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from the social-networking,-Sicily-style dept

Sicilian police are moving into some new territory in their ongoing fight against the Mafia: Facebook. They're keeping tabs on several groups devoted to convicted Mafia members, suspicious that they're online gathering places for people interested in more than just some harmless social networking. There have also been calls in Italy for Facebook to shut down the groups, which it hasn't yet done, while Facebook groups protesting the Mafia groups have also sprouted up -- illustrating that the ideal response to speech some people find offensive is more speech. But the groups are also exposing the dangerous path that Facebook and other site owners start down if they begin removing material that some people find offensive, but isn't illegal. One of the anti-Mafia groups is called "Yes to Breasts, No to Totò Riina," highlighting the fact that Facebook recently removed pictures of breast-feeding mothers, but has let the pages touting the Mafia members stand.
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Filed Under: mafia, sicily, social networks


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Jan 2009 @ 10:32pm

    fuh git about it

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Jan 2009 @ 11:27pm

    dont be a "wiseguy" :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2009 @ 6:15am

    Re:

    HEY. YOU THINK THIS ARTICLE IS HERE TO AMUSE YOU!?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2009 @ 6:30am

    Since When

    are the Sicilian Police interested in stopping the Mafia? Its the only industry they have left?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    who?, 22 Jan 2009 @ 7:21pm

    Re: Re:

    Hey, Lighten up man. This article is pretty funny. Does the sicilian police really think that if they shut down these "mafia" groups on facebook that its really going to stop anything or anybody? Most likely its a couple of teenagers in iowa.

    Even if what they said is true its not like its the only avenue of communicating. Wake up bro!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Tommy DeVito, 26 Jan 2009 @ 6:04am

    Re: Re: Re:

    *cough - Goodfellas joke - cough*

    link to this | view in thread ]

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