A man whose personal information was posted on a fake Facebook profile has filed a landmark lawsuit for damages in the UK.

A fake personal profile for Mathew Firsht was created on the Facebook social network using his name, date of birth and falsely showing him as a memember or some gay groups.

The fake profile also falsely stated that Firsht was ‘Looking for whatever I can get’ in his relationship entry and had avoided repaying personal loans.

Firsht has now filed a lawsuit against former friend and classmate Grant Rapheal for libel and misuse of his private information. This is believed to be the first defamation case involving Facebook in the UK.

The suit alleges that Mr Rapheal setup the Facebook profile called ‘Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?’ after they had a falling out.

Mr Firsht’s lawyer Lorna Skinner stated that the private personal information that was posted to the false Facebook profile included his location, activities, date of birth and relationship details.

The Facebook profile also falsely indicated his sexual orientation and political affiliations.

There were also false claims that Firsht’s business could not be trusted and were a credit risk.

The profile was on the social network for 16 days before Mr Firsht’s brother found them. They were then removed by Facebook employees.

Source: ThisIsLondon.co.uk

A judge in Viera, Florida has ordered two teenage boys to post an apology on video-sharing site YouTube.com as punishment for a drive-through window prank that led to battery and criminal mischief charges.

The prank, called “fire in the hole”, occurred last July and involved fast-food employee Jessica Ceponis at a Taco Bell drive-through window.

Ceponis handed the teens their soft drinks. After returning to the window to give them their change, they yelled, “Fire in the hole!” and hurled a large drink at Ceponis and then took off in their car.

The boys posted a video of the prank on YouTube.com, along with other video clips showing similar pranks. The teens to post the apology video on YouTube today. The video will show them facedown and handcuffed on the hood of a car.

The prosecutor, judge and defense attorneys who created the YouTube video apology as punishment hope it will serve as a deterrent to other people.

Police and prosecutors point to the increasing number of kids and teens who film sick pranks and post them online in an effort to achieve some level of internet fame.

Ceponis said she originally thought the prank was a personal attack but learned from some of her customers that a video of the incident had been posted on the YouTube website. She used the YouTube video to trace the teens’ MySpace accounts.

“They were bragging about what they had done and how funny it was,” Ceponis said.

She managed to befriend the troublemakers online, while keeping her real identity a secret. After she had enough information to confirm that they were behind the attack, Ceponis used a phone book to track down one boy’s mother. The mother the provided the names of the other boys involved, she said.

Source: USAToday.com

Human rights activists are using a clever combination of Facebook and Google Earth to find wanted Darfur war criminals and bring them to justice.

A Facebook page has been created on the social networking website encouraging people to report the sightings of Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb.

Both men were indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes a year ago.

Neither men have been captured and brought to justice.

Dr James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust which set up the Wanted for War Crimes Watch List page on Facebook.com said “The men are suspected of hundreds of thousands of murders. Someone, somewhere, knows where they are.”

Google Earth and Google Maps are being used to map known movements of the two Sudanese men, each wanted on more than forty counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur.

The Watch List even lists Ahmed Haroun’s phone number and office address.

Mr Donovan stated “He isn’t a fugitive hiding in a cave somewhere, but a bland looking man in a suit, sitting behind a desk in Khartoum.”

Khartoum has refused to surrender Mr Kushayb and Mr Haroun to the Court.

Rather, Mr Haroun has been promoted to the position of Sudan’s Minister for Humanitarian Affairs. He is currently responsible for the welfare of the victims of his alleged crimes.

As well as having vast power over humanitarian operations, he is responsible for liaisons with the International UN/African Union peacekeeping force tasked with protecting civilians against such crimes.

The other suspect, Mr Kushayb, was in custody in Sudan on other charges at the time that the ICC warrants were issued, however, last October the Sudanese Government announced he had been released, reportedly due to ‘lack of evidence’.

Source:Telegraph.co.uk

In our last post, we wrote about a no-holds-barred, tell-all, get-even video that Tricia Walsh Smith posted on YouTube.com about her husband, Broadway executive Philip Smith. Tricia Walsh-Smith and her husband are in the middle of a nasty divorce battle and she posted the video to tell the world her version of the divorce dispute.

Her video illustrates the use of social networks and online, user-generated content as a weapon in personal as well as legal battles.

The video has now been viewed over 500,000 times. You can view the video below.

Source: YouTube.com

Now online videos and social networks are being used as weapons in bitter divorce battles.

Tricia Walsh-Smith, a New York woman in the middle of an ugly divorce, can be seen in a YouTube video criticizing her husband, Broadway executive Philip Smith, in a disturbing and angry video clip that has been watched over 150,000 times.

Attorneys are calling Walsh-Smith’s attempt to use a YouTube video to broadcast secrets about her husband and is family during a divorce battle a “scary new step” in user generated content.

Lawyers have told the Local 6 News that they can’t think of another divorce case like it.

Walsh-Smith flips throught the couple’s wedding album on in the video, accusing Philip Smith of trying to evict her from their apartment. She then goes on to make embarrassing statements about their personal and intimate life.

Her lawyer said that she acted out of passion and is a “victim who is holding her head up,” though he didn’t represent her at the time she made the video and posted it to YouTube.

Her husband’s lawyers stated that they were appalled by the video smear.

Divorce experts say the video clip will probably come back to haunt her and harm her legal case.

Source: Local6.com