Article Blog # 12

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/12/facebook.alibi/index.html

Support: http://www.marketing-jive.com/2007/09/11-business-benefits-of-using-facebook.html

This article is a perfect example of why social networking sites such as Facebook can be beneficial. The article at hand is about a man who found himself in a sticky situation that had no part in. For Rodney Bradford was charged for robbery in the first degree for a situation in which two men were robbed at gunpoint just 12 miles away from his father’s house. Rodney was at home posting an update on his Facebook account when this situation occurred. The next day Bradford, who was facing separate charges for a 2008 indictment, found out that police were looking for him and decided to turn himself in knowing that he was innocent. Unfortunately, the victims picked him out of the lineup and he was sent to Rikers Island, the New York City jail. Bradford spent the next 12 days talking to his attorney about how he was innocent, and how his Facebook would help out the trial. Lucky for Bradford, Facebook had a timestamp on his “status update” which ended up being the deciding factor of his release from the prison. The only problem with this case is that the prosecutors believe that anyone can be on a person’s Facebook account, but it is nearly impossible to really prove whether it is the actual user.

I think that this is an interesting case of how technology helped give a man back his freedom. It is crazy how a simple status update kept Mr. Bradford from facing some serious jail time, and I think that it just goes to show that Facebook is not all that bad. "We're in a much more trackable world, and for better and for worse," said attorney Jonathan Handel. "The extent to which it means that the right people get prosecuted and the innocent get their cases dropped, that's all of the good" (cnn.com). I am glad that the judge actually accepted the Facebook alibi, and I think that the only downfall to a more “trackable world” is the fact that people may feel like their privacy is being breached. However, I do think that search engines can be a negative to some people who don’t want their Facebook information searchable, “Your Facebook profile can now be indexed in the search results and as a result can provide another favorable listing in the organic search results of the engines” (marketing-jive.com). All in all, social networking sites can actually be beneficial for more than marketing yourself.