Wire service Agence France Presse has forbidden its reporters from using Facebook as a source for their stories — after news organizations were fooled by a fake profile on the social network of Benazir Bhutto's son. Also banned, according to AFP's London bureau chief: references to Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia. Not nearly far enough: the internet itself is a perfidious Anglo-Saxon invention. France should have stuck with Minitel.

Agence France-Presse, which previously prohibited the use of Wikipedia as a source by its journalists, has extended the restriction to Facebook. Imagine that: banning reporters from Facebook. Who do they think they are — Mark Zuckerberg? [Journalism.co.uk]

OK, so Ask.com is no longer Ask Jeeves, and you've never heard of Cracked.com. And really, the Internet isn't that much like a bad college house party at all. But still, parts of the humorous short "The Internet Party," from which we briefly excerpt above, ring true. Like the perky, plucky "Google," who's played by a much less pretty but equally nerdy version of Marissa Mayer.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear Sunday, March 9, at the SXSW Interactive Festival. He'll be interviewed on stage by BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy. [Allfacebook]

Yesterday, we reported that MySpace continues to beat Facebook soundly in traffic. But some, including Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget, reject the U.S. numbers we cited from Hitwise, saying worldwide traffic indicates "Facebook is coming up behind MySpace like a Ferrari about to blow past a bus." And how could we ignore such a simile? It's totally awesome, dude! So here's a chart comparing worldwide traffic for Facebook and MySpace, from ComScore.

One thing that really bugged people about Facebook Beacon is that it would automatically install cookies in your browser, following you around the Internet. Well, here's a cookie you shouldn't worry about downloading. Unless you find yourself wondering why you'd want to consume a picture of Mark Zuckerberg. Sweet, delicious Mark Zuckerberg.

Can anyone explain this to me? No one said a word when I revealed personal details from the MySpace profile of Megan Ellison, the bisexual, hard-drinking daughter of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, a month ago. Yet we're fussed over Emily Brill, Steve Brill's daughter, simply because the juicy bits about her came off of Facebook. In Silicon Valley and Manhattan, admitting to a MySpace page is shameful. A Facebook profile? De rigueur. MySpace continues to dominate social networking, soundly beating Facebook in traffic. Yet Facebook still holds a special place in the hearts of the media and tech elite. Why?

Facebook has remixed the News Feed algorithm. Pages that require installation of a Facebook app will be given much lower billing than pages that can be viewed by any user. I was all about the Facebook Platform when it launched, but now it's getting freaking annoying. [Inside Facebook]

My boss, Nick Denton, may be banned from Facebook, for posting photos of Emily Brill, daughter of entrepreneur Steve Brill. Insiders at the social network tell me that they have considered similar sanctions against me, especially after I posted the story of Facebook PR chief Brandee Barker befriending her Microsoft counterpart, Adam Sohn, shortly before Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook. In solidarity, I'll now take a similar risk by posting this charming photo of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, taken while the two were goofing off during a BusinessWeek photo shoot.

Hasbro and Mattel, co-owners of Scrabble, asked Facebook to remove its one good app, "Scrabulous." So far the online game's method of distinguishing itself from the board game with the exact same rules (which has its own free web version) has been a disclaimer on the app saying that it's not Scrabble. (Which reminds me it's time to plug the RSS from Gawker into my new site, "Gawkifier.com.") Unless Scrabulous drastically changes its rules or sells to Scrabble, Hasbro and Mattel will most certainly win the battle and Facebook will be that much less fun for the 600 thousand people who played Scrabulous each day.

Want to hear from one of the geniuses who worked on pricing subprime mortgages? Facebook's Jeff Hammerbacher speaks at Yahoo Brickhouse today at noon. While you're there, ask Brickhouse manager Salim Ismail about his trouble with the taxman. If that doesn't exhaust you, there are six, count them, six Macworld parties to choose from tonight — plus Pownce's pre-launch event, if you want to hoist a PBR with Kevin Rose.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg may be getting all the money and media attention lately, but News Corp.'s MySpace still dominates when it comes to traffic. The site commands more than 70 percent of visits to social networks, according to this latest chart from Hitwise. Still, its share declined 8 percent in the last year. Which might explain why News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch was rumored to be poking around runner-up social network Bebo recently. Oh, and by the looks of things, maybe Barry Diller should have acquired MyYearbook for IAC back when he reportedly expressed interest.

Jeff Hammerbacher, a research scientist at Facebook, is giving a presentation at Yahoo today about large-scale data analysis. The Harvard grad's prior experience before coming to Facebook? Developing price models for mortgage-backed securities at Bear Stearns — the same kind of securities that led Bear to write off $1.9 billion in December. Does this explain why Facebook is sending him to give a talk at a competitor? Take note, Yahoos. (Photo by jakob)

Alexander, Oliver, and Marc Samwer, founders of a German eBay knockoff, have invested "$10 million to $15 million" in Facebook, joining Microsoft and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing in a financing round that has valued Facebook at $15 billion. We hear Li Ka-Shing could double his investment in the company, bringing the total raised to almost $400 million. [Silicon Alley Insider]

If you hadn't noticed, I got married and went on a honeymoon. Did you miss me? Apparently so. Gizmodo gets banned from CES. Golson asks Calacanis for a job. Our very special correspondent pickets against the new pay system. Where was Denton with the "too insidery" warnings? Oh that's right, blogging for Gawker. Here's what really happened during the first two weeks of 2008, according to a speed-read of my feeds. On my next honeymoon, I'm bringing a laptop.

Don't pretend the low ratings for Sunday's 60 Minutes segment about Facebook say anything meaningful. Tech blog Silicon Alley Insider concluded that the world at large doesn't care about Facebook, but that's an unfair assumption. The awkward interview with site founder Mark Zuckerberg and a description of a site mostly geared toward college students may not have been the best material for the show's aging audience, but how many of them were even tuned in after the preceding segment, which explored rape and genocide in the Congo? It feels good to draw an obvious conclusion — Surprise! Old people don't care about Facebook — and I can sympathize with anyone squeezing a blog post out of a fake analysis. But the exercise is utterly useless when there's a more obvious answer.

Facebook funder Peter Thiel is a "neocon" who is trying to "destroy the real world." So says British journalist Tom Hodgkinson in a feature-length screed for The Guardian. You really don't want to miss a word of this one — it's a classic Cassandra piece — but OK, I'll 100-word it after the jump.

Is it advertising if no one pays for it? In its rush to criticize Facebook's Beacon in last night's segment on the hot social network, 60 Minutes forgot to ask that question. In dramatic tones, correspondent Lesley Stahl ominously noted how "advertisers pulled out" after controversy erupted over the feature, which reports on users' online activities, including purchases. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended it to Stahl as the future of advertising, a form of sponsorship less crass than banner ads. If it's the future of advertising, though, it's not a very lucrative one.

With his 27 percent stake in the company, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is worth about $4 billion. (In an interview aired last night, 60 Minutes put the figure at $3 billion, but the venerable show is — how to put this delicately? — incorrect.) So what does a billion here, a billion there do for the 23-year old founder? Not much to improve his wardrobe, apparently. "You don't look like you're buying expensive clothes," interviewer Lesley Stahl tells him. Ouch. And it sounds like that paper wealth isn't doing much to improve Zuck's housing situation, either.

"Facebook headquarters in downtown Palo Alto looks like a dorm room," Lesley Stahl narrated during last night's 60 Minutes piece on the company. "Facebook employees," Stahl also tells us, "show up late, stay late, and party really late." At the end of the the montage, it cuts to a darkened room where an employee continues to grind out work on his laptop while several others sit scrunched shoulder to shoulder on a red couch. There's also a DJ in the room. "Get down!" the music exhorts, 'cause it's totally like party planet down in Palo Alto. Woo. Wake us when they start taking their clothes off or putting on Viking helmets.