[[Image:Newfacebooklogo3.jpg|thumb|Facebook logo|right]]
'''Facebook''' (stylized '''facebook''') is a [[liberal]]-promoted [[social networking]] website that profits by exploiting personal information in users' profiles, and by advertising. Users can spend, or indeed waste, their time on it in a variety of ways: by uploading pictures (typically of themselves), by gossiping about others, by talking to friends, by interfering with marriages and personal relationships, and by acting like a [[busybody]]. Facebook use is correlated with underachievement in school and disruption of social relationships, such as marriage. For many teenagers, Facebook use replaces healthier activities and gatherings.
Despite being called "social networking," Facebook is typically a poor substitute for real social networking. One survey conducted showed that Facebook feeds narcissistic tendencies.<ref>http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-30/tech/facebook.narcissism.mashable_1_facebook-social-networking-status-updates?_s=PM:TECH</ref><ref>http://m.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389</ref>
Other studies done have shown that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems and an increase in psychological disorders in youth.<ref>[http://thetechjournal.com/internet/facebook-is-the-new-cause-of-divorce.xhtml#ixzz1OmdIs3rN Facebook is the new cause of divorce, The Tech Journal, December 23, 2009]</ref><ref>[http://m.zdnettechnorati.com/blogsocial-media/facebookarticle/facebook-overuse-can-leadlinked-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389Facebook Linked To Psychological Disorders In Teens]</ref> The site is heavily promoted by [[liberal]]s, presumably because it is so unproductive or even counterproductive.
Activities on Facebook have caused people to be fired from their jobsor indeed, refused to be hired for a job in the first place.
Anybody with an account can create an unlimited amount of unproductive pages, which can then be "liked" by other userswho can also post similar items to the page.
Facebook is based in Palo Alto, [[California]]. The name of the site is based on the paper facebooks that many colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.<ref> [http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook] </ref>
In September 2006, [[Yahoo]] began talks to acquire Facebook for as high as $1 billion. In October, Google allegedly offered $2.3 billion.<ref>[http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2006/10/10/first-youtube-now-facebook-rumors-circulate "First Youtube, Now Facebook: Rumors Circulate"]</ref> All outside offers have been rejected. 2009 estimates put a net value of $6.5 billion. <ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10285409-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0 Facebook stock trading open; valuation $6.5 billion] CNET News, July 13, 2009</ref> 2010 estimates of the privately held company put the value at $14 billion dollars. <ref>[http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/facebook-valued-at-14-billion-on-secondmarket/ Facebook Valued At $14 Billion On SecondMarket, TechCrunch.com, January 20, 2010]</ref>
In 2011, [[Goldman Sachs]] invested $500 million in Facebook. It is speculated that JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs may be and Morgan Stanley was put in charge of an initial public offering of Facebook stock in 2012. Valuations are speculated The company went public at between $10 and 38-per-share IPO price valued Facebook at $50 104 billion. <ref>[http://www.foxbusinessreuters.com/personal-financearticle/20112012/0105/0322/goldmanus-digitalfacebook-skyforecasts-technologiesidUSBRE84L06920120522 Insight: Morgan Stanley cut Facebook estimates just before IPO, Reuters.com, May 22, 2012]</ref> As of August 2012, the company is trading down at $20 per share, a loss of $50 billion in value. As of January 2013, the stock has rebounded slightly and is trading at $30 per share, however this still represents a loss of $25 billion in value.It is now possible to message the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, for approximately $100. <ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-invest205_162-57563563/facebook-reporttesting-$100-charge-to-message-zuckerberg/?test=latestnews Is Facebook Worth charging $50B?, Fox Business, January 3, 2011100 to send a message to founder Mark Zuckerberg]</ref>
==Origins==
98% of political donations from Facebook employees went to [[Barack Obama]] in the 2008 presidential election. <ref>[http://beforeitsnews.com/story/684/994/Facebook_self_appointed_arbiter_of_free_speech_tells_Tea_Party_no_more_organizing.html Facebook – self appointed arbiter of “free speech” – tells Tea Party no more organizing, Before It's News, June 2, 2011]</ref>
==Christian Presence==
Despite these liberal policies and promotion, the wave of Christianity is overwhelming. A quick and simple search reveals that the main Christianity page has more members than all the atheist pages combined.
==Conservative Groupings==
While Facebook does have a pro-liberal agenda, this has not stopped conservative groups and pages forming. The [[Conservative Party]] as well as the [[Tea Party Movement]] have created pages. A search of the pages reveals that, when comparing the "likes" system on facebook, both the Tea Party and the Tea Party Patriots dominate more liberal pages such as "Gay marriage USA" and even the political ideology page "Liberal"
==Censorship and harassment by Facebook==
Ongoing censorship and harassment by Facebook is documented at [http://www.facebookcensorship.com http://www.facebookcensorship.com] with screenshots. Also documented is the wholesale destruction of groups that took some people years to build by Facebook's deleting all of the members. Facebook then deleted the discussion areas from "pages" to further their control and censorship. Facebook temporarily banned Fox News reporter Todd Starnes for not being a liberal, giving the reason that his "politically incorrect" post violated community guidelines. <ref>[http://www.fireandreamitchell.com/2013/06/29/fascist-facebook-bans-fox-reporter-todd-starnes-for-politically-incorrect-nra-post/ Fascist Facebook bans Fox reporter Todd Starnes, FireAndreamitchell.com, jUNE 29, 2013]</ref>
==Privacy issues==
Facebook Privacy Policy is constantly changing. This is not for the benefit of the users but to the monetary value they represent to advertisers. Due to the size of Facebook, all kinds of data on your habits are monitored. Not just by Facebook either, the government can peek at your life and monitor you behind the scenes. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/17/13-year-old-boy-questioned-secret-service-facebook-posting/?test=latestnews 13-Year-Old Boy Questioned by Secret Service Over Facebook Posting, Fox News, May 17, 2011]</ref> <ref>[http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_bbd23382-6ecf-11e0-aeef-001a4bcf6878.html Feds mine Facebook for info, STLToday.com, April 25, 2011]</ref> Facebook claims your personal information is not for sale. They make the case that it is anonymously collected data, thereby protecting your privacy. Third parties develop applications to run on top of Facebook. Your privacy is effectively in the hands of unknown organizations. The below examples include what information is on display by every user.
* The first 6 months of 2013, Facebook shared personal data with the U.S. Government about 39,000 facebook users. <ref>[http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/08/just-peachy-facebook-shared-personal.html?m=0 JUST PEACHY: Facebook shared personal data of users a mere 26 thousand times in the first six months of 2013, Doug Ross, August 27, 2013]</ref>
* The [[NSA]] paid several tech companies, including Facebook, millions of dollars to cover the cost of spying on Americans. <ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/nsa-prism-costs-tech-companies-paid NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies, The Guardian, Augist 22, 2013]</ref>
* 6 million Facebook members had their data exposed after management found a glitch that inadvertently shared personal contact details with other members. <ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57590528-93/facebook-bug-exposed-contact-info-of-6m-users/ Facebook bug exposed contact info of 6M users, CNET.com June 21st, 2013]</ref>
* Many users post their full address, e-mail address, birthday, and telephone number, and these can be available to their entire network (and, in reality, anyone). This information in the wrong hands can be used for purposes of phishing, stalking, or even identity theft.
* Some universities have begun to use students' pages to investigate underage drinking and other violations of university policy. This is very possible, since university faculty and staff can sign up for the same network as their students through their campus e-mail account.<ref> [http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook on allexperts.com]</ref>
*The so-called "news feed" has aroused some discomfort among Facebook users, as it displays all changes and status updates from their friends by default.
*The "wall" feature allows a user to post a message to another user which remains on their profile page. This posting is viewable to everyone who can view the page(which is pretty much the entire world), and shows up on the news feed for all friends of both the sender and the recipient by default.
*As with Google ads, Facebook collects profile information, and places ads on the page that reflect the user's personal information. This resulted in one man logging into his facebook account, and seeing his wife's photograph appear in an advertisement for a dating website.<ref> [http://www.kvoa.com/news/husband-finds-wife-in-facebook-singles-ad/] Husband finds wife in facebook singles ad</ref>
*The privacy settings on Facebook give users a false sense of security and encourage people to post things they shouldn't. As with other social networks, Facebook refuses to admit that its privacy settings that apparently allow only "friends" to see certain information are completely bogus and can easily be cracked by people with little to no [[hacking]] experience. Instead, Facebook actually ''encourages'' young users to only allow "friends" to see certain information, rather than just warning them that what they post can be seen by the world and to not post what they wouldn't want people to see.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/01/myspace_torrent This is why only a fool would trust any social networking platform to keep any information private]</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Wepluribus]] (conservative alternative to Facebook)
* [[Social media]]
* [[Twitter]]
* [[MySpace]]
* [[Google Plus | Google+]]
== External links ==
*[http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=175839 The increasing amount of personal information that can been gleaned by computer programs that track how people use Facebook] *[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/fashion/weddings/chris-hughes-sean-eldridge-weddings.html Chris Hughes married his boyfriend partner Sean Eldridge.] The gay cofunder co-founder of Facebook. *[http://www.facebookcensorship.com/ Political and religious censorship and harassment by Facebook]
==References==