Comments on: The ‘Facebook perv’ and being scared of technology

By: Whybird

Whybird — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:42:41 +0000

You might be interested to know that they’ve now issued an apology after one of their articles outright lied about Facebook.

(Sadly, the article I’ve linked to hasn’t linked to the Mail’s apology, so I can’t verify it, and I worry that “The web giant is now considering taking legal action against the newspaper. ” is just wishful thinking on the Independent’s behalf, but it’s nice news anyway.)

By: Twitter Tweets about Facebook as of March 11, 2010 | Learn To Sell Phones

Twitter Tweets about Facebook as of March 11, 2010 | Learn To Sell Phones — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:28:12 +0000

[...] · View BadWisdom523: ‘Facebook perv’ and being scared of technology – http://enemiesofreason.co.uk/2010/03/09/the-facebook-perv-and-being-scared-of-technology/ 2010-03-11 09:25:48 · Reply · View stephdouglas: i just saw that woman from the [...]

By: Kristopher

Kristopher — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:28:53 +0000

I still love the Mail headline for this;
‘Who could YOUR child be talking to?’

YOUR child. YOU. They’re probably dead already. You idiot. Look what you’ve done. Get upstairs now and chain them to the wall, in case they DIE.

By: CS Clark

CS Clark — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:19:21 +0000

Yeah, NewsCorp would never refer to MySpace killers.

Oh wait – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2827009.ece

(Of course they would love to have a MySpace killer, just to remind people that it exists).

And this idea that people are deliberately pushing some kind of clever-clever anti-internets agenda is somewhat paranoid, as well as being pandering to your audience and scaremongering itself. Don’t worry, they’re not trying to take your tubes from you. You’re not brave to take a stand against this. They just tend to pick the most obvious aspect of a murder case to make it stand out in the headline and to fill space. You know, motorway killer, pub killer, lonely hearts killer, supermarket killer…

By: Roxy_Hart

Roxy_Hart — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:40:01 +0000

The DM yesterday were in fury about a facebook page that wrongly names a man as being the new identity of Jon Venables.
They seemed confused as to how to report it in that they desperatly want Venables identity unmasked but when someone on FB tries to do that they are calling it pretty much evil for accusing an innocent man and putting his life in danger…which obviously would never happen if a newspaper revealed it because their research is so thorough

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:32:03 +0000

Ah yes, Jon Venables a.k.a. “The Shopping Centre Killer”…

By: Pete Davison

Pete Davison — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:31:54 +0000

Indeed. It also strikes me as odd that the “powers that be” seem to think that Facebook adding a “Report” button will stop this sort of thing from happening. Facebook already has a system for reporting abuse, and this girl didn’t use it, because she trusted the man to be who he said he was. How would a different button with the same function make any difference if people are being taken in by predators like this?

By: Mr Carl

Mr Carl — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:24:41 +0000

Not forgetting of course, News Corp owns rival MySpace.

By: Yakoub

Yakoub — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:59:38 +0000

On a similar line, Doug Stanhope on MySpace Pedophiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8APlx9btTn8

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:03:19 +0000

I don’t think there’s a serious attempt to demonise the medium of social networking … This is an awful and rare crime, but linking it to social networking doesn’t do anyone any favours

Well, it does help a bit if your agenda includes making the internet less free (whether in financial or communication terms) and pushing for a nice Informational Commons Enclosure Act to protect the right sort of people.