Last chance to save on Digiday Publishing Summit passes is February 9
Suivez-moi?: It turns out, as a result of a decree that was issued by the French government in 1992 that forbids the promotion of commercial enterprises on news programs, TV and radio presenters in France are forbidden from using the words “Facebook” or “Twitter” on air, unless these social media sites are specifically relevant to a news story. This puts news sites in a tough spot; Twitter and Facebook bring lots of traffic to news content, but French news anchors and radio hosts can’t tell their audiences to follow them on Twitter or to check out a story on a Facebook page. Yes, Facebook and Twitter are both American companies, and so some are likening this ban to a reverse of the Freedom fries affair in the U.S. Do you know anyone who still calls French fries “Freedom fries”? No? I didn’t think so. We’ll see how long this ban in France actually lasts. ZDNet
P-mails Coming Your Way: This Friday, 24,199 pages of emails sent between former Gov. Sarah Palin and state officials will finally be released in Alaska as public records. In 2008 citizens and news organizations (including msnbc.com, Mother Jones Magazine, Pro Publica) had requested the release of these emails under the state public records law when it surfaced that Palin had been using a personal Yahoo accounts to conduct state business. The state of Alaska is selling the records at 3 cents a page, or $725.97 total, for a set of the records (which is way down from the originally price quotes of $15 million). There’s a wrinkle in these plans: MSNBC.com said it would scan the records and put them online in a public archive co-sponsored by Mother Jones magazine, so you can read them for free! Get ready for an interesting read? MSNBC.com
Facebook Creepy Factor Rises: Facebook is still up to its usual sneaky antics of rolling out new features without really notifying users first. The latest new feature is facial recognition for photo tagging. North American FB users already had this feature activated by Facebook, but now Facebook has rolled out this feature worldwide. If you don’t want Facebook recognizing your face and recommending that people tag you, then I suggest you change your account settings now. Sophos
Pick Me Up of the Day: Feeling a little down? Nothing a puppy can’t fix! Get your daily dose of cute here. The Daily Puppy
Video of the Day: A woman in the Netherlands has been tattooing all of her Facebook friends’ profile pics all over her body. Friendz 4 lyfe. BlackBook
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