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Writer, are you taking screen shots of the current group wall posts or were you just doing that for the original group? Some people have made libellous comments and one has alluded to physical violence. I've reported them to Facebook admins, but I doubt that'll get anywhere, and I have no idea how to capture screen shots.
ETA: Nevermind, I saw your post on the site. Thanks. You're putting in a tonne of work on this! Good job!
quote: A lot of people believe they are anonymous online," Silva said. But this is far from the truth, he said. Facebook handed over the Internet protocol (IP) addresses of all the group's members.
These computer addresses are the equivalent of a street address. "We know where all 700 (plus) members live," Silva said.
Way to go Rebecca Johnson!! The coverage was a bit contradictory but very good! Finally. Notice how Facebook did absolutely nothing and that the group was only offline because the admin of the group took it off.
What seems to have happened (because it happened while a bunch of us were online watching) was that about an hour or two before the site was taken offline, one of the people who started it, Justin Bernard, left the group and was no longer a group admin. (We noticed that on the protest site.)
Then, about half an hour after Justin was no longer an admin, Cory Buckwell wrote a panicky post about how he was being called by police and media and had film crews at the door or something like that, and he deleted all the discussion topics in the entire group (but not the wall postings). He was totally freaked out.
Then, about half an hour after that, the group disappeared. And then later, Facebook confirmed that they took it down after the police were done gathering the information they needed from it.
Yeah. But there's not much you can do about that. There are tons of utilities out there that allow for secret online groups, like yahoo, google, etc. If people want to meet secretly, they'll find a way. All we can do is raise an uproar when we hear about this stuff being done in the open.
If I were on the story, my calls this morning would be to the high schools these students attend -- secondary principals are likely on call even in the summer, unlike elementary principals, or if not, the superintendents at the board office -- to see what they think of those students' comments, and what sort of anti-bullying programmes they are running (if any).
quote:Originally posted by Wilf Day: If I were on the story, my calls this morning would be to the high schools these students attend -- secondary principals are likely on call even in the summer, unlike elementary principals, or if not, the superintendents at the board office -- to see what they think of those students' comments, and what sort of anti-bullying programmes they are running (if any).
In my email exchanges yesterday will an elected official from the area, I suggested that sensitivity and anti-bullying seminars, be actioned by the community officials and the schools.
700 youths involved is a significant number and exhibits overt and latent hate that appears to be community entrenched.
I think that's a really good idea, both you guys. Schools have becaome a lot more sensitive about this sort of thing over the last couple of years. I'm sure if school was in session, a few unhappy students would have been called down to the office this morning. As school is out, letting the respective board offices know might be helpful.
quote:Originally posted by oldgoat: I think that's a really good idea, both you guys. Schools have becaome a lot more sensitive about this sort of thing over the last couple of years. I'm sure if school was in session, a few unhappy students would have been called down to the office this morning. As school is out, letting the respective board offices know might be helpful.
yeah especially because in many childrens' profiles their network usually indicates a school, and that could be interpreted into meaning they represent the school
And we also have to be watchful about this kind of thing being done by adults. This represents the model for a new kind of cyber-vigilantism, which aims to provoke violence against the Other without those seeking to provoke it being held responsible.
ETA: Nevermind, I saw your post on the site. Thanks. You're putting in a tonne of work on this! Good job!
[ 23 July 2007: Message edited by: Will S ]
Globe story
Kitchener Waterloo Record
And good for you writer for all your screenshots.
What seems to have happened (because it happened while a bunch of us were online watching) was that about an hour or two before the site was taken offline, one of the people who started it, Justin Bernard, left the group and was no longer a group admin. (We noticed that on the protest site.)
Then, about half an hour after Justin was no longer an admin, Cory Buckwell wrote a panicky post about how he was being called by police and media and had film crews at the door or something like that, and he deleted all the discussion topics in the entire group (but not the wall postings). He was totally freaked out.
Then, about half an hour after that, the group disappeared. And then later, Facebook confirmed that they took it down after the police were done gathering the information they needed from it.
[ 24 July 2007: Message edited by: writer ]
If I were on the story, my calls this morning would be to the high schools these students attend -- secondary principals are likely on call even in the summer, unlike elementary principals, or if not, the superintendents at the board office -- to see what they think of those students' comments, and what sort of anti-bullying programmes they are running (if any).
In my email exchanges yesterday will an elected official from the area, I suggested that sensitivity and anti-bullying seminars, be actioned by the community officials and the schools.
700 youths involved is a significant number and exhibits overt and latent hate that appears to be community entrenched.
yeah especially because in many childrens' profiles their network usually indicates a school, and that could be interpreted into meaning they represent the school