Comments on: Jailed Moroccan Facebook Poser Released and Pardoned

By: NHLTN.NET | Sprattelgubbe » Update on the Moroccan “false Facebook profile” case

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:48:21 +0000

[...] Techncrunch now reports that the man has received a royal pardon and been released. A couple of new (to me) dimensions of the case are also brought up in the story: [...]

By: nhltn.net » Update on the Moroccan false Facebook profile case

nhltn.net » Update on the Moroccan false Facebook profile case — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:15:28 +0000

[...] Techncrunch now reports that the man has received a royal pardon and been released. A couple of new (to me) dimensions of the case are also brought up in the story: [...]

By: What’s a man got to do to get some privacy around here? « UPEI - BUS442.0

What’s a man got to do to get some privacy around here? « UPEI - BUS442.0 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:46:39 +0000

[...] 24, 2008 While reading the TechCrunch I came across a strange story about a guy who is serving a three year prison sentence for impersonating the Moroccan king’s younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, on Facebook. I did [...]

By: Ull

Ull — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:33:07 +0000

You guys are overthinking all of this. The impersonator probably bragged to his pals (why would he keep the joke to himself? The very point was to have a good laugh, I am sure), the word spread, the cops nabbed him. No blame on Facebook.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:14:51 +0000

#9 local isp can figure out who visits sites and who actually edits using packet tracking

By: JeanHuguesRobert

JeanHuguesRobert — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:58:44 +0000

Mike: Facebook officially denied a while ago. “Not us”.

Maroc Telecom is the ISP that is believed to have provided the identity of the “offender”.

The question remains about how they traced back to it. How?

Did they set an after the facts trigger to “trap” the guy when he got back to his fake profile (assuming he did) or are they actually recording all traffic all the time and just had to run a query on their archives?

So much for privacy, unless I missed some other more legitimate way to find the IP address?

Some opacity there.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:30:16 +0000

@# 11 : interesting story. I had a media temple account (sorry mike) for [almost] a year a couple years back… I wanted to see what the hype was about, test some heavy scripts, etc… well I put up many “fake” sites and tests… developers understand… it was a playground account. Well I put up a political satire one day and it might have mentioned something along the lines of a certain someone being guilty of war crimes. Keep in mind this site never even had a domain name propogated to it, i always used the ip to play there… Less than a week after uploading the bush, i mean, political thing I had no media temple account. What’s more… apparently I never did….

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:24:08 +0000

Mike: I recall how very recently YouTube was “Accidentally” knocked offline by some ISP somewhere… something to that affect, right? Is it rational to assume that some of these situations like this are the result of the “government” threatening the websites with major global outages if they don’t secretly cooperate? I can imagine, in FB case, such an outage would cause major disruptions to their service and they would ransom one user for the sake of millions… with heavy hearts and yadda yadda yadda… Is that just me being idealistic that it would have to involve our companies as victims and these governments as tyrannical tech-terrorists?

By: Not Really Anonymous

Not Really Anonymous — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:45:32 +0000

I was talking to some Australian Government recruiters in the security industry and I asked about whether they are allowed to have a Facebook page and they said no. Then I mentioned that my friend tried to close their account and they couldn’t. The recruiters reply was something along the lines of “Don’t worry, we can take care of it. We have connections there.”

By: I Am Not Posting To Spam My Blog

I Am Not Posting To Spam My Blog — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:54:51 +0000

@6: Two years? There have already been numerous reports of people writing vitriol about the President and getting a knock on the door from the wonderfully-named Secret Service who interpreted it as a death threat. (Note to self: when in the presence of Americans, never say ‘I could murder an Indian’ instead of “I feel considerable desire for a curry-based evening meal of the sort often enjoyed in the households of India”.) As far as I know jail wasn’t involved, but you don’t need it to intimidate people. Look up ‘chilling effect’.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:57:08 +0000

#9 - sure. but how would they know who to track? I suppose they could try and see everyone who visited the profile if they had access to all ISP data within the country, and narrow it from there, but my bet is they just send a demand over to FB.

By: baah-baah-the-black-sheep

baah-baah-the-black-sheep — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:16:00 +0000

Facebook cooperation would not be necessary. Their local ISPs could track him with ease.

By: open for business

open for business — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:14:45 +0000

facebook sending people to jail

I think that punk ass needs to be grilled in front of Congress

By: Lex

Lex — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:00:35 +0000

Come on techcrunch! Children subscribing on a social networking site under the name off a famous person are not commiting identity fraud, they are just making fun!

By: Jesus H Christ

Jesus H Christ — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:59:05 +0000

Give it a couple more years, this will also be the norm in America if not already.

By: Ghaus

Ghaus — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:25:21 +0000

@ 2

“Where there is hope, there is Jail”

By: Ghaus

Ghaus — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:24:49 +0000

@ 2

“Where there is hope, there is Jail”

By: Yosef

Yosef — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:21:57 +0000

as users I think we are too trusting. These companies are not looking out for us, but their own behinds, or perhaps market penetration in Morocco, whatever the case may be.

By: 113.com

113.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:55:26 +0000

“Where there is life, there is hope.”

By: SearcH◆ EngineS WEB

SearcH◆ EngineS WEB — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:55:07 +0000

Let’s not forget about the others -NOT so lucky…

The journalist and editor Ahmed Benchemsi faces up to five years in jail over an article he wrote about a speech made by King Mohammed VI.

His trial has been adjourned until September.

The Islamist leader Nadia Yassine is also facing trial for saying she is in favour of Morocco becoming a republic.