Stalkers and Trollers in Facebook hide behind the ‘Privacy‘ of Facebook'(it is a different matter that Facebook reveals your identity to people and organisations as it feels fit!)
A High Court in London has rued that Facebook can not hide behind the ‘Privacy’ any more and that they must disclose the details.
As an aside posting personal information on the net is inviting trouble.
I have blogged quite a few times on this but people do not seem to care.
Now to the Story:
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- Nicola Brookes, 45, was targeted by internet trolls after posting message of support for X-Factor contestant Frankie Cocozza
- The mother, who doesn’t even watch X-Factor, wrote message supporting singer on his official Facebook page after her daughter showed her his page
- Abusers created fake profile with her picture and posted sick messages to lure young girls
- The single mother is the first person ever to bring a court case privately to track down those who abused her
- She was forced to take action after police refused to intervene
- Despite the abuse, Nicola is STILL on Facebook
A mother who was sent death threats by so-called internet ‘trolls’ has won a landmark legal case against Facebook.
Nicola Brookes was tormented for months by anonymous internet bullies after she left an innocent message of support for an X Factor contestant on the social networking site.
She went to police to make a complaint but claimed officers told her to go home.
Now she has won a legal order forcing Facebook to disclose the identities of the trolls. It is the first time an individual has won such an order and Miss Brookes, 45, hopes to pursue private prosecutions against those responsible for her months of ‘vicious and depraved’ abuse.
Charities said the High Court ruling sent a message to the cyber bullies that their anonymity can be stripped away, leaving them open to prosecution.
Campaigners warned that online bullying has become the ‘weapon of choice’ among children and teenagers, with police and prosecutors failing to keep pace with the changes in technology.
Miss Brookes’s ordeal began last November when her daughter told her that an X Factor contestant, Frankie Cocozza, had received hate mail on Facebook. Stung by the cruelty, the mother left a message on his Facebook page, saying simply: ‘Keep your chin up, Frankie, they’ll move on to someone else soon.’
How it started: Nicola’s support for X Factor’s Frankie Cocozza led to a horrid hate-campaign against her
Within minutes bullies on the site turned on her, writing vile abuse including ‘Your [sic] a desperate pedo b****’ and ‘Ur [sic] a ****ing dog’. More than 100 cruel messages were left in just 24 hours. Miss Brookes said: ‘Facebook users began deliberately targeting me, writing under my comment that I was a paedophile and hoping that I would die.’
Worse followed when an online bully set up a fake Facebook profile in Miss Brookes’ name, with her photo and personal email address, and used it to send explicit messages to thousands of children, some as young as nine.
Some messages falsely described her as a drug dealer, a prostitute and a paedophile and known child abuser, and others attempted to ‘befriend’ young girls.
On Mother’s Day this year, trolls published the single mother’s home address in Brighton.
Horrified, she reported the abuse to Facebook and the police, but said officers did nothing to help her. She said one officer told her she could leave a dossier of evidence ‘but we won’t read it’.
Frustrated by their response Miss Brookes contacted lawyers and began legal action to force Facebook to reveal details about her anonymous tormentors.
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