Two British Facebookers have received a four year prison sentence for inciting riots

 Two British Facebookers jailed for inciting riots

On Tuesday two British youths were jailed for four years for inciting riots on Facebook last week. There has been widespread reaction to the sentencing online. 

20 year old Jordan Bradshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, aged 22, had set up pages, which have now been removed, on the well-known social network, calling for people to go on the rampage in their respective towns: Northwich and Warrington. No-one responded to their appeals, only the police turned up.

But the two web users have been harshly punished nonetheless, and many feel their sentences are disproportionate to the offence. Twitter user Altany says that the two young men are first time offenders and the punishment is quite simply too severe. Many web users feel the same and a group of Facebookers have set up this page calling for the two men to be released as soon as possible.

Others however feel the two budding rioters got their just desserts and only have themselves to blame as the British police force gave plenty of warning that it would be monitoring the web looking for individuals inciting criminality.

And although the Prime Minister, David Cameron, is pointing the finger of blame at social networks, saying they are partly responsible for the unrest that rocked the UK, the British authorities are making great use of the web in tracking down rioters and looters. The police continue to post photos of suspects online on a regular basis, in the hope web users will be able to identify them.

Philippines: Uproar over state of Manila zoo

For the past month web users have been questioning how well the animals at Manila zoo are treated. The debate began when Filipino blogger Karen Ang posted some photos of the animals on her site. They appeared sickly and were in poorly kept pens. The images sparked an uproar online.

Many web users have denounced the deplorable state of Manila Zoo, saying the animals’ living conditions are unacceptable. This site publishes comments and reviews from tourists, and there are dozens of messages criticizing the animal park, and recommending others to stay away. They say the animals are malnourished and their pens are too small. Animal rights organization PETA has launched a petition and as we can see in these images which are currently doing the rounds on sharing sites, they organized a protest mid-July in front of the zoo, calling for its immediate closure. 

The Mayor of Manila, Alfredo Lim responded by saying the protest movement was absurd seeing as the photos which sparked the outcry were old photos taken before the zoo was renovated. 

Karen Ang then admitted the photos she posted online belonged to another web user and dated back to 2008. She accepted an invitation from the Mayor of Manila to go and see the zoo for herself. This made her change her opinion slightly and she posted a new article on her blog stating the animals seemed to be in better health, adding that there was still a lot of room for improvement.

New York Times launches Beta 620

Last week American daily The New York Times launched “Beta620”, a site for its experimental projects. The aim is to provide a space for journalists and readers to test or suggest innovative projects and news features. Current projects include a search engine which displays results in real time and an application which displays the day’s headlines on a geographical map.

Wikipedia seeks women editors

The famous online encyclopedia Wikipedia has launched a recruitment drive for women, because of the 90 000 regular contributors, 90 % are men! And so some subjects which are considered more ‘feminine’ issues like early childcare are missing from the site. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales feels new contributors have been deterred by the complicated editorial guidelines and this could be one explanation for the lack of female editors.

Video of the day

What does being two years old look like? : Ellie’s parents decided to give us an idea by attaching a mini camera to their daughters head and recording an average day … and it will no doubt take many of us back to our childhood, if just for a few moments.