Reflection: "Facebook hacker jailed after falsely accusing boyfriend of rape"

Date: 6 May 2010 Type: Newspaper article accessed online through Telegraph.co.uk

Reference Details:

Bloxham, Andy. “Facebook hacker jailed after falsely accusing boyfriend of rape”,Telegraph.co.uk. 6 May 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7685381/Facebook-hacker-jailed-after-falsely-accusing-boyfriend-of-rape.html (viewed 8 October 2010).

Relevance

Importance (why):

This article is relevant to a few topics in the units such as virtual ethics as well as online communities. With the recent tutorial discussion regarding ‘Facebook rape’ following on Dibbell’s article “A Rape in Cyberspace…”, this newspaper article seems to offer both meanings of ‘rape’: first being sexual assault, and second being ‘the access of a Facebook account by a third party, unknown to the account's owner, which alters and adds humiliating or otherwise derogatory words to the account's profile for the purpose of a prank. The act usually takes place between friends after one leaves their Facebook account logged in’ (urbandictionary.com).

What (key words or phrases):

In this article, Bloxham reports on an English woman, Zoe Williams, who had falsely accused her ex-boyfriend of rape, and had ‘Facebook raped’ his account on the social network to bolster her complaints when the police failed to take grave action.

“she tried to set up her ex-boyfriend … accused him of raping her several times after the end of their five-year relationship,”

“She felt the police were not taking seriously the complaints of rape she made … so she decided to invent this message and sent it to herself … strengthen her complaint.”

“the false allegation was very serious … gave an impression that a potential defendant was interfering with a witness involved with a charge of rape,”

Issues (agree/disagree):

With any other type of fakery, I agree that this was a very serious form of accusation which could prove to be detrimental to the welfare of her ex-partner. I would also have to agree that even though ‘Facebook rape’ is known to provide entertainment among friends, most of what is altered on the victim’s account are equally untrue, and the whole idea of hijacking someone’s account should not be taken lightly as there is a possibility of harming someone.

On the other hand, I was taken aback to find out that what had fuelled Williams’ action was because she felt that the police department had not looked into the matter carefully. Had the allegations been proven true, this would highlight the ineffectiveness of the police. If they have had investigated the matter earlier, and with more aggression, the ‘Facebook rape’ would not have happened.

Use in formatting argument:

Support + example

This article would prove useful in the discussion of virtual ethics, and the issue of privacy as well as in discussing virtual networks and the social issues surrounding them.

Relationship to other references:

Support + example

As mentioned in the above, the information found in this article could be used to support Adam’s claim in the article “Cyberstalking: Gender and computer ethics” with regard to the escalating electronic invasions of privacy.

In addition, the ‘Facebook rape’ issue could be linked to Dibbel’s article on “A Rape in Cyberspace…” where the virtual body is assaulted and should therefore be taken into grave consideration, since virtual body is an extension of the physical body. A Facebook account is not merely an avatar, but a representation of who a person is.

Critical Evaluation

1. Character

Reliable: Yes – Andy Bloxham is a news reporter and assistant news editor of the Daily Telegraph UK

Source Title: "Facebook hacker jailed after accusing boyfriend of rape”

Type: Online newspaper article

Writing style: Informative with emotive quotes from Judge

2. Currency

Date: 6 May 2010

Location: Published by the Telegraph Media Group Limited which is based in the UK, where the event took place.

3. Intention

Credible: Yes

Author: Bloxham reports the account in an unbiased and informative fashion so as to provide factual evidence instead of sensationalizing the event. However, the exemption of the word ‘ex’ from the term ‘boyfriend’ in the title as well as the description of Williams, the charged, as ‘a young mother’ seem to invoke a negative pre-conceived idea of Williams and her actions.

Audience: Internet users, readers of the online newspaper.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, the online format of the Daily Telegraph UK – a daily broadsheet newspaper available in the UK and internationally.

4. Authority

Reliable: Yes

Author: Andy Bloxham

Credentials: Bloxham is news reporter and the assistant news editor for the Daily Telegraph UK.

Expertise: Bloxham writes on both local and international issues, but specializes on breaking international stories.

References: He has written several articles in the newspaper, and also has a twitter account which he regularly updates with breaking news.

Institution: N/a

Address: N/a

Cited by: N/a

Publisher/Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Credentials/Expertise: Telegraph.co.uk is the online format of the UK-based broadsheet newspapers the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, both of which are distributed in the UK as well as internationally.

Reliable: Yes

Notes

I found this article really interesting and it caught my attention amongst many other newstory and blog entries on ‘Facebook rape’. I particularly like it as it demonstrates the varied meanings of ‘rape’, although as with many other people I seem to think that invading someone’s Facebook account while they are away from the laptop and posting inappropriate status updates should not be represented with the ‘rape’. It did however, give me an alternative viewpoint on how ‘Facebook rape’ is a serious issue and should not be taken for granted – that is as a pure and immature form of entertainment.