FireInATheater.com

Not really, at least not yet. Unless, of course, your Web cam is near your toilet.

But, the New York Times reports, Facebook is sending “news alerts to users’ friends about the goods and services they buy and view online.” After tens of thousands of users protested, Facebook is now seeking users’ explicit permission before making the information available instead of, well, just doing it.

“Isn’t this community getting a little hypocritical?” one advertising exec moaned about the protest to the Times. “Now, all of a sudden, they don’t want to share something?”

The exec, Organic’s Chad Stoller, doesn’t get it. While some morons are comfortable putting their private lives out there for everyone to see, the point is they chose to do it. When they purchase gifts for friends or, more importantly, private items they usually are not choosing to communicate that information—at least until the gift is unwrapped.

In fact, the Times reports that some Facebook members have already found out what they are receiving for Christmas, Hanukkah, etc. via the new Facebook program. Maybe I should set up a Facebook account for my wife …  
[NYTimes]

A new report released today by ARTICLE 19, The Cost of Reputation: Defamation Law and Practice in Russia, shows that defamation law has been used in Russia to repress criticism of public figures and powerful individuals, through the instigation of multiple civil and criminal proceedings against the media. At the same time, although the application of the European Convention on Human Rights in Russian courts remains relatively rare, some progress has been recorded.

Russia retains and applies criminal defamation, which can lead to imprisonment, as demonstrated by three cases in 2005-2006. A development of particular concern has been the adoption of extremism legislation which provides an additional layer of protection to public officials - a move that runs counter to international standards on freedom of expression.

According to Reuters:

The video-sharing Web site YouTube has suspended the account of a prominent Egyptian anti-torture activist who posted videos of what he said was brutal behaviour by some Egyptian policemen, the activist said. [See Nov. 5 story on the police arrest below the jump.]
. . .
YouTube regulations state that "graphic or gratuitous violence" is not allowed and warn users not to post such videos. Repeat violators of YouTube guidelines may have their accounts terminated, according to rules posted on the site.

Rights activists said by shutting down Abbas's account, YouTube was closing a significant portal for information on human rights abuses in Egypt just as Cairo was escalating a crackdown on opposition and independent journalists.

The Internet has emerged in Egypt as a major forum for critics of the Egyptian government.

While one blogger and 12 journalists have been imprisoned by Egypt in the past year, the trend continues with the arrest (and later release) of a blogger covering a Nov. 28 demonstration “after officials there reported him to police for taking photos and sending messages about a demonstration on his mobile phone.”

In other Egypt sucks at free speech news, RSF reports that an Egyptian court sentenced a newspaper editor (one of the abovementioned 12) to one year in prison for publishing “an “indecent” photo of actress Hala Sidki in January.”
[Reuters, RSF No. 1, RSF No. 2]

While authorities in Iran have continued their moral crackdown, this time attacking rap music, the country’s leader has experienced quite a dose of negative free expression directed right at him.

When starting his blog, the Guardian reports, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “may have failed to reckon with the merciless mud-slinging and sarcasm that characterises communication in much of cyberspace. Far from being a repository of fawning admiration, Ahmadinejad's blog has attracted criticism as scathing as that voiced by his known adversaries.”
[AFP, Guardian, Ahmadinejad’s blog]