Obama Assasination Poll Pulled Off Facebook

[cal04]

Source: AP

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating an online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated.

The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents are taking no chances.

(snip)
Facebook says the question was not created by the company, but by an independent person using an add-on application that has been suspended from the site.


US Secret Service investigating Facebook poll that asked if Obama should live or die
http://www.startribune.com/politics/62377042.html

Read more: http://wcco.com/national/obama.assasination.facebook.2.1213514.html

[Mari333]

1. yay!

[sinkingfeeling]

2. One might ask why it took Facebook from Saturday until today to pull it.

[MineralMan]

4. That's easy to answer.

There's a button to click to report offensive content on the poll application. Trouble is that the report is sent to the application's owner/developer, not to Facebook. Reporting to Facebook is more involved, and isn't intuitive for most Facebookers.

I did that report to Facebook this morning, and I'm sure others did, as well. The application owner/developer, apparently, did not monitor the reports from the poll or didn't act on them. That is, no doubt, a breach of the contract between the application owner/developer and Facebook. So...Facebook pulled the whole app.

This is the problem with dynamic third-party applications on a site like Facebook. Without an easy to use reporting method that contacts Facebook directly, this sort of thing can sit on the site over a weekend very easily.

[quiller4]

12. Because the Secret Service requested Facebook leave it up for

monitoring for a period of time according to the Secret Service Press release quoted on Talking Points Memo.

[MineralMan]

19. Incorrect. Here's the quote from Talking Points

"And another update: Schnitt clarifies that the Secret Service asked Facebook today to take down the poll, but it had already been removed."

By the time the SS asked FB to take the poll down, it was already off the FB site. The SS did NOT ask that it be left up. That's not anywhere on that blog.

[City Lights]

28. Indeed. IMHO, Farcebook has an odd definition of "quickly." nt

[uppityperson]

45. First comments were Aug 25. It was up for over a MONTH

I looked at it before it got pulled, looked at first comments which were protesting it a month ago.

[kestrel91316]

3. The freeper who posted that poll needs to lawyer up, 'cause he's probably

going to jail.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. +1

[T Wolf]

14. Not to defend the cretin that created the poll, but I really don't see a legal violation.

He (assumption since most assholes are male) only asked a question. He did not even advocate that it should be done (which also is not a crime). He could even legally state that he thinks the POTUS should be killed - that is not illegal either.

The only way it is a crime is if someone makes a threat that they will try and harm the POTUS.

AND that threat is deemed by the authorities to be credible. A life-term without-parole prisoner who threatens the President cannot be found guilty of this because there is no realistic threat of carrying it out.

Sure, the SS can lean on him (and I am all for using the power that we have in this fashion). But there should be no legal consequences in terms of being charged with a crime.

The point as to whether this instance is a positive in terms of our society also cannot (IMO) be argued - it obviously does not help any "discussion."

But a crime - I don't think so.

[TroglodyteScholar]

26. Are you a lawyer?

Your opinion about what is/isn't illegal seems waaaaaaaaay off to me. Has speech that incites violence become protected speech recently? What did I miss?

[EFerrari]

29. I think the standard it that it has to be shown violence happened

as an immediate direct result of that poll -- like someone reading the poll and going out to commit the act. But, I'm not a lawyer either!

[ThePantaloon.com]

43. Legal elements

There would have to be evidence of inciting another to commit a violent act. Here the perpetrator could argue it was a joke and that no violence was intended.

[EFerrari]

53. Right and that's how Bill O'Reilly became a satirist overnight

when he was trying to dodge potential liability for his remarks inviting al Qaida to bomb San Francisco.

[T Wolf]

50. No lawyer. BUt during the previous admin (and earlier), I researched VERY INTENTLY the law

and the wording in the US Code so as NOT to cross the line in my verbal "comments" about certain politicians.

As with all legal issues, the words matter most.

[No Elephants]

51. Most assholes are male? Wtf?

[TerribleLarryDingle]

18. He better f@#king go to jail.

They need to round all these fucking terrorists up and put them in prison.

[BluDemocratGirl]

44. Next stop, to the mental hospital!

You got that right! They need to be behind bars 'cause that is a threat to the president.

[Triana]

5. As it should be. I don't envy 'em their jobs. Especially now. But glad they're there. n/t

[MineralMan]

6. For more info, you can visit the existing thread on the pulling

of this poll at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6647250

[Xenotime]

7. These freeps are getting out of control.

[MineralMan]

8. Getting? Seems to me

they've been out of control for some time, now.

[SIMPLYB1980]

10. Good job everyone!

Don't let those fuckwads chase you off of FB. Fight back.

[Buenaventura]

11. censorship is censorship - n/t

[Robb]

13. What?

What are you, 12? :D

[pattmarty]

22. I think this "shitbag" comprehended it as "unless he's black".

[Nihil]

48. Only mentally. (n/t)

[frylock]

15. threats against the POTUS, perceived or otherwise, don't fall under first amendment..

you have to know this.

[MineralMan]

16. Well, isn't that moronic?

There's an established law against threatening the President. It's not a violation of the 1st Amendment. That Amendment is not an absolute, and that has been the case just about forever.

Think before you type. That's my advice.

[pattmarty]

21. Uh,,,,,,,,,,,,, It's against the law to threaten ANY US president, ass hole.

[Toucano]

23. And is, on occassion, appropriate and necessary.

Free speech comes with responsibilities and limitations.

Obscenity is not protected speech and that question is obscene.

[Mz Pip]

27. A bit glib with tautologies

aren't you? :eyes:

[David Zephyr]

17. I hope they find the creaters of the poll and then lock them up.

And anyone that voted in that poll in the affirmative as well.

This shit has to stop and the only way to stop it is to set an example.

And FaceBook shares some responsibility in my eyes, too.

This story really upsest me. The GOP has incited violence against the First Family and Eric Holder needs to do his job and go after these crazies.

[pattmarty]

20. They might want to go to Glenn Beck's house first.

[mother earth]

24. The nut jobs are being riled up by the GOP nuttier jobs,

If their orchestrated ire wasn't so idiotic it might be a pleasant surprise to see a tea bag event, actual activism, instead they mock the Boston tea party with their idiot clown half-baked efforts that are completely clueless, all hate & no facts.

The gun toting ilk are very scarey, I hope they lock the redneck up and throw away the key.
They are getting the white supremacist groups and skinheads all bothered. When you see anti-Obama signs in blue states you know there's a huge, huge problem, I've seen plenty of stupid, stupid signs maligning Obama.

[angrycarpenter]

25. I posted a response on that poll

To the effect of:

I have been reading some of these responses and I get the distinct impression that while no one will go on record as saying yes many would not shed a tear if he were.

Come on, be true to your rhetoric, if he really is Hitler and Stalin combined and the anti-christ to boot then vote yes.

Radicals are controlling your message and if you do not marginalize them before something happens the Libertarian/conservative movement will end up a lower approval rating then Al Qaeda.

[Violet_Crumble]

30. I would have steered very clear of that poll if I was in the US...

Apart from the sliminess of something like that not washing off easily, I'd also be careful as if it has come to the attention of the authorities, they'll be checking who participated in the poll...

[angrycarpenter]

31. I responded to several different polls

Where I went off on the hateful idiots posting such idiotic polls. I went off on ACORN haters, Michael Moore haters, fox news lovers, healthcare scaremongers and people who seem to think Jimmy Carter was the worst president in our lifetimes. I don't think anyone has the least bit of doubt where I stand on the issues.

[grantcart]

32. Secret Service says it's investigating Facebook poll on Obama

Source: CNN.Com

(CNN) – The social networking site Facebook on Monday pulled a third-party application that allows users to create polls after a site member built a poll asking if President Barack Obama should be killed.

The U.S. Secret Service, the agency assigned to protect the president, has launched an investigation, agency spokesman James Mackin said.

"As is usually the case, our vigilant users reported it to us first," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt told CNN. "The USSS (Secret Service) sent us an e-mail late this morning PDT asking us to take it down. At that point, it had already been removed and we let them know."

Schnitt said the application "was immediately suspended while the inappropriate content could be removed by the developer and until such time as the developer institutes better procedures to monitor their user-generated content."
. . .

In this case, Schnitt said, the user made the poll asking whether Obama should be killed available to the general public.


Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/28/secret-service-says-its-investigating-facebook-poll-on-obama/

[RandySF]

33. Facebook lied

It was still up after 10am PDT.

[uppityperson]

46. AND it was up since 8/25 (August 25 were first comments onit)

[gateley]

34. I LOVE that the national news is covering this. And I hope those

fucks are shaking in their jackboots.

[and-justice-for-all]

35. It is not hard to find out who it was with Facebook...

and if they can use your face for solicitations, then they can surely had that fuck head over to the USSS.

[grantcart]

36. and everybody that voted yes too

[timeforpeace]

37. And they better name the perpetrators, even if it's a lib trying to start fires.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MineralMan]

40. Is English not your first language?

And why the ad? Very odd, it seems to me.

Oh, never mind. It already got it's pizza.

[fascisthunter]

39. Good...

[johnfunk]

41. Who should be more worried: the poll poster, or the people who answered "yes"? Could this be...

... a clever ploy by an activist to ferret out potential or actual eliminationists?

[chelsea0011]

47. Yea, the Secret Service should look into the "friends" who answered yes

[johnfunk]

49. You can bet they will.

[T_i_B]

42. About f**king time

Contrary to the article, Facebook were very slow to pull this crap.

[No Elephants]

52. The RW has totally jumped the shark. This poll,

shooting a doctor in his church

shooting up another church,

ELECTED officials talking about birth certificates, Muslim President, death panels, and using census info to intern U.S. citizens

a women in Blue Massachusetts asking Barney Frank, a Jew , why he is playing along with Obama's Nazi tactics (of health care
reform)

the poor census guy,

Calling the Presisent a Nazi, a Communist and a racist on national TV--and having your ratings go up as a result

bringing guns to town meetings where the President will speak.

It's beyond ugly. They jumped the shark. I just hope they don't take the rest of America with them.