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The Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed today that public companies can announce key information on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so long as investors are informed as to which accounts may publish news.

The acknowledgment was published in the SEC's report of investigation on Netflix, and makes room for social media disclosures to be in compliance with Regulation Fair Disclosure (Regulation FD), a rule that requires companies to distribute material information to investors and the general public non-exclusively. In essence, companies and their executives can reveal news on investor-aware accounts without fear of retribution.

"Companies … Read more

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is scheduled to be questioned in a lawsuit charging several technology companies for allegedly agreeing not to poach employees from each other, Bloomberg said today.

The case is part of a civil suit filed in 2011 by five workers against Google, Intuit, Apple, Intel, Adobe, Pixar, and Lucasfilm, claiming that they tried to keep down wages through non-poaching agreements.

Six of the companies involved settled a Justice Department complaint in 2010. The civil suit was launched in 2011 and named Lucasfilm as a seventh defendant.

Neither Facebook nor Sandberg are named as defendants in … Read more

Facebook and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have joined forces again to help develop more tech tools for education and learning. It's time for HackEd 2.0.

The tech giants will be hosting two all-day hackathons this month, a Facebook spokesperson told CNET. More than 20 teams of tech education enthusiasts, education experts, and top-notch developers will spend April 9 at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters brainstorming, coding, and building apps. A similar event will take place on April 24 in Facebook's London office.

Those apps then will be judged by a panel of experts -- including … Read more

The social network, which was first sued in September 2011 by Chicago company Timelines Inc. for infringement, now faces a jury trial, scheduled for April 22, over the mark.

U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah said today that Facebook was not able to invalidate Timelines' claim to the mark, Bloomberg reported. "At this stage in the proceedings, it is not unreasonable to conclude that as to … Read more

Facebook shares opened today at an unremarkable $25.60, and have since lost around half a percent in value.

The itty-bitty decline immediately follows Facebook's late Thursday announcement about an Android-related event, which led many to speculate about the potential unveiling of a long-rumored Facebook phone. The latest leak suggests Facebook will show a special … Read more

Police going undercover on social media to catch gangsters and murderers is one thing, but posing as punk rockers to catch bands playing illegal house parties?

That's just what Boston police are allegedly doing, according to Slate.

After a nuisance control ordinance (PDF) passed last year, the city has been working to squelch local punk and indie rock parties featuring loud bands. And to find out where these raucous festivities are taking place -- in order to break them up before they get started -- the police are supposedly sleuthing out party addresses via e-mail and social media.

Acting … Read more

Facebook executives love to do verbal tap dances around the idea of a phone. It's been going on for years: reports, denials, reports, denials. And now, just two months after a categorical denial from CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself, it seems that at its event next week, Facebook may well go ahead and release what arguably amounts to a Facebook phone.

OK, it's not really a Facebook phone that Facebook watchers are expecting. But this time, it's undeniably something phone related. The social network on Thursday sent out media invitations to "Come See Our New Home on … Read more

I get it. All grown up (more or less) and a publicly traded company to boot, Facebook thinks day and night about how to better delight its advertisers and convince Wall Street that it's quite serious about monetizing the folks who use its social network.

Just look at Facebook's News Feed redesign and it's clear the powers-that-be have some very smart ideas about how to satisfy those first two constituencies. And what of those hundreds of millions of people who use Facebook to catch up on cute cat photos and the latest apercus from slightly batty relatives? … Read more

Path, the social network designed to be more personal than Facebook, will be launching a subscription service in the second quarter of this year.

Path co-founder and Chief Executive Dave Morin told CNET that a premium paid version is the next step for monetizing the young app, but he did not reveal what features users would paying for in a subscription, or how much it would cost.

Launched in 2010, Path is an app that's marketed as a network just for close friends and family members, limiting users to 150 friends. Because of that, it encourages users to share … Read more