Gulf Arab state cracks down on criticism of the authorities on social media.

According to the verdict on Sunday, published by online newspaper Alaan, a tweet written by Rashid Saleh al-Anzi in October "stabbed the rights and powers of the Emir" Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Anzi, who has 5,700 Twitter followers, was expected to appeal, the lawyer, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Kuwait, a U.S. ally and major oil producer, has been taking a firmer line on politically sensitive comments aired on the Internet.

In June 2012, a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of endangering state security by insulting the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on social media.

Two months later, authorities detained Sheikh Meshaal al-Malik Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, over remarks on Twitter in which he accused authorities of corruption and called for political reform, a rights activist said.

While public demonstrations about local issues are common in a state that allows the most dissent in the Gulf, Kuwait has avoided Arab Spring-style mass unrest that toppled three veteran Arab dictators last year.

But tensions have intensified between the hand-picked government, in which ruling family members hold the top posts, and the elected parliament and opposition groups.

(Reporting by Mahmoud Harbi; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Jason Webb)

DeAnn Cooks Sues Twitter, Tulsa Public Schools Over Half-Naked Photo Of Daughter Posted Online

This article is from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

The mother of an Oklahoma teen is suing Tulsa Public Schools, Twitter and others after a half-naked photo of her daughter was posted to the social networking site. The incident, the mother claims, subjected her daughter to severe taunting and physical harassment at school.

DeAnn Cooks says in the lawsuit that her daughter, identified only as S.C., was changing out of her uniform following a basketball game in November 2011 when a teammate grabbed her and restrained her so that a second teammate could take photos of S.C. in her underwear. The students, who attend Booker T. Washington High School, later posted the picture to Twitter, where the image was retweeted "numerous" times, according to the suit.

Cooks says she complained to school officials, who told her there was nothing the school could do about the harassment and urged her not to complain further, for fear of "making the school look bad to the Tulsa Public Schools District administrators," according to court documents. Tulsa Public Schools is not commenting on the case, but Superintendent Keith Ballard told KRMG that the district is investigating the allegations.

Cooks seeks $75,000 in damages from TPS, Twitter and the families of the girls who allegedly took the photos. The two students involved in the incident are accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery and invasion of privacy, and their parents are being accused of negligence. Cooks also accuses TPS of negligence for failing to act on her bullying reports.

The suit alleges that Twitter should have "used reasonable care in the administration of its website so as to prevent the publication of photographs of minors while undressing." While Twitter's terms of service assert that "all content ... is the sole responsibility of the person who originated such content," Cooks' attorney tells FOX 23 that the image was "essentially child porn, a minor in her underwear," and Twitter did nothing to stop its dissemination.

As teens increasingly take to the Internet to share information, more schools are grappling with how to handle sensitive issues on social media, both on and off campus. According to The National Crime Prevention Council, 43 percent of teens are subject to some form of cyberbullying.

Attorneys and experts say that cyberbullying laws being considered or passed by states are not strong enough, and lawsuits like Cooks' will only become more common.

Pro-Anorexia On Twitter: Site Allows 'Thinspiration' Accounts

This article was written by Christina Huffington from Huffington Post. Read the original post here.

Not unlike the the disease it promotes, the online pro-anorexia community has a sneaky way of coming back just when you thought you had it beat. Prolific on Pinterest and Tumblr even as those sites tighten their regulation of self-harm related content, "pro-ana" accounts have become increasingly prevalent on Twitter, Dublin, Ireland radio station 98FM reported.

Pro-ana Twitter users post photos and quotes, often with the hashtag #ProAna or #ProMia (pro-bulimia). Below are some examples. Warning: The following may be triggering to those who struggle with disordered eating.

Pro-anorexia sites and accounts -- whose users and audiences sometimes refer to their content as "thinspiration" -- encourage readers to lose unhealthy amounts of weight and discourage them from seeking treatment for their eating disorders. The sites post photos of underweight girls (Kate Moss in an "I Beat Obesity" t-shirt, for example), ideal measurements and "thinspirational" quotes ("nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"). Some of the most disturbing images are of readers themselves -- often teenage girls -- who photograph their increasingly thin frames over time and despair that they will never be thin enough. The back-and-forth between readers creates a sense of camaraderie that can lead to devastating behaviors, like extreme dieting competitions and sharing of 'tricks of the trade' -- tips for starving or purging that result in greater or faster weight loss and/or for hiding those behaviors and their effects."

While to the outsider these communities seem wholly destructive, there is some concern that to disband them -- or attempt to -- is to remove any form of support for those suffering from a disease that is traditionally rooted in secrecy and isolation. In an Indiana University study published in August, interviews with pro-ana bloggers revealed that they felt the thinspo community aided their recovery. Writing about that study, Blisstree's Elizabeth Nolan Brown reported that she once frequented pro-ana sites herself and argued, "Is part of this about swapping eating disorder tips? Of course. But in addition ... it’s about building friendships, building community, building a support system. It’s about realizing that you are not the only one who feels and behaves this way.

Still, sites designed to offer support to those in recovery make sure to distinguish themselves from pro-ana sites. "Pro-ana, ana buddy systems & similar topics, are not permitted here. Our community provides support for those struggling with an eating disorder, never to advocate for them," emphasizes one website.

One of the primary reasons that pro-ana content can thrive on Twitter is that, unlike Pinterest and Tumblr, the social micro-publishing site is not moderated. When asked by 98FM News whether it would ban the use of these hashtags, Twitter said it doesn't comment on "specific terms or accounts."

'Facebook Dead' Prank: New Memorialization Page Can Lock Living Friend's Account

This article is from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

A new Facebook prank can leave a living friend's account very much "dead."

The "Facebook death" prank is a bizarre new trend spreading across the social network, WGHP notes. A new "Memorialization Request" form makes it simple to convince Facebook that anyone -- dead or not -- is deceased.

Buzzfeed displayed just how easy it is to declare a friend dead on Facebook.Buzzfeed's Katie Notopoulos filled out the Memorialization Request for one of her living co-workers. The only "proof of death" needed was an obituary or news article.

Notopoulos included a link to an obituary from a 74-year-old man with a similar, but different name. "The details of this obituary don't match up at all - this guy is way older, and lives in Nebraska instead of New York," she writes. "Even worse, the names aren't even spelled the same."

The writer's co-worker was effectively locked out of his account. (Click to read what happened next.)

User Rusty Foster fell victim to the Facebook death hoax and had his account locked, according to ABC News. His account was turned into a "memorial page" after someone reported him as deceased. He said he didn't receive notice his account was going to be locked.

"There ought to be an email sent to the account's email address informing it that the account has been reported dead and providing a link or something to dispute the report before any action is taken," he told the network.

Facebook sent a statement to ABC News, explaining the memorialization is designed to protect the privacy of the deceased and his or her family.

"We have designed the memorialization process to be effective for grieving families and friends, while still providing precautions to protect against either erroneous or malicious efforts to memorialize the account of someone who is not deceased," the statement reads. "We also provide an appeals process for the rare instances in which accounts are mistakenly reported or inadvertently memorialized."

A deceased person's digital legacy can be difficult to control, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Passwords are not readily available to surviving family members who want to preserve memories of their loved ones. Facebook's memorialization page was created in 2009 to protect the user's privacy, the Journal notes.

Former Facebook head of security Max Kelly explained the memorialization page in a 2009 blog post:

By memorializing the account of someone who has passed away, people will no longer see that person appear in their Suggestions. When an account is memorialized, we also set privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. We try to protect the deceased's privacy by removing sensitive information such as contact information and status updates. Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into it in the future, while still enabling friends and family to leave posts on the profile Wall in remembrance.

Facebook’s Questionable Policy on Violent Content Toward Women

This article was written by Lara Hudson from Wired.com. Read the original article here.

"Women are like grass, they need to be cut regularly."

Update: 1/7/12 5:30 p.m. EST: Facebook reversed its position on the acceptability of the offending image.

Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities offers numerous guidelines regarding appropriate speech and user safety, including an admonition that “you will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user” and that “you will not post content that: is hate speech, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.”

But that hasn’t stopped countless users on the social media site from making comments, posting images and starting pages that promote the rape and abuse of women. And in many cases, it doesn’t mean that Facebook has any intention of stopping them, either.

Around Christmastime, an Icelandic woman named Thorlaug Agustsdottir came across a Facebook page titled “controversial humor – men are better than women,” and after bantering back and forth with a user whom she describes as a “troll,” she soon found herself staring back at a photo of herself posted on the wall. Her user image had been Photoshopped to look like she had been beaten, with a caption in Icelandic stating, “women are like grass, they need to be beaten/cut regularly.”

“You just need to be raped,” the commenter told Agustsdottir.

Agustsdottir reported the image to Facebook, tagging it as “graphic violence.” A few hours later she received a notice that the image did not meet the criteria for removal.

She reported the image several more times over a period of 24 hours, along with numerous other users, and all received the same response: “This photo wasn’t removed.” Finally, on New Year’s Eve — more than two days after her initial report — Agustsdottir contacted an Icelandic media outlet, DV.is, that broke the story, and it was soon picked up by other Icelandic news sources.

“To my great relief my countrymen responded swiftly and jumped on the Icelandic ‘report train’ – fortunately, there is no stopping the report train once it leaves the station,” Agustsdottir explained in anonline account of the incident.

The next day, says Agustsdottir, the image disappeared — removed either by Facebook or by the user — and not long afterwards the page itself was gone. Hours after the page was removed, Agustsdottir received yet another response to a report saying Facebook did not see anything actionable in its content.

The response from Facebook bothered Agustsdottir, who felt it reflected a lack of a clear policy regarding the promotion of violence toward women.

“I have to admit that I don’t understand the ways of Facebook,” Agustsdottir told Wired. “This is the Twilight Zone…. They need to start explaining what the heck is going on and why material that clearly crosses any moral line would come back gold-stamped ‘A-OK’ when reported.”

Nor is this the first time that the social media giant has been criticized for failing to remove content that threatened women with physical or sexual assault. In late 2011, Facebook took heat for failing to remove “joke” groups that advocated rape – like the charmingly named “You know she’s playing hard to get when your [sic] chasing her down an alley” page – despite petitions and media headlines like “Facebook is fine with hate speech, as long as it’s directed at women.”

Facebook’s response to the backlash indicated that they saw the pro-rape content of the pages as simple opinions: “It is very important to point out that what one person finds offensive another can find entertaining — just as telling a rude joke won’t get you thrown out of your local pub, it won’t get you thrown off Facebook,” a representative of the social media site told the BBC. “Groups or pages that express an opinion on a state, institution, or set of beliefs – even if that opinion is outrageous or offensive to some – do not by themselves violate our policies.”

After a Change.org petition collected over 200,000 signatures and the issue appeared in mainstream media outlets, some of the pages promoting the rape and assault of women were removed. Others were allowed to remain on the site if they were categorized as “humor” sites.

Given the seemingly inconsistent application of the site’s own guidelines regarding violent and threatening images and speech, it’s hard not to wonder: What is Facebook’s actual policy regarding content that advocates rape and violence toward women – or does one exist?

Wired reached out to Facebook for a comment, and a representative clarified the site’s position:

“We take our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities very seriously and react quickly to remove reported content that violates our policies. In general, attempts at humor, even disgusting and distasteful ones, do not violate our policies. When real threats or statements of hate are made, however, we will remove them. We encourage people to report anything they feel violates our policies using the report links located throughout the site.”

The online promotion of violence towards women also became a major issue in the videogame community last year when a female blogger named Anita Sarkeesian launched a Kickstarter to raise money for a video series exploring gender issues in videogames, and found herself on the receiving end of an online harassment campaign that included death and rape threats.

It also inspired an online game that allowed players to “beat” the young research student by clicking on a picture of her face until it become progressively blackened and bloodied – not unlike Agustsdottir’s face.

If the picture of Agustsdottir with a caption advocating violence against women wasn’t considered intimidation, harassment or hateful speech on Facebook for over 48 hours (or indefinitely), one wonders how the game starring Sarkeesian would have fared. Given Facebook’s track record and stated policies regarding this type of content, it would probably be categorized as “humor.”

Facebook Reunites Sisters Tanija Delic And Hedija Talic In Bosnia After 72 Years Apart

This article was written by Sarah Gates from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

Two sisters from Bosnia, 88-year-old Tanija Delic and Hedija Talic, 82, found each other after spending 72 years apart.

Facebook reunited the sisters who were separated from each other in 1941 during World War II, daily newspaper Nezavisne Novine reported, according to the AFP.

The family was fleeing their hometown of Budimlic Japra in northwestern Bosnia at the time, when then 11-year-old Talic became lost and was taken in by an orphanage.

It wasn't until decades later, when Talic's son began searching for his family roots online, that she became close to finding the location of her long-lost older sister -- someone who, as it turns out, was living about 130 miles away, NDJ World News notes.

While they're happy to have found each other, Talic and Delic are planning tocontinue their search for family members, hoping to locate their brother, who may be in the United States, the AFP reports.

This is hardly the first time Facebook has reunited family members. In July, a Florida woman, Joan Courchene Wehrmeyer, used Facebook to reconnect with her daughter, who she had not seen in 48 years.

Jacob Cox-Brown, Oregon Teen, Posts Facebook Status About Drunk Driving, Gets Arrested

This article was written by Katherine Bingley from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

If there's a surefire way to get caught for committing an offense these days, it's airing the details on social media.

Jacob Cox-Brown, an 18-year-old from Oregon, learned that lesson on New Year's Day when police showed up at his door after they were alerted to a Facebook post he wrote about driving drunk, KGW.com reports.

"Drivin drunk... classsic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P," the status update read, according to the news outlet.

Police said the teen's apparent Facebook confession wasn't sufficient evidence for a drunk driving charge. Instead, Cox-Brown was charged with "two counts of failing to perform the duties of a driver," KGW.com reports.

Despite the potential of leaving a very obvious trail, a surprising number of people use Facebook in the aftermath of committing various infractions.

In September, a woman posted an "LOL" status update in reference to her alleged involvement in a drunk driving accident, according to ABC. A judge, who was reportedly not too happy about the post, sentenced her to two days in jail.

In May, two men robbed an Internet cafe, but one of them made themistake of logging into Facebook and forgetting to log out. The flub led police right to him, Gizmodo notes.

Similarly, in 2011, a man who reportedly stole items from Washington Post journalist Marc Fisher posted a picture of himself on Facebook wearing one of the missing items and holding up cash. The suspect had used Fisher's son's laptop to take the picture and posted the image to the teen's Facebook account, advertising his actions to 400 teenagers.

"I've seen a lot, but this is the most stupid criminal I've ever seen," Officer Kyle Roe told Fisher at the time. 

Vietnam School Suspends Student For One Year Over A Facebook Post

This article is from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — School authorities in Vietnam have suspended an eighth-grade student for one year after she posted a parody of a speech by revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh on Facebook.

State-controlled media said Tuesday that the girl's post used language from a famous speech by Ho Chi Minh in 1946 appealing for resistance against French colonialists.

The post joked about never having to take exams again.

Phap Luat Viet Nam quoted a local official in Quang Nam province as saying the girl had "distorted history and seriously insulted teachers."

The girl said the posting was "just for fun."

Ho Chi Minh is revered in Vietnam for leading the country to independence from French rule.

The current Communist government doesn't allow freedom of speech.

Buck, Horrifically Injured 'Dog Who Wouldn't Die,' Recovers Thanks To Facebook Campaign

This article is from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

Thanks to the residents of a Texas city and a Facebook campaign that has gone viral, an abused dog who was was left for dead in a garbage bag has been given a new chance at life.

The pooch, who has since been named "Buck," was reportedly found on Jan. 5, after a local resident of Conroe, Tex., noticed that a garbage bag left on the side of the road and "tied to a t-post of a fence" was moving. He tore the bag open and was shocked to find the 3-year-old mixed breed, covered in blood and weakened by the cold, inside.

(Buck at the vet. Photo credit: Facebook/Bucks for Buck)

According to the Montgomery County Police Reporter, the dog had been shot in the head and face with a pellet gun. He had also been left outside for a long time, exposed to the winter air for at least 10 hours. When the pup emerged from the bag, he reportedly could only take a few steps before collapsing.

Unable to reach animal control, the man who found Buck called his neighbor Tami Augustyn, a local animal lover known for rescuing animals in distress. Augustyn immediately rushed to the scene and brought the injured dog to a veterinary emergency clinic, where vets began treating Buck for multiple pellet wounds and hypothermia. The dog had also suffered damage to his eyes, and doctors fear that he may be permanently blind.

“Dogs love unconditionally. You’ll never find anyone or anything that loves you like a dog. Why would you injure something like that? I don’t understand," Augustyn said of Buck's horrific injuries.

Wanting to help Buck get well, but unable to cover the hefty medical bill, Augustyn took to Facebook to appeal for help.

The response, she says, has been astounding.

Augustyn's page, "Buck Needs Bucks for his Buckshot Injuries," has been liked over 18,000 times since it was first launched this weekend -- and according to the NY Daily News, Augustyn has already raised more than $10,000 for the dog's medical care.

"The last 24 hours [have] been overwhelming for me. I have gone from not knowing if I would have enough money to pay for Buck’s emergency bill to having an unbelievable amount of money to provide THE BEST care possible for Buck’s recovery," Augustyn wrote on the Facebook page early Tuesday, adding that she not only has enough money to cover the dog's emergency clinic bill but also to pay for an appointment with an ophthalmologist who could determine whether there are options for surgery.

Augustyn seen here with a recovering Buck. Photo credit: Facebook/Bucks for Buck

"Your generosity has been AWESOME and if it weren't for each and every one of YOU, Buck would not have a 2nd chance at love," Augustyn wrote in an earlier post.

According to the NY Daily News, Augustyn will be keeping Buck as one of the family and says she plans on using any extra money raised in the Facebook campaign to create "The Buck Foundation," an organization that will focus on helping abused dogs.

As for Buck, dubbed the "dog who wouldn't die" by the Daily Mail, he has miraculously begun walking again and appears to have bonded with his new owner.

Unfortunately, those responsible for Buck's injuries have yet to be caught. As Yahoo! News notes, police in Montgomery County say that they are still investigating the incident.

North Korea Twitter Account Inexplicably Follows Jimmy Dushku, 25-Year-Old Investor From Texas

This article was written by Dominique Mosbergen froom Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

Why does North Korea seem to be so keenly interested in a 25-year-old investor from Austin, Texas?

As Business Insider points out, the hermit kingdom's official Twitter account (@uriminzok) is following the account of American Jimmy Dushku, whose Twitter profile describes him as "Just a young guy trying to make the world a better place :)." Dushku's is only one of three accounts currently followed by North Korea, a country whose forays into social media have been bizarre at times.

"People always ask me how it happened, and I honestly can't remember," Dushku told Mother Jones of his infamous Twitter follower. "It started sometime back in 2010. I was initially surprised, but I always try to make friends with people from all different locations and backgrounds."

Though the Texan is now making headlines thanks to his extraordinary Twitter follower, Dushku is also known among his own social media circle as an avid Coldplay fan. Here's a video, uploaded to YouTube in August 2012, featuring an enthusiastic Dushku at a Coldplay concert (story continues below):

Since being followed by "@uriminzok," the two sides have shared a number of amicable exchanges online.

Dushku reportedly also has "a standing offer from North Korean officials to visit their country."

Due to a number of political, economic and security concerns, the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea has long been strained. According to a 2012 AP report, North Koreans are said to be taught from a young age to "hate" Americans; while in the U.S., a 2011 Gallup poll revealed that 84 percent of Americans had an"unfavorable" view of North Korea. Though it is now possible for Americans to visit North Korea at any time of year, the U.S. State Department warns that travel to the country is "not routine" for Americans, and that it may be difficult to obtain the proper documentation needed to enter the country.

As one might expect, many around the world have puzzled over Dushku's Twitter relationship with the isolated country, but as Mother Jones reports, Dushku has reportedly been bombarded with "angry and graphic messages" -- including death threats -- from strangers who accused him of being a North Korea "sympathizer or even a secret agent."

By now, North Korea's social media eccentricities are pretty much par for the course.

The country's official YouTube channel is known to post kooky collections of videos,including clips of Kim Jong Un looking at fish and meat in a supermarket and clips of seemingly empty stores, amusement parks and bowling alleys.

You'll Want To See This Before You Start Searching On Facebook

This article is from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

Here's a PSA for anyone on Facebook: go have a look-see at what you've been searching.

Before users get too excited about Facebook's new search engine and start tracking down fellow "Girls" fans or single coworkers, they'd be advised to check out an oft-overlooked section of their profiles that documents every search performed on Facebook since September 2012.

Every high-school sweetheart stalked, every ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend examined, every job candidate scoped out is listed in chronological order, together with the date and time of the search.

This search data isn't public, but at least a few Facebook users were shocked to see an unadulturated list of all the people they'd been stalking. "This makes me want to die," tweeted @katiecamp5. Another user remarked she'd "die if this was ever public." Of course, if that list is visible to you, as the owner of the profile, it's also visible to any one who might happen to have access to your profile while you're logged in -- a spouse or significant other, say.

As Facebook rolls out its search engine, Graph Search, and pushes its users to perform more queries on the social network, it's worth bearing in mind that those queries are not only logged, but stored in an easily-accessible way.

Lars Rasmussen, Facebook search head and a former Google employee, noted in the company's press conference Tuesday that searches "will be tracked in your activity log," according to Engadget. Facebook updated its Activity Log to include search queries in September 2012.

To review your search history, go to your Facebook profile, navigate to the "Activity Log" button on the right-hand side of the page, click the "Search" tab in the column on the left-hand side of the page and gasp in horror. (To find the "Search" tab, you may need to click "More" under the section that begins with "Photos.") You can delete individual queries or clear the search activity by clicking "Clear Searches" at the top of the page.

Let us know what you found when you checked out your search history.

Facebook Study Says Envy Is Rampant On The Social Network

This article was written by Belinda Goldsmith from Reuters. Read the original post here.

LONDON (Reuters) - Witnessing friends' vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.

A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world's largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.

The researchers found that one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.

"We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry," researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin's Humboldt University told Reuters.

"From our observations some of these people will then leave Facebook or at least reduce their use of the site," said Krasnova, adding to speculation that Facebook could be reaching saturation point in some markets.

Researchers from Humboldt University and from Darmstadt's Technical University found vacation photos were the biggest cause of resentment with more than half of envy incidents triggered by holiday snaps on Facebook.

Social interaction was the second most common cause of envy as users could compare how many birthday greetings they received to those of their Facebook friends and how many "likes" or comments were made on photos and postings.

"Passive following triggers invidious emotions, with users mainly envying happiness of others, the way others spend their vacations and socialize," the researchers said in the report "Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users' Life Satisfaction?" released on Tuesday.

"The spread and ubiquitous presence of envy on Social Networking Sites is shown to undermine users' life satisfaction."

They found people aged in their mid-30s were most likely to envy family happiness while women were more likely to envy physical attractiveness.

These feelings of envy were found to prompt some users to boast more about their achievements on the site run by Facebook Inc. to portray themselves in a better light.

Men were shown to post more self-promotional content on Facebook to let people know about their accomplishments while women stressed their good looks and social lives.

The researchers based their findings on two studies involving 600 people with the results to be presented at a conference on information systems in Germany in February.

The first study looked at the scale, scope and nature of envy incidents triggered by Facebook and the second at how envy was linked to passive use of Facebook and life satisfaction.

The researchers said the respondents in both studies were German but they expected the findings to hold internationally as envy is a universal feeling and possibly impact Facebook usage.

"From a provider's perspective, our findings signal that users frequently perceive Facebook as a stressful environment, which may, in the long-run, endanger platform sustainability," the researchers concluded.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)

Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook's First Female Engineer: 'It Was Difficult To Break Into The Boys' Club'

This article was written by Bianca Bosker from Huffington Post. Read the original article here.

When Ruchi Sanghvi arrived for her first job interview at Facebook's headquarters, no one was there.

It was the fall of 2005 and when she reached thestartup's graffiti-covered offices in downtown Palo Alto at noon, they were empty. Two hours later, she was still waiting. At 3 p.m., someone finally arrived to interview her -- the engineers had been up all night coding and slept in, she learned later.

Sanghvi was undeterred. Impressed by the place, the people, and the product, which she had spent hours using as a student at Carnegie Mellon University, she became Facebook's first female engineer, one of the first 10 engineers hired by the company.

Sanghvi's five-year career at Facebook underscores the meritocratic nature of the startup world, where a bright, young engineer like Sanghvi, who was raised in the industrial town of Pune, India, and didn't regularly use a computer until her freshman year of college, could play a key role in shaping one of the world's most influential web companies.

Yet her experience also sheds light on the challenges female engineers faced then -- and still face -- in a male-dominated field. Sanghvi's story illustrates that despite all the talk of equality between the sexes, women often grapple with a unique set of difficulties when it comes to finding role models in the engineering field and making inroads into what she called "the boys' club."

During her tenure at Facebook, Sanghvi not only watched the company explode into a global network with a population greater than that of the United States, but also built the social network's most defining features. She launched News Feed, which radically changed the Facebook experience by putting friends' online activities front and center on the site; Platform, an update that allowed third-party developers and entrepreneurs to build apps on Facebook; and Connect, which made it possible for people to link their Facebook identities and friends to almost any site on the web.

The products she developed helped propel the site forward and also rewrote the rules of the web, eroding anonymity on the Internet and ushering in a new age where peoples' real names were attached to everything they did online. Sanghvi describes this connection between offline and online identities as the next big idea in tech, one that will reshape everything from e-commerce to health care.

"Facebook has woven itself into the fabric of our lives and the foundation of the Internet," Sanghvi said. "I think everything will be redefined because people are using their real identities on the Internet."

Sanghvi said she was used to being the odd woman out -- she was one of five female students out of 150 in a course in the Electrical Computer Engineering department -- and at Facebook, she again found herself on a team with only a handful of female engineers.

Though she looks back fondly on her time at Facebook and describes it as "one of the best companies to be working at right now," she said her male co-workers enjoyed a certain camaraderie that she could not match or fully penetrate.

"It was difficult to break into the boys' club," Sanghvi said. "I wish that females had a similar culture or support network."

Sanghvi said the male engineers on her team created a "brogramming page," presumably only for the Facebook "bros" who were programming. She recalls having to change her working style to adapt to the "aggressive" environment, a shift she said affected how she was perceived.

"Engineers are either aggressive or passive aggressive. You need to just dive straight into it, and sometimes there are social repercussions because of it," Sanghvi explained. "The impression that people had of me was that I was really harsh, hard-edged, brusque and to the point. All of that happened because I am a woman, and I was acting in that kind of environment."

Facebook declined to disclose what percentage of its current total staff and engineers are female. The company does not have any affirmative action programs or quotas in place to attract female engineers, though Facebook supports and funds interest groups, such as Facebook Women or Women Engineers, that its employees create.

"Increasing the number of women in the tech sector is hugely important to Facebook," a Facebook spokeswoman said. "We want our company to reflect the diverse global community that we serve."

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has also been an outspoken advocate for increasing the number of female leaders.

"Men run the world," Sandberg said in a May 2011 commencement address delivered at Barnard College. "We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women's voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored."

To Sanghvi, increasing the number of women in tech requires not only HR initiatives, but also having more female role models in engineering, computer science and other technical fields.

"Kids in college often look for mentors and role models to model their careers after, and women don't have the equivalent of a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates," Sanghvi said. "I think it's a self-perpetuating loop."

She also noted that women must ultimately be proactive about choosing their fate, and shared what she said is the most important lesson she's learned thus far in her career: "If I don't ask for something, I'm not going to get it."

Even as she is candid about the challenges she faced at Facebook, Sanghvi, who left in 2010 to start her own company, Cove, praised the tech industry for consistently rewarding excellence and ability above all else.

"It may not be a meritocracy, but it is the closest thing to a meritocracy in the working world,” she said. “I think that itself is very powerful."