It’s the return of CRUSH! After taking a short summer hiatus, we’re back in action, crushing the week’s social media news into a juicy 3 minutes or less. And this week we’re even giving you a special behind-the-scenes look into Crush Studios, so don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter.

The newest and third-largest nation in the world – Facebook Nation – is having trouble getting its currency off the ground. Facebook’s announcement that Facebook credits will soon be the sole currency for all apps and games, has some of its 500,000 million citizens (i.e. developers) putting up a fight.

But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg better start focusing on national security because other forces are preparing to attack. A web designer has filed a lawsuit against the social networking site claiming that, based on a contract entered in 2003 with Zuckerberg, he is entitled to 84% of Facebook, or $12.6 billion. And a Judge in New York has ruled to freeze the social networking site’s assets until the case is resolved.

So Mr. Zuckerberg, how would you like to pay for that? Cash, credit, check or…Facebook credits?

In this week’s quick hits:

• Ebay has it’s own legal woes, facing a copyright infringement lawsuit over PayPal technology that could cost them almost $4 billion.
• Tweet Deck surpassed 15 million downloads this week, meaning that apparently more than 15 million people have yet to hear of Hootsuite.
• And just when you thought Chatroulette couldn’t get any creepier…it has now added a local feature, so you can now tell just how close that person (or body part) really is.

And in world news, China’s online population has skyrocketed to “420 million as more people access the Internet with cell phones.” The Communist government has renewed Google’s operating license, ending the months-long stalemate over Internet censorship and providing momentum for rights groups, such as Human Rights First, in their effort to create an open Internet behind the Great Chinese Firewall.

And that brings us to our “Crush of the Week” where we would like to recognize the brilliant folks over at Old Spice for their new, creative social media marketing campaign that is both entertaining and effective.

I invite you to join me in making the following declaration:

I declare here and now I believe in respect. I am a person ready to take a stand against relationship violence and abuse. I want all to know this symbolizes my commitment to solve problems through conversation, not confrontation. Together we can teach others to lift their hands in embrace, not in anger. We can show compassion equals strength, and by doing so, help shape a world free of relationship violence.

To declare it, go here.

After you declare it, share it.

The Family Violence Prevention Fund is on a mission to create a future of healthy relationships. And as such, they are asking people to Give RESPECT!, and make a declaration.

So far, mostly women have signed. Women should sign, and I’m asking the men to step up. Relationship violence is a problem that lives in the shadows. To end it, we must bring it into the light and talk about it. You can help by making the declaration, and sending it on.

And to the women reading this, please sign the declaration too and send it to the men you know, and ask them to make a stand.

After all, what is it to be a man?

It’s not measured by the size of your wallet, but by the size of your heart.
It’s not determined by the strength of your muscles, but by the strength of your courage.
It’s not judged by how tall you stand, but by what you stand up for.

And this Father’s Day, it’s time to man up.

CRUSH Roadtrip 2010 has been officially underway and this week we break down Facebook like you’ve never seen it before – giving you not only the latest from the news desk, but also what people on the street have to say.

While a handful of Senators spoke out against Facebook’s new automatic opt-in privacy policy, this week the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a formal Federal Trade Commission complaint against the social media network – requesting that the FTC “investigate Facebook, enjoin its unfair and deceptive business practices, and require Facebook to protect the privacy of Facebook users.”

However, Facebook was preoccupied attending to a more pressing privacy issue. The chat feature suffered a major technology glitch, causing some users private chats and friend requests to be exposed to the entirety of their friends list.

Which brings us to our prediction that Facebook will be upgrading this chat feature in the coming months. Especially since Russian investor DST, who bought the instant messaging relic ICQ from AOL, has increased its stake in Facebook from 2% to 10%. Giving DST more power in the decision making process and the chance to put its newest purchase into something useful.

Sadly, the future doesn’t look bright for all of social media. Digg is the most recent social media company to announce layoffs, sending an email to employees informing them that 10% of the workforce would be let go. And this comes on the heels of Ning announcing it would be cutting its workforce by 40% and removing all free services.

And what do the people have to say about all of this? Well, we take a stop at Denver, Colorado and get some interesting opinions from three individuals who actually don’t have a Facebook account, a very rare breed in this day and age.

We almost had the chance to ask Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, what his thoughts were on the subject when we spotted him in the car next to us…unfortunately he drove away too soon.

But the best part of our Roadtrip so far has got to be this week’s CRUSH of the Week, where we got to meet up with the creator of Captain Planet. This was only stop one, so be sure to stay tuned for more in the upcoming weeks and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to find out if we’re coming to a city near you!

CRUSH – Your one and only source for juicy social media news in four minutes or less. Don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter, and get your daily crush at www.commonsensenms.com

As promised, we’ve got the latest on the debate heating up over Facebook privacy. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer is adding fuel to the fire, asking the FCC to provide privacy guidelines for social networks. Schumer believes “The default policy should be one of privacy, and users should be in control of how they choose to share their information, not the other way around.” This “opt-out” to “opt-in” transition sounds smart to us, but check out the Senator’s Facebook page to find out what everyone else is saying and to put in your own two cents.

Taking a more active approach, a group in Germany expressed their concern over “privacy invasions” by sabotaging a Google “Street View” car. The Google employee returned to find the tires let down and the camera cables slashed. However, the protestors were kind enough to leave behind the informative note, “Please do not drive away, you have a puncture”.

And perhaps these privacy issues are the source of anxiety and worry bringing an influx of users to the site “Blah Therapy”. This new website pairs random strangers together as “venters” and “listeners”, however, when we tried to unload our feelings the site was down due to an overload of users.

But our epic privacy FAIL comes courtesy of Blippy, a social media site that lets users share with friends what they purchase. Several credit card transactions were visible via a simple Google search, exposing detailed information including amount spent, specific location, and full credit card number. While we hate to say it, we predicted this case of “TMI” from the beginning.

In Twitter news, a new report by Edison Research and Arbitron reveals that while the awareness of Twitter among Americans has increased from 5% to 87% in the past two years, the population is still struggling to find a reason to use it as only 7% of Americans are active users.

However, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has now joined the 140-character brigade in hopes of spreading Bolvarian Revolution. And if Chavez, who had recently declared Twitter “a tool for terror”, can be converted to the dark side, maybe Twitter still has a chance.

In an attempt to aggregate all the “Like’s” around the world, Facebook has created the new website likebutton.me. The site operates as a directory of “likes”, showing what your friends and the rest of the world have deemed most important from popular web sites, such as YouTube, New York Times and Pandora.

And that brings us to our CRUSH OF THE WEEK – we are taking on the serious epidemic sweeping the globe, “Internet Valleygirlification”. With Facebook only allowing a “like option” our freedom of expression is confined into a simplistic, 4-letter, click of affirmation. So that’s why we are hitting the pavement for the CRUSH Road Trip 2010. Don’t worry, we will find out what American’s really have to say and of course share all the juicy with you.

CRUSH – Bringing you the latest in social media news in four minutes or less. And in our own exciting news – we’ve gone HD, making our crushing capabilities that much clearer. Enjoy! Don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter, and get your daily crush at www.commonsensenms.com

Facebook took center stage this week with its annual developers conference, F8. What were the biggest announcements? Although Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg displayed a dozen new tools and widgets, the most significant announcement to prepare for is the “open graph platform”. Open Graph plans to connect all corners in the web in order to “create a Web that’s smarter, more social, more personalized, and more semantically aware”. As one element of this platform, website owners will have a chance to place a “Like” button on their pages, allowing Facebook to then publish whatever a user likes directly to their Facebook profile.

Of course the privacy police have already stated concern over the new development, and with good reason. When does sharing data on what we read, view, listen to, and interact with on the web become invasive as opposed to interactive? Stay tuned to CRUSH for latest in what is sure to be an upcoming battle over personalization versus privacy.

In honor of the recent celebration of Earth Day, we encourage you to fly on over to the “We Love Birds” community on Ning. Hosted by NRDC and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “We Love Birds” is one of the best uses of Ning we’ve seen yet. View some of natures’ finest yourself with the over 7,000 stunning photos.

While social media sites continue to innovate at a crushing speed, the honorable justices of the US Supreme Court seem to be experiencing technical difficulties. The divide between “the hip justices and hip-replacement judges” was made painfully clear during this week’s court discussion over sexting and privacy rights. Embarrassing highlights from the case:

• Chief Justice Roberts asks what the difference was between email and a pager
• Justice Kennedy wondered what would happen if you were sent a text the same time you were sending one to someone else – “Does it say: ‘Your call is important to us, and we will get back to you?”
• Justice Scalia’s confusion on service providers and concern of whether they can be shared by printing them – “You mean (the text) doesn’t go right to me?”…”Could Quon print these spicy little conversations and send them to his buddies?”

In other online sex news, we would like to commend Apple’s decision to trash nearly 6,000 sexually suggestive iPhone apps. Refreshing to see some leadership within corporate America, and hats off to Steve Jobs for refusing to chose profits over the objectification of women.

And that brings us to our CRUSH OF THE WEEK – Our story this week truly reveals the power of social media, as Mayor of East Haven Connecticut donated a kidney to a Facebook Friend, Carlos Sanchez, after seeing the status update Sanchez posted saying his friends and relatives had all been tested but were not a match. Making the Mayor a hero in our books, and Facebook her loyal sidekick.