http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/vigilante-group-wrongly-names-man-as-serial-killer-on-facebook-20101223-195v2.html
Georgina Robinson
December 23, 2010A man who feared for his safety had to be escorted from his home by police after he was wrongly named on Facebook as a wanted serial killer in the United States.
A vigilante group posted the man's name and photograph on Facebook and labelled him the "Kensington Strangler", who is wanted in connection with at least three murders and several sexual assaults in Philadelphia, ABC America reported.
The Associated Press reported that residents of Kensington, who once severely beat a suspected rapist based on a police photo, posted hundreds of comments and theories about the case on a Facebook page titled "Catch the Kensington Strangler, before he catches someone you love."
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Suspect .. police released this screengrab of a man they would like to speak to.
The Facebook group attracted more than 8000 members and one post falsely identified a suspect, leading to an angry crowd gathering outside the man's home.
The terrified occupant of the house called police for help. He was taken to a police station at his own request and had a DNA test performed, which cleared him of any link to the case.
Police asked the Facebook group's administrators to take down the photos and remove any reference to the man.
"He is not a suspect, he is not a person that's connected with this, yet we had to come to his house because crowds gathered outside his home," Philadelphia police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told the media.
"We don't need that sort of thing. We can solve this but we can do so protecting the rights of all people."
The incident is the latest example of the negative potential of social networking websites.
Police this week linked a third slaying to a predator who they say raped, beat and strangled two women over the past few weeks. Three other women have reported being sexually assaulted; two of them said they were choked into unconsciousness.
London's Daily Mail yesterday reported that students of England's most exclusive private schools were flocking to an interactive gossip website to float rumours about their peers.
LittleGossip.com encourages children to publish anonymous rumours about fellow students and allows other users to rate the tidbits as 'true' or 'false'.
In one post, a student at Emanuel School in Battersea, South London, wrote of another girl at the school: "****** is working her way through the boys, but unfortunately hasn't made any girl friends along the way, what will she do when she runs out of boys? And who is her next target?".
In Australia, a 17-year-old is causing a stir by threatening to upload more embarrassing photos of AFL players, despite a court order directing her to stop publishing.
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