The Dark Side of Social Networking

One of my friends who is on Facebook sent me a message last night - she'd gotten a message sent to her which disturbed her by someone she did not know. The content of the message is open to speculation; she didn't feel the need to tell me what it was that was written - but it opens a doorway to the darker side of things. If she was not threatened, she was harassed. From that correspondence I had with her and some thought, I wondered a lot about things - and the measures that one could take.

Personally, I've been up against the wall a few times - from attempts to smear my character to actual death threats which I had taken seriously (they were related to real world happenings in Trinidad). All of those I actually consider trivial in comparison to the quiet decisions that could be made about me by all manner of people based on not only what I write but what others write. In the end, it simply cannot be avoided. As Stephen King wrote in On Writing, paraphrased, if you expect to be a writer you shouldn't expect to be considered a member of polite society. Thus, I have very thick skin - but I'm supposed to have thick skin.

Let me paint the scene otherwise.

The Background

Let's say that our heroine is an attractive woman - there seems to be an unspoken rule that heroines are always attractive - and that her friends have all conspired to get her onto Facebook through peer pressure which may or may not appeal to some aspects of vanity or narcissism, or even professional networking. Maybe she just wants to stay in touch with friends who only use Facebook. Maybe she created the account on Facebook and never goes unless someone sends her a message. Whatever the reason, she has a network of friends that she can communicate with and for all intents and purposes, it works well.

She may have posted her real life phone number and address for her friends to view on Facebook. Nothing can stop any one of her friends from sharing that information, much as in the real world.

The Scenario

Now, lets say that someone she doesn't know sends her a message which disturbs her profoundly. In that scenario, she can block the person's access to her on Facebook. She could even report harassment. But, for argument's sake, lets say that this happens in a country like Trinidad and Tobago. A small country, a country where it is almost impossible to have privacy in the first place. For all intents and purposes, this could be any small town anywhere in the world but there is a reason I'm singling out Trinidad and Tobago.

Lets say that the message were along the lines of 'coming to your house and doing insane things to you'. A threat. And the person who sent the message, lets say, has a Facebook account which is obviously not representative of who they are in the real world. How does one deal with a threat of a physical nature in that way? It stands to reason that one would involve law enforcement. What can they do? Nothing, really, except sit and wait for something to actually happen.

What if something does happen? If she lives, she has a record of the message on Facebook - but that may not be admissible in court. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, the Computer Security Act of 1987 is ill equipped for such an issue - and the police are almost certainly not trained to deal with such things (they are out directing traffic in bulletproof vests), and getting information from Facebook.com related to the IP address of the person involved would probably not be as easy as if one were in the United States. The trial, if it even got to that stage, could continue for years with the accused out and about in a country which has a history of being unable to find people.

If you're going to play with the tiger's tail, you better have a plan for the teeth.

That I picked Trinidad and Tobago is really not that material in the grand scheme of things. I could easily pick a country which is not in the Internet mainstream (any country not in Europe or that isn't on the North American continent). There are not relevant protections in many parts of the world, and I could only imagine what could happen in other parts of the world which have less semblance of law and order.

This scenario could easily be changed to have people from different countries involved. The practical aspects of international law when it comes to social networking are not something which have been spared much thought by anyone, it seems, yet we all seem to believe that there is some magical force that keeps such things from happening. That magical force doesn't exist, and nothing will change unless people get more involved in adapting to the shift to a smaller global village. Things like Internet Governance are actually quite important. The Internet is not a vacation spot, it is a real area where bad things can happen - or where it can be a part of bad things happening. Too often we hear of the good that comes of technology as we stare at our past footprints, gaging our progress. Too little time is spent considering how these things can be abused.

I am just a Voice from the Wilderness here. It will happen, sooner or later. We may even hear about it if it happens in a place that people pay attention. But in other spaces, nothing will be heard - and perhaps that in itself is a crime larger than any single crime which could be permitted.