Facebook loses lobbyists – Politico reported this week that three contract lobbying firms working for Facebook pulled their services after content providers who were also clients raised concerns. The story implies that Internet providers and content creators are at odds, noting that Facebook increased its lobbying expenses 285 percent from 2010 to 2011. [Image via Facebook]

Facebook engineers now designing hardware – As part of its Open Compute Project, Facebook staff has begun to design its own storage hardware, according to a report from Wired.

Facebook wins Power.com court fight – Facebook finally won its case against Power.com, a now-defunct website that used to aggregate data from social networks. The lawsuit began in 2009.

Facebook used to serve legal claims in UK – Facebook may now be used as a platform with which to serve legal claims in the United Kingdom. A judge in a court case recently allowed Facebook to be used in a commercial case where one of the parties was difficult to locate.

Study: users managing privacy controls better – The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a study this week that found that users of online services are becoming more active at controlling their privacy.

Crowdtilt launches funding platform – Crowdtilt publicly launched its group fundraising platform this week. The site uses social media platforms like Facebook to allow groups of people to raise money for anything from art projects to vacations.

Miloyni releases Credits whitepaper – Miloyni has written a report called “Facebook Credits 2012: A Merchant’s Perspective” examining the benefits and drawbacks of Facebook Credits.

Oscar buzz on Facebook – Banyan Branch put together an infographic with buzz for Oscar nominees ahead of the ceremony this weekend.