A writer for AOL News is suing Facebook for a whopping $1 for labeling him a spammer.
And he’s put out a press release to prove it.
Of course, the press release and the lawsuit it trumpets draws attention to blogger David Fagin’s AOL column as much as his beef Facebook.
That will send more traffic his way. Good for him! You go, guy!
Given the state of things at AOL News after the acquisition of Huffington Post, Fagin’s publicity stunt is brilliant if it helps ensure that he continues to get paid for his writing.
Long after Fagin first kvetched about it in his column, he continues to see error messages like the two shown to the right.
They make him mad and he’s just not going to take it anymore! So here’s the text of the press release he put out on PR Newswire today:
There aren’t too many words that exist in Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary that conjure up more offensive and sleazy images than that of a “spammer.” It’s pretty much the equivalent of an online pickpocket or con artist.
Nonetheless, the first time David Fagin saw he was being blocked from sending friend requests on Facebook, as well as being labeled a spammer, he didn’t think much of it. Then, when it happened again, and he was informed that he was in danger of having his account deleted, he tried to resolve it by reaching out to Facebook’s support department – only to discover they don’t have one.
“Some might say ‘What’s the big deal? It’s just a stupid social networking site,’” says Fagin. “But, when you’re talking about arguably the biggest online presence the world has ever seen, one that’s currently worth more than Microsoft, and there’s no way to reach a live human being, that might be something for the FTC and/or congress to at least think about.”
“It’s not just the support issue, either,” Fagin goes on to say. “Facebook is actively contradicting their own policies. On one hand, they tell you not to ‘friend’ anyone you don’t already know. On the other, the site constantly bombards you with names of people that Facebook themselves suggests you should ‘friend’, as you already have multiple friends in common. This also runs in direct contradiction with the spammer label. If everyone on the site is only supposed to be friends with people they know, then everyone is a spammer. As, no one knows two thousand six hundred and eighty-eight people, personally. Not evenDonald Trump. Not to mention, Facebook wants you to connect with as many people as possible. That’s how they get their advertisers salivating; by everyone ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’ their favorite things. Only being connected to thirty-six people doesn’t really do much for the folks at Coke or Starbucks. But a thousand connections, who can all spider off to another thousand, now that’s viral marketing at its finest.”
Upon discovering Facebook did not provide legitimate help or support of any kind to provide resolution in the matter, Fagin –who writes a column for AOL News- decided to blog about it (The piece can be seen here; Facebook article). He states, “To me, being threatened with banishment from Facebook in 2011 is the equivalent of having AT&T cancel your phone service in 1981. Where do you go to network with people in the modern age? Myspace? Please.”
The story received thousands of hits, made its way to AOL’s home page, and caught the attention of litigation attorney, Gillian Overland, esq., of Overland Law & Mediation in New York City.
“I read David’s article and completely agreed. The fact that you’re dealing with a company as large and as powerful as Facebook, and their only means of public intercourse is a run-of-the-mill FAQ page? This needs to be fixed.”
But how do you fix a problem when there’s no one there to fix it?
“Unfortunately, it took a murder to get regulators to force Craigslist to change their policies. In this case, it seems the only way to get Mark Zuckerberg and co. to respond to user complaints is with lawsuits,” Fagin says. He also adds, “Obviously suing the world’s biggest company for a dollar won’t hurt their pocketbook, but it might get the public debate going. And that’s the main objective here.”
I hope he wins and they triple the damages. I reported a bug to Facebook over two monthe ago and got the standard automated reply. The problem still exists and I have no idea if a real, living, breathing person has even seen the bug report. FYI – The Bug – First you enter events in a new style group and then click on "see all" events from the groups page. What you get is a list that isn't in chronological order, not even in the order you entered it in. A list of dates in random order is of no use to anybody. They want us to share our events and interact, but this bug makes it very difficult. Why wont they fix it so it looks like my personal "My Events" pages?
Comment by Bret — April 25, 2011 @ 6:09 pm
[:p]It is natural for human beings to look forward. Our eyes naturally look ahead. In this sense, we are made for moving toward a goal.
Comment by shawn — April 25, 2011 @ 6:36 pm
It's interesting because I run a FB page for a brand and when someone was trying to copy our page I was able to resolve the issue fast, but when you have someone pretending to be you on Facebook a non-brand it takes a bunch of friends to get that profile removed? Yeah I think there is something wrong here. Obviously the priorities for Facebook are their advertisers, but the fact is Facebook wouldn't be Facebook without their run of the mill users now that's something to think about.
Comment by kate — April 26, 2011 @ 2:45 am
Smart idea on his part, by gaining a lot of visibility for himself. However I do not think Facebook is in the wrong here. This message usually comes up when people click the "I don't know this person" button, and it looks likes he was doing that quite often. Facebook also offers a forum in which you can ask questions if you need help and their moderators are pretty good at responding back.
Comment by Adam Lang — April 26, 2011 @ 7:55 am
I had someone threaten my life on someone else's facebook page and reported it… only to have no action taken at all. They did absolutely nothing to the person who posted the comment. I also tried to report a person who is incarcerated and is having someone else update their facebook page (which facebook has a policy against) only to have no real means in which to report it and nothing was done. You need to be able to get ahold of someone when lives are being threatened and absolute smut is being put out there but Facebook has no one available to deal with these issues. I hope he wins.
Comment by Kristin — April 26, 2011 @ 10:13 am
"worth more than Microsoft" lol whaat?
Comment by @milox22 — April 26, 2011 @ 11:44 am
those tout is excellent
Comment by joasgateway — April 26, 2011 @ 2:13 pm
Personally putting down another person regardless of if he's a writer or not because they have a problem with your service. A service that is buggy as hell and he severe problems with fixing itself. You do know that your not untouchable right? This is the web someone can copy you and topple you in the matter of a day. Please for your own sake get your head outta your ass.
Comment by @Eaker — April 27, 2011 @ 2:46 pm
[...] at the time at $315 million, took to Facebook to forms groups and organize social media campaigns against HuffPo, using their own connections on Facebook to coalesce and boycott the entity, effectively becoming [...]
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