Issues+faced

= = =media type="custom" key="11473894"Issues Involving Facebook=

Facebook has been at the centre of some delicate issues in its relatively short life span, including matters relating to privacy, bullying and defamation as well as its users occasionally organising protests and riots.

Facebook has been accused of expanding its technology to automatically identify people in photos without asking for their consent which is seen by many as a breach of privacy. Indeed there are now fears by some people that pictures on Facebook could be linked back to email addresses.[|^1] There are many cases of people losing their jobs because of their activities on Facebook. One employee of Ivel Marketing and Logistics in Clacton, Essex lost her job after just three weeks for posting on Facebook that her job was 'boring'.[|^2] There is another case whereby a police officer lost out on the chance to be promoted to Chief Inspector due to background checks on his Facebook profile highlighting some inappropriate pictures.[|^3] These cases highlight that users need to be careful with exactly what they put on their Facebook profile as it may have bigger consequences than they thought that it would and that posts on Facebook could be linked back to other accounts that users are signed up to through email addresses.This video although published in 2007 and so slightly outdated nevertheless provides an interesting insight into the privacy issues.
 * Privacy Issues**

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Recently CEO Mark Zuckerburg in his Facebook blog has admitted to having made mistakes on the issue of privacy and that his company are already taking steps to resolve those problems. This is as well since the Federal Trade Commission in Washington and the European Commission have both announced new measures to tackle the privacy issues caused by Facebook. [|^4] [|^5]

Cyber-Bullying is a big problem for Facebook and for its users. There have been cases of victims being bullied anonymously by people on Facebook, making it hard to identify exactly who is carrying out the bullying. Even when one victim reported that she was being bullied to Facebook, she received no response.[|^6] This highlights a big issue for Facebook to have to tackle; the safety of their users on-line. In Reading, Berkshire Police are beginning to use Facebook to warn cyber-bullies that they could be prosecuted for the messages they are posting by sending them a police warning notice to their profile.[|^7] Despite the efforts of this particular police force, Facebook still needs to do more to address this situation.
 * Cyber-Bullying**

The tort of defamation occurs when a false comment, published to a "substantial" audience, lowers the reputation of the subject of the comment in the eyes of the general public. In times gone by it has been for the most part an action which members of the public have taken against journalists for "publishing" defamatory comments about them in the media whether it be print, radio or television. However with the advent of User Generated Content on the Internet, and in particular social networking sites such as Facebook we are now all at risk of defaming others as the recent 2010 case of Bryce v Barber illustrates. [|^8] Here, Mr Bryce was quite clearly defamed by Mr Barber when he was called "gay" and was said to be sure to "love" a pornographic image of a child which was uploaded to his account following an argument between the pair. Since it was possible that this comment could have been "published" to more than 800 people who had access to Mr Bryce's page, Mr Barber was ordered by the High Court to pay compensatory damages of £10,000 for the harm he caused to Mr Bryce's reputation. In the UK defamatory remarks are taken seriously, the action is easy to prove, difficult to defend and damages can be substantial. In the United States their attitude is more relaxed, free speech being a constitutionally protected civil right. However in many countries the punishment is even more severe than in the UK. In 2010 for example an Indonesian teen was sentenced to 75 days behind bars for calling a rival to her romantic affections a "pig," "promiscuous," and "overweight" on Facebook. [|^9] The issue is that Facebook may have accurately recreated a playground-esque social space but different rules apply. Unlike idle playground gossiping, what is written on Facebook carries permanence, is communicated to large audiences and can cause lasting damage.
 * Defamation**

Facebook played a part in the rioting seen across the United Kingdom in August 2011 with some rioters posting messages on Facebook to persuade others to join them in the rioting.[|^10] Facebook did not act upon these comments and the only way that the offenders got caught was through members of the public contacting the police. Although Facebook was not the only method used, still Facebook's unwillingness to react still highlights an issue that they need to address as they should have removed the posts. In January 2011, there was a pubic uprising across the middle east in Tunisia and Egypt which resulted in the governments of the countries being overthrown. After the Tunisian revolution, 85,000 Egyptians pledged to attend a nationwide anti-government protest on the 25th January. [|^11] This highlights the issue that Facebook has: How to regulate such a large network with so much going on at once. In both cases, Facebook groups were created after the deaths of the people that started the protests off, which then turned to riots through users posting on these groups.[|^12]
 * Civil Unrest**