Facebook came under intense scrutiny last night after it emerged that its Superpoke! application enabled Facebook users to 'shank' (slang term for knife) each other. The Superpoke! application enables users to perform a variety of actions (e.g. send a sheep, slap, hug, dance etc). The application is provided by the US Company Slide and the 'shank' option has now been removed from the Superpoke! application. This is hardly a satisfactory solution as surely the option should not have been there in the first place. However, it seems a common mode of sanction of online activities (as copyright infringement, defamatory statements etc) consists of merely removing the offending item from the website. This is of course far from satisfactory as in the offline world, such activities are much more severely reprimanded. This story shows how unsatisfactory the current regulatory framework for online activities is. On a lighter note, the Guardian has reported today that Bebo will launch 'The Message from Earth Project' on the 4th August 2008. The project will invite Bebo users (and rather optimistically celebrities and politicians!!) to submit messages and pictures to be sent into space. Bebo users will then vote on which messages/pcitures should be sent and the 500 most popular ones will indeed be sent into space on the 9th October. Interesting, controversial and somewhat wacky use of the technology!!!
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