Facebook accuses MP of impersonating MP
Print storyAccount suspended following complaints
Posted in Bootnotes, 19th December 2007 15:52 GMT
Increase your knowledge of the latest threats to your busines
A Liberal Democrat MP suffered the online humiliation of having his Facebook account suspended after the social networking site decided he "wasn't real".
Steve Webb, 42, member of parliament for Northavon, Gloucestershire, tried to log on on Monday but was told "his account had been disabled following complaints he didn't really exist", as Reuters explains.
A traumatised Webb, who's had a Facebook presence for a year and boasts 2,500 "friends", told the news agency: "I sent them an email asking what the problem was and got a response a day later saying they had concluded that my profile was a fake, that I wasn't really Steve Webb. I was essentially accused of impersonating a member of parliament."
Chums quickly established a "Steve Webb is real!" Facebook group, while "he and others then contacted anyone they knew who worked at the site to see if they could get the ban overturned".
Sure enough, after 36 hours, Webb was reactivated in cyberspace. When Reuters quizzed him as to whether he "might have been suspended because he had a suspiciously high number of friends, particularly for an MP", he reportedly laughed and admitted: "The thought did cross my mind." ®
See what The Register's experts have to say on application security
Can Outsiders Enhance Exchange?
The future of SaaS and IT infrastructure management
Airport insecurity: the case of lost laptops
Reducing messaging and web security costs with managed services
Win a Samsung C6625!
Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?
Reg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter