I see problems ahead for Facebook

Facebook has rapidly climbed the popularity ladder to become the world most popular social networking website, but has it done enough to ensure it stays there? I see one potential problem that facebook is starting to face, and I do not see an easy solution or simple measure Facebook can implement to address this issue.

I am pretty sure that from time to time most Facebook users will have experienced this problem. A user on your friends list posts comments that are very detrimental to another person. A person they may not even know. The root cause is simply that people will repost anything and trust who ever posts it. Slander can spread like cancer on Facebook and there really isn't a lot the person at the center of the messages can do about it.

A fairly benign example of this is where people post that Facebook are about to start charging. This happens all the time and people simply repost without taking the time to do their research. The simple fact is Facebook will never charge users because we aren't the customers.

Another example involved a well known cosmetics company. Someone posed about their mistreatment of animals used during testing. As usual there was the plea to repost to get the word out and once again users where willing to simply copy and paste without having a clue if the information was accurate or not.

I have also seen examples where people have been named and shamed for something they may or may not have done. One example accused the person of trying to access peoples profiles to gain access to photographs of their children. The message went on to say the police are aware and encouraged as many people as possible to share the story or repost it on their wall.

These stories may or may not have grounds, and to be honest Facebook is not the venue for outing anyone for anything. It is a social networking site end of story.

I suspect that in a lot of these cases the person being named is actually the victim, and people are copying the story around until it goes viral.

Lets imagine you have a fall out with someone. They then make up a story about you and post it on their facebook with encouragement for others to repost. Some of their friends do repost, and then in turn some of theirs do the same. Before you know it you are being slandered all over facebook by people who do not know a thing about you, but are willing to accept information as fact from someone they may or may not even know.

I feel this is something Facebook have to address. I am also interested to know if there has ever been a lawsuit brought against someone for public slander via Facebook.

Mack.