From the Chronicle's Wired Campus Newsletter, 1/16/08
Interesting comment from the Adelphi media-relations director at the end. elw
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