According to a UK High Court, Facebook is not allowed to host a page that publicly outs convicted sex offenders.
A Judge has given Facebook 72 hours to remove a page called Keeping our kids safe from predators, which routinely posts personal information and photos of child predators in Northern Ireland.
The decree stems from a suit brought by a convicted sex offender, only referred to as “XY.” XY claims that the Facebook page amounts to harassment, misuse of private info, and a violation of his privacy. He fears that he may be attacked or otherwise publicly degraded as a result of the page. Facebook has apparently already removed any mention of XY on the page, but the court’s ruling demands that Facebook take an extra step and nix the page altogether.
“Society has dealt with the plaintiff in accordance with the rule of law. He has been punished by incarceration and he is subject to substantial daily restrictions on his lifestyle,” said the Judge.
The page owners have acknowledged the ruling, and are already suggesting alternative pages for pedophile tracking and claim to be in the process of setting up an alternate page in the event of the current page’s removal:
“Hi all, Un fortunately this page may be removed any time soon. On this other facebook page you can see daily paedophile crimes listed. So far over 17,000 UK paedophiles have been named on the website, and a few from each days court cases are posted on to the page below
The next page will be called “keeping our kids safe from predators 2″ and it will b coming from america at least there they wont take the page down so every1 keep and eye out 4 it,” they say.
“So the man, or I mean mess of a human being, that’s taken this page to court, he must want to be the head paedophile and rule over all sex offenders. He will be like a god to them.”
Facebook policy bans any convicted sex offender from operating an account, but this ruling takes a look at the flip side and looks to protect them from additional punishment via the actions of other Facebook users. What do you think? Should Facebook be forced to remove the page?
[via BBC]