Facebook game to fight extremism

14 July 2011 Last updated at 07:15 GMT By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, TEDGlobal, Edinburgh Happy Oasis has already achieved a large following on Facebook. A social media game with Arab super heroes at its heart has been launched on Facebook.

The man behind the project, Suleiman Bakhit, hopes that Happy Oasis can create positive role models for children who might otherwise be enticed by extremist views.

The game launched this week and has already attracted 50,000 followers.

Newly appointed TED fellow Mr Bakhit spoke about his project at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh.

Mr Bakhit, who comes from Jordan, was a student at the US University of Minnesota when the 9/11 attacks took place. Shortly afterwards he was attacked by four men because he was an Arab.

Magic carpet Mr Bakhit has created a range of comic book characters

Instead of feeling bitter, Mr Bakhit decided to engage in an education campaign.

"I realised that you fight extremism by starting with the young. The message was simple - 'We are not all terrorists'," he told the BBC.

Armed with a not-so-magic carpet, he began telling Aladdin-style stories in local schools.

"One day a child asked me if there was an Arab superman and I realised that there wasn't," he said.

So began his comic-book project which aimed to create a range of positive Arab role-models, including a female James Bond and a Jordanian special agent who fights extremists.

In Jordan, Mr Bakhit has sold 300,000 copies of his comics and came to realise that there was a market for a web-based version.

"Print media is dying but there are 30 million Arabs on Facebook so I thought about making social games with the same message," he said.

Mr Bakhit wanted to make sure that his characters related to the children he was aiming to reach.

His comics were a huge hit in Jordan

"I took a peer-to-peer approach, engaging kids to get their ideas," he said.

He was undecided about whether to include a character dressed in a burka until he showed the animated character to a focus group.

"They loved the idea so she was in," he said.

The first game featured special agent Element O and while it was, in Mr Bakhit's words "not very good", it did show him the potential of such a project.

"Fans were discussing the games in the forums and arguing about politics. I went on as Element O and the arguments immediately stopped," he said.

Mr Bakhit said he now hopes to take his comic book model to Pakistan, where extremism is a growing problem.

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Facebook adds Skype video chat

6 July 2011 Last updated at 19:23 GMT Mark Zuckerberg: "This type of thing is only possible because of the social infrastructure that already exists"

Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to add video chat to the social networking site.

The move is likely to be seen as a shot across the bow of Google, which recently launched a Facebook rival, Google+, also featuring video calling.

This is not the first time Facebook and Skype have teamed up - they already share some instant messaging tools.

Skype is in the process of being bought by Microsoft, which is a major shareholder in Facebook.

The new video-call service was launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who also revealed that the site now had more than 750 million users.

However, he said that the total number of active users was no longer a useful measure of the site's success.

Instead, the amount of sharing - of photographs, videos and web links - was a better indication of how people engaged with the site, explained Mr Zuckerberg.

One to one

At launch, Facebook's video chat service will only be able to connect two users face-to-face, whereas Google's system allows group video calls, known as Hangouts.

Continue reading the main story Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, Silicon Valley

Coming hard on the heels of Google+, Facebook's Skype offering is likely to be compared to its rival's Hangout feature. That product allows up to ten people to chat at any one time, while the Facebook/Skype video chat feature facilitates just one-on-one video chatting.

Skype did hint that there will be added features in future, but Google has stolen the lion's share of the headlines and Facebook will not enjoy being seen as following in its footsteps.

At the launch in California, Mark Zuckerberg was reluctant to get involved in a tit for tat comparison but he did say that he saw such products as part of the narrative that in future companies which have not traditionally looked at social networking will be layering it on top of all their products.

Mr Zuckerberg said that it was likely that other "premium" Skype functions would be added in future.

He also appeared to offer a back-handed compliment to Google+, saying that its creation was a vindication of Facebook's vision for the social web.

Industry analysts welcomed the announcement.

"Advertisers love anything that keeps users on Facebook for longer and that is something Facebook has been brilliant at - keeping people engaged with the platform for increasingly longer periods of time," Susan Etlinger of the Altimeter Group told BBC News.

"It stands to reason that the longer you are on Facebook, the happier advertisers will be."

In California, Skype chief executive Tony Bates welcomed the partnership, calling it a "long-term relationship" that could benefit both companies.

At one point he had to correct Mr Zuckerberg on the subject of Skype's ownership, reminding him that the Microsoft deal was not yet complete and still had to be cleared by regulators.

The tie-in was announced a week after Google announced its own social networking service, Google+.

"The two companies built these products separately and independently over a number of months but they will be compared directly," said Ben Parr, editor-at-large of social media blog Mashable.com.

"They are going to be in more heated competition in the next year or so and you are going to hear a lot about who is going to win the social networking war - how does Google catch up, how does Facebook respond. This story isn't going away."

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Google unveils new Facebook rival

29 June 2011 Last updated at 01:50 GMT Google+ has been released for use by a small, selected number of users Online search giant Google has launched a new social networking website in its latest attempt to take on Facebook, which now claims more than 500m users.

Google+ allows individuals to share photos, messages and comments but also integrates the company's maps and images into the service.

It also aims to help users easily organise contacts within groups.

But some analysts say Google has simply reproduced features of Facebook while adding a video chat function.

Google, which handles roughly two out of every three internet searches in the US, has taken several stabs at Facebook in recent years.

But its previous efforts ended in failure, with both Google Wave and Google Buzz proving unpopular with users.

New functions

The company is now boasting that four features in Google+ could help make the company a permanent player in social networking:

Continue reading the main story

Google is playing it canny by only releasing the product via invite to a limited set of users before being gradually opened up to the general public”

End Quote Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley Circles - a functionality that allows individuals to place friends into groups, allowing users to share different forms of content with targeted clusters of friendsHangouts - live multi-user video conferencing that permits friends to drop in and out of live group conversationsHuddle - group instant messagingSparks - a feature that connects individuals on the network to others with common interests.The current version of Google+ has only been released to a small number of users, but the company has said it soon hopes to make the social network available to the millions of individuals that use its services each day.

"Online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it's time we got started," Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, said in a press release.

"Other social networking tools make selective sharing within small groups difficult," she added, taking what appears to be a jab at Facebook's recent grouping function.

But some analysts have said Google could have a difficult time converting Facebook devotees to their new social network.

"People have their social circles on Facebook - asking them to create another social circle is challenging," Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with research firm eMarketer, told the Associated Press news agency.

"The whole idea of a Google social network... they've been throwing stuff against the wall for several years and so forth nothing has stuck," she added.

In April, Google reached an out-of-court settlement with a US policy group over its rollout of Google Buzz, a previous social effort.

The legal action claimed Google deceived users and violated its own privacy policy by automatically enrolling all Gmail users in its Buzz social network without seeking prior permission.

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Winklevoss Facebook row continues

25 June 2011 Last updated at 09:08 GMT The Winklevoss twins claimed that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea to set up Facebook The Winklevoss brothers have re-started their long-running legal dispute with Facebook and its boss Mark Zuckerberg.

Just days after dropping a supreme court action, the twins filed a fresh lawsuit against the company.

It claims that Facebook "intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence" during their previous litigation.

Originally, Tyler and Cameron accused Mr Zuckerberg of stealing their idea to create the site.

The story of the feud formed the core of the 2010 film "The Social Network".

The row dates from 2003 when the Winklevosses hired Mr Zuckerberg to write code for their ConnectU site while at Harvard.

He never did, but instead set up Facebook, which quickly became a success around the world.

A court case over who did what was resolved in 2008 when the parties agreed on a financial settlement, reportedly worth around $65m (?41m).

In January 2011 the Winklevosses tried to reopen the case, seeking more money. However, a US appeals court ruled in April that they would have to accept the settlement.

The twins initially said they would appeal against the settlement, but decided this week not to pursue that legal avenue.

New lawsuit Facebook quickly became popular around the world

In the most recent suit filed on Thursday with the US District Court of Massachusetts, the Winklevosses and their business partner Divya Narendra said that Facebook hid some crucial information from them during settlement proceedings.

The twins said that Mr Zuckerberg did not disclose some important documents in regards to the relationship between him and the brothers while they were at Harvard.

Facebook's outside counsel Neel Chatterjee said in a statement: "These are old and baseless allegations that have been considered and rejected previously by the courts."

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Conviction over 'menacing' Facebook post

22 June 2011 Last updated at 14:58 GMT A 31-year-old Londonderry man has been convicted of posting grossly offensive and menacing messages about an MP on Facebook.

Daryl O'Donnell, from Belvedere Park, said the DUP MP Gregory Campbell "should get a bullet in the head" and described him as a "scumbag".

He made the posts following comments from the MP about the findings of the Saville report into Bloody Sunday.

O'Donnell, who denied the comments were threatening, will be sentenced in July.

The Saville inquiry re-examined the deaths of 13 people killed when British soldiers fired on a civil rights march in Derry. A fourteenth died later.

O'Donnell, an unemployed chef and father-of-two, told the city's magistrates court that comments Mr Campbell, the MP for East Londonderry, made criticising the cost of the inquiry into the 1972 shootings made him "very angry".

He told the court that saying the MP "should get a bullet" was because of the deaths on Bloody Sunday and that it had been a "throwaway comment".

Continue reading the main story

The problem is when you rouse the rabble it is very hard to put them back into their houses and this country above all has learnt the lesson of that”

End Quote Barney McElholm District Judge "I never meant any harm by it," he said.

"When I woke up the next day and checked my Facebook page, another 1,400 or 1,500 other comments were posted about Gregory Campbell. When I saw my own comment again I decided to take it off because I realised I should have kept my opinions to myself.

"I stand by the comments I said. I did not mean them to be offensive, I was just expressing my opinion."

A detective told the court that the MP had made a complaint to the PSNI after seeing the posts and that he "perceived the comment to be a threat which he took seriously".

Disctrict Judge Barney McElholm said that while many people in Derry had been "outraged" at Mr Campbell's statement on the cost of the inquiry "he was entitled to make them and that is the nature of democracy".

"The Bloody Sunday march was a peaceful demonstration, a dignified demonstration and its bloody aftermath is something we have had to live with over the years," he said.

"But for Mr O'Donnell to post this sort of comment was wrong. These comments are grossly offensive and menacing.

"The problem is when you rouse the rabble it is very hard to put them back into their houses and this country above all has learnt the lesson of that."

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Winklevoss twins end Facebook row

23 June 2011 Last updated at 09:59 GMT The Winklevosses say Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social network site The Winklevoss brothers, Harvard contemporaries of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have ended their legal battle with the social network.

They reached a $65m (?41m) settlement in 2008, after claiming that Mr Zuckerberg stole their idea.

The legal spat was immortalised in the film "The Social Network".

In January they attempted to reopen the case, claiming that they should have received more shares than the $45m they agreed on.

They sought to undo the settlement of $20m in cash and $45m in stock - now worth more than $100m.

A US appeals court ruled in April that they could not back out of the deal.

The pair had threatened to go to US Supreme Court to overturn the decision but have now said they will not pursue it.

They offered no statement on what had prompted their decision to abandon the suit.

The twins originally argued that Mr Zuckerberg had stolen their idea after he was hired by them to code their ConnectU site in 2003.

Facebook has always rejected the claims but agreed to the 2008 settlement to end what it called "rancorous litigation".

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Facebook no-nos

16 June 2011 Last updated at 00:57 GMT By Marie Jackson BBC News Joanne Fraill, the juror who contacted a defendant on Facebook, is facing a spell in jail for contempt of court when she is sentenced later on Thursday.

She has learned the hard way, but for the rest of us there are some essential "don'ts" if you want to stay out of trouble on Facebook. Don't...

Men attracted to amputees befriended Charlotte Fielder

Add as a friend? Think before clicking "confirm". Ms Fraill didn't. The juror said it was empathy that led her to track down Jamie Sewart - a defendant in a drugs trial - on Facebook and later become "friends" with her. The contact was disclosed to the judge and in less than a year Ms Fraill was back in court, this time in the dock.

While this case is a first in the UK to involve the internet, it is not the first time Facebook users have picked the wrong friends - and certainly won't be the last. Nathan Singh, a prison officer at HMP Leicester, was shown the door after serving inmates were found to be among his Facebook friends.

But bad choices are not always obvious. Charlotte Fielder, who was born missing a hand, unwittingly befriended men on Facebook who pretended to have lost a limb themselves, but were, in fact, sexually attracted to amputees. Later, she found her profile image had been copied and posted onto a pornographic website, where obscene comments were made.

Warring parties should keep it political on Facebook, not make it personal

It sounds obvious but is surprisingly common. A woman, known only as Lindsay, declared in a status update, "OMG I hate my job!" before launching into a personal attack on her boss. It was a matter of hours before she was reminded that her boss was among her "friends". He reportedly posted a response telling Lindsay not to bother coming in tomorrow. "I'll pop your P45 in the post. And yes, I'm serious," he wrote.

Virgin was also filling out P45s after airline cabin crew called their passengers "chavs" and said Virgin planes were full of cockroaches and engines were replaced four times a year. Thirteen employees' careers took a swift nosedive when they were sacked by the airline.

Politicians, in particular, seem prone to this pitfall. However impassioned your beliefs, it's ill-advised to make politics personal as Welsh assembly candidate Joe Lock learned. Last year, he placed a link to a Facebook group called Is Margaret Thatcher Dead Yet? with the comment, "Can't be long, fingers crossed." The Tories found the remarks "offensive" and "unacceptable for anyone seeking public office", and Mr Lock humbly apologised.

A Blackpool Labour councillor was also forced to eat his words after calling his own constituents "donkey-botherers" in a football jibe on Facebook that could be viewed by everyone. The Tories wrongly predicted "political suicide" - Simon Blackburn is now leader of the council.

A Kent Conservative election candidate prospered less well after he called local women "sluts". In a Facebook discussion, Payam Tamiz wrote that he wanted to settle down with "someone decent" but it was "impossible to find someone with morals and a bit of self-respect". After an unreserved apology, he resigned.

Sean Aspey's birthday celebrations turned sour over his costume choice

Unless you look after your privacy settings, embarrassment and shame are almost inevitable on Facebook - from the mildly upsetting double-chin shot to one of glazed-over eyes and hand clamped to a wine bottle in some dark den.

If Sir John Sawers, whose position as head of MI6 would suggest someone adept at keeping things out of the public eye, can fall foul, then aren't we all in danger? His wife posted holiday snaps, including Sir John in Speedo trunks, alongside details about their children and the location of their flat. The details and photos were swiftly removed from the site - but it takes longer for images to fade from the collective memory.

A Lib Dem councillor in Wales had little to laugh about after his 'Allo 'Allo-themed birthday party. Sean Aspey posted on Facebook photos of himself, dressed as a Nazi officer from the TV comedy set in Nazi-occupied France. He was suspended from Porthcawl town council - not the best end to anyone's 40th birthday celebrations.

If you've pulled a sickie or are genuinely ill, it's probably best to stay off Facebook. A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits when her insurance agent found photos of her enjoying herself on Facebook, seemingly having fun in the sun and late nights out with friends. Nathalie Blanchard had been on leave from her job at IBM in Quebec for a year and maintains her activities were on doctors' orders as a way to beat depression.

Another woman lost her job when bosses spotted she was using Facebook, having earlier told them she was too ill to use a computer. The unnamed Swiss worker told her employer, Nationale Suisse, she had a migraine and needed to lie in a darkened room. She claimed she had been accessing the internet on her iPhone while in bed.

Mum's the word: The MoD wants service families to watch what they say on Facebook

You can't exactly whisper on Facebook, so secrets are best confined to corridors and corners.

Israel was among the first to get nervy about sensitive information appearing on the internet after a review of its troops' Facebook pages revealed detailed pictures of air bases, operations rooms and submarines. A new set of rules - which was not made public - included a ban on images of pilots and special unit members, and anything showing specific military manoeuvres.

The UK's Ministry of Defence is similarly concerned and has launched a campaign to encourage its personnel, and their friends and family, not to share sensitive information. In a video for the campaign, a mother is seen posting information about her son's forward operating base on Facebook - and is then seen having tea with an armed man in a balaclava.

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Facebook juror given eight months

16 June 2011 Last updated at 13:53 GMT Fraill, seen here outside court, contacted Sewart after the latter was cleared in a drugs trial A juror who contacted a defendant via Facebook, causing a ?6m drugs trial to collapse, has been jailed for eight months for contempt of court.

Joanne Fraill had admitted the charge, in the first UK case of its kind.

London's High Court heard that Fraill, 40, of Blackley, Greater Manchester, had contacted Jamie Sewart, 34, who had already been cleared in the drugs case.

Solicitor General Edward Garnier QC said Fraill's case had been taken to court to protect jury integrity.

'Calm down'

Sewart, of Bolton, was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after she was found guilty of contempt.

Because other defendants were still on trial at the time of the contact between Fraill and Sewart, the judge decided to discharge the jury and the drugs case in Manchester, which cost ?6m, collapsed.

Fraill cried uncontrollably in court, and gasped "eight months" - as did her family - as her sentence was handed down on Thursday.

Continue reading the main story

Today's prison term sends a very strong signal to all serving jurors who are tempted to research their trial online, or communicate with other people about it.

But will it be enough to stop those serving on juries from using the internet?

Research published 18 months ago showed for the first time that jurors were going to the internet to do research.

In standard trials 5% of jurors admitted doing this. In high profile trials the number was nearly three times that.

If today's sentence fails to stop jurors researching cases and communicating about them online, then it may be time to look again at our strict contempt of court laws.

It may be that the cherished principle of the sanctity of the jury room cannot be maintained in the face of modern communications, the internet and social networking.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, who heard the case, then announced a short adjournment "for everyone to calm down".

Sentencing Fraill, Lord Judge said in a written ruling: "Her conduct in visiting the internet repeatedly was directly contrary to her oath as a juror, and her contact with the acquitted defendant, as well as her repeated searches on the internet, constituted flagrant breaches of the orders made by the judge for the proper conduct of the trial."

Later Sewart said: "I really feel for the woman [Fraill]. She's got kids. She apologised and she's not a bad lady."

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw says Fraill is likely to spend four months in jail, at which point she'll be eligible for early release.

Mr Garnier said any form of communication by jurors was subject to the same rules as those laid down in the court.

"One doesn't need to get too hung up about the magic of the internet," he said.

"Jurors have been able to gossip with their neighbours, be influenced by their friends and go to the public library to look up things. What is important is that the integrity of the jury system should be preserved and protected," he said outside court.

"Whether you communicate by Facebook, whether you research on the internet, whether you talk over your garden fence and are influenced by others, you must understand when you take an oath as a member of a jury, when you disobey that oath or when you disobey the instructions of the judge, and it is discovered, you may very well be held in contempt."

Solicitor General Edward Garnier said it was important that "the integrity of the jury system was maintained and preserved".

The case, brought by the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC, was heard by Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Holroyde.

Lord Judge had previously told Sewart that any prison sentence on her would be suspended because she has a three-year-old child from whom she had already been separated during the crown court trial.

At the High Court hearing, mother-of-three Fraill admitted she had made online contact with Sewart and discussed the case with her while the jury's deliberations were continuing.

She also admitted revealing details of the jury's deliberations during that online conversation - contrary to the Contempt of Court Act 1981 - and conducting internet research into a defendant whose case she was trying as a juror during the trial.

'Considerable empathy'

That was despite the judge reminding all the jurors that they must decide the case solely on the evidence given in court.

Fraill was a juror in a case which had already been halted twice.

On 3 August last year, the judge in the third trial of the alleged drugs gang gave jurors the option of deciding the verdict by a majority rather than unanimously.

But the High Court was told the trial was stopped the following day when Sewart's solicitor informed the court that his client and Fraill had been in contact via Facebook.

The court heard the initial contact came after Fraill went on the social networking website and tracked down Sewart, saying: "You should know me - I've cried with you enough."

Fraill was said by her lawyer to have felt "considerable empathy" for Sewart as the trial "gathered in momentum and intensity".

The two continued to talk about the case and used expressions such as "lol" and other internet slang.

Peter Wright QC, for Fraill, said his client was terrified at the prospect of prison and was distraught and inconsolable about what she had done.

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Facebook denies losing users

14 June 2011 Last updated at 11:39 GMT Facebook has said growth is healthy Facebook has denied that it is losing customers, saying it is "pleased" with growth.

Figures from Faceboook monitoring site Inside Facebook suggested that during May, Facebook lost six million users in the US and 100,000 in the UK.

But the social network, which does not usually comment on third party statistics, questioned how it arrived at this figure.

Other net measurement firms said they had seen growth over the same period.

"From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions. Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn't designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook," the firm said in a statement.

"We are very pleased with our growth and with the way people are engaged with Facebook. More than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day," it added.

The figures from Inside Facebook claimed that 1.5 million Canadian users left the social network in May.

But overall it showed that Facebook was growing, to a total of 687 million users worldwide with many new customers coming from countries such as India, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Its figures on customer leakage do not appear to tally with those from net measurement firm comScore.

It told the BBC it had seen a 21% growth for US users on Facebook during May, while the UK gained 368,000 new recruits between February and May.

According to comScore, the average amount of time spent on the site was also up, from 21 minutes per day in December 2009 to 25 minutes per day by December 2010.

Measurement firm Nielsen said its figures also showed growth.

"There are months when figures dip but I'd be very cautious on calling a trend based on two months," said Nielsen spokesman Neil Beston.

The idea of Facebook fatigue, where users desert the social network after a certain period of time has long been talked about by experts but remains unproven.

"In developed countries such as the US and the UK Facebook penetration is hitting 50% and at that level it is inevitable that users will sign up who aren't frequent visitors," said Adrian Drury, lead analyst at research firm Ovum.

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Juror admits contact via Facebook

14 June 2011 Last updated at 16:11 GMT Fraill (left) initiated the Facebook exchanges after Sewart was cleared A juror, who contacted a defendant via Facebook, has admitted contempt of court in the first case of its kind in the UK involving the internet.

London's High Court heard that Joanne Fraill, 40, contacted Jamie Sewart, 34, who had already been acquitted in a drugs trial costing ?6m in Manchester.

Because other defendants were still on trial, the judge decided to discharge the jury, and the case collapsed.

Sewart was also found to be in contempt.

She had admitted the online contact took place but denied it amounted to an offence.

The case, brought by the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC, was heard by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Holroyde.

Continue reading the main story Dominic Casciani BBC News home affairs correspondent

Last year, the Lord Chief Justice used a speech to effectively warn that someone will end up behind bars if jurors use the internet to find out information about cases they are trying.

That someone is Joanne Fraill, a previously hard-working woman of good character who broke every rule in the book.

Her case and likely forthcoming jail sentence for Contempt of Court sets a legal precedent because it is the first time that the judiciary has tackled what many of their number suspect has been going on.

There are anecdotal stories of jurors digging around the internet to research defendants and academic research found as many as 12% of jurors in big trials could be doing so.

The finding against Fraill is a very public statement by the Lord Chief Justice that just because it is easy to contact people online, it is unacceptable to do so where it interferes with justice.

Sentencing is expected to take place on Thursday.

The maximum penalty for contempt is two years imprisonment.

Lord Judge told mother-of-three Fraill, from Blackley, Greater Manchester, that she should expect to be sent to prison.

But he said he would not be able to decide on the length of the term until a linked appeal against conviction brought by another defendant in the case - who was potentially affected by her actions - was concluded.

He told Sewart, from Bolton, that any prison sentence on her would be suspended because she has a three-year-old child from whom she had already been separated during the crown court trial.

At the High Court hearing, Fraill admitted she had made online contact with Sewart and discussed the case with her while the jury's deliberations were continuing.

She also admitted revealing details of the jury's deliberations during that online conversation - contrary to Contempt of Court Act 1981 - and conducting internet research into a defendant whose case she was trying as a juror during the trial.

That was despite the judge reminding all the jurors that they must decide the case solely on the evidence given in court.

'Home and dry'

Fraill was on a jury in a case which had already been halted twice.

On 3 August last year, the judge in the third trial of the alleged drugs gang gave jurors the option of deciding the verdict by a majority rather than unanimously.

But the High Court was told the trial was stopped the following day when Sewart's solicitor informed the court that his client and Fraill had been in contact by Facebook.

The court heard the initial contact came after Fraill went on the social networking website and tracked down Sewart, saying: "You should know me - I've cried with you enough."

Fraill was said by her lawyer to have felt "considerable empathy" for Sewart as the trial ""gathered in momentum and intensity".

"Can't believe they had u on remand," she said in another one of their conversations, a transcript released by the court shows.

Fraill added she thought she recognised one of the other defendants and when asked by Sewart how the jury was dealing with one of the outstanding charges said: "Cant get anywaone to go either no one budging... don't say anything cause jamie they could cause miss trial".

The two continued to talk about the case and used expressions such as "lol" and other internet slang, as well as variants of spelling commonly used in such messages.

Frail also said: "At least then yer all home n dry".

And Sewart responded: "Ha ha, ur mad. I really appreciate everythin. If i cud of kissed u all i would of done ha ha."

Continue reading the main story

Her conduct, though reprehensible, was not calculated or designed by her to subvert the trial process”

End Quote Peter Wright QC She went on to say: "Keep in touch and I'll get u a nice pressie..."

The pair agreed to become Facebook friends after the trial.

Fraill also described her role on the jury in their conversations. "All that note-taking was just killing time. lol. drew more than i wrote lol," she said.

Solicitor General Edward Garnier QC told the High Court that that contact and discussion were in direct breach of the judge's repeated directions to the jury - and it constituted a contempt of court.

Peter Wright QC, for Fraill, said his client was terrified at the prospect of prison and was distraught and inconsolable about what she had done.

He described her as a woman of completely unblemished character before she "lost her senses" in the Facebook exchanges.

He said she only contacted Sewart because she saw in the younger woman's life her own.

"Her conduct, though reprehensible, was not calculated or designed by her to subvert the trial process, although it is conceded that that was an inevitable consequence of it," he added.

Leaving court, Sewart said she was "massively relieved" to be told she would not serve a custodial term.

She added: "I regret everything. She contacted me. My mind was in a whirlwind. I had just been acquitted. When I sat back and thought about it I realised I should report it and I did."

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Facebook sorry over tags launch

8 June 2011 Last updated at 11:58 GMT More than 100 million labels are added to Facebook pictures every day Facebook has apologised for the way it rolled-out a new system that recognises users' faces.

The social network said that it should have done more to notify members about the global launch.

Its Tag Suggestions feature scans photos and automatically picks out existing friends.

Although users have the option to switch it off, some complained that they were not explicitly asked if they wanted it activated.

Facebook said that the system was intended to speed up the process of assigning a name to a picture, known as tagging.

It was introduced in the US in December 2010 but has only now been launched globally.

Graham Cluley, senior consultant with security firm Sophos, said that users' annoyance was less about the product's purpose than the manner in which it was made live.

"Once again Facebook seems to be sharing personal information by default," said Mr Cluley.

"Many people feel distinctly uncomfortable about a site like Facebook learning what they look like and using that information without their permission."

Essential tools

Mr Cluley explained that Tag Suggestions did not mean, as some have suggested, that users would be able to identify strangers from their photographs.

"As your Facebook friends upload their albums, Facebook will try to determine if any of the pictures look like you. And if they find what they believe to be a match, they may well urge one of your Facebook friends to tag it with your name," he explained in his blog.

"The tagging is still done by your friends, not by Facebook. But rather creepily Facebook is now pushing your friends to go ahead and tag you."

Defending the technology, a Facebook spokesperson told the BBC that there had been "misconceptions" about what it does but apologised for not properly informing users.

"Tag Suggestions are only made to people when they add new photos to the site, and only friends are suggested.

"If for any reason someone doesn't want their name to be suggested, they can disable the feature in their privacy settings.

"We should have been more clear with people during the roll-out process when this became available to them," said the spokesperson.

Social everything

Privacy experts have long argued that users should have more control over who is tagging them and have called for 'privacy by default' to be rolled out in all of Facebook's settings.

The company has a chequered history when it comes to such matters. In 2009, there was an outcry about the complexity of its privacy policy - which at that point was longer than the US Constitution.

Subsequent simplifications went some way towards placating campaigners.

An investigation by the Canadian privacy commissioner Jenny Stoddard concluded that Facebook had made vast improvements but warned the company that it would be monitoring future changes.

Ms Stoddard said that there was room for improvement and recommended making default settings for photo albums more restrictive.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has made no secret of the fact that he believes life on the web should be social "by default".

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