Facebook status updates referring to
WikiLeaks, the classified document sharing site post at a rate of about one per second.
Click here and refresh the page a few times to see for yourself how quickly new
status updates about WikiLeaks go up on Facebook.
Controversy appears to be fueling more interest in the classified document sharing site. WikiLeaks has become the fourth-fastest growing
page on Facebook, gaining 708,232 fans this week.
Facebook refuses to follow the example set by other websites that have pulled the plug on WikiLeaks, including Amazon and Paypal.
The document-sharing site has sprung up on hundreds of mirror locations after its orginal DNS servers pulled the plug.
WikiLeaks community fan pages have also sprouted all over Facebook, accumulating significant numbers of “likes.”
The original WikiLeaks page has 966,362 fans as of this posting. A page called “
Don’t Touch Mr. Julian ‘WikiLeaks’ Assange” has 18,381 “
likes,” referring to the warrant for the site founder’s arrest in multiple countries. Another page called “Boycott Amazon for Dumping WikiLeaks” has 9,017 “likes.”
By contrast, the only anti-WikiLeaks page we’ve found on Facebook so far has just 851 “likes.”
Lest you think that WikiLeaks is funding any of this fandom, know that authorities have frozen assets in the Swiss bank account that the site’s founder has used to finance the document sharing site.
Update: After noticing that CNET ran a story including comment from Facebook, I asked the company’s press office whether the WikiLeaks page would get yanked due to traffic overload or other considerations. Andrew Noyes responded via email:
We haven’t received any official requests to disable the WikiLeaks page, or any notification that the articles posted on the page contain unlawful content. If we did, of course, we would review the material according to our rules and standards, and take it down if appropriate. The mere existence of a WikiLeaks fan page on Facebook doesn’t violate any law and we don’t take down other pages about controversial topics. We’re continuing to monitor the situation.
What are you and your friends posting on Facebook regarding WikiLeaks?
Can you share with us your favorite quotes or posts on the subject? And how has your awareness of the controversy surrounding this site grown through your use of the social network?
Tulisan Terkait