Fearing Facebook: a British newspaper reports on a criminological experiment. A former police detective posed as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook, and was deluged by explicit and threatening feedback.
The story is a good example of fearsome writing, doing its best to focus in on anecdotes and references to awful stuff on Facebook. "I was deluged by strangers asking stomach-churning questions about my sexual experience." One story, the murder of Ashleigh Hall, is repeated three times. Story's photo caption: "Paedophiles' playground".
...except that, it turns out, the experiment didn't actually involve Facebook.
In an earlier version of this article, we wrongly stated that the criminologist had conducted an experiment into social networking sites by posing as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook... In fact he had used a different social networking site for this exercise.
Lawsuits are probably in the works.
It's a fascinating story for fearsome internet studies. The experiment - or rather, the article, or the source - picked Facebook as a target. Was it because of its prominence in social networking, and media coverage? Or was it because its reputation was not as dark as, say, MySpace's? Greater shock value in hitting the more reputable service.
Notice, too, the emphasis on authority. The author repeatedly asserts his experience and credentials.
And, reaching back to classic fearsome media memes, observe how the article slides between violence and sex.
TechCrunch article claims the Mail made up the Facebook angle:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/15/insert-libellous-statement-here/
Posted by: Steven Kaye | March 16, 2010 at 15:42