JOUR 61: Top News Story 4

My Top News Story this week is entitled “Jail for Facebook spoof Moroccan” and comes from BBC News online. The article reports the news that a Moroccan man, Fouad Mourtada, has been sentenced to three years in prison for setting up a profile in the name of Moroccan Prince Moulay Rachid. I think that this is a very important story because of the fact that it is dealing with a new form of media and there is almost no precedent for this offense. The Moroccan authorities declared that the crime was that of identity theft, hence why the sentence was so severe. There have been cases of fake celebrity profiles in the United States but no perpetrators have been charged with the offense of identity theft. What will be interesting is whether this will now set a precedent for similar offences in this country and generally across the globe.
This story is also newsworthy because it contains an element of bizarreness. The idea of somebody being sentenced to any jail time at all simply for posting a fake profile on a social networking site will seem extraordinary to Americans. Furthermore, although the story may not be in close proximity with regards geographical location, the story involves a website, Facebook, which is used all internationally and by a large percentage of people in this country. There will also be users of this, and other social networking sites who have created fake profiles or are considering doing so and reading this story will make them think twice about doing so.