People who played with FaceBook and got burnt

Posted on February 29th, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,368 views

Back in Dec 2007, I wrote about a blogger on Thought Leader who created a fake FaceBook profile for Thabo Mbeki, which contravenes FaceBook’s Terms and Conditions. IOL reported, at the time, that President Thabo Mbeki’s office was referring the matter of fake FaceBook profiles (which impersonated him) to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Naturally, this threat was not taken seriously by either Thought Leader, the blogger in question or many of my readers.

However, although South African authorities have failed to make good their threats, Morocco has taken action against a fake FaceBook profile creator.

Fouad Mourtada, a Moroccan citizen has recently been jailed for three years for creating a fake FaceBook profile of Moroccan Prince Moulay Rachid. FaceBook has denied assisting Moroccan authorities in this matter. This judgement has sent ripples of alarm through the Moroccan Blogosphere and caused at least one Moroccan blogger to stop blogging altogether, out of fear that other forms of online activities might invite unwanted attention from the authorities.

Unsurprisingly, the sentence handed down to Mourtada has been condemned as excessively harsh by many. Nevertheless, he remains incarcerated whilst his supporters scramble to rally international pressure for his release.

Mourtada played with FaceBook and got burnt. But he is not the only one.

More recently a British policeman, Inspector Chris Dreyfus (30), British Transport Police’s head of royalty and government protection, had his promotion to Chief Inspector denied after his superiors had a look at his FaceBook profile which includes details of his gay lifestyle.

Dreyfus also played with FaceBook and got burnt. Are you next?

It could be that more and more people are becoming aware of the dangers that FaceBook poses to themselves because people are logging off. El Reg reports that FaceBook traffic amongst UK users is down 5%. I know of more than one local blogger who has recently opted out of FaceBook over privacy concerns.

The Canadian military is also concerned that insurgents in Iraq could use FaceBook to gain intelligence about their soldiers deployed there, and has cautioned personnel not to post personal information on their FaceBook profiles.

So, are you worried yet or do you reckon your titanium armour will hold off all comers?

Tags: Chris Dreyfus, facebook, Fouad Mourtada, Thabo Mbeki, Thought Leader
Filed under facebook | 10 Comments »

Friends for sale – my new best friend!

Posted on December 6th, 2007 by Richard Catto 3,645 views

I’ve discovered that in life, I derive an exquisite pleasure from buying and selling and trading my facebook friends for various favours, sexual and otherwise.

You must absolutely straight away, go directly to this link and sign up RIGHT FUCKING NOW!

And then you must buy me and make me do… things.

I’ve discovered I have a real knack for auctioning off my friends. This is what I wrote about a lovely hunk of a man, named Rupert:

Stunning man who loves ABBA. An absolute must buy for Christmas!

Surprise your friends by showing off Rupert as your new pet. Get him now while, he’s cheap, this one is sure to reach over $10 000 within 7 days!

And another, Duffman III, I wrote this about.

Ladies and Vampires, put your teeth together to welcome this absolutely perfect specimen of BLOOD ON TAP!

Do I hear $200?

Just look at the fine porcelain neck? smooth as marble, soft as silk. Very inviting, no?

Yes, I have $500, do I hear $600?

Lady in the back, I see your $1000. Going once, going twice. SOLD! To the hooded lady in the back.

Will the mystery woman come forward to claim her prize?

Absolutely wicked fun! And the more you buy and sell your friends, the more expensive they become and the more you earn along the way.

Ultimately, I foresee this facebook app being responsible for the dissolution of marriages, but who cares, because it is so much FLIPPING FUN!!!

Tags: Candy Tothill, facebook, facebook appllications, william f de vault
Filed under facebook, Facebook Applications | 14 Comments »

The Devil has come to town… do you party or run away?

Posted on October 29th, 2007 by Richard Catto 3,837 views

Well, the rumours have been floating around for some time now, but many scarcely could believe that FaceBook could possibly be valued at $15 billion, except perhaps for Vinny Lingham, who came close in August 2007 when he conservatively valued FaceBook at $10 billion. So Lingham was off by $5 billion.

Microsoft has just scooped up 1.6% of FaceBook for $240 million. It’s a phenomenal deal, one that could be compared to Mark Shuttleworth’s 1999 coup in which he sold his company, Thawte Consulting to Verisign for $575 million, when he was 26, except that Shuttleworth sold 100% of Thawte for that. Twenty-three year old, Mark Zuckerberg, who founded FaceBook in 2004 when he was 20, still has 98.4% left to sell.

Not all of FaceBook’s 50 million users have welcomed Microsoft’s entry into FaceBook, however, hence the title of this blog post.

One local blogger (and IT journalist), Ivo Vegter, was a member of the FaceBook group, "If Microsoft buy a stake in facebook, I will de-register", right up until Microsoft bought their stake.

The group still has 138 members, so obviously some of them were less dedicated to the cause than others – traitors!

Many of these disgruntled FaceBook denizens probably now wish that the unthinkable would have happened to Zuckerberg. Back in early 2005, Zuckerberg, fresh from a meeting in which he signed a Venture Capital contract securing $12.7 million to finance the then fledgling FaceBook, came very close to death. He had just pulled off the road to fill his tank, when a demented man came at him waving a gun and ranting. Zuckerberg beat a hasty retreat.

Ironically, The Register reports that those wishing to exit FaceBook will soon discover a rather unpalatable truth – you can’t. No matter what you do, you just can’t totally kill your FaceBook profile, and you can always reactivate it later. Shades of match.com or okcupid.com where I enjoyed the use of a zombie profile for some months before they were finally able to tranquilize it into submission. But you never know… some day… I may be back for more… brainzzzz.