SCREEN GRAB- Facebook poll: Should Obama be killed?

[Ian David]

Sunday, September 27, 2009
SCREEN GRAB- Facebook poll: Should Obama be killed?

This is NOT okay:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mupm2BmIjtc/SsALycVFU_I/AAAAAAAAIsk/zBcamCmpDng/s400/poll+kill+o.jpg

Okay, that's it, I've had it.

The hate speech, the threats have gotten completely out of hand. And those who have incited viewers and listeners-- and you know who you are Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, etc.-- are responsible for a good part of this horrific activity.

No, it is not "grassroots", not even close. It is a sick, terrifying, dangerous movement toward violence and the worst kind of civil unrest.

More:
http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/09/screen-grab-facebook-poll-should-obama.html


And yes, the Secret Service HAS been contacted.

See also: http://twitter.com/GottaLaff/

[gateley]

1. Contact FaceBook, too -- and Thom Hartmann, Rachel, Ed, KO, etc. Get this

out there.

[movonne]

15. I think face book is owned by murdock...does anyone know if this is true??

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. I believe that is correct

[DrToast]

21. No, Myspace is.

Either way, this poll has nothing to do with the owners of the site. It's something one of the users created.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. My bad

Thanks for the correction. And yes, you are correct, this is from a user, not the owner.

[lsewpershad]

89. Guess some will say

this is free speech in action. Sounds more like shouting fire in a crowded theater and should have been censored.

[Thornleylv]

66. New Poll!

Over 730 people had taken the poll, which was later removed from Facebook.

Included on the list of the top 100 most popular polls on Facebook was a poll responding to the "should Obama be killed" query, and which asked users to vote, "Should the creator of 'should Obama be killed' be arrested?"

[ArcticFox]

91. How many said yes?

And shouldn't they be investigated/arrested as well?

I always thought it was against the law to say something like that about a sitting president.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Good grief these people are crazy

I am the first to admit we hated Bush. With a passion. But we didn't want to kill him. We just wanted him impeached. And imprisoned.

[Gman]

17. No one wanted Bush assassinated

Yes, put on trial for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Still, with so many here against the death penalty, I can't imagine many if any here wanting him executed for it. Life in prison a la Rudolf Hess would be satisfying for many.

[damonm]

48. Unfortunately, that's untrue.

I spoke to quite a few who would have gladly pulled the trigger.

[Bette Noir]

86. And spanked with a wooden paddle.

But that might just be me.

[msongs]

3. do not see the value in facebook for any reason. oh well :-) nt

[BlooInBloo]

6. If someone asked out loud whether Obama should be killed...

would you question the value of talking as well?

[parasim]

8. Facebook has nothing to do with this.

People can put whatever they want up there.

Facebook is very handy if you are into keeping up on what's happening with your kids, grandkids, relatives and friends. Especially when you live as far away from them as I do.

Facebook is used for insane political reasons, sure, but I never see any of that stuff unless it's pointed out here on DU.

[SeattleGirl]

27. I disagree. They are doing a piss poor job of monitoring that site.

They do bear some responsibility.

[harkadog]

37. Therre are millions of posts every day on facebook.

Maybe tens of millions. No one could possibly keep up with even a tiny fraction of them.

[SeattleGirl]

40. Sorry, but that's no excuse.

That kind of shit should not be allowed, period. And since a lot of people now know about it, I would assume that the FB people know too, and they should take it down. Period.

[Drunken Irishman]

46. Do you even know how the internet works?

Why not call Facebook and tell them you'll volunteer to screen the thousands of polls made an hour.

[SeattleGirl]

49. Your sarcasm is unnecessary

Yes, I know how the internet works.

What I'm saying is that if something like this is brought to their attention (which it has been), the people running Facebook should delete it. Is that so hard to understand?

[Drunken Irishman]

53. You've got to understand how it works.

Think of DU times a million. How many times do bad posts slip through here for hours?

Facebook has a ton of people on it. Which means there are a ton of alerts every few minutes. It's not practical for them to respond to every alert in hours or maybe even days.

Yeah, in the perfect world, it could be accomplished.

Do we even know if that poll is still up? :shrug:

[SeattleGirl]

58. I do understand how it works, DI

And I also know that more than one person has told the gods that be at Facebook about the poll, so it seems to me that if a specific thing is pointed out, even linked to, it wouldn't be that hard to take care of. They don't have to wade through millions of posts (or whatever they're called on Facebook) to find this. And that is why I don't think that "well, Facebook is BIG" is a good reason for that poll to still be up. It would be different if someone alerted the Facebook gods and said "Um, I saw this poll and it said....." without providing a link or anything to it.

Edited: I had originally said the poll was still up, but just read a link provided near the bottom of this thread, that it has now been taken down, at the request of the Secret Service.


http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/facebook-poll-should-obama-be-killed.php?ref=fpblg

[Drunken Irishman]

64. I think that's the risk you run with the internet.

It sucks, but that's what happens when you have over a billion people using this thing all at once.

[billh58]

81. As I understand

the glitch, the "application" that runs the poll feature on Facebook is not connected with Facebook directly, and any complaints go to the application provider first. No one at the application provider's offices was available over the weekend, so any complaints weren't picked up until Monday morning. This apparent breakdown in communications between the application provider and Facebook appears to be the main cause for the delay in dealing with the "assassination poll." Once Facebook was alerted, it didn't take long for them to act, and it certainly didn't take long for the SS to get their attention.

As for Facebook being able to deal with millions, or billions, of posts per day, there is a relatively old technology called "scanning and recognition" which can be programmed to deal with key-words. With the progress that has been made in the field of AI, key-word recognition can be made even more selective and fool-proof. Then, there are the millions, or billions, of users who only need an avenue of communication to trigger the recognition algorithms, or even a queued task system which alerts a (gasp!) real, live, person...

[Posteritatis]

63. Okay, tell us how you'd moderate a 250-million user community instantly in realtime. (nt)

[TrogL]

69. A simple script monitoring the subject line

The same one they use to check for objectionable words, monitored by the same people looking for porn.

[Posteritatis]

71. Oh, right, that would go over well and without any serious issues or abuses. (nt)

[proud2BlibKansan]

72. 250 Million people are on FB??

[Posteritatis]

73. Now that I've double checked my count was low

About three hundred million users, half of which log on in any given day.

[proud2BlibKansan]

77. So Facebook has more users than the entire population of the US?

Sure.

[Posteritatis]

80. Feel free to look it up yourself if you don't believe me

This often comes as a surprise to Americans, but they only constitute five percent of the planet's population.

[Sherman A1]

70. I think the question is not sarcasm, but a very valid one considering

your comments.

[jberryhill]

78. Unless they've been asked by law enforcement to keep it up

You know, getting the IP addresses of everyone who responds "yes" to that poll could be a very useful thing to have.

[mopinko]

42. unlike du.

the mods here do an amazing job. but what really makes it work is that WE police the place. the mods mostly only take care of what users alert on. shit like that would last about 30 seconds here.

i have no idea how facebook even handles this stuff. i use it, and i have never noticed any kind of alert function, or warnings about appropriate behavior.

[Drunken Irishman]

47. Look harder.

Every page and photo has an alert link.

[mopinko]

54. honestly i just did.

i do not see it. so, even if it is there somewhere, it is pretty freaking hard to find. maybe it is something that i inadvertently set, but i do not see it. my browser find can't find it either.

[Drunken Irishman]

56. If you're at a photo...

There should be something on the right that says REPORT PHOTO. It's under a SHARE box and Tag This Photo/Make Profile Picture.

[City Lights]

44. They may not have control over what people post, but there's no excuse for

leaving stuff like this up after it's been reported numerous times. Farcebook has lost control of its own site.

[SeattleGirl]

50. Thank you.

My point exactly.

Apparently, though, some folks here think that having a site as big as Facebook is a good excuse for not paying attention to what's on the site ever.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. If there was no Facebook, this would still have been posted somewhere

[maxsolomon]

84. obviously, this is not FB's finest moment

but FB has allowed me to:

make a connection with nearly all my HS friends that i haven't seen or heard from in 25 years.
keep tabs on my nieces and chat with them.
vent. as opposed to DU, FB allows you to post things like "traffic sucked today", get a "poor baby" from your friends, and not be excoriated by someone 3000 miles away for killing the earth.

[firedupdem]

4. sick nuts n/t

[BlooInBloo]

5. I'm still waiting for all of the evidence to come in. Clearly they should be given the benefit of

the doubt.

Am I missing any?

[Raine]

7. What the hell is wrong with these people

they must be insane!!!!!!! :wtf: I don't believe it's possible to hate anyone more than I hated Raygun or Chimp but I NEVER thought they should be killed!! :grr: Shame, shame, shame on these "Americans". :-(

[robo50]

75. Racism, pure and simple: remember that to a true racist, a black man is not

really a human being.

[Cha]

9. Recd to get this

out there.

[Bluzmann57]

10. Oh my dear lord!

I hope the SS hunts down the crazy bastard(s) who put up a poll like that and arrests them immediately.
And to any lurking trolls, I am a "macho" man. I have absolutely nothing against guns. I love my wife and children. I absolutely will never ever advocate killing anyone for any reason. Ever. So if you all think I'm some sort of a sissy or whatever for actually trying to follow the ten commandments, then so be it.

[Maccagirl]

11. Facebook seems to be like all internet sites

20% amazing
80% pure dreck.


Someone wants, and will be getting attention. Pathetic world we live in.

[Hepburn]

12. OMFG...

...:wow:

I cannot believe this kind of bullshit is going on.

[Wilms]

13. A face full of this for the facebook commando...

[Ian David]

14. Secret Service said they can't access FaceBook from their govt computers...

... and would have to call-in their "weekend guy" to look into it.

My guess is that they're pulling someone away from their family to log-in from home, and he will NOT be happy about the interruption.

I know I would hate to interrupt Agent Mike's weekend.

[Sabriel]

18. WTF? Can't access it?

What kind of effed up system do they have?

Maybe they could ask their bosses to turn off the fucking safety filters!

[Ian David]

19. But then they'd be taking the "What Kind of Secret Service Agent Are You?" polls on MySpace. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Seems like there would be at least ONE computer in their office that isn't blocked

:wtf:

[SeattleGirl]

29. I agree. They need to be able to check stuff like that poll out right away.

I get it that the SS doesn't want to expose all their computers to possible viruses and stuff, but they should have an unblocked one to go to when they get reports about stuff like that Facebook poll.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. We had some kids at our school put some death threats on myspace last year

Kind of a long story but we ended up calling the police. Our school computers were blocked so we couldn't look at myspace. The cops told us that their computers at the station were blocked too but they did have one that wasn't blocked. So I would imagine the SS does as well.

[cui bono]

59. They should just use Obama's blackberry.

;)

[grantcart]

41. Ask the FBI to do it. They have a 6 floor massive building in SD that is all

about cyber crime. Must be 300 employees in there.

[Raine1967]

82. Where did you get that information?

Just curious. I would like to confirm that SS can't access the FB.

[Posteritatis]

85. I'd say it's a load of crap, myself

There isn't one The Secret Service network that's monolithically filtered.

[Ian David]

87. Directly from the person who broke the story and spoke to the secret service. n/t

[Top Cat]

22. I searched on Facebook for the poll but could not find it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Thank goodness for the screen grab in the OP!

[uppityperson]

26. I found it via a google search, not facebook search.

http://apps.facebook.com/realpolls/vote/ixnjamypj

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. Well I tried to vote so I could see the results

But I didn't want to add the application.

So I don't know the results.

[LadyHawkAZ]

68. Error message:

"Application "Polls" is unavailable

The application "Polls" is temporarily unavailable due to an issue with its third-party developer. We are investigating the situation and apologize for any inconvenience."


Awww.

What a shame.

Edit to add: looks like the MSM even picked it up:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/28/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5347004.shtml

[Ian David]

28. Someone with White House press credentials has spoken to the Secret Service as well

http://twitter.com/WestWingReport/statuses/4432261273

[uppityperson]

30. good. Thank you for following up with this. It is still up and open.

[uppityperson]

31. first reply there was Aug 25. People even then were wondering about SS/fbi

[proud2BlibKansan]

74. So it's been up over a month

Way to go, FB!

[bigwillq]

33. No (nt)

[future_of_the_party]

35. 100% horrible.

This behavior is just deplorable.

[samsingh]

36. disgusting

[SpartanDem]

38. Is there a way to find out who posted ?

[Ian David]

39. I am sure there is. I wonder if they can track who voted "Yes."

Perhaps they can.

Or perhaps the Secret Service posted the poll themselves to collect that data.

[jberryhill]

79. Yes. They can /nt

[City Lights]

45. Farcebook tracks everything...I'm sure they can find out who created the poll. nt

[SoxFan]

43. [e-mail]

Flood them until they get off their ass and do something!

[fedupinBushcountry]

52. All polls and posts

have been removed, but it will not be forgotten.

[Ian David]

55. Updates

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/facebook-poll-should-obama-be-killed.php?ref=fpblg

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/142931/facebook_poll_asks_if_obama_should_be_killed/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6646710&mesg_id=6646710

[PM Martin]

51. k/r

Strange how this goes un-noticed by the authorities.

[DutchLiberal]

57. What's the score so far?

[Ian David]

60. GottaLaff broke FaceBook. All their polls are disabled. n/t

[LiberalLovinLug]

61. "yes if he cuts my health care"????

Shows you how effective FAUX Noooz and all the other nazi loud mouths have been. Many people actually believe that Obama is working to cut even more people off of healthcare insurance, when he's trying to do the opposite. They believe that "obamacare" is about denying coverage to Grama, and then others, not deemed viable to live, through 'death panels'.

What they fail to see is that that is what they have now, only its the big private insurance companies that are doing it.
Its not just the far right media thats to blame...where is the rest of the MSM in explaining not only the dire situation in health care, the unsustainability of it, but also presenting alternatives by looking at other countries. Explaining what exactly is 'single payer', and the difference between that and 'public option' and 'co-ops'. Instead they do no homework and set up interviews with one 'moderate' democrat and one shrill jackass from the Republican party and let them have at it. Then shrug their shoulders and move on to the next story. Sad state of affairs in TV news today.

[Tarc]

62. Good, it looks like they disabled the polling app for now

Application "Polls" is unavailable

The application "Polls" is temporarily unavailable due to an issue with its third-party developer. We are investigating the situation and apologize for any inconvenience.

[Thornleylv]

65. New poll

Over 730 people had taken the poll, which was later removed from Facebook.

Included on the list of the top 100 most popular polls on Facebook was a poll responding to the "should Obama be killed" query, and which asked users to vote, "Should the creator of 'should Obama be killed' be arrested?"

[alp227]

67. Well i guess that it's true that Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim then!

Just kidding. This poll really makes the "Muslim" rumor spreaders (like Andy Martin) and Birthers look like scholars. Of all the ridiculous "Facebook quizzes" I've seen this is just horrendous. Someone report it to the FBI please!!!!

[JuniperLea]

76. Three men in black will respond to "yes" voters! I hope...

[Christa]

83. Well, pastor Steven Andersen said it won't be murder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBq2FFYglt4


:grr:

right from the pulpit

[greyghost]

88. It took Fox News to report this?!?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,556722,00.html

Where is the lib rul media?


The Poll App. at facebook is a hornets nest of Reich wing nuts and flea baggers, it has been getting progressively out of control. I hope the Secret Service gives them the wake up call they deserve.

[CLANG]

90. I "disabled" my Facebook account today. Anyone know how to delete it?

[johnfunk]

99. Re-enable it. We need every progressive voice to stay there and get active.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

92. I refuse to even give it any energy...not even one brain cell...the power of intentions

[Stumbler]

93. Completely unacceptable

I'd expect a poll like this to come from Fox or Free Republic, but Facebook? C'mon...

[Posteritatis]

97. Why not? Facebook's population is larger than that of the United States

That combined with the fact that Facebook wasn't the organization producing the poll in the first place means stuff like that's going to show up now and then.

[AsahinaKimi]

94. I don't think we have seen the last of

this kind of behavior. Its going to get worse.. I hope the Secret Service can keep up with this stuff..
The right wingers are beyond any kind of moderation ..



side note:!! Wow..passed 1000 posts snd didn't even notice!

[Dappleganger]

95. The creator of the poll was suspended from FB, the poll was pulled.

And SS is investigating.

[Anakin Skywalker]

96. FaceBook is Vigiliant About Censoring

Nipple shots and perceived nudity, all without user complaints. Don't know how many of you have read, but a few months ago there were a few articles written about how FaceBook has a full time staff of people monitoring for big, bad nudity.

[janx]

98. What does nudity have to do with a poll advocating the assasination

of a U.S. president? :shrug:

[johnfunk]

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

... a ploy to ferret out potential or actual eliminationists?

A big hats off to GottaLaff at the Political Carnival blog for being the first on the intertubes to blow the whistle on this "poll."

[Ian David]

101. The Freepers are in full-blown panic mode, wondering if they "freeped" the poll

Freepers nervous at to whether they might have "freeped" the Obama assassination FB poll
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6648858&mesg_id=6648858