Facebook threatens to sue Britain's Daily Mail
Posted in: Internet Use/New Technologies at 11/03/2010 07:30
Facebook has threatened to sue the Daily Mail for damages after the paper wrongly claimed in a piece published on Wednesday that 14-year-old girls who create a profile on the social networking site could be approached "within seconds" by older men who "wanted to perform a sex act" in front of them.
The paper apologised in print today and online yesterday for the error, which the author of the piece, Mark Williams-Thomas, insisted had been introduced by editors at the paper despite being told it was wrong. In fact, Williams-Thomas - a retired policeman who now works as a criminologist - had been using another, unspecified social network.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/11/facebook-daily-mail
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Facebook considers legal action against Daily Mail over underage sex claims
The world's biggest social networking site Facebook is today considering legal action against the Daily Mail, after the newspaper published false claims that a criminologist who had posed on the site as a teenage girl had found himself immediately inundated with sexual messages from adult men.
Facebook last night issued an unprecedented statement expressing its "extreme concern" at the damage caused to the company's image. The statement followed consultation with the company's American bosses who were said to be shocked at the behaviour of the newspaper, which yesterday published an apology for the article.
www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/facebook-considers-legal-action-against-daily-mail-over-underage-sex-claims-1919747.html
Facebook calls on ex-detective to name social networking site
Source of Daily Mail story refuses to divulge 'well-known social network' where he posed as girl of 14 and received sexual approaches from men
Facebook has called on the ex-detective who posed as a 14-year-old girl online on a "well-known social network" and said he was approached by men making sexual suggestions within minutes to name the site he used.
But Mark Williams-Thomas, whose experiences were described by the Daily Mail in a contentious story this week, declined to name the site today. He suggested that it would not be helpful to the site's users - and that it might damage its reputation or attract paedophiles to use it more extensively.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/12/facebook-daily-mail