The difference between Facebook and MySpace

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Owen Thomas

01/17/08 09:00AM

Filed to: Your Privacy Is An Illusion

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Can anyone explain this to me? No one said a word when I revealed personal details from the MySpace profile of Megan Ellison, the bisexual, hard-drinking daughter of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, a month ago. Yet we're fussed over Emily Brill, Steve Brill's daughter, simply because the juicy bits about her came off of Facebook. In Silicon Valley and Manhattan, admitting to a MySpace page is shameful. A Facebook profile? De rigueur. MySpace continues to dominate social networking, soundly beating Facebook in traffic. Yet Facebook still holds a special place in the hearts of the media and tech elite. Why?

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DeveloperAdmin Owen Thomas 02/25/08 08:25AM

"Facebook is rooted in Universities and doesn't have the "sex predator" reputation.

ON the Contrary, According to the Attorney General Facebook is the dominion of hoardes of sexual predators, since they know they can get the person's real name and personal information off of Facebook. Myspace welcomes the use of nicknames, so they can't as easily get actual information, myspace keeps underage profiles private and unviewable, and unlike facebook, takes action.

NEWS: FACEBOOK SUED BY ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE

Facebook Ignores Complaints about Sexual Predators

NEW YORK, NY (September 24, 2007) - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced today that his office is investigating Facebook over representations the company makes about safety measures in place on its website. In a letter accompanying a subpoena for documents, Cuomo warned the company that a preliminary review conducted by his office revealed significant defects in the site's safety controls and the company's response to complaints - deficiencies that stand in contrast to the reassuring statements made on the website and by company officials.

In recent weeks, investigators from Cuomo's office have conducted a number of undercover tests of Facebook's safety controls and procedures. Posing as underage users, the investigators found they were repeatedly solicited by adult sexual predators on Facebook and could easily access a wide range of pornographic images and videos. Even more disturbingly, Facebook often did not respond, and at other times was slow to respond, to complaints lodged by the investigators

When undercover OAG investigators lodged complaints with Facebook regarding the inappropriate - and illegal - solicitation of the underage users, Facebook in many instances ignored the complaints and took no action against the reported sexual predators

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Facebook is not only rife with predators, Facebook allows it and takes no action.

sample032 Owen Thomas 01/17/08 11:27AM

It's their history; Facebook is rooted in Universities and doesn't have the "sex predator" reputation.

Facebook users have a bit of a superiority complex, too. It doesn't matter that there aren't many differences; it's cooler by nature of being the service that the tech elite and social elite use.

WillVille Owen Thomas 01/17/08 02:14PM

@w00zy33: Yikes, that's a bit rough - even for me.

For some reason Facebook profile surfing does come across as a little creepier to me, not sure why - perhaps the 'poke me' concept?.

Facebook - despite having arguably worse security than MySpace has a bizarre false sense of security. Maybe it's Zuckerberg's winninf smile - but maybe not.

In your case Owen, I think the Ellison's are just way more chilled out, I'd get boozed up with Megan any day.

samcal Owen Thomas 01/17/08 12:12PM

@sample032: I agree. Facebook's whole appeal was innitiated by segregating the affluent and educated from the rest of society. Even though anyone can join at this point, its brand is more polished and exlcusive in people's minds.