Social Networking | featured news

A 43-year-old Department of Homeland Security worker allegedly used Facebook to solicit more than 70 area children for sexual acts, according to authorities. Robert B. Rennie Jr., a Loudoun County resident, was charged Oct. 24 with five counts of using a computer to solicit a child under the age of 15, after a school resource officer was tipped off to suspicious activity on a Mercer Middle School student's Facebook page.

A father accused of binding his toddler daughter with painter’s tape and then posting a picture on Facebook was acquitted Tuesday of unlawful restraint but still faces a pair of domestic battery charges, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Citigroup fired Internet stock analyst Mark Mahaney amid accusations he leaked confidential information about Facebook's IPO.

A New York entrepreneur suing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for a 50 percent ownership stake in the social media giant was arrested Friday on charges that he falsified records and destroyed evidence in a multibillion scheme to defraud both Facebook and Zuckerberg, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Paul Ceglia, 39, was taken into custody by U.S. Postal inspectors at his home in Wellsville, N.Y., Friday and was to appear before a federal judge in Buffalo later in the day.

Massachusetts fined Citigroup $2 million to settle charges that two bank analysts improperly released confidential information about Facebook's financials before the technology company went public.

The New Jersey Senate is set to vote on a bill that would prevent employers from seeking access to an employee's or job applicant's social media accounts.

Facebook lost $59 million in the third quarter, but the newly publicly traded social networking site saw its shares soar on Wall Street early Wednesday. Facebook shares gained $4.35, or 22%, to $23.85 in early trading, after the company reported gains from mobile advertising.

News.me, the social news service incubated at betaworks, announced today that it’s officially shutting down its iOS apps and removing them from the App Store. The company is also claiming that it’s yet another victim of Twitter’s latest API guidelines, and states that Twitter may have even viewed its service as a competitor. We might not go that far, but it makes for a good story.

Facebook reported better than expected third quarter earnings Tuesday, giving investors hope that the company might find positive momentum. In after hours trading, Facebook stock is up 67 cents, or 3.4%, to $20.16.

Possibly trying to hide the grim news by announcing it during Apple’s event, we’ve just independently confirmed that Zynga has shut down its Boston office and laid off 2/3s of the employees in its Austin office, including cuts to The Ville and Bingo teams. We’ve now confirmed the initial report from Justin Maxwell. We’ve also just heard Zynga may have an all-hands meeting this afternoon.