Freedom of Speech Gone too Far?

After posting rude, unprofessional comments on Facebook about his teacher, a California high school student was suspended by his high school.

Donny Tobolski is the student from Mesa Verde High School that vented his frustration on Facebook saying Mr. Cimino, his biology teacher, was a "fat ass who should stop eating fast food, and is a douche bag."

Harsh words there, kid, but not too threatening.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already said the student's free speech rights were violated and the school broke federal and state laws.

We've come to another case where the battle for freedom of speech is debated. Just what exactly is saying too much and how much is going too far when posting something on the Web?

Now, a federal agency last November already declared that Facebook updates were protected speech. In a similar case, an employee named Dawnmarie Souza was fired for making belittling comments about a supervisor in a Facebook status update.

Again, the comments were very rude and malicious, but it wasn't anything horribly threatening.

So, just what is the general feeling on this sort of thing? I think we can all agree it's a bit immature and disrespectful, but it is freedom of speech, isn't it?

Tell me what you think. Do you think Mesa Verde high school should have the right to discipline students for any opinions they put on the Internet?

Personally, I know I've expressed my mind through Facebook on rare occasion. Not to that extent, but I do believe freedom of speech is something that can never be taken away. At the same time, there's a certain professionalism we should hold when using the social network called the Internet.

Photo credit: sodahead.com from Creative Commons

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Facebook To Upgrade Photos Feature

It appears that yet another upgrade from social media giant Facebook is set to be launched.



According to Jolie O'Dell's article Facebook Upgrades Photos: Look Out, Flickr, Facebook will soon be upgrading its photos feature which will reportedly put them into competition with photo sharing site Flickr. High-res photos, photo-downloaded links, bulk tagging options, and a lightbox interface that allows images to be viewed anywhere on the site are all being added.


Up until now Facebook's photos feature has only been able to be used for capturing memories but this upgrade will completely change that. Facebook will be able to target photographers to post their portfolios along with modeling and graphic design portfolios.

Very soon users will be able to download high-res images of up to 2048 pixels or higher. Currently Facebook users can only download 720 pixels.

Another big change will be the lightbox UI. When you click on a photo a black screen will come up with the photo you desire and limited navigation features. This is being done to let users focus better on the picture(s) they want to see.

The new bulk tagging feature sounds handy as well. This feature will let users tag people in photos by grouping pictures of them together and then clicking on a single thumbnail to tag all the photos.

All of this upgrading will cost more money though which will inevitably mean more ads on Facebook. However if that keeps us the users from paying anything for it and getting a more advanced Facebook, I say bring on the ads.



Image courtesy of Flickr, Jay Cameron

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