comScore announced today that Facebook is now Europe’s top social network. Facebook grew 314% in Europe during the last year, attracting 100 million European visitors in February 2009. Facebook went from non-existent to #1 in most of the European countries tracked by comScore, who measures the digital world.
“The growth rates we are seeing are unbelievable” said Andrew Lipsman, comScore’s Director of Industry Analysis in conversation with AllFacebook yesterday.
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Looks like being a mobster-lover doesn’t pay off in the world of Facebook. Italy has proposed a law for blocking Internet access to websites that incite or justify criminal behavior, and thanks to some Facebook groups that support notorious Italian mob-related criminals that means that Facebook could in fact be blocked in Italy.
According to Bloomberg, Facebook hasn’t seen the actual proposal, but its existence is concerning. The bill has already been passed in the Senate, and would give the Interior Ministry to power to order Internet providers in Italy to remove criminal content within 24 hours, or face a fine that could reach upwards of $300,000.
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Groups and fan pages on Facebook can be a great way to show your support for a person or a cause, but they can also breed a great deal of controversy, depending on what’s being supported. Notorious Italian mob bosses Salvatore “Toto” Riina and Bernardo Provenzano are two recognized figures that are breeding outrage and controversy as a result of fan pages that have been created on Facebook for the two criminals, according to The New York Times.
Provenzano and Riina are allegedly responsible for criminal activities in Italy, including the ordering of the assassination of Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone in 1992. Riina is in fact serving 12 life sentences and has been in prison since 1993. Yet he is still gaining a good deal of popularity through a Facebook fan page, which now has well over 2,000 members, and Provenzano’s fan page even suggests that he should be made a saint.
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