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Cruel Attacks on Facebook Memorials Upset Australian Officials

by Warren Riddle on February 26, 2010 at 06:29 AM

The ability to create memorial pages on Facebook allows friends, family members, and well-wishers to remember and celebrate lost loved ones. Since it is the Internet, though, heartless and conscienceless people frequently utilize those pages to display their repulsiveness.

Such dregs of humanity reportedly plagued the memorial pages for two recently deceased Australians. Tragically, the subjects were both minors: Elliott Fletcher, 12, died in a schoolyard stabbing, and Trinity Bates, 8, was kidnapped from her home and subsequently murdered. Crass comments, child pornography and obscene images pervaded walls set up for grieving loved ones, and have since been removed.

Because of the disturbing defacement of their memorials, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has implored Facebook officials to more vigilantly monitor the site for "sickening" material. Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost responded to Bligh by stating that the site does everything in its power to eliminate such activity, but that preventing it on the Internet is fairly impossible.

To its credit, Facebook has been plagued by a variety of distasteful and repugnant accounts and statements in the past, and has swiftly meted out its own form of justice by removing the material. If you happen to notice similarly deranged content that may violate Facebook's policies, just alert the site to the objectionable page. [From: Reuters]

Tags: australia, controversy, desecration, Facebook, facebook memorials, FacebookMemorials, hate groups, HateGroups, top

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