ByeSpace
A few weeks ago as part of a writer's test, I made a fake MySpace page for Shawn Hornbeck (the kidnapping victim who allegedly had internet access). I don't have the computer skills to create it using photoshop, so I actually registered as him and made it that way. The profile was purely for comedic purposes... it had things like:
Who I'd like to meet: My parents, the police, the FBI, my old friends from the neighborhood.
General Interests: Crying myself to sleep, keeping a diary, cowering in fear, wanting the past 4 years of my life back, planning my escape, not being kidnapped, Imo's Pizza
Television: Cops, America's Most Wanted, CSI, Prison Break. Oh, and The Simpsons is hilarious!!!
Heroes: Whoever gets me out of this hellhole.
I left the profile up in case the people I made it for still needed to look at it, but I didn't edit it and refused any friend requests I got. Then about 10 days after I posted it, I suddenly became inundated with messages; some were positive, like "you are in my prayers" and "I'm so happy you're okay!", while some were extremely negative, like "asshole, this isn't funny" and "You're a sicko, I'm reporting you to MySpace." I did not respond to any of the messages.
Finally, yesterday I got an e-mail from MySpace saying that they had deleted my account for violation of Terms of Services. They claim this is due to one of the following things:
* Nude images, sexually suggestive or violent photos
* Covering our banner ads with HTML
* Harassing other users
* You do not meet the minimum age requirement
* Spamming the classifieds, forums, bulletins, or other sections of the site
* Attempting to artificially inflate scores
* Scripting the site
My profile had none of these. True, it may not have been in the best of taste, but can they delete my site just because they don't think it's funny? What about my First Amendment rights? I was tempted to dispute the deletion, but decided it wasn't worth the trouble. But I'm still a little peeved about the whole thing.