Blogger Blames Kremlin for Twitter Meltdown

(NEWSER) - So why did Tweets fall silent for much of today? One leading theory traces the problem to the unlikeliest of places—the conflict between Russia and Georgia, CNET reports. It goes like this: A pro-Georgia blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and the other sites affected by today's slowdown attracted the ire of foes. "It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard," says Facebook's security chief. More»

'Hacktivists' overload president's blog, other government outlets

(NEWSER) - As protests continue on the streets of Tehran, hackers in and outside of Iran are mounting an assault on the establishment's main websites, reports ZDNet. The sites of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several news agencies were crippled yesterday after activists flooded them with traffic. The campaign appears to have spread on Twitter, which has become one of the most reliable forms of communication during the unrest. More»

Young people turn from long posts to short tweets

(NEWSER) - Just a few years ago, blogging was hot enough to be Merriam-Webster’s word of the year—but as Facebook and Twitter have grown, blogging has declined, the New York Times reports. The trend is particularly notable among the young: between 2006 and 2009, a survey found, blogging’s popularity among 12- to 17-year-olds dropped by half, while between 2008 and 2010, it fell 2 percentage points among the 18- to 33-year-old set. More»

Frenchman: I wanted to show system's vulnerabilities

(NEWSER) - The man who cracked Barack Obama's Twitter account says he was merely trying to point out security weaknesses in the system. Francois Cousteix, an unemployed 23-year-old from France, describes himself as a "kind pirate" who used low-tech methods of guessing passwords, often aided by info on the Facebook pages of Twitter employees. "I am not a hacker," he tells AFP . "I did not act with a destructive aim." More»

New media critics must come clean or risk fine

(NEWSER) - Bloggers, Tweeters, and Facebookers who receive payments or free products from companies and in turn hype or review them—without mentioning the arrangement—could be on the hook for $11,000 in FTC fines. The commission’s new regulations offer clear guidelines on the responsibilities of reviewers working in new media: in short, “the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.” More»