After our exam in Literature, I went to the cafeteria to meet the gang and get my thoughts off the grueling exam. I found the group huddled tightly at our favorite table. “That’s weird, they seem to be in one heck of a serious conversation”, I said to myself as I hurried to join them.
“Hey! What’s up? Everyone’s so serious! Did someone die or something?”
“Don’t you know?” Ken asked glumly. “Know what?” I innocently replied.
Then Ana blurted out, “The school just installed a new firewall! Say goodbye to Facebook, Friendster and MySpace.”
Snap. Is the admin seriously blocking social networks? Can we unblock Facebook?
Just when I felt that my whole social life was starting to crumble, the tech geek Nikko arrived. “Don’t worry guys we can use a Facebook proxy.”
He said in a matter-of-fact voice. We all sighed in relief then Ana went goggle eyed and exclaimed, “Oh! A Facebook proxy! Umm… What exactly is a Facebook proxy? Come to think of it, what is a proxy?”
When we talk of social networking sites, many of us think of Facebook, which of course lives up to its trademark – TheFacebook. With millions of users around the globe, Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking site is indeed TheFacebook, if you get my drift. However, as expected from any idea that hits the pot of gold at the end of that double rainbow (and this is a very rare occurrence), his has also been subjected to a series of ugly and messy legal disputes. These have been perpetrated by his college ‘chums’ the most recent of which is Aaron Greenspan. So what exactly are the contentions against the site?
Facebook impostors are proliferating alarmingly as reported by the media. What started as a social networking website founded five years ago by Mark Zuckerberg, then a Harvard computer science major student, along with his colleagues, to communicate with friends and other contacts, has now become a medium for unscrupulous individuals to hatch their evil schemes.
Just recently, alarming exposés on scam artists, hackers, identity thieves and other Facebook Impostors posing as friends and stealing personal information from members rocked the global social networking community drawing almost universal criticism of the website.
One report tells of Bryan Rutberg of Seattle, USA, whose account was used to extort money from his friends. Rutberg’s impostor posted “Bryan NEEDS HELP URGENTLY!!!” on his status update to which one of his friends responded by sending money to London where Rutberg was allegedly robbed and in need of fare to get back to the U.S.
In another event, Anthony Stancl, a resident of New Berlin, Wisconsin, solicited naked photos of high school boys by posing as a woman on his Facebook account. He purportedly used the photos to compel the young men to engage in sexual acts with him. Stancl was later seized by authorities on grounds of 12 complaints of felony, which included ‘sexual assault of a child younger than 16 and possession of child pornography’.
Even a public official like President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana wasn’t spared from this vicious online modus operandi. In his case, an account was set up containing 174 supporters and two photo albums featuring the Berbice Bridge in Guyana and pictures of international leaders, some posing with the South American head. Jagdeo denied any involvement on the existence of the account and sought the assistance of the police to investigate on this matter.
In the light of these disturbing incidents, how do we ward off Facebook impostors?
My sister was busy reading a novel for her literature class so I had to keep things nice and quiet in our bedroom. That means, (sigh!) no dvd marathons for me tonight. To kill boredom, I logged on to Facebook, started visiting my friends and landed on Ely’s page. Suddenly, I let out a loud (and rather embarrassing) snort as I tried to cover a hearty guffaw after reading Ely’s Facebook status. Curious, my sister closed her book and came over to where was I was seated.
A few seconds later, my sister’s giggle made a loud duet with my own cackle as I showed her Ely’s Facebook status:
“Ely is a vegetarian, not because he loves animals but because he hates plants.”
Now who could resist that?
Not to be outdone, my sister suggested that we search the internet for amusing Facebook statuses and make a list of them so we could judge which Facebook status is the Funniest.
