FacebookGate

This article posted on eSchool News raises some interesting issues about fake college groups on Facebook (and no doubt on MySpace as well, although the article doesn't talk about them). From an information literacy perspective, this raises issues around validity and honesty, and detecting it when something is a spoof or deliberately false. It can be very hard to tell without doing some serious background checking. We tend to take things on faith, and that can get us in some trouble. Not such a big deal when you join a group on Facebook that ends up being a ruse (although they mine a great deal of information from you when you do so), but could be a big deal if you're looking for other information. This isn't too far removed from the many phishing emails you might get, which can end up in identity theft or worse.

Carter, Dennis. "Phony Facebook Pages Teach Students a Lesson." eSchoolNews. 13 Jan. 2009. eSchoolNews. 21 Jan. 2009. http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?print&i=56696