Facebook.com: murder, affairs, suicide, bullying ... a real society!

NCD News: Facebook 2.0 Now a Real Society - 09.10.09

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Facebook.com: murder, affairs, suicide, bullying ... a real society!:

Facebook wanted to create a society and they got one: bullying, theft, affairs, suicide, child abuse and more. The difference is that, whilst Facebook certainly set themselves up to be able to make money from the society they built, they seem to have made little effort to safeguard them from the evils of regular societies.

It all seems innocent enough at first. You post your details, you connect up with your friends and you keep everyone updated about everything you are doing. Facebook has been a phenomenon over the last few years. Now, Facebook Crime Haven is the sequel. Take these examples of search results on Google:

"how to hack someones facebook account" returns 43,800,000 results.
"facebook identity fraud" details the thousands of individual victims.
"facebook murder" has over 23million results showing the darker side of social network use and how public humiliation gets ugly quick.
"facebook porn" shows the seriously lacking preventative measures in this area.
"facebook paedophile" demonstrates how a no-sex-offenders-please statement in the signup terms is totally ineffective.
"facebook virus" rivals the results for microsoft's virus problems!

It hasn't taken very long at all for Facebook to become the launch pad of some online crime. From cyber-bullying to identity theft, the social networking site is harbouring what seems like an underworld of criminals intent on using the network to their own advantage and innocent people are feeling the full force of the attack.

It seems as though Facebook's only defence against the onslaught of dodgy activity is to state "please don't do it" in the terms and conditions on sign-up - and it is left to the regular, tax-funded, police and governments to clean up the mess.

Napster tried the "we just provide the service, it's the users that are doing bad things" defense and it eventually broke under the weight of the criminal activity Napster was facilitating.

One of the most recent and horrendous crimes committed within a Facebook framework is that of Vanessa George and her fellow child abusers. The three say they met on Facebook and shared pictures and videos. It wasn't until they were in court that they met face to face - yet they were able to share their crimes for months without being detected.

Another man is being described as The Facebook Fugitive after he used to site to find women who would meet him. He later went on to murder his girlfriend and hang himself. The police had previously issued warnings to women on social networking sites to avoid anyone with his username while online.

These cases are examples of criminals using the site to find both victims and co-criminals, but Facebook has also been used to discredit people and cause economic harm.

The case of Debbie Lee highlights how a criminal could steal someone's Facebook identity for any purpose. While she was away on holiday her Facebook account was hacked and messages added which indicated she was going to attempt suicide. This caused great distress to her family and friends. It is Ms Lee's belief that her involvement in an American support group for families of Navy Seals, which prompted the action.

Facebook has long been seen as a tool for getting in touch with long lost friends. This reputation has led to many incidences of affairs and marriage breakdowns. One such case was that of Stephen Henshaw and his wife Tammy. His wife had rekindled an affair with an old boyfriend. The husband followed them to the Channel Islands where he confronted the boyfriend and received a 3 month suspended sentence for hitting and kicking him. Mr Henshaw's wife had revealed on Facebook she was going to leave him and take the children to live with her new boyfriend.

A more serious case was that of Tracey Grinhaff who was murdered by her husband, who then went on to kill himself. She had written on her Facebook page that she was planning on leaving her husband. Certainly, as Facebook now gives people a forum to publicly humiliate each other - an increase in retribution is expected.

Playground bullies are also using Facebook as a way of intimidating their victims without even having to be near them. A recent poll has revealed that one in three British children has been the victim of online bullying, most of them girls. One in seven teachers has faced similar abuse. This type of bullying is often relentless and at all times of the day and night; quite a different thing to the school bully of a few years ago.

Keeley Houghton is one such bully who was recently placed in a young offenders institution for a campaign of hate towards Emily Moore. It culminated in a threat to kill Emily placed on a Facebook page. She had previously kicked her door and assaulted her. It is thought to be the first case of someone being jailed for online bullying.

With Facebook estimated to be worth anything from $10bn-$15bn surely they can be taking better precautions.

We checked the terms and conditions to see why the government has not started sending the clean-up bills to Facebook HQ -- and they are confusing to say the least. To sum up the first few paragraphs*, Facebook seem to be saying:

"you own the content you upload and are responsible for it"

but then go on to say:

"but you give us the right to use it however we want, make money from it, loan it to other companies and keep it after you close your account for an undetermined period"

How those two positions can exist together legally is anyone's guess and we look forward to seeing them tested.

*View the Facebook.com terms of use paragraphs we summarised at time of writing. You can also view the current Facebook.com terms of use. †