Image by david_shankbone via Flickr
My good blogging friend MULTIBRAND linked to the following story recently:
12,000 Miles and a Court Case Later,
Maryland Woman Still Banned from Facebook::
As I wrote
here, I admittedly have a weakness for stories where a corporation rolls out its ultimate "death penalty" punishment on a customer: "You can never come here [buy here] [eat here] again!!"
So you can imagine my keen interest in the story of
Karen Young, who was banned by Facebook from, um,
Facebooking, and did not take kindly to that ban. In an e-mail, Facebook said it had banned Young for the following
transgressions:
- Sending friend requests to people you don’t know
- Regularly contacting strangers through unsolicited Inbox messages
- Soliciting others for dating or business purposes
The company said that as this violated its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, "You will no longer be able to use Facebook. This decision is final and cannot be appealed."
Let's stop right here and ask the question: What would you do in this situation? If you answered, "get in my 10-year old station wagon and drive 3,000 miles from Maryland to Facebook's headquarters in
California," then you and Ms. Young are in synch. Upon arrival, an unimpressed Facebook receptionist
told Young that other people had driven much further than Young (from
Canada) before and gave her a form to fill out. She filled it out and saw that her account was soon reinstated. However, the account was back to "banned" status by the time she drove back home to Maryland.
So -- now what would you do? Did you say "drive back to California from Maryland a second time?" Correct! This second 6,000 mile journey also apparently proved fruitless because on July 30, 2010, Young
sued Facebook alleging violations of her First and
14th Amendment rights; breach of contract; breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing; negligence; and fraud. Last week, the
Internet Cases blog reports, Young's case was dismissed entirely by the court.
Now what? Resort to
MySpace.
http://multibrand.blogspot.com
Image by rjs1322 via Flickr
