Miscellaneous

Banned from Facebook: One Lawyer's Story

By Bill Gratsch

Interesting post this morning, Facebook Banishment and Due Process, from Professor David Solove at Concurring Opinions:

Recently, I [Solove] was talking with David Lat, author of the blog Above the Law, and he was complaining about being banished from Facebook. David was an active user of Facebook, and he suddenly and inexplicably found himself banned from the site. Facebook didn't supply him with any reason.

According to Mr. Solove's post, Mr. Lat is concerned about his banishment, as he utilizes Facebook for important personal and professional purposes.  

David [Lat] also said he has a lot of important information on his Facebook profile. He uses it as a way to communicate with people, and he uses it to help him gather information for use in his blogging. So being kicked off Facebook is a big deal to David. It can impact his job. It can also impact his friendships and professional relationships. For example, David told me he received emails from several friends who wondered where he had gone. They thought David might be ignoring them or might no longer be their "friend" on Facebook.

Thus, he has apparently been exploring his options for reinstatement.  In response to which, Mr. Solove posed the following questions:

As more of our lives become dependent on Web 2.0 technologies, should we have some sort of rights or consumer protection? Is Facebook the digital equivalent to the company town?

What follows is a fairly comprehensive look at these questions in the context of Facebook's written rules and the larger Web 2.0 world in general.   It is worth the read; just click this link: Facebook Banishment and Due Process

Full post as published by Blawgs Blog by Bill Gratsch on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).