Indonesia May Tear Down Obama Statue

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(NEWSER) - President Obama's elder daughter Malia is now 13, old enough to have a Facebook account, but the first couple has no intention of lifting their ban on their daughters using the site . And the girls don't mind, the president tells People , characterizing their view as, "Why would we want to have a whole bunch of people who we don't know knowing our business? That doesn't make much sense." Adds Obama: "We'll see how they feel in four years." More»

'Little Barry' bound for president's old school

(NEWSER) - A statue of President Obama that has drawn the ire of tens of thousands on Facebook will be moved from a park in Jakarta, Indonesia, to a less prominent spot near his old school. That location “is more appropriate,” an official tells AFP . He said the statue will be shifted “as soon as possible, hopefully before Obama’s visit to Jakarta” in March. “Little Barry”—as Obama was known when he lived in Indonesia from 1967 to 1971—will be placed “near the school gate so the public can still view it.” More»

Website founder says Barack is no national hero

(NEWSER) - A statue in Jakarta of President Obama as a boy is being attacked on a Facebook site by members who are demanding its removal. Some 15,500 members have joined the "Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Taman Menteng Park" site since the 43-inch statue was erected last week. More»

(NEWSER) - The developer whose software was used to create the “Should Obama be Killed?” Facebook poll has talked to the Secret Service. “The conversation with the SS was fine,” Jesse Farmer wrote on Twitter, but “If the goal was to resolve the issue + inform the SS, the way it went down was suboptimal.” Farmer appears to be upset that a third party pointed him out to the "SS," CNET explains. More»

Michael Wolff points out that, in the end, Facebook is just an ad-driven site

(NEWSER) - "Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it." That's the bold statement Michael Wolff makes in the MIT Technology Review today, and he insists he's not exaggerating. In the end, Facebook is just another website selling ads, he explains, and online ad rates are constantly falling. "I don't know anyone in the ad-Web business who isn't engaged in a relentless, demoralizing, no-exit operation to realign costs with falling per-user revenues." More»