Arrest of Silk Road 2.0 suspect

21 January 2015 Last updated at 11:34

A man has been arrested in Seattle for allegedly helping to run Silk Road 2.0, the anonymous online marketplace for illegal goods.

The site sprang up after the original Silk Road was closed down by the authorities in 2013.

Brian Richard Farrell is alleged to have told police that he was the "right hand man" of Silk Road 2.0 boss Defcon.

The arrest comes amid the trial of Ross Ulbricht, alleged to have run the original Silk Road.

The 26-year-old arrested in Seattle is alleged to be DoctorClu, the pseudonym for a senior administrator on the site.

He is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

Silk Road 2.0 sprang up in November 2013 and, until it was shut down in November 2014, is believed to have generated approximately $8m per month.

Blake Benthall, alleged to be the site's lead administrator Defcon, was arrested in San Francisco in November.

Dread Pirate Roberts

The trial of the man alleged to have run the original Silk Road is ongoing.

The charges against Mr Ulbricht include accusations of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to commit narcotics trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking.

Prosecutors claim the site generated over a million untraceable drug deals and earned Mr Ulbricht $18m (£11.9m) in bitcoin commissions under the online pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts.

He could face life in prison if found guilty on all charges.

He has denied all charges.

The defence set out to prove last week that the authorities have the wrong man in the dock, saying that Dread Pirate Roberts was in fact Mark Karpeles, the owner of the now-defunct Mt Gox Bitcoin exchange.

Karpeles has denied any connection to the Silk Road, and much of the evidence presented to the court - about the suspicions of one Department of Homeland Security special agent that Karpeles was the mastermind behind the Silk Road - has been ruled inadmissible by the judge as it was not based on "competent evidence".

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Google robot severs its power cord

21 January 2015 Last updated at 15:19 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

A redesigned version of Atlas - one of the world's most advanced robots - has been revealed by the Pentagon.

The android gains more advanced wrists, allowing it to turn door handles without having to move its entire arm.

But the key change is the inclusion of a battery pack, allowing it to function without an attached power cord.

The addition means the Google-owned machine qualifies for the final round of a robotics competition run by the US military's R&D unit, Darpa.

Seven of the 20 teams expected to take part in June's event intend to use Atlas. They will distinguish themselves by adding their own software to the machine and adopting different strategies to cope with the challenges posed.

The final event's rules state that the human-supervised robots taking part cannot be connected to power cords, fall arrestors, or wired communications.

"Being cordless is absolutely essential for operation in the field," robotics expert Prof Noel Sharkey told the BBC.

"A tethered robot would easily become snared and tangled anywhere but the simplest environment.

"It is crucial for full robot autonomy and it will greatly enhance the operational scope required by Darpa."

Bigger, better

The latest version of Atlas is slightly taller and heavier than before, standing 6ft 2in (1.88m) high and weighing 156.4kg (345lb).

According to its manufacturer, Google's Boston Dynamics division, 75% of the humanoid machine is new - only its lower legs and feet remain unchanged.

The inclusion of a 3.7kWh lithium-ion battery is said to have the potential to last about one hour if the machine is carrying out "mixed tasks" including walking, climbing stairs and using tools.

However, a new, quieter variable-pressure pump system added to machine will run down the power pack more quickly if used at its maximum setting,

"The operator will be able to run the robot on a mid-pressure setting for most operations to save power, and then apply bursts of maximum pressure when additional force is needed," explained Gill Pratt, programme manager for the Darpa Robotics Challenge.

"The teams are going to have to game out the right balance of force and battery life to complete the course."

Other upgrades to Atlas include:

• Repositioned arms and shoulder to let the robot see its hands in motion, which should help its operators control it
• A wireless router in its head to provide a radio link to the teams
• Resized motors in its hips, knees and back to give them extra strength

Hole in the wall

Darpa's competition is designed to further development of robots that could be used to assist humans in disaster zones.

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MIT experienced problems keeping an earlier version of Atlas upright

During the competition, operators will not be allowed to physically intervene if their robots fall over or otherwise get stuck.

Higher scores will be given for completing tasks more quickly, such as removing debris from a doorway, cutting a hole in a wall using a cordless drill and driving a utility vehicle.

A team from the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition came second using an earlier version of Atlas in the previous round of the contest, held in December 2013.

The winner, however, was Schaft, a robot created by a spin-off from the University of Tokyo - which is also owned by Google.

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Gamergate victim starts help site

21 January 2015 Last updated at 12:38 By Kevin Rawlinson BBC News

A games developer who had to leave her home after receiving threats at the height of the Gamergate furore has set up a support group for other victims.

Zoe Quinn said abuse online was seen as less serious than in the "real world".

She said her group, Crash Override, helped people to prevent attacks online, as well as to deal with them when they did arise.

Caroline Criado-Perez, herself a victim of online abuse, said she would have "loved" such a service.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

There's websites that are institutions to perpetuating this kind of online mob abuse"

End Quote Zoe Quinn Crash Override founder

"I am grateful to her on behalf of women who are going to go through this and who cannot protect themselves. A lot of people are not internet-savvy, but their abusers are," she said.

Gamergate

Zoe Quinn became the target of harassment after details of her private life were released online by an ex-boyfriend.

It was claimed that she had had a relationship with a gaming journalist, sparking what became known as Gamergate.

Its adherents said the movement was about journalistic ethics. Others said the most common targets for abuse were women and that it was a front for misogyny, which many Gamergaters denied.

In October last year, Ms Quinn told the BBC that she was keeping a file containing the names of women she said had left the gaming industry as a result of the abuse.

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Developer Zoe Quinn says big companies must do more to condemn the vitriolic nature of the GamerGate, as Dave Lee reports

And, while she had seen women being attacked online before, she said, Gamergate had been "the straw that broke the camel's back", convincing her to set up the help group Crash Override, which is being run with games producer Alex Lifschitz.

"There's websites that are institutions to perpetuating this kind of online mob abuse, so it's not like this is new," she told the BBC.

Targeted

Both she and Ms Criado-Perez, who was targeted after campaigning to put a picture of Jane Austen on £10 notes, agreed that there was a damaging perception that online abuse was less severe than that occurring in the "real world".

They also said that many law enforcement agencies did not understand the technology involved.

Ms Quinn said Crash Override monitored sites online where people were known to gather to coordinate attacks.

She pointed to one case in which she said her group of volunteers - all of whom have been victims of similar attacks and have asked to remain anonymous - had been able to warn police that an attack was being planned.

She said that a "swatting" - where a call is made to police in the hope that they will send officers to the target's house - had been in the offing. As a result, she said, officers had been able to "de-escalate" the situation.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It's a very violating thing having your whole identity get pored over"

End Quote Andrew Todd Journalist

Ms Quinn said that she first began gathering intelligence on how mobs of people grouped together online to harass their targets when she was being attacked herself.

She said that others had described such similarities in the tactics used against them that it had become clear the attacks were systematic and coordinated. That, she said, allowed the group of volunteers to "map" expected attacks.

Secure

The journalist Andrew Todd said he had been able to watch people "discuss how best to ruin my life" on a message board after writing an article critical of the Gamergate movement.

"It's a very violating thing having your whole identity get pored over," he told the BBC.

He said that Crash Override had advised him on how to secure his online accounts, to inform the police of any potential threats and prevent any further attacks. He said it had also provided him with emotional support.

The group is not seeking any funding but acknowledged its resources would limit its capabilities.

It was providing its service free to anyone who feared becoming a victim of an online mob, particularly those seeking to "dox" them - or release their most personal details online, Ms Quinn said.

Other groups offer services for people who feel they are being harassed, but few focus specifically on coordinated attacks by online mobs. Get Safe Online, for example, said it had been studying the issue but had not yet launched a specialised service.

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Google and Fidelity invest in SpaceX

21 January 2015 Last updated at 04:23

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has raised $1bn (£659m) in funding from Google and Fidelity Investments.

The firms together own just under 10% of SpaceX, the spacecraft manufacturer backed by billionaire Elon Musk.

The deal values the firm at $10bn. It said the money would go towards innovation in space transport and satellite manufacturing.

The deal is seen as a move by tech giant Google to try to spread internet access to remote parts of the world.

Mr Musk, who is also the chief executive of US electric carmaker Telsa Motors, has spoken about using satellites to provide internet access around the globe.

SpaceX was founded by him in 2002 and he has also been vocal about his ultimate goal of colonising Mars.

Google, meanwhile, has been increasing its presence in the aerospace sector. In June, it bought satellite company Skybox Imaging for $500m.

Google and Fidelity join existing investors Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn, SpaceX said.

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Sky blocks pornography 'by default'

20 January 2015 Last updated at 16:33

Broadband provider Sky will block adult content by default, unless users opt out, it has revealed.

The decision was announced in a blog post and will be phased in over coming weeks.

In 2013 Prime Minister David Cameron put pressure on internet service provider [ISPs] to make online filtering mandatory, saying it was the best way to protect children.

His request caused controversy among politicians and the internet industry.

Since then most of the UK's ISPs have offered filtering software for parents concerned about what their children may be able to access online but few have offered this by default, opting instead to allow parents or other customers to turn the filters on if they want them.

Sky's Broadband Shield is designed to filter out content deemed to be unsuitable for children aged under 13. It has been offered as default to new customers for a year.

But now the firm has decided to also offer it to all its existing customers, some 5.3 million in total.

In her blog post, Lyssa McGowan, Sky's brand director, explained why it was changing its policy.

"What we're doing now is simply making sure that the automatic position of Sky Broadband Shield is the safest one for all - that's 'on', unless customers choose otherwise," she said.

Censorship

In the next few weeks Sky customers who have not chosen to either activate or disable its Broadband Shield would be emailed "giving them the opportunity to make a decision one way or the other", she said.

Once activated, users will not be able to access a filtered site without altering their settings.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group (ORG), was dismayed by the news.

"Censorship should never be turned on by default," he said.

"ORG's Blocked project (www.blocked.org.uk) has shown that filters block all kinds of websites, including some that provide useful advice to children and young people. Customers need to understand the implications of filters before deciding whether or not they want them."

All the UK's big four ISPs - BT, Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk - offer filtering systems to help parents prevent their children viewing inappropriate material online although few have decided to oblige users to adopt the system.

They have said that they will make sure all customers are aware of the filters.

In October, BT started using interrupting browsing sessions for customers who had not set up the parental controls asking them whether they wished to activate them but not obliging them to.

Most of the systems used by ISPs work at a network level, which means that all devices that connect to a home router will be subject to the same filtering system.

Andrew Ferguson, founder of broadband news site ThinkBroadband, said that parents should not rely solely on filters to protect their children from online nasties.

"As ever the filters don't block all unsavoury material so are not a replacement for parenting and the embarrassing questions all parents have to face," he said.

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Facebook tackling hoax news stories

Hoaxes and fake stories in your News Feed should be a thing of the past, if Facebook's updated algorithm works.

The company has introduced an option to allow you to flag a story as "purposefully fake or deceitful news".

This should affect the distribution of that story, making it less likely to appear in your feed - but it won't be taken off Facebook altogether.

Hoaxes have tricked users in the past and with 1.35bn currently on Facebook, that's a lot of people to fool.

"A post with a link to an article that many people have reported as a hoax or chose to delete will get reduced distribution in the News Feed," Facebook explained.

Examples of recent fake stories include dinosaur sightings and research claiming to prove the existence of Santa Claus.

Earlier this month users again started posting privacy notices - that's a response to a hoax from two years ago.

In the past, Facebook has been criticised for not doing enough to tackle illegitimate accounts; in 2012 the company admitted that more than 80m were likely to be fake.

At the time, the company said that "undesirable" accounts included those using fake names which were "intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as spamming".

About a third of adults in the US now use Facebook to get news updates, according to a 2013 study by the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S and James L Knight Foundation.

Fans of sites like The Onion should be reassured by Facebook's claim that "satirical" articles, "intended to be humorous, or content that is clearly labelled as satire," will not be affected.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

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BBC News app revamp rolled out

21 January 2015 Last updated at 08:30 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

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WATCH: Rory Cellan-Jones tries out the new BBC News app

The BBC's News app has been given a major overhaul with the goal of offering a more "personalised" service.

In addition to pre-existing sections - including Top Stories, UK and Politics - users will be able to add specialised feeds of their choice, for example: Apps, Taylor Swift, Genetics, and Oban.

The revamp is part of a wider shake-up, which will also involve major changes to the look of the BBC's news website.

One expert warned the update was likely to upset some users.

But the executive responsible said the switchover would provide a better service.

"We know we have got a very large number of people who used the existing app and they really like it," said Robin Pembrooke, general manager of news products at BBC Future Media.

"But we also know that a number of users express frustration at things they can't do - there's no local news, it's not the full range of stories, and there's little ability to personalise.

"It will be a big change for a number of people, so we are trying to provide a warning up front. We've got easy guides on how to use the new app, and there's in-app tips to help people use it."

The app is being rolled out to Android and iOS devices in the UK this week. An app for Amazon devices is set for release within three weeks, and global editions will follow.

However, there is no plan at present for a version for Windows Phone or other ecosystems.

The launch was originally scheduled to take place in 2014, but was delayed after an earlier version was found to be too slow.

Tagging the news

While the old app had horizontal rows of stories representing each section, the new one shifts to a vertical design.

Users now choose a list of topic-specific reports by selecting the relevant link on a menu located at the top of the screen.

This menu introduces several sections to the app:

• Most Read - the most clicked text articles on the BBC News website
• Most Watched - the most clicked video and audio clips
• Most Popular - contents from the two previous menus collected together for the tablet version of the app
• My News - a feed of articles collated from the various topics a person has chosen to follow
• individual topics - stories relating to a specific user-selected theme

The personalised options have been made possible by a new tagging system, which involves the journalist responsible for a story associating it with relevant keywords.

This is similar to the way apps such as Evernote and OneNote work and similar to the hashtags used by Twitter and Pinterest.

Users can begin adding topics by typing them into a search tool or by clicking ones listed at the bottom of an article or multimedia clip.

"It also allows us to provide more value to users by making recommendations to other topics that they might be interested in based on the ones they have chosen to follow, where they are - with geo-based topics - and what they have read," said Mr Pembrooke.

There are about 65,000 tags to choose from, ranging from Diversity to Dame Edna Everage via Dorset County Council, although not all will be discoverable via the search tool at launch.

"The old app was not really an optimum experience on tablets," added Steve Herrmann, editor of BBC News Online.

"The new app feels richer and more magazine-like, so editorially one of the things I hope happens is that the material we produce every day - features, backgrounders, explainers - gets much better showcased than had been the case previously."

Risk and reward

BBC News is narrowly ahead of Mail Online as the UK's most popular online news source, attracting about 19 million unique UK-based visitors in November, according to market research firm Comscore, which aggregated data from both PC web browsers and apps.

But one industry watcher warned that making big changes risked losing that lead.

"You're bound to get critics who don't want things to change," said Ian Maude, from Enders Analysis.

"And there are hundreds if not thousands of other options for them to switch to - it's not like 1923 when the BBC Home Service was pretty much all you had.

"But on the other hand, if the BBC is improving the service and the ability for people to find the news that they are interested in, that's got to be a positive."

Responsive website

Some users may find planned changes to the website more radical.

The BBC intends to turn off the current "static" design of its English-language desktop site and move to a new-look "responsive" layout that adapts its look to suit any sized screen - from thin smartphones to widescreen monitors.

The public was asked to switch to a "beta version" of the new design on their tablets late last year, and the goal is to extend this invitation to laptop and desktop use in February. Foreign-language editions of the site, including BBC Hindi and BBC Brasil have already made the switchover.

The responsive site could have been used to replace the app, but Mr Pembrooke defended the decision to fund both approaches.

"Users that use apps are massively more engaged - they consume much, much more content than they do just using the web on mobile," he said.

"At the moment app users account for just over 10% of our visitors, but they drive over 40% of our page views.

"But what's driving our overall reach is the responsive site - when people land on us via Google. So, for the time being we think it's important to maintain both."

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WhatsApp bans unofficial app users

21 January 2015 Last updated at 12:24 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

WhatsApp is imposing 24-hour lock-outs on people trying to access its service via an unauthorised Android app.

The Facebook-owned messaging service said that it had acted against users of WhatsApp Plus because of concerns that the program might cause private data to be leaked to third-parties.

The unofficial app offers extra ways to customise how conversations appear.

Experts say Android users should be cautious about where they download apps from.

WhatsApp recently reported it had 700 million users sending an average of 30 billion messages a day. It currently charges a $0.99 (65p) annual fee to users who sign up to the service after their first 12 months of using it.

According to one app store, WhatsApp Plus had itself been downloaded more than 35 million times since its 2012 releases by a Spanish developer, who called himself Rafalense.

Security consultant Graham Cluley said that figure sounded "surprisingly high", but acknowledged there was no independent way to verify it.

WhatsApp Plus' own website appears to be offline at this time.

But the moderator of a development community, which had supported it, used Google Plus to indicate that work on the software would now be put on hold.

"We have received a cease and desist letter from WhatsApp and we are obligated to remove all download links and unfortunately delete this community," he wrote.

"[I] am really sorry for this but it's out of our hands and WhatsApp has pushed us into a corner that we can't escape this time. It was a fun ride but it has come to an end.

"Deepest regards from Rafalense and me and all the WhatsApp Plus team for your support."

Twenty-four hour bans

WhatsApp Plus offers a way to use colours and background images in chat conversations that are unavailable in the official app.

In addition, it allows users to increase the size limit on attached video and sound files and also lets them prevent others being able to see when they last logged into the service - a feature it used to charge a "donation" to unlock.

To access the features, smartphone owners must first uninstall the official WhatsApp app if it is already on their handsets.

"The developers of WhatsApp Plus have no relationship to WhatsApp, and we do not support WhatsApp Plus," a message on the official app's site states, explaining its crackdown.

"Please be aware that WhatsApp Plus contains source code which WhatsApp cannot guarantee as safe and that your private information is potentially being passed to third-parties without your knowledge or authorisation."

Subscribers are guided to download the official app from Google's Play store. However, even if they do so, they are told they cannot access the service for further 24 hours because they violated its terms and conditions.

'Maintaining control'

WhatsApp Plus was not available from Google Play - the Android developer's own store - but was promoted on several smaller alternatives.

"People should be careful about third-party stores," commented Dr Joss Wright from the Oxford Internet Institute.

"There are levels of quality control that are implemented by Google, which withdraws apps that are detected as being not completely legitimate, and indeed by Apple, which is incredibly restrictive about what it allows on the iOS store.

"Such apps could bring with them security bugs."

But he added that Facebook also had other incentives to stop independent apps latching onto its WhatsApp platform.

"That could potentially prevent it from adding services later for an added cost," he said.

"Or if it wants to add adverts later and ensure they are being served to the people who should be seeing them, then that it needs to maintain control and prevent the rules that it has set from being bypassed by third-party clients."

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Tech firms support computing lessons

21 January 2015 Last updated at 14:15 By Sean Coughlan Education correspondent, BBC News

Technology giants such as Google and O2 are to support a £3.6m drive to teach computing skills in primary schools in England, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has announced.

Experts from the firms will help with training and providing resources to teach digital skills in the classroom.

Schools should be better connected to technology firms, says Mrs Morgan.

"A significant number of jobs will be in the tech industry," she told the BETT educational technology show.

The education secretary announced a series of projects involving schools, universities and businesses to support the computing curriculum.

Mrs Morgan told delegates that innovation in technology was part of the "pioneering spirit" of school reform.

She also suggested that technology could be used to give parents more information about schools - such as online assessment helping to show parents what their children were achieving.

This could be developed to show how qualifications were linked to future earnings, Mrs Morgan suggested.

University training

Introduced into schools in September, the computing curriculum teaches skills such as writing code. And Mrs Morgan acknowledged that some teachers would want more help with teaching the subject.

The Department for Education has offered £3.6m in matched funding to develop computing lessons.

Much of this funding has already been announced and allocated to larger schemes which are already running - and Wednesday's announcement will add some extra projects.

Mrs Morgan, speaking at the annual BETT Show in London, will welcome the support of "top industry experts".

"We are committed to supporting tech companies to connect with our schools - preparing young people to succeed in the global race.

"Increasing the focus on subjects like computing is a key part of our plan for education - which is why we are investing in the latest training and support so our teachers are fully prepared to plan, teach and assess the new computing curriculum."

The projects announced by Mrs Morgan will include a university consortium, including Queen Mary University London and Hertford College, Oxford, which will work with Google to produce training materials for teachers to develop "computing-related thinking skills".

O2 Telefonica is to support a peer-to-peer training scheme to help teachers with the computing curriculum.

Oxford Brookes University is to develop an online training course - a so-called massive open online course (Mooc) - for primary school teachers.

Our Lady's Catholic High School in Preston will work with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to support other schools with computer lessons.

The Department for Education has previously announced a range of projects to support the new curriculum, drawn from this funding for computing lessons.

The British Computer Society was given £2m to build a network of 400 expert teachers to train other teachers and the Computing at School project received £1.1m.

Missed chances

Labour's shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt will also be speaking at the educational technology show.

He will warn that "tired old snobberies" about technical education are undermining efforts to develop a digital economy.

Mr Hunt will say that the UK is at risk of slipping behind other countries because it has failed to create a successful path for vocational training.

"The digital revolution represents a moment of incredible opportunity for this country," he will say.

"But we are failing to capitalise on this moment. A failure to reform our secondary education system to provide a high status, high quality route in technical and creative education, combined with tired old snobberies towards technical and creative learning that are reminiscent of the 1960s."

"We are wasting the talents of too many young people - limiting their horizons - and costing our economy," he claims.

Labour wants to create "gold standard" vocational qualifications for 14-19 year olds and introduce technical degrees.

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Fake Facebook page costs US $134,000

21 January 2015 Last updated at 16:07

The US Justice Department is to pay a woman $134,000 (£88,640) after making a fake Facebook page that contained a photograph of her half-clothed.

Sondra Arquiett had sued the government after it had suggested she had "implicitly consented" to the creation of a page using her identity since she had previously granted officers access to her mobile phone

The DoJ has now settled the dispute, but has not admitted wrongdoing.

The case had raised privacy concerns.

Although the US government has not ruled out using similar tactics in the future, it has acknowledged the criticism it faced.

"[A] review is ongoing, but Department of Justice leadership has already met with law enforcement agencies to make clear the necessity of protecting the privacy and safety of third-parties in every aspect of our criminal investigations," said a spokesman.

A lawyer for Ms Arquiett said she believed officials now recognised the use of the fake page had been "totally inappropriate".

Drugs probe

The case dates back to July 2010, when Ms Arquiett, a restaurant waitress, was arrested and accused of being involved in a drugs ring.

She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and was later sentenced to six months of weekend incarceration.

At the time of her arrest, Ms Arquiett surrendered her mobile phone and consented to officers accessing its data to help them with related criminal investigations.

This included an investigation into her boyfriend, who was suspected of co-ordinating drug sales. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Ms Arquiett said she was not, however, notified that this operation would involve the creation of a "publicly available" Facebook page in the name of Sondra Prince, an alias she had used.

It included photographs of her posing on a BMW car, a picture of her wearing only a bra and underwear, as well as images of her son and niece.

The fake page was used to send a "friend" request to help catch the boyfriend. The US government denied it had been made "publicly available" in a wider sense. However, the Buzzfeed news site and the Associated Press news agency were both able to access the page before it was taken offline.

Ms Arquiett sued the government in 2013 saying she had suffered fear and emotional distress because the page indicated she had wilfully co-operated with the drugs ring investigation.

Her case was supported by digital rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"If I'm co-operating with law enforcement, and law enforcement says, 'Can I search your phone?' - my expectation is that they will search the phone for evidence of a crime, not that they will take things off my phone and use it in another context," said Nate Cardozo, a lawyer at the organisation.

Facebook itself had also voiced its displeasure, noting that it explicitly bans fake profiles on its site.

"Facebook has long made clear that law enforcement authorities are subject to these policies," the firm's chief security officer Joe Sullivan wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration last year, which was responsible for the page's creation.

"We regard the conduct to be a knowing and serious breach of Facebook's terms and policies, and the account created by the agent in the Arquiett matter has been disabled.

"Accordingly, Facebook asks that the DEA immediately confirm that it has ceased all activities on Facebook that involve the impersonation of others or that otherwise violate our terms and policies."

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