Be Careful Who You Poke

In yet another case of blurring between the lines of virtual and reality, a woman broke the law for poking via Facebook!  Shannon Jackson of Tennessee broke the law when she poked a contact on her Facebook list, by violating a restraining order.

The order specifically prohibits either telephoning, contacting, or otherwise communicating with the petitioner.  Violation of a restraining order in Tennessee is a class A  misdemeanor, punishable up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, as well as a fine up to $2500.

This does leave one big question on the table, however—if the plaintiff here felt so threatened by the defendant, why didn’t she block (a little-known option in the privacy settings) or at least de-friend her on Facebook? From what I can see, you can only poke friends (or possibly people on your network with public profiles). Yes, the accused is responsible and shouldn’t have poked her, but shouldn’t the plaintiff have taken steps to avoid contact if she was distressed enough by their interactions to get a restraining order?

What do you think? Should the perp here have known her poke counted as contact? Was she naive or hoping to subvert the court order?

http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2009/10/12/facebook-poke-leads-to-an-actual-arrest

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.


That's just brilliant and made me laugh... thank's for making my day. I do agree though, instead of filing a complaint about this I would have tried the blocking option first. Either the other person is somewhat slow or just WANTS it that way.
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As someone who, in the past, has had to take out a restraining order against a stalker, my sympathies are definitely with the plaintiff.

Some people are not sophisticated enough with regard to computers to understand how to defriend or block folks. But the person who did the poking knew exactly what she was doing. It was provocative - apparently deliberately so.

The person who stalked me, by the way, did everything possible to get around the restraining order and I had to have her arrested finally. Sometimes that is what it takes to get a person to recognize and honor appropriate boundaries.

If it hasn't happened to you, you have no idea how intimidating it can be to have someone constantly intruding in your life who doesn't understand the meaning of the word "no".
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"Victim Precipitation"

If someone is "sophisticated" enough to open a Facebook account, they ought to be able to summon that wee bit of mental energy needed to block or de-friend someone.
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Seems like the "victim" wanted this to happen. Just block the dude and be done with it. If she doesn't now how to block and defriend people, she shouldn't be on the internet because she probably doesn't know how to do anything.

It's also possible that the person forgot their stalker was on their list. Reasonable, I guess, but why go through the courts for something so silly as a poke? Block and be done with it.
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I've been stalked before. It sucked. I ended up having to leave my apartment because of it. She still has my email, and she sent me loads of harassing messages.

But you know what the beauty of email is?

You can just ignore it. It's so, so easy to just not hit reply.

This charge is ridiculous, and makes a mockery of "restraining order."
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Um, "little known option"-- Seriously, if you don't know about the many security features online, you shouldn't be there. Blocking, or defriending, or making your profile ultra private are ways to protect yourself from crazies.

Its not even hard to set up. You go under the privacy section.
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I'm disturbed by the reaction of the commenters. If there is a restraining order against the person, she's supposed to leave the plaintiff alone. The fact that he didn't is not just a violation of the restraining order,it is an indication that she is unable to control herself, which means she may be a danger to the plaintiff. The plaintiff is smart not to block the person -- leaving her facebook page the way it was gave him/her the equivalent of an alarm.
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I think they both were negligent by not blocking each other. Many people post personal information on their facebook pages and you're enabling someone to mess with you by not blocking them taking advantage of the very well known security features on facebook. Not smart.

Also, from the other side of things, it is plain common sense that contacting them online is the same contacting them via a phone. Not smart. Yes, a poke is one of the lowest forms of communication, but in the case where a person fears for their life a poke could be quite intimidating.
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1. Stalking can often occur at the breakup of a long friendship. As a result, there are often many arenas of "unfollowing" to be negotiated. It's easy to forget some of the places you are connected, especially if contact has not been made regularly, or only at sign-up, through that avenue.

2. "Unfollowing" can be provocative and force a stalker into covert following or push them to other extremes (remember, they're not healthy; they are stalking). Many choose not to block but ignore. It does help keep tabs on the sitation/one's safety.

3. Twenty years of tech expertise here and I find Facebook's security features far more convoluted/less straightforward than most. FB is invested in keeping your info open so that they can offer it to advertisers. Therefore, it is not in their interest to put the security features up front and make them easy for *anyone* to use, and they don't!
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