International Law

A Facebook friend is anything but a friend in need

The Guardian points out that you can't always expect your Facebook Friends to stand by you:

If ever evidence were needed that a Facebook friend is anything but a friend in need - the declining cyber-support for the man named today as history's biggest rogue trader speaks volumes.

When Jerome Kerviel in Facebook's Banque Société Générale group was named in the media as the man who has cost French bank ?4.9bn (£3.7bn) he still had 11 friends.

One hour after his name was published on news sites, four friends had already deserted the 31-year-old.

At the time of writing, the list has shrunk further to just four friends - providing more fodder to the Facebook refuseniks who question whether someone linked to a social networking page is really worthy of the name "friend".

Kerviel will at least be thankful that he chose to post a closed profile on the social networking site. He also took the wise decision - or maybe he was just lucky enough not to get round to it - not to post a picture.

Instead, he has a question mark in the picture space - just one of the many questions being asked today about the world's biggest rogue trader.

Read more here.

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on January 25, 2008 (boomark / email).