I once got sucked into the addictive world of FarmVille, the Harvest Moon lite game that is on Facebook. It got to the stage where I was timing stuff like crops being ready to harvest when I got home from work. I had a few days offline and gave it up.
It seems as if there has been a few add ons to the game. Worryingly it looks as if they have spread from beyond the FarmVille app to the online farmers Facebook wall. Namely, manure spreaders and pixelated pitchforks. I first noticed this before, and blogged about Winterval and Silly Season, where manure was coming over from FarmVille in the form of ridiculous knee jerk statements about Muslims all hating everything British, despite them being British themselves. I put it down to FarmVille going beyond the parameters of its app.
However, the app has turned into a Silicon Salem Witch hunt over the last fortnight. The pixelated Pitchforks have been lighted and have made their mob handed way to the wall of unsuspecting online farmers.
I’ve noticed a few different pictures of someone who it is claimed, with no proof, is Jon Venables, one of the boys who killed James Bulger. Of course, the virtual vigilante gang don’t refer to the deceased toddler as “James”, but Jamie. Something his family never did. This isn’t the first time that someone has been accused online of being one of the Bulger killers. In a tragic story, a man killed himself after months of abuse.
In true Facebook fashion, if you didn’t share this picture then you are supporting paedophiles, or something. Well, this is why I didn’t share it and why you shouldn’t have. Do you think that there is even a shred of possibility that the bloke(s) in the photo might not be Jon Venables? If there isn’t, what evidence do you have because I’d like to know. Venables has been recalled to prison so why share this info now? Contrary to right wing beliefs, prisoners don’t all have Facebook in their cells.
Do you think that you might be subjecting an innocent man to potential abuse that could lead to his death? Do you think you have done your bit by sharing an unsubstantiated photo? Did you stop and think before hitting the share button? No,of course you didn’t.
I’m not protecting a paedophile by not sharing a picture that I have no idea where it came from. I’m protecting what is probably an innocent man. I’m pretty sure that in a few months, a different picture will emerge, possibly of me, declaring that this is actually Venebles. We got it wrong last time, sorry about that, but this is him, it definitely is.
I won’t be hitting the share button, I’ll be more than likely hitting the “Remove friend” button. Hopefully the next FarmVille update with have a “Contain manure via Snopes” feature.
Put the pitchforks down, or use them to harvest that fresh batch of crops. And no, I don’t want to play FarmVille with you or be your neighbour on FarmVille, because the chances are your farm is run by Tony Martin.
Tales From The Cynical Side 
Brilliantly put. A great read.
Thanks, David.
Staying resolutely off FB this is a bit outside my personal realm of experience but I totally get your point about people too often sharing information/accusations without thinking about the consequences. The same is often true for people trying to do something useful such as forwarding “have you seen this person?” requests for help, for instance. How do you know who the person asking you for help is? How do you know the person they’re looking for wants to be found? Indeed, they might have a very good reason for disappearing and you might unwittingly be helping out a criminal or an abuser… [This never occurred to me either before a women’s refuge worker mentioned it to me.] I’m not arguing that we should mistrust everybody and everything all the time, just that we have a responsibility not to harm others and therefore should stop and think critically for a second before being swept up in waves of unfounded finger pointing or possibly harmful acts of kindness to strangers. The important factor, as you point out, is evidence. Is there any or are we purely acting on somebody else’s say so? Finally, why do so many people feel the need to bully others into acting just as irrationally as they are?!