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UK judge orders Facebook to take down sex offender awareness page

UK judge orders Facebook to take down sex offender awareness page

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Facebook must remove a user-created page designed to call attention to sex offenders within 72 hours. A High Court justice out of Northern Ireland issued the ruling in response to a lawsuit from a convicted offender, deeming the public shaming excessive and a potential safety concern for the man — whose identity was kept secret during court proceedings. The page, "Keeping our kids safe from predators," routinely posts photos and other personal information regarding child predators throughout the UK. It's proven to be a relatively popular destination for locals, garnering over 5,000 "Likes" and thousands of user comments. But the individual behind the lawsuit, referred to as XY, claims numerous threats were attached to photos of him that were uploaded to the page. Facebook had already removed the content in question, but XY set out to have the portal taken offline entirely.

"Society has dealt with the plaintiff in accordance with the rule of law," concluded Justice McCloskey. "He has been punished by incarceration and he is subject to substantial daily restrictions on his lifestyle." Acknowledging that the decision was a struggle between individual privacy and public awareness, McCloskey ultimately decided "the pendulum of the rule of law swings in the plaintiff's favour." Those behind "Keeping our kids safe from predators" have already pledged to set up another version of the page, this time from within the United States, claiming "at least there they wont take the page down so every1 keep and eye out 4 it."