• Daily Mail prints untrue story about paedophiles on Facebook, Facebook not amused
    28 replies, posted
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/03/facebook_v_daily_mail.html[/url] [quote=BBC dot.Rory]On the one hand, you have what many regard as Britain's most influential daily newspaper; on the other, a social network with more than 400 million members and global reach. The Daily Mail and Facebook are at war, with new media accused of failing to protect children - and old media in the dock for shoddy journalism. The Mail has never been a great fan - "How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer" was one headline last year - but it was an article on Wednesday that brought relations to a new low. The network has been having a terrible week in PR terms, following a high-profile murder case with a Facebook connection and its refusal to put the Child Exploitation and Online Protection panic button on its site. The Mail's coverage of this story featured a front-page report, an editorial and a big spread which included an article by a former child-protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas. The opening paragraph read: "Even after 15 years in child protection, I was shocked by what I encountered when I spent just five minutes on Facebook posing as a 14-year-old girl. Within 90 seconds, a middle-aged man wanted to perform a sex act in front of me." He went on to describe how a series of men approached him and made sexual suggestions, painting a chilling picture of the dangers for teenagers using Facebook. It has to be said the story never sounded very convincing - unlike some other networks or instant messaging services, Facebook is actually place where it's rather difficult to conduct random chats. If you were to set up a profile and just wait for "friends" to arrive, you would be likely to have to wait for days, not minutes. What's more, the company says that its privacy settings mean that a 14-year-old girl could not receive a message from someone unless they were a friend or at least shared a school network. Facebook says when it contacted Mark Williams-Thomas, he had a rather different story. He had been contacted by the Mail which had provided him with the material about the fake profile, but he had corrected it to make it clear that it involved not Facebook but another social network. By late yesterday, the story on the Mail's website had been amended; although it still featured a Facebook picture, it included this apology: "In an earlier version of this article, we wrongly stated that the criminologist had conducted an experiment into social networking sites by posing as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook with the result that he quickly attracted sexually motivated messages. In fact he had used a different social networking site for this exercise. We are happy to set the record straight." I contacted Mr Williams-Thomas to check a few facts, and he confirmed that the story had indeed been "ghosted" by a Mail reporter. He says he got back to the paper with a number of changes before publication, but although they acknowledged receipt of his alterations, they were not acted on. This morning the newspaper carried a apology on page 4, quite a rare occurrence for the Daily Mail. So does the matter end there? I've seen a very strongly-worded letter from Facebook's lawyers saying their clients are considering what further action to take in relation to the "false and defamatory statements in the article". Somehow, though, I get the feeling that after a week of battling Ceop, ministers, and the media over its child protection policy, Facebook may decide that it does not really want to go to war with the Daily Mail.[/quote]
I guess you could say... they got [i]profiled[/i]
Daily mail at it again.
It really is pathetic that the daily mail is an influential paper with headlines like "how using facebook will give you cancer"
The editors are all worried their paper business will run into the ground and are doing anything they can to smear the good image of the internet.
Yes, the Daily Mail is bullshit, we knew that already.
Such Bullshit. My teenage urges to knife someone are acting up again. :suicide:
Facebook are pretty powerful now.
i guess you could say... facebook is taking the daily mail to [i]farmville[/i] over this dispute.... xD
Ha, my gran reads the mail, it'll be fun to hear what she says.
Facebook is hugely safe, you have to join a group and complete a survey before you can even SEE a paedophile.
Ugh, I saw those headlines the other day at the shops. "I got raped because of Facebook" Basically, this dumb bint gets added by a randomer on Facebook. He's got a sexy shirtless pic. He's all like "Let's meet up" and she goes along with it. She gets raped by an old perv. This isn't because of Facebook, it's because she's a stupid bitch. How many times do companies have to say "Don't add strangers, don't meet strangers, and if you simply must meet these strangers, do so in a public place and tell people"? Maybe they should force people to take a "How to use the internet safely" test before they let people lose with a modem.
I hate that paper so much
[quote]"How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer"[/quote] [url]http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/[/url]
The Daily Mail is such a rag.
I have a greasemonkey script that turns randomizes the headlines on the website. :v: [editline]10:54AM[/editline] Daily Mail website that is
[QUOTE=Emperorconor;20682922]good image of the internet.[/QUOTE] has it ever had one of those
[quote]The Mail has never been a great fan - "How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer" was one headline last year[/quote] ....ahhahahPPSHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAH WABABAHBABABAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAA i may not like facebook but that is fucking RETARDED.
WILL BINGE DRINKING GIVE YOUR PETS DIABETES? Lol
Guns don't kill, people do. On facebook you have to be incredibly stupid to find peodos, facebook cannot be stupid for idiocracy.
Has Facebook had sex with your pets? God, every one of those Daily Mail headlines could be real.
Why don't Facebook put the CEOP button on? It's not like they're afraid of changing their layout.
[QUOTE=Rambo_9;20684377]i guess you could say... facebook is taking the daily mail to [i]farmville[/i] over this dispute.... xD[/QUOTE] Not only was that a horrible pun, if it could even be called a pun, but you really, [i]really[/i] need to learn to capitalize and to stop using that "xD" smiley.
And this is surprising how? its the Daily Fail after all.
Why must the Daily Mail exist? It is the newspaper of pseudo-intellectuals and bigots. [editline]05:07PM[/editline] They insult my intelligence every time i open the paper with their ignorance.
Are Muslims impregnating British sovereignty?
Has Alistair Darling killed your children?
"will chavs turn your daughters gay?"
Will single mothers infect hard-working families with Aids?
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.