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posted by mrpg on Friday September 28 2018, @12:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the this-line-is-not-obligatory dept.

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.


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @03:16AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @03:16AM (#741179)

    Actually I understand the real way things are done in the US a lot better than you do.

    If you think criminals deserve protection, I sincerely hope you are soon the victim of a violent crime that leaves you weeping in a puddle of your own piss.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @05:27AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @05:27AM (#741216)

    Here I'll leave you another link to ponder. COINTELPRO [wikipedia.org]

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by RS3 on Friday September 28 2018, @01:29PM

      by RS3 (6367) on Friday September 28 2018, @01:29PM (#741314)

      Thank you. That's the point exactly. Too much power, secrecy, secret power, corruption. That the cops think it's okay to violate Facebook's terms of use is itself troubling. I don't know what "criminals" they were trying to catch, but when the cops stop following the law, we're all in trouble.