Monday 31 March 2008

Facebook and harassment claim

An odd case, which facts are not yet very clear, at least for me. It seems that M. Hurst did a search on the internet about his ex-girlfriend and was added on the list of requests to be her friend on Facebook; she denied and then complained to the police who charged him with harassment under the 1997 Harassment Act. Well, on those facts alone, it is hard to believe that the prosecution could have any chance to win the case. So it begs the question of why it all started and spent the taxpayer's money on a charge unlikely to succeed?

See "First 'Facebook harassment' defendant cleared" (27 March 2008)http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/27/facebook_birmingham_harassment_cleared/

and with more details, the Birmingham Post (27 March 2008) http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2008/03/27/ex-boyfriend-cleared-of-facebook-harassment-65233-20681245/

1 comment:

Audrey Guinchard said...

Just to add information; given that the technology allows for MySpace users to filter who access pages, to receive lots of e-mails (here messages of love) is not sufficient to create harassment. Steps must be taken to avoid the intruder http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080408/232440795.shtml