TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: Facebook

  • Facebook caves

    Facebook settles New York child safety probe:

    Not too long ago I posted about New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo setting his sights on Facebook because of pervs approaching his office’s fake underage Facebook profile.

    Well, Facebook has caved in to him…

    The settlement involves no financial penalties.

    Under the terms of the settlement, Facebook has agreed to begin addressing any complaint within 24 hours of being told of inappropriate content — involving such things as nudity, profanity or harassment — by a user or e-mail correspondent.

    The company will tell the complaining party the steps it has taken within 72 hours when the complaint has been submitted via an independent e-mail.

    In addition, the Palo Alto, California-based company has agreed to allow an independent examiner to oversee how Facebook handles such complaints. The attorney general will have a say in who gets hired as examiner. The examiner will report to the New York attorney general every six months over a two-year period on Facebook’s compliance.

    If I was Facebook I would have told them to shove it. The amount of crime that happens on Facebook compared to MySpace is almost negligible.

    Oh and look, our friend AG Roy Cooper from North Carolina has to sick his two cents in…

    “This agreement is another step toward protecting children on social networking sites but we still have a long way to go,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a separate statement. “Our group of attorneys general will keep pushing MySpace, Facebook and other sites to do more.”

    Yet Cuomo and Cooper aren’t pushing parents to do more because as I’ve said parents vote and the AG’s don’t want to risk not being re-elected.

  • New York AG targets Facebook

    NY’s Cuomo subpoenas Facebook after company fails to respond:

    First, it was Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal. Then it was North Carolina’s Roy Cooper. Now add New York’s Andrew Cuomo to the list of state attorneys general who just don’t get it. (Is there any politician from New York that’s not named Cuomo?) Anyway, Mr. Cuomo has subpoenaed Facebook because Facebook did not respond to New York’s complaints that undercover investigators posing as teens were approached for sex.

    Investigators set up profiles as teens and say they were quickly contacted by other Facebook users with comments such as (quote) “u look too hot……. can i c u online,” and (quote) “call me if u want to do sex with me.”

    While entrapment accusations are thrown around willy nilly these days I still have to wonder what the fake undercover Facebook profiles looked like. Was just a class picture type photo or was it something more provocative?

    New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says he is concerned that Facebook’s promise of a safe Web site for children is not consistent with its performance.

    As someone who chronicles crimes related to social networking sites let me give you my opinion on something. This site used to be called MyCrimeSpace for a reason. It’s because most of the crimes happening on social networking sites occur on MySpace. Very few of those crimes actually happen on Facebook.

    This sounds like Mr. Cuomo is trying to get a lot a press for doing nothing at all.

  • Facebook lynchmob strikes again

    Facebook group made false assumption with released sketch:

    The Riley County Police Department in the area of Kansas State University released a sketch on Friday of someone wanted for questioning in connection with a serial rapist that has been plaguing the area. A Facebook group called “Catch Him 2007: We Need Your Help!” posted the sketch and stated that the person in the sketch was the actual rapist. One thing leads to another and someone finds a picture on Facebook that resembled the sketch and the guy’s name and picture were posted next to the sketch. Those postings have since been removed.

    Not surprisingly police are not happy.

    While this individual might have resembled the sketch, Swartz said, sketches are not always perfect representations because they are based on descriptions given to a sketch artist.

    “What I don’t want is people thinking this is the rapist and exclude other individuals that may appear suspicious,” Det. Carla Swartz said.

    A concerned citizen’s best option is to refer to police information on issues like the alleged rapist, because students easily can cross the legal grounds of libel or harm the reputation of someone who is accused in a public forum, Swartz said.

    Leave the sleuthing to the professionals.

  • Conn. AG turns to Facebook

    Popular Web site is target of probe:

    Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is up to his usual misguided ways. This time he’s focusing his wrath on Facebook.

    Connecticut’s attorney general is scrutinizing Facebook, the popular social-networking site, for allowing convicted sex offenders to register, calling into question whether the company is doing enough to protect users.

    The inquiry by Richard Blumenthal is designed to force Palo Alto’s Facebook to take a more aggressive stand against sexual predators after his office uncovered at least three cases of such offenders becoming members, a spokesman confirmed. In addition, Blumenthal’s team found that some of Facebook’s users had posted sexually explicit material that was not swiftly removed.

    A whole three, compared to MySpace’s 29,000. Ooooooooh, Facebook really is a criminal haven.

    Connecticut officials have contacted Facebook and asked it to remove the sex offenders’ profiles. Blumenthal plans to continue his inquiry.

    A Facebook spokeswoman did not return telephone calls seeking comment. Chris Kelly, the company’s chief privacy officer, told the New York Times that he is not familiar with the Connecticut investigation but that the company receives many reports about sex offenders registering on the Web site. The profiles are usually removed within 72 hours, he said.

    “We want to be a good partner to the states in attempting to address this societal problem,” Kelly told the Times. “We’ve worked with them for quite some time now, and we look forward to continuing our fruitful partnership.”

    Facebook maintains more-stringent security rules than some of its competitors because of its early days as an online destination for students. Full user profiles aren’t visible to the general public, for instance, and can be seen only by people who have been confirmed as friends.

    It’s bad enough that AG Blumenthal places the blame on MySpace instead of inattentive parents now he’s going after a site that has very little criminal activity. In the year and a half that I’ve been doing this site the stories about Facebook pale in comparison to the stories about MySpace.

    As I’ve said before AG Blumenthal needs to concentrate on keeping sex offenders off the streets than off of MySpace or Facebook.

  • Facebook lynch mob II

    Anti-rapist Facebook site gone:

    It seems that Facebook lynch mobs are all the rage now…

    A Facebook group where Carman residents discussed two recent sexual assaults has been removed from the Internet.

    The group’s creator took it down last week when a story about the group and its discussions appeared in the Winnipeg Sun on June 12.

    About 135 people joined the group titled “Kiss my ass, Carman Rapist.” Facebook is a social-networking website.

    Group members speculated about the identity of the suspect or suspects, naming at least two individuals. RCMP warned people the information could be harmful to people’s reputations and the ongoing police investigation.

    This is why I don’t dabble in armchair sleuthing. There are people who are very good and professional at it like Steve Huff. However, Steve and some others from the crime blogging community are the minority. Most armchair sleuths, if taken seriously, do more harm than good.

  • Facebook lynch mob

    Police interest has Facebook group changing tune:

    A Facebook group was started in Toronto when a woman by the name of Tabitha Etches, accused of abandoning her baby and leaving it to die, was granted bail. The moderator of the group claims that the group was started to speak out on behalf of the baby. However, with the internet being what it is it didn’t take long for things to get out of hand.

    One of the Facebook group’s 200 members advocated running Etches out of the community for the alleged crime while another urged members to show up at her next court date with signs and friends to “show (their) hate for her.”

    Other messages posted on the website described Etches as “sick” and “twisted” and expressed hope she would “rot in hell” or be beaten while in prison.

    That, of course, attracted the attention of local police.

    The moderator now claims that she has deleted the more obscene and violent comments.

  • Media slammed by Facebook

    Facebook slaps media: Angry at use of massacre victims’ postings:

    It seems that Facebook is pissed, and rightly so, at the media for taking the pictures of the Virginia Tech victims that were posted on their Facebooks and using them for their stories.

    “We absolutely do not support how the media has been using Facebook in many cases,” Brandee Barker, a Facebook spokeswoman told the Herald. “We see this as a violation of user privacy.”

    Facebook is objecting to the use of quotes and information taken from user profiles. “That user should give the permission to any media organization for that information to be used,” Barker said.

    From the New York Daily News and The New York Times [NYT] to The Washington Post and the Herald, newspapers, along with broadcast outlets across the country, are publishing material from Facebook profiles and tributes.

    The Washington Post published a full chronicle of mournful posts that Virginia Tech students posted on Facebook this week.

    Barker also took issue with the way reporters sending out mass messages over Facebook to solicit interviews.Several Facebook users have complained about getting messages from journalists, she said.

    NBC news program “Dateline” went so far as to create a Facebook profile seeking out possible friends of the shooter Cho Seung-Hui.

    Facebook shut down Dateline’s page and has deactivated a few reporters accounts, Barker said. “My main recommendation in general is that the press act responsibly around this,” she said. “They’re being insensitive and in some cases very unprofessional.”

    Nothing is quite as disgusting as the media vultures in a feeding frenzy.

  • On Virginia Tech and social networking

    An Outpouring Of Online Grief:

    Victims are widely mourned on social-networking sites:

    Students Respond to Virginia Tech Shootings on Facebook:

    Online memorials help people grieve:

    Students trace a tragedy online:

    Facebook inundated with prayers, rage over U.S. shooting:

    Students Using Facebook to Organize Vigils:

    Facebook memorials for Virginia shooting victims:

    Tragedy Tests Web 2.0:

    Facebook becomes bulletin board for Virginia Tech:

    Ross Alameddine Remembered on Facebook:

    Reaching Out: VT Students Use Facebook:

    Students’ Fears, Frustrations & Feelings Online:

    VT victims memorialized on Facebook:

    Facebook helps Tech survivors cope:

  • Facebook’s first pedophile

    Online social site defends security:

    Facebook has its first pedophile. That must be a proud title to have. 🙄 Anyway his name is Michael Macalindong and he was arrested for trying to lure a 15-year-old boy to his home for sex. According to Facebook Macalindong stole the Facebook account of a high school girl. Then it gets disturbing.

    Authorities said Macalindong–posing as a girl–told the teen that for him to have sex with her, he had to first have sex with her male friend and have it taped so she could watch. In the ruse, Macalindong was the male friend, authorities said.

    Officials said Macalindong videotaped the first sexual encounter at his apartment in May. There were at least two more meetings at the home, Patricia Fix, head of the Lake County state’s attorney’s cyber-crimes unit, said.

    When the teen refused to meet again in January, Macalindong threatened to post the videos on the Internet unless he was paid $200, authorities said. The teen contacted police.

    Last week, a Lake County investigator went online posing as the teen and arranged a meeting in Wilmette, officials said. Macalindong arrived about an hour later and was arrested.

    Before I get to the linky goodness let me give the male teens out there some advice. No girl will have sex with you if you’ll have sex with her male friend. And trust me there is no girl out there that’s worth doing that for. No offense to any alternative lifestyle readers. It’s just not my bag.

    Anyway, I couldn’t find Macalindong’s (nice name by the way) Facebook but I was able to find Macalindong’s MySpace. Of course, it’s been set to private.

    Macalindong has had other victims.

    Investigators found a scanned image of the teen’s identification card along with lewd images and videos on his laptop computer, Fix said.

    Investigators also found other scanned ID cards and photos of Macalindong engaged in sexual activity with other teens, authorities said. Macalindong has been charged with six counts of producing child pornography, one count of indecent solicitation of a minor, one count of intimidation and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.