Commentspiracy Theory

My Facebook account was just hacked.

I thought so after receiving two separate email messages from Facebook Security that my account would be deleted because of violating the terms of Facebook and that someone from Makati City just logged in my account when I was in Manila that time and was still logged in at Facebook in my iPod Touch.

The first Facebook Security email did not elaborate the violation I committed. Nevertheless, I skimmed through the Facebook terms and conditions and found nothing I could possibly violate.

The second email instructed me to click a link if I was not the person who logged in at Makati City. So I did click the link which brought me to a window where I was asked to change my password, including that of the email account I use to log in at Facebook.

Upon doing so, however, my account could no longer be accessed using the new password. The Facebook log in page says the email I use was already removed from my account. And I thought only my password would be changed. But I remember from a window that opened before I changed my password that my account would be temporarily suspended because of possible "hacking" activity.

What's more puzzling is the emails I received from Facebook suddenly were gone in my inbox and were nowhere to be found even in the trash bin. I don't remember deleting them as I also received a third with a code to be used if I log in with my new password.

So my Facebook account is now up somewhere in the air beyond my access. I was told my page had a big "X" superimposed on it at first. Now the X is gone and a different, unknown email -- jiosafs@yahoo.com -- is displayed as the one I use (check my Facebook Badge on the right side of this blog to see it). I am a bit worried that my account would be used for some "evil" purpose or that it is being "played with."

Incidentally, this happened after I made a comment about the movie Social Network as a story about the "greed" in Facebook. But I did add: "... if what the movie portrays is accurate" to be fair. That was my last comment before the alleged "hacking" took place.

Could Mark Zuckerberg or anyone at Facebook be behind this then? Or is it me just getting carried away by the movie and being paranoid?

I read in the Wikipedia entry about Zuckerberg that he clearly thinks of himself as a hacker and he said that "it's OK to break things... to make them better." Now I am doubly paranoid.

Before I even delve deeper into an imaginary Conspiracy Theory, let me just say to whoever "played" with my account that you can gain nothing by doing this except to reaffirm my belief that the internet is really not a safe place to "put" ourselves into. It simply cannot be trusted because it is a human creation and therefore can be broken and torn apart if one who has the capacity and resources really intends to.

Though I can live my life without Facebook, a part of me still wants to have my account back.

But if I can't have it back, then Zuckerberg... I've just become one of your enemies.

Not at all Neutral

The internet can be considered man’s greatest invention since the wheel as it has shrunk the world we move in, revolutionized how we do things, and influenced our perspective on many different aspects of our lives.

All these happened because information can flow freely – without control and discrimination – in the World Wide Web. We all benefit from this set up and have embraced it as the norm. This gave birth to the concept of Network Neutrality, which says that Internet access providers should not discriminate with regard to what applications an individual can use, or the content an individual can upload, download, or interacted with over the network.¹

As the internet technology advances, however, its use has also become complicated and has become a burden to some who depend so much on it for much more important things than downloading games, updating social network accounts, or watching videos of some wanna-be stars. The so-called bandwidth hogs – such as YouTube, Facebook, and file-sharing sites – lord it over in cyberspace to the detriment of other useful internet applications and features.

Hence, Network Neutrality is under attack. Does it still really provide an incentive to internet users?

The advent of Web 2.0 has changed the landscape of internet use. Network Neutrality is well-suited in the world before that - when the internet is simply all clicking and browsing. Our standards have to change when the environment has changed.

Network Neutrality curtails the freedom to choose. It promotes a free-for-all world that is vulnerable to chaos and abuse. It is a pseudo-standard that serves the purpose of the internet but defeats the intention of the users.

As in real life, there is no such thing as free lunch in the cyber world. We pay for internet services – so we should get our money’s worth.

1 http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm