Judge Says Being A Facebook Friend Isn't Like Real Friendship
from the glad-we-cleared-that-up dept
Turns out that your Facebook friends aren't necessarily real friends... under the law (at least in the UK). A UK judge has ruled that requesting to be a Facebook friend isn't the same as trying to become someone's real friend, which apparently matters in terms of harassment. The case concerned a woman who accused her ex-boyfriend of harassing her by requesting to be her friend on Facebook, but the judge apparently felt that since most people use Facebook and other social networks more as a list of acquaintances, it's hardly harassment to request to "friend" an ex.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: facebook, friends, harassment
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Semantic abuse
Friend: Someone with whom you once exchanged an e-mail
'Some of my best friends are recruitment agencies'
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Re: Semantic abuse
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The HumanBook is a mutually managed people directory. People list their own real-life connections, and other connections they have awareness of, to create a lifelong network. The network houses the connections, and then the collaboratively updated address book nurtures them, assuring that they need never be lost. HumanBook is the tool that will allow you to cherish and sustain all of the connections of your whole life. So if you're interested, go to http://www.HumanBook.com and find your profile today!
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How is it relevant at all to the article and not some shameless plug for yet another social networking site?
I don't necessarily think it's harassment to have some request to be your friend on Facebook or MySpace. I mean, you always have the option to ignore the request and move on with life. This lady had obvious issues above some dumb friend request.
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Re: john the spammer
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Re: HumanBook
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Maybe I'm just naturally suspicious, but a site like this that seems to have *some* of the data wrong about *everybody* sounds like a SPAMmer's dream - you see yourself, correct the info (or request that it be removed) and POW! you have verified that your details are, at least in part, genuine, thus making them more valuable for the site owner to sell on.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: HumanBook
So the real response to your question is: don't try to get it removed since it's likely not really there to begin with and any hint that your information is real is only going to give them a link to your name, address and an email address at which they can harass/spam you.
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How many times?
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Re: How many times?
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Wow
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Re: Wow
Exactly. I use it to keep in touch with friends, family, and old classmates. I would never accept a random friends request though. Every one of my "friends" are people I know face-to-face.
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And the judge is right. A "friend" on a social network is often not a real friend at all, but rather an acquaintance, or perhaps a fair-weather friend. True friends stick with you through thick and thin, good and bad, etc. Such friendships are usually acquired through real-life interaction, not websites. I'm willing to bet most of the people on others' buddy lists will cut them loose the moment something bad goes down, unless said buddies are real friends in real life. While it's not impossible to form true friendships online, it would be difficult, in my opinion, to maintain them.
I know I'm generalizing a lot, and I apologize if this offends somebody. But honestly, I feel we have become a society that is obsessed with quantity instead of quality, and that mentality is extending beyond manufactured goods to things like friendships as well. Instead of having dozens of "friends" on a website, try keeping a few really close friends in real life, and see just how rewarding it can be. I for one try to choose my friends carefully, and I would much rather have a friend I can actually do things with than a faceless screen name from somebody across the world that I have to sit in front of a computer to talk with all the time.
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Being a facebook "friend" is STILL opening up more information than you might like, and if nothing else is an easy way to get all-too-personal with someone unless you explicitly block them. (and in the case of stubborn ex's, can still be used as an exploitable avenue of unwanted contact)
Maybe not "legally" harassment, sure, but damned if this woman should somehow be "forced" to friend/defriend whoever she likes.
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It's dumb that this made it to court, but what the hell are you talking about "damned if this woman should somehow be "forced" to friend/defriend"? Click ignore when you get the request, no problem. No information is revealed (as long as you don't have a totally public profile, in which case whether someone's a friend is irrelevant) unless you accept the friend. The way it works with Facebook - you request someone as a friend, they say yes or no. Nothing's forced.
@#5: For me that would be the issue. Send one friend request - no problem just ignore it. Hundreds? Yeah, that's harassment. I think this case was only one message though.
@#11 & 13: Glad I'm not the only one. Facebook has been invaluable for me, getting back in touch with old friends and keeping in touch with people I know on 4 continents. Maybe the 14 year olds out there use it to try and "meet" new people and have the most friends on the site, but adults use it for useful purposes.
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I'm being harassed on facebook
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hi
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Facebook Friend Isn't Like Real Friendship
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Rose
Recruitment Agency
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