The dean of an Indianapolis, Indiana high school, Roncalli High, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, have subpoenaed Palo Alto based social network giant Facebook for information regarding the identity of a person who setup a false profile on the site.
Someone posing as the dean for the interparochial archdiocesan Catholic high school (the term interparochial referring to the fact that the school receives financial and pastoral support from the parishes that comprise the South Deanery of the Indianapolis Archdiocese), began contacting Roncalli students with inappropriate messages, according to an attorney for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Although Facebook removed the fake profile from its site after Roncalli officials contacted them about it last month, the lawsuit — which alleges harassment and identity deception against the anonymous troublemaker — was filed Thursday because Facebook’s privacy policy requires a court order or subpoena before it will release any identifying information about a user.
According to the Indianapolis Star, the Archdiocese doesn’t know whether a Roncalli student created the “fauxfile.” Although Facebook has declined to issue a statement on the matter, the information that they release could be as vague as an IP address.
The above article quotes several lawyers with differing views on digital speech. Some say that students posing as school officials online are defaming their administrators and can be held liable while others see the fake profile as parody speech protected by the First Amendment.
This is another example of where the law is behind current technology and only future rulings will decide what is a harmless prank and what is a crime online.
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