January 16, 2008
Students Create Mock Facebook Page Disparaging Professor
Students at Adelphi University set up a mock Facebook profile for a professor, complete with some not-so-flattering details.
Adelphi officials who recently discovered the page were not amused, and reported the false profile to Facebook using the company’s standard abuse form. But they got no immediate response, sparking the university’s information-security officer, Cornelis Jan Leune, to send out a note to colleagues asking for help in getting Facebook’s attention. University officials eventually contacted a Facebook official directly, and the page was removed.
Mr. Leune declined to answer questions about the incident, referring questions to Kali Chan, media-relations director for the university. She would not release the name of the professor or other details.
“This incident is an important reminder for people to protect their reputations and their personal information,” she said in an e-mail interview.
Facebook officials could not be reached for comment.—Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Wednesday January 16, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Oh well, there are loads of mock facebook pages. And even more ‘appreication’ societies of individual academics.
— peter Jan 16, 09:41 AM #
The best reason I’ve heard yet to be sure and make your own pages in these online environments. Even if you don’t put anything up there yourself except your professional contact info, your presence there may discourage others from trying to prank you there.
— Deanya Lattimore Jan 16, 05:05 PM #
What an interesting idea: Students extracting accountability from faculty. I wonder how much energy Adelphia put into investigating why an employee would be targeted by students.
— David Jan 17, 08:57 AM #
David,
I can think of many reasons that a mock page might be put up, including someone with a grudge against that individual. Since I didn’t see the profile in question, I can’t guess at their motives. However, your motives seem to be revealed very clearly in your accountability statement.
I can’t help wondering if your own life might not be held up to “accountability” by someone on Facebook, and how you might feel about it.
— Scott Jan 17, 09:50 AM #
Facebook—the hiding place of the cowardly. Remember when all we had to worry about were faculty evaluations being published, and how we did on a scale of 5.0?
— History Professor Jan 17, 11:42 AM #