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Facebook Warns Memphis Police: No More Fake "Bob Smith" Accounts:
Facebook has a problem: an infestation of undercover cops. Despite the social platform's explicit rules that the use of fake profiles by anyone—police included—is a violation of terms of service, the issue proliferates. While the scope is difficult to measure, EFF has identified scores of agencies who maintain policies that explicitly flout these rules.
Hopefully—and perhaps this is overly optimistic—this is about to change, with a new warning Facebook has sent to the Memphis Police Department. The company has also updated its law enforcement guidelines to highlight the prohibition on fake accounts.
This summer, the criminal justice news outlet The Appeal reported on an alarming detail revealed in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Tennessee against the Memphis Police Department. The lawsuit uncovered evidence that the police used what they referred to as a "Bob Smith" account to befriend and gather intelligence on activists. Following the report, EFF contacted Facebook, which deactivated that account. Facebook has since identified and deactivated six other fake accounts managed by Memphis police that were previously unknown.
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday September 28 2018, @02:06AM (1 child)
So Facebook openly tells governments how it is going to be. Nice to see we aren't pretending the vestigial elected portions of the Deep State are still meaningful, we are admitting the old formal government is being cast off now and the vastly more powerful and intrusive corporate arms of it are going to directly rule is in their own name now.
So I wonder, now that Facebook has made its decision, with what force does it intend to enforce its edicts? If a local PD sets up a facebook account and arrests some local perv or drug dealer will Facebook have the officers involved arrested somehow? Will the PD or the entire city be deplatformed (like Alex Jones) from access to the Internet and the banking system? Will they send elite ninjas to have the chief of police killed? Send a platoon of lawyers to engage in lawfare?
Enquiring minds wanna know. Had we any journalists remaining someone would have put a mic in Zuck's face by now and got some answers. Alas.
(Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Friday September 28 2018, @04:53AM
No more force than it uses on the many other users who ignore that. Real names is a dumb idea and even the authorities are ignoring it.