We read:
"A judge has ordered the social networking site Facebook to turn over information identifying the person who set up a fake profile in the name of a high school dean. Marion Superior Court Judge Robyn Moberly issued the order Friday, a day after Roncalli High School Dean of Students Tim Puntarelli sued the Web site, alleging harassment and identity theft by the unidentified creator of the profile.
Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., removed the fraudulent profile from its site after Roncalli officials reported it last month. A Facebook spokeswoman declined comment to The Indianapolis Star. The AP sent an e-mail seeking comment from Facebook. Facebook's privacy policy requires a court order or subpoena before it will release identifying information.
The lawsuit said the posting included "pictures and messages inappropriate for a dean of students to send to a student." Moberly's emergency order required Facebook to preserve all information from the deleted profile....
Similar profiles have been the subject of lawsuits in other states and have led to debate over whether they are defamation or parody protected by the First Amendment.
Source
I don't see any 1st Amendment issues here. Libel is libel and someone has obviously been misrepresented in a damaging way here.
3 comments:
Naturally, online communities have unsavory characters and posers lurking in cyberspace.
I have common sense not to sign up for an account on facebook. Lotta impostors posing as other people.
Let's face there are a lot of predators, perverts, rot-turds, douchebags, shmucks and array of colorful shmoes on any online community.
Parody, one of the most abused words in our language. It's usually used as a shield by show-biz/media types, so they can slander, defame, and libel with immunity. I hope the dean wins big!
It seems these "social" websites like Facebook and UTube, are doing everything they can to force the govt. to introduce heavy regulations on them and their industry. Then we'll all suffer!
The reason Facebook is being sued is because the person who set up the fake site doesn't have much money and couldn't be sued for a huge amount but Facebook has a lot of money so...
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