If you’re having a party and want to use Facebook to send out the invitation, do yourself a favor and be careful about using privacy settings.
All that 15-year-old “Jess” wanted to do was invite some friends to a birthday party. What she wasn’t counting on was that the invitation she sent out via Facebook would be used in a prank and she’d suddenly find herself with a guest list of over 200,000 people.
The Sydney-based girl apparently created the invitation for other kids in her grade, with the intention of having a small party. However, she allowed people on her guest list to invite other people because she she “didn’t have enough time to invite everyone.” Because of the invitation’s open nature, someone hijacked it; exactly who did this isn’t clear. The Daily Telegraph explains:
“The invitation appeared to have been hijacked by members of the notorious chat group Anonymous, or viral prankster David Thorne, resulting in it going viral worldwide.
A number of the postings on her party invitation Facebook site were using the Anonymous symbol as their own.”
Unsurprisingly, the party was cancelled, but Jess is now worried about what’s going to happen on March 26, the day the party was planned. As a result, police are stepping in to patrol her neighborhood that night and make sure the girl’s house stays safe. The Daily Telegraph is reporting that police have charged a seventeen-year-old boy with the invitation’s manipulation (though what he’s officially being charged with isn’t clear at this point).
I’m willing to bet that Jess will be much more willing to take advantage of Facebook’s privacy settings. Honestly, she should have been careful in the first place, but this seems like a pretty mean-spirited prank.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Published: Mar 15, 2011 10:20 pm