Tag: Facebook

  • Facebook lynch mob

    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

    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.

  • Facebook’s first predator

    Facebook’s first predator

    Online social site defends security:

    Facebook has its first predator. 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.