title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Sherry Turkle, in her book "Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other", argues that social media brings people closer and further apart at the same time. One of the main points she makes is that there is a high risk in treating persons online with dispatch like objects. Although people are networked on Facebook, their expectations of each other tend to be lessened. According to Turkle, this could cause a feeling of loneliness in spite of being together.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Between 2016 and 2018, the number of 12- to 15-year-olds who reported being bullied over social media rose from 6% to 11%, in the region covered by Ofcom.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Academic and Facebook researchers have collaborated to test if the messages people see on Facebook can influence their behavior. For instance, in "A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence And Political Mobilization", during the 2010 elections, Facebook users were given the opportunity to "tell your friends you voted" by clicking on an "I voted" button. Users were 2% more likely to click the button if it was associated with friends who had already voted.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Much more controversially, a 2014 study of "Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks" manipulated the balance of positive and negative messages seen by 689,000 Facebook users. The researchers concluded that they had found "some of the first experimental evidence to support the controversial claims that emotions can spread throughout a network, [though] the effect sizes from the manipulations are small."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Unlike the "I voted" study, which had presumptively beneficial ends and raised few concerns, this study was criticized for both its ethics and methods/claims. As controversy about the study grew, Adam Kramer, a lead author of both studies and member of the Facebook data team, defended the work in a Facebook update. A few days later, Sheryl Sandburg, Facebook's COO, made a statement while traveling abroad. While at an Indian Chambers of Commerce event in New Delhi she stated that "This was part of ongoing research companies do to test different products, and that was what it was. It was poorly communicated and for that communication we apologize. We never meant to upset you."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Shortly thereafter, on July 3, 2014, USA Today reported that the privacy watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) had filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that Facebook had broken the law when it conducted the study on the emotions of its users without their knowledge or consent. In its complaint, EPIC alleged that Facebook had deceived users by secretly conducting a psychological experiment on their emotions: "At the time of the experiment, Facebook did not state in the Data Use Policy that user data would be used for research purposes. Facebook also failed to inform users that their personal information would be shared with researchers."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Beyond the ethical concerns, other scholars criticized the methods and reporting of the study's findings. John Grohol, writing for Psych Central, argued that despite its title and claims of "emotional contagion", this study did not look at emotions at all. Instead, its authors used an application (called "Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count" or LIWC 2007) that simply counted positive and negative words to infer users' sentiments. He wrote that a shortcoming of the LIWC tool is that it does not understand negations. Hence, the tweet "I am not happy" would be scored as positive: "Since the LIWC 2007 ignores these subtle realities of informal human communication, so do the researchers." Grohol concluded that given these subtleties, the effect size of the findings are little more than a "statistical blip".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Kramer et al. (2014) found a 0.07%—that's not 7 percent, that's 1/15th of one percent!!—decrease in negative words in people's status updates when the number of negative posts on their Facebook news feed decreased. Do you know how many words you'd have to read or write before you've written one less negative word due to this effect? Probably thousands.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The consequences of the controversy are pending (be it FTC or court proceedings) but it did prompt an "Editorial Expression of Concern" from its publisher, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as a blog posting from OkCupid titled "We experiment on human beings!" In September 2014, law professor James Grimmelmann argued that the actions of both companies were "illegal, immoral, and mood-altering" and filed notices with the Maryland Attorney General and Cornell Institutional Review Board.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In the UK, the study was also criticized by the British Psychological Society which said, in a letter to "The Guardian", "There has undoubtedly been some degree of harm caused, with many individuals affected by increased levels of negative emotion, with consequent potential economic costs, increase in possible mental health problems and burden on health services. The so-called 'positive' manipulation is also potentially harmful."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook uses a complicated series of shell companies in tax havens to avoid paying billions of dollars in corporate tax.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: According to "The Express Tribune", Facebook is among the corporations that "avoided billions of dollars in tax using offshore companies."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: For example, Facebook routes billions of dollars in profits using the Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich tax avoidance schemes to bank accounts in the Cayman Islands.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The Dutch newspaper "NRC Handelsblad" concluded from the Paradise Papers published in late 2017 that Facebook pays "practically no taxes" worldwide.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: According to economist and member of the PvdA delegation inside the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D) Paul Tang, between 2013 and 2015 the EU lost an estimated €1,453m – €2,415m to Facebook. When comparing to others countries outside the EU, the EU is only taxing Facebook with a rate of 0.03% to 0.1% of its revenue (around 6% of its EBT) whereas this rate is near 28% in countries outside the EU. Even had a rate between 2% and 5% been applied during this period – as suggested by the ECOFIN Council – a fraud of this rate by Facebook would have meant a loss to the EU between €327m and €817m.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On July 6, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a petition in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, asking for a court order to enforce an administrative summons issued to Facebook, Inc., under Internal Revenue Code section 7602, in connection with an Internal Revenue Service examination of Facebook's year 2010 U.S. Federal income tax return.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In November 2017, the "Irish Independent" recorded that for the 2016 financial year, Facebook had paid €30 million of Irish corporation tax on €12.6 billion of revenues that were routed through Ireland, giving an Irish effective tax rate of under 1%. The €12.6 billion of 2016 Facebook revenues routed through Ireland was almost half of Facebook's global revenues. In April 2018, "Reuters" wrote that all of Facebook's non–U.S. accounts were legally housed in Ireland for tax purposes, but were being moved due to the May 2018 EU GDPR regulations.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In November 2018, the "Irish Times" reported that Facebook routed over €18.7 billion of revenues through Ireland (almost half all global revenues), on which it paid €38 million of Irish corporation tax.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook hires some employees through contractors, including Accenture, Arvato, Cognizant, CPL Resources, and Genpact, to serve as content moderators, reviewing potentially problematic content posted to both Facebook and Instagram. Many of these contractors face unrealistic expectations, harsh working conditions, and constant exposure to disturbing content, including graphic violence, animal abuse, and child pornography. Contractor employment is contingent on achieving and maintaining a score of 98 on a 100-point scale on a metric known as "accuracy". Falling below a score of 98 can result in dismissal. Some have reported posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from lack of access to counseling, coupled with unforgiving expectations and the violent content they are assigned to review.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Content moderator Keith Utley, who was employed by Cognizant, experienced a heart attack during work in March 2018; the office lacked a defibrillator, and Utley was transported to a hospital where he died. Selena Scola, an employee of contractor Pro Unlimited, Inc., sued her employer after she developed PTSD as a result of "constant and unmitigated exposure to highly toxic and extremely disturbing images at the workplace". In December 2019, former CPL employee Chris Gray began legal action in the High Court of Ireland, claiming damages for PTSD experienced as a moderator, the first of an estimated 20+ pending cases. In February 2020, employees in Tampa, Florida filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Cognizant alleging they developed PTSD and related mental health impairments as a result of constant and unmitigated exposure to disturbing content.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In February 2020, the European Union Commissioners criticized the plans that Facebook has for dealing with the working conditions of those who are contracted to moderate content on the social media platform.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $52 million on May 12, 2020, which included a $1,000 payment to each of the 11,250 moderators in the class, with additional compensation available for the treatment of PTSD and other conditions resulting from the jobs.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Plans for a Facebook-owned real estate development known as "Willow Village" have been criticized for resembling a "company town", which often curtails the rights of residents, and encourages or forces employees to remain within an environment created and monitored by their employer outside of work hours. Critics have referred to the development as "Zucktown" and "Facebookville" and the company has faced additional criticism for the effect it will have on existing communities in California.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The operational manager at Facebook as of March 2021, along with three former candidates of the Facebook hiring process complained to the EEOC of racial bias being practiced at the company against Black people. The current employee, Oscar Veneszee Jr. accused the firm of conducting subjective evaluations and pushing the idea of racial stereotypes. The EEOC has labeled the practice as "systemic" racial bias and has initiated an investigation.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In May 2011, emails were sent to journalists and bloggers making critical allegations about Google's privacy policies; however, it was later discovered that the anti-Google campaign, conducted by PR giant Burson-Marsteller, was paid for by Facebook in what CNN referred to as "a new level skullduggery" and which "Daily Beast" called a "clumsy smear". While taking responsibility for the campaign, Burson-Marsteller said it should not have agreed to keep its client's (Facebook's) identity a secret. "Whatever the rationale, this was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies, and the assignment on those terms should have been declined", it said.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In December 2020, Apple Inc. announced an initiative of Anti-Tracking measures (opt-in tracking policy) to be introduced to their App Store Services. Facebook quickly reacted and started to criticise the initiative, claiming the Apple's anti-tracking privacy focused change will have "harmful impact on many small businesses that are struggling to stay afloat and on the free internet that we all rely on more than ever". Facebook also launched a so-called "Speak Up For Small Businesses" page. Apple in their response stated that "users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites – and they should have the choice to allow that or not". Apple was also backed up by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) who stated that "Facebook touts itself in this case as protecting small businesses, and that couldn't be further from the truth".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In March 2022, "The Washington Post" revealed that Facebook had partnered with Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory to orchestrate a campaign to damage the public reputation of competitor TikTok.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Beyond acquiring competitors in the social and messaging space with strong potential, Facebook often simply copies products or features to get to the market faster. Internal emails have shown that Facebook's leadership, including Mark Zuckerberg were frustrated by the time the company spends on prototyping, and suggested to explore copying entire products like Pinterest. "Copying is faster than innovating" – admitted an employee on the internal email thread, which continued: "If you gave the top-down order to go ahead, copy e.g. Pinterest or the gaming dynamics on Foursquare ... I am sure [a] very small team of engineers, a [product manager], and a designer would get it done super quickly."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Many Facebook employees seem to be questioning Facebook's approach of cloning competitors. According to leaks, a top quoted question in Facebook's internal all-hands was: "What is our next big product, which does not imitate already existing products on the market?"


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In June 2014, Facebook launched Slingshot, an app for sending ephemeral photos like Snapchat does. In August 2016, the company released Facebook Stories, which is a copy of Snapchat's most popular feature.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In August 2020, Facebook built Facebook Reels, a feature that functioned and looked similar to TikTok.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: For several months, Facebook was experimenting with an app called Hobbi, which took many cues from Pinterest.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook has been criticized for removing or allowing various content on posts, photos and entire groups and profiles.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook has a real-name system policy for user profiles. The real-name policy stems from the position "that way, you always know who you're connecting with. This helps keep our community safe." The real-name system does not allow adopted names or pseudonyms, and in its enforcement has suspended accounts of legitimate users, until the user provides identification indicating the name. Facebook representatives have described these incidents as very rare. A user claimed responsibility via the anonymous Android and iOS app Secret for reporting "fake names" which caused user profiles to be suspended, specifically targeting the stage names of drag queens. On October 1, 2014, Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer at Facebook, offered an apology: "In the two weeks since the real-name policy issues surfaced, we've had the chance to hear from many of you in these communities and understand the policy more clearly as you experience it. We've also come to understand how painful this has been. We owe you a better service and a better experience using Facebook, and we're going to fix the way this policy gets handled so everyone affected here can go back to using Facebook as you were."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On December 15, 2015, Facebook announced in a press release that it would be providing a compromise to its real name policy after protests from groups such as the gay/lesbian community and abuse-victims. The site is developing a protocol that will allow members to provide specifics as to their "special circumstance" or "unique situation" with a request to use pseudonyms, subject to verification of their true identities. At that time, this was already being tested in the U.S. Product manager Todd Gage and vice president of global operations Justin Osofsky also promised a new method for reducing the number of members who must go through ID verification while ensuring the safety of others on Facebook. The fake name reporting procedure will also be modified, forcing anyone who makes such an allegation to provide specifics that would be investigated and giving the accused individual time to dispute the allegation.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: There have been complaints of user statuses being mistakenly or intentionally deleted for alleged violations of Facebook's posting guidelines. Especially for non-English speaking writers, Facebook does not have a proper support system to genuinely read the content and make decisions. Sometimes the content of a status did not have any "abusive" or defaming language, but it nevertheless got deleted on the basis that it had been secretly reported by a group of people as "offensive". For other languages than English, Facebook until now is not able to identify the group approach that is used to vilify humanitarian activism. In another incident, Facebook had to apologize after it deleted a free speech group's post about the abuse of human rights in Syria. In that case, a spokesman for Facebook said the post was "mistakenly" removed by a member of its moderation team, which receives a high volume of take-down requests.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook instituted a policy by which it is now self-policed by the community of Facebook users. Some users have complained that this policy allows Facebook to empower abusive users to harass them by allowing them to submit reports on even benign comments and photos as being "offensive" or "in violation of Facebook Rights and Responsibilities" and that enough of these reports result in the user who is being harassed in this way getting their account blocked for a predetermined number of days or weeks, or even deactivated entirely.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook UK policy director Simon Milner told "Wired" magazine that "Once the piece of content has been seen, assessed and deemed OK, (Facebook) will ignore further reports about it."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook lacks any form of live customer support beyond "community" support pages and FAQ's which offer only general troubleshooting advice, often making it impossible to resolve issues that require the services of an administrator or are not covered in the FAQs. The automated emailing system used when filling out a support form often directs users back to the help center or to pages that are outdated and cannot be accessed, leaving users at a dead end with no further support available. A person who lost access to Facebook or does not have an account has no easy way to contact the company directly.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook has had a number of outages and downtime large enough to draw some media attention. A 2007 outage resulted in a security hole that enabled some users to read other users' personal mail. In 2008, the site was inaccessible for about a day, from many locations in many countries. In spite of these occurrences, a report issued by Pingdom found that Facebook had less downtime in 2008 than most social-networking websites. On September 16, 2009, Facebook started having major problems loading as people signed in. This was due to a group of hackers deliberately trying to drown out a political speaker who had social networking problems from continuously speaking against the Iranian election results. Just two days later, on September 18, Facebook went down again.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In October 2009, an unspecified number of Facebook users were unable to access their accounts for over three weeks.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On Monday, October 4, 2021, Facebook and its other apps – Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, Oculus, as well as the lesser-known Mapillary – had an hours-long DNS-related global outage. The outage also affected anyone using "Log in with Facebook" to access third-party sites. The downtime lasted approximately five hours and fifteen minutes, from approximately 15:50 UTC to 21:05 UTC, and affected roughly three billion users. The outage was caused by a BGP withdrawal of all of the IP routes to their Domain Name (DNS) servers, which were all self-hosted at the time.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook has been criticized heavily for 'tracking' users, even when logged out of the site. Australian technologist Nik Cubrilovic discovered that when a user logs out of Facebook, the cookies from that login are still kept in the browser, allowing Facebook to track users on websites that include "social widgets" distributed by the social network. Facebook has denied the claims, saying they have 'no interest' in tracking users or their activity. They also promised after the discovery of the cookies that they would remove them, saying they will no longer have them on the site. A group of users in the United States have sued Facebook for breaching privacy laws.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: , to comply with a court order citing violations of the European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications – which requires users to consent to tracking and storage of data by websites, Facebook no longer allows users in Belgium to view any content on the service, even public pages, without being registered and logged in.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In June 2012, Facebook removed all existing email addresses from user profiles, and added a new @facebook.com email address. Facebook claimed this was part of adding a "new setting that gives people the choice to decide which addresses they want to show on their timelines". However, this setting was redundant to the existing "Only Me" privacy setting which was already available to hide addresses from timelines. Users complained the change was unnecessary, they did not want an @facebook.com email address, and they did not receive adequate notification their profiles had been changed. The change in email address was synchronized to phones due to a software bug, causing existing email addresses details to be deleted. The facebook.com email service was retired in February 2014.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On March 27, 2016, following a bombing in Lahore, Pakistan, Facebook activated its "Safety Check" feature, which allows people to let friends and loved ones know they are okay following a crisis or natural disaster, to people who were never in danger, or even close to the Pakistan explosion. Some users as far as the US, UK and Egypt received notifications asking if they were okay.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In February 2021, the National Crime Agency of the UK expressed its concerns that the installation of end-to-end encryption methods would result in the spread of child pornography going undetected. Facebook representatives had previously told a UK Parliament committee that the use of these stronger encryption methods would render it easier for pedophiles to share child pornography on Facebook's networks. The US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that around 70% of reports to law enforcement regarding the spread of child pornography on Facebook would be lost as a result of the implementation of end-to-end encryption.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In May 2021, Facebook came under fire from Ken McCallum, the Director-General of MI5, for its plans to introduce end-to-end encryption into its Messenger and Instagram services. McCallum stated that the introduction of such encryption methods would prevent security organizations from viewing communications related to ongoing terrorist plots and that the implementation of end-to-end encryption would block active counter-terrorism investigations.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In 2010, the Office of the Data Protection Supervisor, a branch of the government of the Isle of Man, received so many complaints about Facebook that they deemed it necessary to provide a "Facebook Guidance" booklet (available online as a PDF file), which cited (amongst other things) Facebook policies and guidelines and included an elusive Facebook telephone number. This number when called, however, proved to provide no telephone support for Facebook users, and only played back a recorded message advising callers to review Facebook's online help information.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In 2010, Facebook reportedly allowed an objectionable page, deemed by the Islamic Lawyers Forum (ILF), to be anti-Muslim. The ILF filed a petition with Pakistan's Lahore High Court. On May 18, 2010, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry ordered Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority to block access to Facebook until May 31. The offensive page had provoked street demonstrations in Muslim countries due to visual depictions of Prophet Mohammed, which are regarded as blasphemous by Muslims. A spokesman said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority would move to implement the ban once the order has been issued by the Ministry of Information and Technology. "We will implement the order as soon as we get the instructions", Khurram Mehran told AFP. "We have already blocked the URL link and issued instruction to Internet service providers yesterday", he added. Rai Bashir told AFP that "We moved the petition in the wake of widespread resentment in the Muslim community against the Facebook contents". The petition called on the government of Pakistan to lodge a strong protest with the owners of Facebook, he added. Bashir said a PTA official told the judge his organization had blocked the page, but the court ordered a total ban on the site. People demonstrated outside court in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan, carrying banners condemning Facebook. Protests in Pakistan on a larger scale took place after the ban and widespread news of that objectionable page. The ban was lifted on May 31 after Facebook reportedly assured the Lahore High Court that it would remedy the issues in dispute.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In 2011, a court in Pakistan was petitioned to place a permanent ban on Facebook for hosting a page called "2nd Annual Draw Muhammad Day May 20th 2011".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Ontario government employees, Federal public servants, MPPs, and cabinet ministers were blocked from access to Facebook on government computers in May 2007. When the employees tried to access Facebook, a warning message "The Internet website that you have requested has been deemed unacceptable for use for government business purposes". This warning also appears when employees try to access YouTube, MySpace, gambling or pornographic websites. However, innovative employees have found ways around such protocols, and many claim to use the site for political or work-related purposes.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: A number of local governments including those in the UK and Finland imposed restrictions on the use of Facebook in the workplace due to the technical strain incurred. Other government-related agencies, such as the US Marine Corps have imposed similar restrictions. A number of hospitals in Finland have also restricted Facebook use citing privacy concerns.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The University of New Mexico (UNM) in October 2005 blocked access to Facebook from UNM campus computers and networks, citing unsolicited emails and a similar site called UNM Facebook. After a UNM user signed into Facebook from off campus, a message from Facebook said, "We are working with the UNM administration to lift the block and have explained that it was instituted based on erroneous information, but they have not yet committed to restore your access." UNM, in a message to students who tried to access the site from the UNM network, wrote, "This site is temporarily unavailable while UNM and the site owners work out procedural issues. The site is in violation of UNM's Acceptable Computer Use Policy for abusing computing resources (e.g., spamming, trademark infringement, etc.). The site forces use of UNM credentials (e.g., NetID or email address) for non-UNM business." However, after Facebook created an encrypted login and displayed a precautionary message not to use university passwords for access, UNM unblocked access the following spring semester.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The "Columbus Dispatch" reported on June 22, 2006, that Kent State University's athletic director had planned to ban the use of Facebook by athletes and gave them until August 1 to delete their accounts. On July 5, 2006, the "Daily Kent Stater" reported that the director reversed the decision after reviewing the privacy settings of Facebook. As long as they followed the university's policies of online conduct, they could keep their profiles.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Several web sites concerned with social networking, such as Salesforce have criticized the lack of information that users get when they share data. Advanced users cannot limit the amount of information anyone can access in their profiles, but Facebook promotes the sharing of personal information for marketing purposes, leading to the promotion of the service using personal data from users who are not fully aware of this. Facebook exposes personal data, without supporting open standards for data interchange. According to several communities and authors closed social networking, on the other hand, promotes data retrieval from other people while not exposing one's personal information.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Openbook was established in early 2010 both as a parody of Facebook and a critique of its changing privacy management protocols.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Unfollow Everything is a browser extension created by Louis Barclay designed to help Facebook users reduce their time spent on the platform by mass unliking to reduce the clutter in their news feed. The extension, together with its creator, has been banned by Facebook and subject to legal warnings.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook is among the biggest spenders on lobbying among tech companies; in 2020, it was the highest spender. It spent more than $80 million on lobbying in the 2010s. This funding may serve to weaken privacy protections.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In December 2021, news broke on The Wall Street Journal pointing to Meta's lobbying efforts to divide US lawmakers and "muddy the waters" in Congress, to hinder regulation following the 2021 whistleblower leaks. Facebook's lobbyist team in Washington suggested to Republican lawmakers that the whistleblower "was trying to help Democrats," while the narrative told to Democratic staffers was that Republicans "were focused on the company's decision to ban expressions of support for Kyle Rittenhouse," "The Wall Street Journal" reported. According to the article, the company's goal was to "muddy the waters, divide lawmakers along partisan lines and forestall a cross-party alliance" against Facebook (now Meta) in Congress.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In March 2022, the "Washington Post" reported that Meta had hired the Republican-backed consulting firm Targeted Victory to coordinate lobbying and negative PR against the Chinese-owned video app TikTok via local media outlets, including concurrent promotion of corporate initiatives conducted by Facebook.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: While Facebook originally made changes to its terms of use or, terms of service, on February 4, 2009, the changes went unnoticed until Chris Walters, a blogger for the consumer-oriented blog, "The Consumerist", noticed the change on February 15, 2009. Walters complained the change gave Facebook the right to "Do anything they want with your content. Forever." The section under the most controversy is the "User Content Posted on the Site" clause. Before the changes, the clause read:You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.The "license granted" refers to the license that Facebook has to one's "name, likeness, and image" to use in promotions and external advertising. The new terms of use deleted the phrase that states the license would "automatically expire" if a user chose to remove content. By omitting this line, Facebook license extends to adopt users' content perpetually and irrevocably years after the content has been deleted.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Many users of Facebook voiced opinions against the changes to the Facebook Terms of Use, leading to an Internet-wide debate over the ownership of content. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) prepared a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Many individuals were frustrated with the removal of the controversial clause. Facebook users, numbering more than 38,000, joined a user group against the changes, and a number of blogs and news sites have written about this issue.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: After the change was brought to light in Walters's blog entry, in his blog on February 16, 2009, Zuckerberg addressed the issues concerning the recently made changes to Facebook's terms of use. Zuckerberg wrote "Our philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with." In addition to this statement Zuckerberg explained the paradox created when people want to share their information (phone number, pictures, email address, etc.) with the public, but at the same time desire to remain in complete control of who has access to this info.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: To calm criticism, Facebook returned to its original terms of use. However, on February 17, 2009, Zuckerberg wrote in his blog, that although Facebook reverted to its original terms of use, it is in the process of developing new terms to address the paradox. Zuckerberg stated that these new terms will allow Facebook users to "share and control their information, and it will be written clearly in language everyone can understand." Zuckerberg invited users to join a group entitled "Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" to give their input and help shape the new terms.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On February 26, 2009, Zuckerberg posted a blog, updating users on the progress of the new Terms of Use. He wrote, "We decided we needed to do things differently and so we're going to develop new policies that will govern our system from the ground up in an open and transparent way." Zuckerberg introduces the two new additions to Facebook: the Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Both additions allow users to vote on changes to the terms of use before they are officially released. Because "Facebook is still in the business of introducing new and therefore potentially disruptive technologies", Zuckerberg explains, users need to adjust and familiarize themselves with the products before they can adequately show their support.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: This new voting system was initially applauded as Facebook's step to a more democratized social network system. However, the new terms were harshly criticized in a report by computer scientists from the University of Cambridge, who stated that the democratic process surrounding the new terms is disingenuous and significant problems remain in the new terms. The report was endorsed by the Open Rights Group.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In December 2009, EPIC and a number of other U.S. privacy organizations filed another complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding Facebook's Terms of Service. In January 2011 EPIC filed a subsequent complaint claiming that Facebook's new policy of sharing users' home address and mobile phone information with third-party developers were "misleading and fail[ed] to provide users clear and privacy protections", particularly for children under age 18. Facebook temporarily suspended implementation of its policy in February 2011, but the following month announced it was "actively considering" reinstating the third-party policy.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook has been criticized for failing to offer users a feature to export their friends' information, such as contact information, for use with other services or software. The inability of users to export their social graph in an open standard format contributes to vendor lock-in and contravenes the principles of data portability. Automated collection of user information without Facebook's consent violates its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and third-party attempts to do so (e.g., Web scraping) have resulted in litigation, Power.com.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook's strategy of making revenue through advertising has created a lot of controversy for its users as some argue that it is "a bit creepy ... but it is also brilliant." Some Facebook users have raised privacy concerns because they do not like that Facebook sells user's information to third parties. In 2012, users sued Facebook for using their pictures and information on a Facebook advertisement. Facebook gathers user information by keeping track of pages users have "Liked" and through the interactions users have with their connections. They then create value from the gathered data by selling it. In 2009 users also filed a lawsuit for Facebook's privacy invasion through the Facebook Beacon system. Facebook's team believed that through the Beacon system people could inspire their friends to buy similar products, however, users did not like the idea of sharing certain online purchases with their Facebook friends. Users were against Facebook's invasion of privacy and sharing that privacy with the world. Facebook users became more aware of Facebook's behavior with user information in 2009 as Facebook launched their new Terms of Service. In Facebook's terms of service, Facebook admits that user information may be used for some of Facebook's own purposes such as sharing a link to your posted images or for their own commercials and advertisements.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: As Dijck argues in his book that, "the more users know about what happens to their personal data, the more inclined they are to raise objections." This created a battle between Facebook and Facebook users described as the "battle for information control". Facebook users have become aware of Facebook's intentions and people now see Facebook "as serving the interests of companies rather than its users." In response to Facebook selling user information to third parties, concerned users have resorted to the method of "Obfuscation". Through obfuscation users can purposely hide their real identity and provide Facebook with false information that will make their collected data less accurate. By obfuscating information through sites such as FaceCloak, Facebook users have regained control of their personal information.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: , the 36-month running count of complaints about Facebook logged with the Better Business Bureau is 1136, including 101 ("Making a full refund, as the consumer requested"), 868 ("Agreeing to perform according to their contract"), 1 ("Refuse [sic] to adjust, relying on terms of agreement"), 20 ("Unassigned"), 0 ("Unanswered") and 136 ("Refusing to make an adjustment").


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook's software has proven vulnerable to likejacking. On July 28, 2010, the BBC reported that security consultant Ron Bowes used a piece of code to scan Facebook profiles to collect data of 100 million profiles. The data collected was not hidden by the user's privacy settings. Bowes then published the list online. This list, which has been shared as a downloadable file, contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user's profile, their name and unique ID. Bowes said he published the data to highlight privacy issues, but Facebook claimed it was already public information.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In early June 2013, "The New York Times" reported that an increase in malicious links related to the Trojan horse malware program Zeus were identified by Eric Feinberg, founder of the advocacy group Fans Against Kounterfeit Enterprise (FAKE). Feinberg said that the links were present on popular NFL Facebook fan pages and, following contact with Facebook, was dissatisfied with the corporation's "after-the-fact approach". Feinberg called for oversight, stating, "If you really want to hack someone, the easiest place to start is a fake Facebook profile—it's so simple, it's stupid."


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On August 19, 2013, it was reported that a Facebook user from Palestinian Autonomy, Khalil Shreateh, found a bug that allowed him to post material to other users' Facebook Walls. Users are not supposed to have the ability to post material to the Facebook Walls of other users unless they are approved friends of those users that they have posted material to. To prove that he was telling the truth, Shreateh posted material to Sarah Goodin's wall, a friend of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Following this, Shreateh contacted Facebook's security team with the proof that his bug was real, explaining in detail what was going on. Facebook has a bounty program in which it compensates people a $500+ fee for reporting bugs instead of using them to their advantage or selling them on the black market. However, it was reported that instead of fixing the bug and paying Shreateh the fee, Facebook originally told him that "this was not a bug" and dismissed him. Shreateh then tried a second time to inform Facebook, but they dismissed him yet again. On the third try, Shreateh used the bug to post a message to Mark Zuckerberg's Wall, stating "Sorry for breaking your privacy ... but a couple of days ago, I found a serious Facebook exploit" and that Facebook's security team was not taking him seriously. Within minutes, a security engineer contacted Shreateh, questioned him on how he performed the move and ultimately acknowledged that it was a bug in the system. Facebook temporarily suspended Shreateh's account and fixed the bug after several days. However, in a move that was met with much public criticism and disapproval, Facebook refused to pay out the 500+ fee to Shreateh; instead, Facebook responded that by posting to Zuckerberg's account, Shreateh had violated one of their terms of service policies and therefore "could not be paid". Included with this, the Facebook team strongly censured Shreateh over his manner of resolving the matter. In closing, they asked that Shreateh continue to help them find bugs.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On August 22, 2013, Yahoo News reported that Marc Maiffret, a chief technology officer of the cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, is prompting hackers to help raise a $10,000 reward for Khalil Shreateh. On August 20, Maiffret stated that he had already raised $9,000 in his efforts, including the $2,000 he himself contributed. He and other hackers alike have denounced Facebook for refusing Shreateh compensation. Maiffret said: "He is sitting there in Palestine doing this research on a five-year-old laptop that looks like it is half broken. It's something that might help him out in a big way." Facebook representatives have since responded, "We will not change our practice of refusing to pay rewards to researchers who have tested vulnerabilities against real users." Facebook representatives also claimed they'd paid out over $1 million to individuals who have discovered bugs in the past.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In 2010, Prineville, Oregon, was chosen as the site for Facebook's new data center. However, the center has been met with criticism from environmental groups such as Greenpeace because the power utility company contracted for the center, PacifiCorp, generates 60% of its electricity from coal. In September 2010, Facebook received a letter from Greenpeace containing half a million signatures asking the company to cut its ties to coal-based electricity.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On April 21, 2011, Greenpeace released a report showing that of the top ten big brands in cloud computing, Facebook relied the most on coal for electricity for its data centers. At the time, data centers consumed up to 2% of all global electricity and this amount was projected to increase. Phil Radford of Greenpeace said "we are concerned that this new explosion in electricity use could lock us into old, polluting energy sources instead of the clean energy available today".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On December 15, 2011, Greenpeace and Facebook announced together that Facebook would shift to use clean and renewable energy to power its own operations. Marcy Scott Lynn, of Facebook's sustainability program, said it looked forward "to a day when our primary energy sources are clean and renewable" and that the company is "working with Greenpeace and others to help bring that day closer".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In July 2012, startup Limited Run claimed that 80% of its Facebook clicks came from bots. Limited Run co-founder Tom Mango told "TechCrunch" that they "spent roughly a month testing this" with six web analytics services including Google Analytics and in-house software. Click fraud (Allege reason) Limited Run said it came to the conclusion that the clicks were fraudulent after running its own analysis. It determined that most of the clicks for which Facebook was charging it came from computers that were not loading Javascript, a programming language that allows Web pages to be interactive. Almost all Web browsers load Javascript by default, so the assumption is that if a click comes from one that is not, it's probably not a real person but a bot.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook offers an advertising tool for pages to get more "likes". According to "Business Insider", this advertising tool is called "Suggested Posts" or "Suggested Pages", allowing companies to market their page to thousands of new users for as little as $50.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Global Fortune 100 firms are increasingly using social media marketing tools as the number of "likes" per Facebook page has risen by 115% globally. Biotechnology company Comprendia investigated Facebook's "likes" through advertising by analyzing the life science pages with the most likes. They concluded that at as much as 40% of "likes" from company pages are suspected to be fake. According to Facebook's annual report, an estimated 0.4% and 1.2% of active users are undesirable accounts that create fake likes.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Small companies such as PubChase have publicly testified against Facebook's advertising tool, claiming legitimate advertising on Facebook creates fraudulent Facebook "likes". In May 2013, PubChase decided to build up its Facebook following through Facebook's advertising tool, which promises to "connect with more of the people who matter to you". After the first day, the company grew suspicious of the increased likes as they ended up with 900 likes from India. According to PubChase, none of the users behind the "likes" seemed to be scientists. The statistics from Google Analytics indicate that India is not in the company's main user base. PubChase continues by stating that Facebook has no interface to delete the fake likes; rather, the company must manually delete each follower themselves.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In February 2014, Derek Muller used his YouTube account "Veritasium" to upload a video titled "Facebook Fraud". Within three days, the video had gone viral with more than a million views (it has reached 6,371,759 views as of December 15, 2021). In the video, Muller illustrates how after paying US$50 to Facebook advertising, the "likes" to his fan page have tripled in a few days and soon reached 70,000 "likes", compared to his original 2,115 likes before the advertising. Despite the significant increase in likes, Muller noticed his page has actually decreased in engagement – there were fewer people commenting, sharing, and liking his posts and updates despite the significant increase in "likes". Muller also noticed that the users that "liked" his page were users that liked hundreds of other pages, including competing pages such as AT&T and T-Mobile. He theorizes that users are purposely clicking "like" on any and every page to deter attention away from the pages they were paid to "like". Muller claims, "I never bought fake likes, I used Facebook legitimate advertising, but the results are as if I paid for fake likes from a click farm".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On August 3, 2007, several British companies, including First Direct, Vodafone, Virgin Media, The Automobile Association, Halifax and Prudential pulled advertising in Facebook after finding that their ads were displayed on the page of the British National Party, a far-right political party.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook has faced allegations that its advertising platforms facilitate housing discrimination by means of internal functions for targeted advertising, which allowed advertisers to target or exclude specific audiences from campaigns. Researchers have also found that Facebook's advertising platform may be inherently discriminatory, since ad delivery is also influenced by how often specific demographics interact with specific types of advertising – even if they are not explicitly determined by the advertiser.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Under the United States' Fair Housing Act, it is illegal to show a preference for or against tenants based on specific protected classes (including race, ethnicity, and disabilities), when advertising or negotiating the rental or sale of housing. In 2016, ProPublica found that advertisers could target or exclude users from advertising based on an "Ethnic Affinity" – a demographic trait which is determined based on a user's interests and behaviors on Facebook, and not explicitly provided by the user. This could, in turn, be used to discriminate based on race. In February 2017, Facebook stated that it would implement stronger measures to forbid discriminatory advertising across the entire platform. Advertisers who attempt to create ads for housing, employment, or credit (HEC) opportunities would be blocked from using ethnic affinities (renamed "multicultural affinities" and now classified as behaviors) to target the ad. If an advertiser uses any other audience segment to target ads for HEC, they would be informed of the policies, and be required to affirm their compliance with relevant laws and policies.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: However, in November 2017, ProPublica found that automated enforcement of these new policies was inconsistent. They were also able to successfully create housing ads that excluded users based on interests and other factors that effectively imply associations with protected classes, including interests in wheelchair ramps, the Spanish-language television network Telemundo, and New York City ZIP codes with majority minority populations. In response to the report, Facebook temporarily removed the ability to target any ad with exclusions based on multicultural affinities.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In April 2018, Facebook permanently removed the ability to create exclusions based on multicultural affinities. In July 2018, Facebook signed a legally binding agreement with the State of Washington to take further steps within 90 days to prevent the use of its advertising platform for housing discrimination against protected classes. The following month, Facebook announced that it would remove at least 5,000 categories from its exclusion system to prevent "misuse", including those relating to races and religions. On March 19, 2019, Facebook settled a lawsuit over the matter with the National Fair Housing Alliance, agreeing to create a separate portal for HEC advertising with limited targeting options by September 2019, and to provide a public archive of all HEC advertising.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: On March 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a lawsuit against Facebook, having filed a formal complaint against the company on August 13, 2018. The HUD also took issue with Facebook's tendency to deliver ads based on users having "particular characteristics [that are] most likely to engage with the ad".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In August 2012, Facebook revealed that more than 83 million Facebook accounts (8.7% of total users) are fake accounts. These fake profiles consist of duplicate profiles, accounts for spamming purposes and personal profiles for business, organization or non-human entities such as pets. As a result of this revelation, the share price of Facebook dropped below $20. Furthermore, there is much effort to detect fake profiles using automated means, in one such work, machine learning techniques are used to detect fake users.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook initially refused to remove a "business" page devoted to a woman's anus, created without her knowledge while she was underage, due to other Facebook users having expressed interest in the topic. After BuzzFeed published a story about it, the page was finally removed. The page listed her family's former home address as that of the "business".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In September 2008, Facebook permanently moved its users to what they termed the "New Facebook" or Facebook 3.0. This version contained several different features and a complete layout redesign. Between July and September, users had been given the option to use the new Facebook in place of the original design, or to return to the old design.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Facebook's decision to migrate their users was met with some controversy in their community. Several groups started opposing the decision, some with over a million users.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In October 2009, Facebook redesigned the news feed so that the user could view all types of things that their friends were involved with. In a statement, they said, your applications [stories] generate can show up in both views. The best way for your stories to appear in the News Feed filter is to create stories that are highly engaging, as high quality, interesting stories are most likely to garner likes and comments by the user's friends.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: News Feed will focus on popular content, determined by an algorithm based on interest in that story, including the number of times an item is liked or commented on. Live Feed will display all recent stories from a large number of a user's friends.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The redesign was met immediately with criticism with users, many who did not like the amount of information that was coming at them. This was also compounded by the fact that people could not select what they saw.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In November 2009, Facebook issued a proposed new privacy policy, and adopted it unaltered in December 2009. They combined this with a rollout of new privacy settings. This new policy declared certain information, including "lists of friends", to be "publicly available", with no privacy settings; it was previously possible to keep access to this information restricted. Due to this change, the users who had set their "list of friends" as private were forced to make it public without even being informed, and the option to make it private again was removed. This was protested by many people and privacy organizations such as the EFF.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The change was described by Ryan Tate as "Facebook's Great Betrayal", forcing user profile photos and friends lists to be visible in users' public listing, even for users who had explicitly chosen to hide this information previously, and making photos and personal information public unless users were proactive about limiting access. For example, a user whose "Family and Relationships" information was set to be viewable by "Friends Only" would default to being viewable by "Everyone" (publicly viewable). That is, information such as the gender of the partner the user is interested in, relationship status, and family relations became viewable to those even without a Facebook account. Facebook was heavily criticized for both reducing its users' privacy and pushing users to remove privacy protections. Groups criticizing the changes include the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, had hundreds of personal photos and his events calendar exposed in the transition. Facebook has since re-included an option to hide friends lists from being viewable; however, this preference is no longer listed with other privacy settings, and the former ability to hide the friends list from selected people among one's own friends is no longer possible. Journalist Dan Gillmor deleted his Facebook account over the changes, stating he "can't entirely trust Facebook" and Heidi Moore at Slate's Big Money temporarily deactivated her account as a "conscientious objection". Other journalists have been similarly disappointed and outraged by the changes. Defending the changes, founder Mark Zuckerberg said "we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it". The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada launched another investigation into Facebook's privacy policies after complaints following the change.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Following a difficult 2017, marked by accusations of relaying fake news and revelations about groups close to Russia which tried to influence the 2016 US presidential election (see Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections) via advertisements on his service, Mark Zuckerberg, announced in his traditional January post:


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Following surveys on Facebook users, this desire for change will take the form of a reconfiguration of the News Feed algorithms to:


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The recent changes of the News Feed algorithm (see content : News Feed#History) are expected to improve "the amount of meaningful content viewed". To this end, the new algorithm is supposed to determine the publications around which a user is most likely to interact with his friends, and make them appear higher in the News Feed instead of items for example from media companies or brands. These are posts "that inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts that you might want to share and react to". But, as even Mark Zuckerberg admitted, he "expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable". The less public content a Facebook user sees on their News Feed, the less brands are able to reach consumers. That's unarguably a major lose for advertisers and publishers.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: This change which seems to be just another update of the social network, is widely criticized because of the heavy consequences it might lead to "In countries such as the Philippines, Myanmar and South Sudan and emerging democracies such Bolivia and Serbia, it is not ethical to plead platform neutrality or to set up the promise of a functioning news ecosystem and then simply withdraw at a whim".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Indeed, in such countries, Facebook was the promise of a reliable and objective platform on which they could hope for raw information. Independent media companies tried to fight censorship through their articles and were promoting in a way the right for citizens to know what is going on in their countries.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: The company's way of handling scandals and criticism over fake news by diminishing its media company image is even defined as "potentially deadly" regarding the poor and fraught political environments like Myanmar or South Sudan appealed by the "free basics" programme of the social network.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Serbian journalist Stevan Dojcinovic goes further by describing Facebook as a "monster" and accuses the company of "showing a cynical lack of concern for how its decisions affect the most vulnerable".


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Indeed, Facebook had experimented with withdrawing media companies' news on user's newsfeed in few countries such as Serbia. Stevan Docjcinovic then wrote an article explaining how Facebook helped them "to bypass mainstream channels and bring [their] stories to hundreds of thousands of readers". The rule about publishers is not being applied to paid posts raising the journalist's fears about the social network "becoming just another playground for the powerful" by letting them for example buy Facebook ads.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Critics are also visible in other media companies depicting the private company as the "destroyer of worlds". LittleThings CEO, Joe Speiser states that the algorithm shift "took out roughly 75% of LittleThings" organic traffic while hammering its profit margins" compelling them to close their doors because they were relying on Facebook to share content.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In February 2016, TRAI ruled against differential data pricing for limited services from mobile phone operators effectively ending zero-rating platforms in India. Zero rating provides access to a limited number of websites for no charge to the end user. Net-neutrality supporters from India (SaveTheInternet.in) brought out the negative implications of the Facebook Free Basic program and spread awareness to the public. Facebook's Free Basics program was a collaboration with Reliance Communications to launch Free Basics in India. The TRAI ruling against differential pricing marked the end of Free Basics in India.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: Earlier, Facebook had spent US$44 million in advertising and it implored all of its Indian users to send an email to the Telecom Regulatory Authority to support its program. TRAI later asked Facebook to provide specific responses from the supporters of Free Basics.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In December 2018 details on Facebook's behavior against competitors surfaced. The UK parliament member Damian Collins released files from a court ruling between Six4Three and Facebook. According to those files, the social media company Twitter released its app Vine in 2013. Facebook blocked Vine's Access to its data.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In July 2020, Facebook along with other tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google were accused of maintaining harmful power and anti-competitive strategies to quash potential competitors in the market. The CEOs of respective firms appeared in a teleconference on July 29, 2020, before the lawmakers of the United States Congress.


title: Criticism of Facebook

text: In what is known as the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook users were targeted with political advertising without informed consent in an attempt to promote right-wing causes, including the presidential election of Donald Trump. In addition to elections in the United States, Facebook has been implicated in electoral influence campaigns in places like Argentina, Kenya, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, as discussed in the 2019 documentary "The Great Hack".


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: The Princess Weiyoung () is a 2016 Chinese television series starring Tiffany Tang in the title role, alongside Luo Jin, Vanness Wu, Mao Xiaotong and Li Xinai. It is adapted from the novel "The Poisonous Daughter" () by Qin Jian and is a fictionalized account of Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei's reign and Empress Dowager Feng's regency. The series aired on Dragon TV and Beijing TV from November 11 to December 9, 2016.


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: The series received mixed reviews. It was praised for its tight plot and fast storyline and vivid character personas. It was also praised for showcasing the story of growth of a strong and independent female lead, as well as fleshing out the background stories of various supporting characters. Viewership ratings also reached as high as 2%, making it one of the highest rated drama of 2016. However it was criticized for its cliché plot devices, illogical plot details, use of excessive and inappropriate makeup, and dubbing of actors' voices. Investigations and a lawsuit showed that the original novel was heavily plagiarized from other similar stories. However, the series was nominated for several awards, winning actor & actress awards for both Luo Jin and Tiffany Tang, and Best Chinese Language Drama award at the 5th Annual DramaFever Awards.


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: During the chaotic Northern and Southern Dynasties, among Northern Liang's royal family lived a princess named Feng Xin'er (Tiffany Tang) who was kind, carefree and loved by all. Chiyun Nan, a marshal from the Chiyun clan of Northern Wei, was driven by greed to overrun Northern Liang and turned it into a bloodbath, killing almost the entire royal family and forcing the princess to survive on her own.


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: Li Weiyoung, the daughter of the Prime Minister of Northern Wei and his seventh concubine, shielded the princess from harm. However, Weiyoung was killed by the Chiyun family, of which the Prime Minister's first wife, Chiyun Rou, was a member, who were not pleased when she was recalled to the Prime Minister's manor. Xin'er assumed Weiyoung's identity and resided in the manor, where she was disliked and shunned by her older half-sister Li Changle and her mother Chiyun Rou. She thus took it upon herself to fight against the Chiyun clan and became entangled with Northern Wei's prince, Tuoba Jun (Luo Jin). She also attracted the eye of Tuoba Yu (Vanness Wu) who saw her as a chess piece to his ultimate aim of being Emperor. Through her struggles, she gained wisdom and was finally able to find peace for her family while living true to her heart.


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: Filming was done at Hengdian World Studios, and other shooting locations such as Xiaoian in the Xiandu Scenic Area in Jinyun County.


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: The author of the source novel was involved in a plagiarism case, where it was alleged that she used a software to copy over hundreds of other works to write her own novel. An alliance formed by 12 writers, including famed wuxia novelist Woon Swee Oan, joined to sue Qin Jian.


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: According to Beijing News, a group of volunteers compared "The Poisonous Daughter" () with more than 200 other novels. They found that out of 294 chapters, only nine chapters were original.


title: The Princess Weiyoung

text: On May 8, 2019, the Chaoyang District People's Court has declared Qin Jian guilty of infringing the works of Shen Wenwen, who wrote the novel 身历六帝宠不衰 that "The Poisonous Daughter" was copied from. Qin Jian has to compensate Shen Wenwen a total amount of ($20,000) for economic loss and intellectual copyright protection within 10 days of the verdict. Moreover, she must immediately cease sales and distribution of the novel upon the day the sentence is handed down.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: Coming Home is a 1978 American romantic war drama film directed by Hal Ashby from a screenplay written by Waldo Salt and Robert C. Jones with story by Nancy Dowd. It stars Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Robert Carradine and Robert Ginty. The film's narrative follows a perplexed woman, her Marine husband and a paraplegic Vietnam War veteran with whom she develops a romantic relationship, while her husband is deployed in Vietnam.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: "Coming Home" was theatrically released on February 15, 1978 to critical and commercial success. Reviewers praised its direction, screenplay and performances, while the film grossed $36 million worldwide against its $3 million budget, becoming the 15th highest-grossing film of 1978. It also premiered at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or, with Voight winning the Best Actor Prize.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: The film received various awards and nominations. At the 36th Golden Globe Awards, it received six nominations including for the Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Voight and Fonda winning Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. At the 51st Academy Awards, it received eight nominations including for the Best Picture, winning three; Best Original Screenplay with Voight and Fonda winning Best Actor and Best Actress respectively.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: In 1968 California, Sally (Jane Fonda), a loyal and conservative military wife, is married to Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern), a captain in the United States Marine Corps, who is about to be deployed to Vietnam. As a dedicated military officer, Bob sees the deployment primarily as an opportunity for career progress. At first, Sally dreads being left alone, but after a while, she feels liberated. Forced to find housing away from the base, she moves into a new apartment by the beach and buys a sports car. With nothing else to do, she decides to volunteer at a local Veterans Administration (VA) hospital, partially inspired by her bohemian friend Vi Munson, whose brother Billy (Robert Carradine) has come home with grave emotional problems after just two weeks in Vietnam and now resides in the VA hospital.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: At the hospital, Sally meets Luke Martin (Jon Voight), a former high-school classmate. Like his friend Billy, Luke had gone to Vietnam but came back wounded. He is recuperating at the hospital from the injuries he sustained, which left him a paraplegic. Filled with pain, anger and frustration, Luke is now opposed to the war. He is at first a bitter young man, but as he is increasingly thrown into contact with Sally, a relationship starts to develop. Eventually, Luke is released from the hospital, and, newly mobile with his own wheelchair, begins to rebuild his life. His relationship with Sally deepens. She is also transformed by him, and her outlook on life starts to change. They have happy times, play at the beach and fall in love. Meanwhile, Billy, traumatized by his experiences at war, commits suicide by injecting air into his veins. Driven by Billy's suicide, Luke chains himself to the gates of a local recruitment center in a vain attempt to stop others from enlisting.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: Sally and Luke eventually make love, confronting his handicap, with Sally experiencing her first orgasm. However, she does not seek a divorce from her husband, and both she and Luke know that their relationship will have to end when Bob returns home. Bob does return, too soon, claiming that he had accidentally wounded himself in the leg. He is also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from what he has seen in combat. Bob discovers Sally's affair from Army Intelligence, who have been spying on Luke since the gate incident, and both Sally and Luke agree that Sally should try to patch things up with Bob. Bob loses control, confronting the lovers with a loaded rifle, but ultimately turns away. The film ends with Luke speaking to young men about his experience in Vietnam, intercut with scenes of Bob placing his neatly folded Marine dress uniform on the beach, taking off his wedding ring, and swimming naked out into the ocean to commit suicide.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: "Coming Home" was conceived by Jane Fonda as the first feature for her own production company, IPC Films (for Indochina Peace Campaign), with her associate producer Bruce Gilbert, a friend from her protest days. Fonda wished to make a film about the Vietnam War inspired by her friendship with Ron Kovic, a paraplegic Vietnam War veteran, whom she had met at an antiwar rally. At that time, Kovic had recently completed his autobiographical book "Born on the Fourth of July", which later became an Oscar-winning motion picture of the same name directed by Oliver Stone, starring Tom Cruise as Kovic.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: In 1972, Fonda hired Nancy Dowd, a friend from her days in the feminist movement, to write a script about the consequences of the war as seen through the eyes of a military wife. Originally, Dowd's story, tentatively titled "Buffalo Ghosts", focused on two women, volunteers at a veterans' hospital, who must come to grips with the emotional toll that the war takes on its casualties and their families. The project dragged on for six years until Gilbert and producer Jerome Hellman took it. The screenplay was reshaped significantly by the circle of talent who eventually brought it to the screen: Fonda, Ashby, Wexler, Jon Voight, producer Hellman and screenwriters Waldo Salt and Robert C. Jones. They were united by their opposition to the Vietnam War and by their concern for the veterans who were returning to America and facing difficulties adapting to life back home. Rudy Wurlitzer contributed uncredited work to the script.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: John Schlesinger, who had worked with producers Hellman and Voight on "Midnight Cowboy", was originally named the director, but he left the project after feeling uncomfortable with the subject matter. He was replaced by Hal Ashby. Fonda was cast from the beginning as Sally Hyde, the housewife. A top box-office star was sought for the male lead to offset the grim nature of the story. Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Sylvester Stallone were all offered the part, but declined. Jon Voight had been considered for the role of the husband, but after becoming involved with the film, he campaigned to play the paraplegic veteran. Voight had participated in the anti-war movement and was a friend of Fonda, who was instrumental in helping him land the role, even though he had fallen from popularity since his "Midnight Cowboy" heyday. Bruce Dern, long stereotyped in sadistic roles, was chosen as the husband. The screenplay was written and rewritten until the project could wait no longer. Jane Fonda, who just finished "Julia" (1977), was soon to star in Alan J. Pakula's "Comes a Horseman" (1978). For director Ashby, this was his second film about the 1960s, in addition to his 1975 film "Shampoo".


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: Ashby had cast singer-songwriter Guthrie Thomas to portray the role of Bill Munson after reviewing Thomas' screen test. Thomas joined his close friend Ashby and the entire cast at a restaurant by Malibu Beach before the start of production. Thomas had been previously cast in a previous Ashby film, "Bound for Glory", starring David Carradine. Upon completion of the cast meeting, Thomas privately spoke with Ashby and told him, "Hal, I am a singer-songwriter as you know and not an actor. In all fairness to you and this amazing cast you need an extremely talented actor for this role and not a poor singer. I recommend either Bobby Carradine or Keith Carradine." Robert Carradine was cast and portrayed the role of Bill Munson.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: "Coming Home" premiered at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where Voight won the award for Best Actor for his performance.


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: The film was released in the U.S. in February 1978. It proved popular with audiences and received generally good reviews. Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" commented that: "Despite an over-explicit soundtrack and some moments when the story in fact became a sermon, the movie effectively translated a changed national consciousness into credible and touching personal terms." The "Toronto Sun" called the film ""The Best Years of Our Lives" c. 1978 with the same high standards and the same lofty morals of an earlier era."


title: Coming Home (1978 film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 28 reviews, with a rating average of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads: ""Coming Home"'s stellar cast elevates the love triangle in the center of its story - and adds a necessary human component to its none-too-subtle political message."


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – September 1, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target, Cobra, and Survivor from 1984 to 1989, performing the songs "Burning Heart" from the film "Rocky IV", "The Moment of Truth" from "The Karate Kid", along with other top-20 Survivor hits "I Can't Hold Back", "High On You", "The Search Is Over" and "Is This Love". He officially rejoined Survivor in 2000, remaining in the group until 2006, only to rejoin again in 2011. Acclaimed for his vocal abilities, Jamison is also known for having co-written and performed the theme song "I'm Always Here" for the 1990s TV series "Baywatch".


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jimmy Wayne Jamison was born in rural Durant, Mississippi, but self-identified as a Memphis, Tennessee native, as he and his mother Dorothy moved there when he was one day old. In his teens, growing up in Blues-Rock and Soul music, he taught himself how to play the guitar and piano. The first song Jimi ever performed in front of a crowd was "Daytripper" by The Beatles, while he was in middle school (Sherwood) in the mid-1960s.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jimi began playing in an R&B band called The Debuts. It was to be Jamison's first taste of success, and he was only 12 years old at the time. While students at Messick High School, the band had a hit with their first single, the Wayne Carson-penned "If I Cry" in 1968. It was a song originally intended for fellow Memphis band The Box Tops, but the group discarded the tune before recording it; Box Tops frontman Alex Chilton gave it to The Debuts instead. The band were picked up and signed by Atlantic Records. Soon the teenagers hit the road with the likes of Roy Orbison and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, also touring with The Buckinghams. The band broke up in 1969, but Jimi and Rowell continued playing together years later before going their separate ways.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: After the second sessions recording with David Beaver, both Jamison and Cathey teamed up with guitarist Buddy Davis and formed the Memphis southern rock band Target in the mid 1970s. The band started and became a local arena band playing live constantly building up their reputation. Having success, the band released the albums "Target" (1976) and "Captured" (1977) on A&M Records with the singles "Are you Ready", "Let Me Live" and "It is Only Love", opening concerts for Black Sabbath, Boston, and KISS.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: In 1982, Jamison joined guitarist Mandy Meyer (ex-Krokus), guitarist/keyboardist Jack Holder (ex-Black Oak Arkansas), bassist Tommy Keiser, and drummer Jeff Klaven in the band Cobra, managed by Butch Stone (who also managed Target as well as Krokus and Black Oak Arkansas), replacing original vocalist Tommy Andris. The band became a hit in the Memphis scene and signed with Epic Records. The group released one album, the Tom Allom-produced "First Strike", in 1983. The British music magazine Kerrang! listed the album at number one in its import charts with the song "Blood On Your Money" getting MTV airplay, being Jamison's first music video.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: "Looking at You" and "Travelin' Man" were promoted at the Memphis TV Club. Cobra started touring in the United States opening for Quiet Riot, Nazareth, and Krokus. Their live performance on November 27, 1983, was broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour (KBFH) and later partly released on the "Live Attack!" and "Only You Can Rock Me" bootlegs. The live set included a half dozen unreleased songs, including their original "I'm a Fighter", written by Jimi and Mandy, which was covered by the group Van Zant in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, "First Strike" was only a moderate commercial success, and the band split at the end of the year, primarily due to each member wanting to do different things.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: After Cobra's demise in 1984, Jamison was invited to join Survivor, whose success had been waning since their number-one hit "Eye of the Tiger" in 1982. The band had recently parted ways with original singer Dave Bickler, due to his vocal cord injuries that required a lengthy convalescence. After a successful audition with the band, Jamison joined them despite some misgivings about Survivor's pop rock sound. He provided an instant spark to the band, having great success, putting the band back on top. His first recording with the band was "The Moment of Truth" ("The Karate Kid" theme song), which reached number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1984.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison's first full album with Survivor, and the band's fifth overall, was "Vital Signs", released later in 1984. That album reached number 16 on the Billboard Album Chart and was certified platinum by the RIAA. The album included the hit singles "High on You" (which reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart), "I Can't Hold Back" (number 13 on the singles chart and number 1 on Top Rock Tracks chart), with Jamison proving to be a worthy frontman and a photogenic face of the band, which helped the video for this song get significant airplay on MTV, and "The Search Is Over" (number 4 on the singles chart and number 1 on the adult contemporary chart). "First Night" also reached number 53 on the singles chart.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: The band began touring in Chicago and Indianapolis in 1984, in 1985 the band went on tour with headliner Bryan Adams, performing at his sold-out concerts at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium, the Dallas Convention Center, the San Antonio Convention Center and the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. They also toured with REO Speedwagon around that time with appearances at San Diego sports arena and other venues, plus touring in Tokyo, Japan in which they released a DVD of the concert and appearing and performing in different Japanese Television Shows. That same year Survivor was requested by Stallone once again to do the theme song for the next Rocky film, achieving another hit with "Burning Heart" from the film "Rocky IV". In early 1986, the single peaked at number 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison's second album with Survivor, "When Seconds Count", was released on October 9, 1986, and included the hit single "Is This Love" (number 9 on the singles chart). The album peaked at a disappointing number 49 on the Billboard Album Chart but still managed to sell over 500,000 copies and was certified Gold. This album also featured Jamison making songwriting contributions to the band's repertoire, including the single "Man Against the World" (number 86). This song was originally slated for inclusion on the "Rocky IV" soundtrack and was in fact later included in that album's 2006 reissue. Another single, "How Much Love" peaked at number 51 on the singles chart, while "In Good Faith" was promoted in Europe, with the band performing in German TV Shows.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Survivor released their final 80's album "Too Hot to Sleep" in late 1988. Jamison would later cite the album as his personal favorite with Survivor, but it suffered from a lack of record company promotion and only reached number 187 on the Billboard albums chart. Three singles were released, with "Across the Miles" reaching number 74 on the singles chart, "Didn't Know It Was Love" reaching number 61, and "Desperate Dreams" receiving promotion in Europe, but the band could not sustain the success from their previous albums.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: In 1989, Jamison contributed his own version of "Ever Since the World Began", a song Survivor had initially recorded prior to his tenure in the band, to the Sylvester Stallone's film, "Lock Up," after being requested by Stallone. That same year, he was invited to join Deep Purple, who had just fired longtime singer Ian Gillan. After a two-week session with the band, he reluctantly parted ways with them; according to Deep Purple organist Jon Lord, "He [Jamison] was an enormous Deep Purple fan and he would happily have taken over the job. But at the time he was afraid of his managers. They didn't want him to leave [Survivor] and he didn't dare to get into a fight with them." In fact, Jamison's managers wanted him to concentrate on his upcoming solo album instead of joining Deep Purple. Also in 1989, Jamison briefly united with his Target bandmates for a "10-Year Reunion" concert in Memphis and was part of the New Year's Eve celebration in the Crown Plaza. It was also around this time that Jamison performed the entrance song "Hard Time" for the wrestler Big Boss Man when he was in the WWF.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison's first solo album "When Love Comes Down" was released in July 1991. While neither the album nor any of its singles made much impact on the charts, the songs "Rock Hard" and "Taste of Love" were used in episodes of "Baywatch", and the latter was also used in the 1992 film "Jersey Girl". Jamison's association with "Baywatch" began that same year, when CBS enlisted him to create a song for the then-just acquired TV Series; Jimi would co-write (with Cory Lerios and John D'Andrea) and perform "I'm Always Here," the series theme song. The song achieved success and pop culture recognition, with various versions of the song appearing as the show's opening theme until 2001.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison began touring under the name Survivor or Jimi Jamison's Survivor with a new solo band consisting of Hal Butler (keyboards, vocals), Jeff Adams (bass, vocals), Bill Marshall (drums), and initially official Survivor member Frankie Sullivan on guitar, though he was soon replaced by Jeff Miller. Sullivan and Jim Peterik from the "official" Survivor then filed a lawsuit against their one-time bandmate for continuing to bill his group as "Survivor", but were unsuccessful in preventing Jamison from touring under the band's name until 1999. During this period, the Scotti Brothers label released two Survivor compilation albums featuring songs from Jamison's tenure.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: The solo album "Empires", featuring a re-recorded version of "I'm Always Here" and a cover of "Love is Alive" by Gary Wright, was released under the name Jimi Jamison's Survivor in October 1999.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison reunited with Survivor in March 2000, replacing original singer Dave Bickler once again. In 2002, the band released "Christmas is Here", which reached No. 6 on the Mediabase Christmas charts. In 2005, Jamison and the band were part of a Starbucks commercial, making an Eye of the Tiger parody, which gave them an Emmy Nomination. Jamison and the band released the album "Reach" in April 2006. The album was Survivor's first new album in 18 years. Jamison quit the band shortly after the release of "Reach", on July 14.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison released the solo album "Crossroads Moment" in Europe in July 2008 and in America the following year. The album was produced by his former Survivor bandmate Jim Peterik. He continued touring in Rio, Brazil, Chile and in Barcelona, Spain. A companion album of outtakes called "Extra Moments" was released in 2010, the additional tracks had been compiled by Jamison and Peterik as a benefit for the music website melodicrock.com.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: In 2011, Jamison teamed up with Toto singer Bobby Kimball for the album "Kimball Jamison". The two singers shared lead vocals on songs written by Richard Page (Mr Mister), Randy Goodrum (Toto, Steve Perry), John Waite, and other notable rock songwriters.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: During this period Jamison also formed the band One Man's Trash with Fred Zahl. That group released the album "History" in December 2011 for Starhouse Records. The band earned an endorsement from the guitar company Hofner.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison again reunited with Survivor in 2011. In November of that year he performed Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" (on which he did not sing originally) for boxer Manny Pacquiao's entrance into the ring for his bout against Shane Mosley at MGM Grand Las Vegas. Fueled by popular demand, Jamison would repeat the performance the following year for the boxer's next title defense.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: In 2013, it was announced on the band's official media sources that Sullivan had reunited the current Survivor line-up with Bickler. They were also working on new material and looking forward to getting back into the studio together. Jamison participated in further tours with Survivor and would remain with the band until his death in 2014.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison's last show was on August 30, 2014, in Morgan Hill, California, at the CANcert benefit event during the ARTTEC Summer Concert Series (arttecusa.com). The benefit raised funds and awareness for two non-profits supporting cancer patients as well as career training opportunities for high school students. Survivor's 58-minute set consisted of "Feels Like Love", "Broken Promises", "Take You on a Saturday", "High on You", "Rockin' into the Night", "The Search Is Over", "Rebel Girl", "I Can't Hold Back", "Burning Heart", "Poor Man's Son", "It's the Singer Not the Song" and ended with "Eye of the Tiger".


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Throughout his career, Jamison provided background vocals for several bands and artists such as Degarmo & Key ("This Ain't Hollywood," 1980, "Heat it Up", 1993 and "To Extremes", 1994); Gary Chapman ("Sincerely Yours", 1981); Mylon LeFevre & Broken Heart ("Brand New Start", 1982 and "Sheep In Wolves Clothing", 1985); Krokus ("Headhunter", 1983 and "The Blitz", 1984); Molly Hatchet ("The Deed is Done", 1984); and The Blackwood Brothers ("All Their Best", 1984). He provided backing vocals throughout ZZ Top's 1983 album "Eliminator" and also for that band's contribution to the "Back to the Future III" soundtrack in 1990. Frontman Billy Gibbons referred to Jamison as the "fourth member" of the group after working, touring and hanging out with them in multiple occasions.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison contributed vocals for Joe Walsh on the albums "Got any Gum?" (1987), "Ordinary Average Guy ("1991), and "Songs for a Dying Planet" (1992). He was co-lead vocals with Walsh on the 1991 single "All of a Sudden", which reached number 13 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. He also worked with the Fabulous Thunderbirds ("Powerful Stuff", 1989), Ten Years After ("About Time", 1989), Omar & the Howlers ("Wall of Pride", 1988), Eric Gales Band ("The Eric Gales Band", 1991 and "Picture of a Thousand Faces", 1993), and Chris Bailey. ("Demons", 1991),


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison provided backing vocals for long-time Heart guitarist Howard Leese's solo album "Secret Weapon" (2009). He released the single "House That Love Built" in early 2010 as a benefit for the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis. He also recorded the charity single "One Family" in 2011 with the all-star ensemble United Rockers 4 U, which also included Bobby Kimball, Don Dokken, Eddie Money, Jeff Paris, Paul Shortino, Phil Lewis, Richie Kotzen, and Robin McAuley. Jamison contributed backing vocals to the album "Naked but Dressed" by Dominoe in 2012. He contributed to an all-star tribute to Steve Miller Band in 2013. One of his last vocal performances was the song "Summer Rains" on guitarist Tommy Denander's 2015 release "F4ur" by the band Radioactive.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison earned acclaim for his vocal abilities. "We didn't even consider it [pitch editing] on him," sound engineer Terry Manning says. "We didn't even have it back then. He never needed it. He could hold pitch. He could sing vibrato when needed. He could sing straight when needed. He could do whatever you needed. Casey Kasem, the big DJ guy, called him 'The Voice.' That's what he named him. He just was the voice." Jamison is an Honorary Member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. "Rolling Stone" magazine called Jamison "a true Rock and Roll Legend."


title: Jimi Jamison

text: In 1972, Jamison married Brenda Fay Mason, who is the mother of his first daughter Amy Jamison. They divorced in 1983 and Jamison later married Deborah Teal in 1985. With Teal, he had two more children, James and Lacy. Jamison and Teal separated in 1999. When not traveling or performing, Jamison enjoyed gardening, throwing horseshoes, various sports such as tennis and golf, and spending time with his family.


title: Jimi Jamison

text: Jamison died on September 1, 2014, at his home in Raleigh, Memphis, Tennessee, aged 63. His autopsy said he had cardiovascular disease and narrowing of the arteries and that he died of a hemorrhagic brain stroke.


title: Park Avenue

text: Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east. Park Avenue's entire length was formerly called Fourth Avenue; the title still applies to the section between Cooper Square and 14th Street. The avenue is called Union Square East between 14th and 17th Streets, and Park Avenue South between 17th and 32nd Streets.


title: Park Avenue

text: The entirety of Park Avenue was originally known as Fourth Avenue and carried the tracks of the New York and Harlem Railroad starting in the 1830s. The railroad originally ran through an open cut through Murray Hill, which was covered with grates and grass between 34th and 40th Street in the early 1850s. A section of this "park" was later renamed Park Avenue in 1860. Park Avenue's original southern terminus was at 34th Street, and the newly renamed Park Avenue was given its own house-numbering system separate from that of Fourth Avenue. The address 1 Park Avenue was assigned to a house at 101 East 34th Street, at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and 34th Street.


title: Park Avenue

text: The Harlem Railroad was later incorporated into the New York Central Railroad, and a terminal for the New York Central at 42nd Street, the Grand Central Depot, opened in 1871. But the tracks laid to the new terminal proved problematic. There were originally no grade-separated crossings of the railroads between 42nd and 59th Streets. As such, they required railroad crossings along Fourth Avenue, which resulted in frequent accidents; seven people died within 12 days of the Hudson River Railroad's move to Grand Central.


title: Park Avenue

text: In 1872, shortly after the opening of Grand Central Depot, New York Central owner Cornelius Vanderbilt proposed the Fourth Avenue Improvement Project. The tracks between 48th and 56th Streets were to be moved into a shallow open cut, while the segment between 56th and 97th Streets, which was in a rock cut, would be covered over. After the improvements were completed in 1874, the railroads, approaching Grand Central Depot from the north, descended into the Park Avenue Tunnel at 96th Street and continued underground into the new depot. As part of the project, Fourth Avenue was transformed into a boulevard with a median strip that covered the railroad's ventilation grates. Eight footbridges crossed the tracks between 45th and 56th Streets, and there were also vehicular overpasses at 45th and 48th Streets. The boulevard north of Grand Central was renamed Park Avenue in 1888.


title: Park Avenue

text: A fatal collision between two trains occurred under Park Avenue in 1902, in part because the smoke coming from the steam trains obscured the signals. The New York state legislature subsequently passed a law to ban all steam trains in Manhattan. By December 1902, as part of an agreement with the city, New York Central agreed to put the approach to Grand Central Station from 46th to 59th Streets in an open cut under Park Avenue, and to upgrade the tracks to accommodate electric trains. Overpasses would be built across the open cut at most of the cross-streets. The new electric-train terminal, Grand Central Terminal, was opened in 1913.


title: Park Avenue

text: After the electric trains were buried underground, the area around Park Avenue in the vicinity of Grand Central was developed into several blocks worth of prime real estate called Terminal City. Stretching from 42nd to 51st Streets between Madison and Lexington Avenues, it came to include the Chrysler Building and other prestigious office buildings; luxury apartment houses along Park Avenue; and an array of high-end hotels that included the Marguery, Park Lane, and Waldorf Astoria. In 1929, New York Central built its headquarters in a 34-story building (now called the Helmsley Building), straddling Park Avenue north of the terminal.


title: Park Avenue

text: The Park Avenue Viaduct reroutes Park Avenue around Grand Central Terminal between 40th and 46th Streets, allowing Park Avenue traffic to traverse around the building and over 42nd Street without encumbering nearby streets. The western (now southbound) leg of the viaduct was completed in 1919, but congestion developed soon after the viaduct's opening, so an eastern leg for northbound traffic was added in 1928.