Cyberculture agenda: Pew’s Social Media Update 2013… HADOPI’s failure…

Social Media Update 2013

As of September 2013:

• 71% of online adults use Facebook
• 18% of online adults use Twitter
• 17% use Instagram
• 21% use Pinterest
• 22% use LinkedIn

Some 73% of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, but a striking number of users are now diversifying onto other platforms. Some 42% of online adults now use multiple social networking sites. In addition, Instagram users are nearly as likely as Facebook users to check in to the site on a daily basis.

The U.S. Crackdown on Hackers Is Our New War on Drugs

It’s time for the government to learn from its failed 20th century experiment over-punishing drugs and start making sensible decisions about high-tech punishment in the 21st century. It can’t afford to be behind when it comes to tech, especially as the impacts of ‘cyber-panic’ on users — beyond hackers — are very real

Study: French three-strikes law did not deter or reduce piracy

In Graduated Response Policy and the Behavior of Digital Pirates: Evidence from the French Three-Strike (Hadopi) Law a team of business-school researchers from the University of Delaware and Université de Rennes I examine the impact of the French “three-strikes” rule on the behavior of downloaders. Under the three-strikes law, called “Hadopi,” people accused of downloading would be sent a series of threatening letters, and

European Court of Human Rights will hear case about GCHQ spying

This is huge news: the European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear a challenge to bulk Internet surveillance by the UK spy agency GCHQ.

Bitcoin, fraud and digital currencies

Marc Andreessen, web revolutionary and venture capitalist, wrote an essay for the New York Times called Why Bitcoin Matters.

Google says it has ?no current plans regarding Bitcoin?

A popular Reddit submission today suggested Google?s payment team was looking to incorporate Bitcoin, naturally sparking a lot of excitement in the virtual currency community. We reached out to Google regarding the claim and learned that it was indeed false.