Booted from Facebook, woman sues
You can never have too many friends … except maybe on Facebook.
In a lawsuit filed against the world’s largest social network, Maryland resident Karen Beth Young claims Facebook disabled her account the day after she launched a page asking users to join her in petitioning Facebook to raise its 5,000-friend limit.
According to the complaint filed last month, Young joined the site in February 2010, launching a personal profile as well as two pages inspired by both her mother and sister’s battles with breast cancer, “Cancer Forum” and “Cartesian Plane for the Cure.”
Through these pages, Young “started to establish some very sincere relationships. Albeit online, they were genuine and heartfelt,” the complaint reads.
Young’s personal profile soon reached Facebook’s 5,000-friend limit, leading her to launch a public figure page, which has no friend limit, but “does not offer many warmer, interpersonal features.” Hence, the petition page — though whether that’s the catalyst for Young’s Facebook banishment is unclear.
Facebook’s opaque boilerplate e-mails to Young, filed within the complaint surfaced by Forbes (via tech law professor Eric Goldman) provide little insight. In the complaint, Young “alleges breach of contract, violation of her constitutional rights, and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act — Young has bipolar disorder.”
Unsatisfied with the written responses she received, and unable to raise anyone on the phone, Young drove from Maryland to Facebook headquarters in California where she says she was told by an employee, “Oh, people have driven farther than you, from Canada.” Once there, Young said her account was reinstated, but again shut down by the time she drove back across the country and home.
According to Forbes, a Facebook spokesperson would not comment on the specifics of Young’s closed account out of deference to Facebook user privacy … except for this: “This lawsuit is without merit, and we will fight it vigorously.”
South may not have much of a case since Facebook is a private entity not subject to constitutional laws of expression. Legal ramifications aside, even a cursory scan of the court documents reveals that there’s all kinds of back story here we may never know. The frustrating part is, there’s back story that even Young, the person most intimately involved with this story, may never find out either.