Keeping in touch with friends, or even viewing anyone's profile, on the popular social networking Web site Facebook.com will soon be nearly impossible now that the FBI recently announced it will begin using the site to search for and poke possible terrorists.
In response to the FBI's announcement last Friday, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg quickly added a new security option to the site. Users will now be able to check a box that will block anyone other than the user from viewing his or her own profile.
"Is this defeating the purpose of the site? Perhaps," Zuckerberg said. "But people were so upset the FBI decided to use the site there was nothing else I could do."
The new security feature has been very popular among users. As of noon yesterday, 78 percent of site users had enabled the new "cloaking device," Zuckerberg said.
The FBI has not yet found any potential terrorism threats yet, but they believe their efforts will pay off, said FBI spokesman Tom McTomerson.
"Social networking sites only serve to embolden the enemy," he said. "Most people don't realize the subversive ambitions of American college students, and our monitoring of the Facebook will pay off when we stymie their next terrorist attack."
Student reaction has been varied.
As soon as the FBI's motives were revealed, students formed a new group called "Students Against Friending the FBI." The group assembled in front of the Kay Spiritual Life Center, where they yelled in protest. Protest leader Ryan Talker, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said the protesters hoped to yell loud enough for the FBI to hear them downtown.
"This is such an infringement on our civil rights," Talker said. "Facebook was originally started as a site where college students could socialize, meet friends and stay in contact with friends from home. Since the site has been opened to everyone, it's just not the same. I'm repulsed by it."
Other students, however, said they didn't see anything wrong with the new security options.
"Now that only I can see my profile, I can finally put up all those pictures of me drinking and smoking in the dorms without school officials and future employers finding out," said a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
