News comes today that Facebook is fighting against a subpoena issued in a Missouri murder case.
In short, former police officer Bryan Pour was accused of murder after a shooting at a bar in St. Louis. He is currently facing trial. He claims that he is innocent, and that he can prove that the investigating officers were biased because they were friends with the witnesses to the shooting. His theory, presumably, is that the investigating officers wanted to protect their friends (who were present at the bar at the time of the shooting) and so they shifted the blame to him.
To find out, Bryan Pour’s lawyer subpoenaed Facebook to find out if any of the investigating officers were “Facebook friends” with any of the witnesses who were present at the bar, and if they had any other interactions on the site. Of course, all of the investigating officers have since made their profiles private or deleted them, so a subpoena is the only way Pour can find out if his accusers are biased.
Facebook has announced that it will fight the subpoena and refuse to turn over the information.
There is a deep conflict brewing: Facebook claims that it has a duty to protect the privacy of its users; Pour claims that he has a Due Process right to find out if his accusers are biased.
This isn’t the first privacy issue involving Facebook and certainly won’t be the last. This one just adds the additional layer of criminal justice, and Facebook’s attempts to protect its users from the government; one wonders if Facebook would have the same stance if advertisers wanted the same information?
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