Police raid “rave” after viewing on facebook

Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook in recent years have grown at extraordinary rates, allowing millions of people to communicate. However, it’s not just the public that has caught on to this fad; riot police, arrived by helicopter, dressed in full suits of camouflaged body armour stormed Andrew Poole's 30th birthday party in the small village of Exeter, Devon in Britain it was advertised on Facebook as an ‘overnight’ event.

The police say that the reason for their intrusion was that the birthday event that Andrew had sent to his friends on Facebook – of which 17 people had confirmed, was posted as an overnight event which police somehow interpreted as a rave.

This then prompted the response the police cars, riot van and a helicopter.

Stories like this show just how powerful a tool social networking is, but it also is a warning to people on how the information that they provide to websites such as Facebook can be viewed by entities other than which you may have intended.

While this may be an extreme case, I suspect that this will not be the first time authorities will use social networking in order to try and reduce crime.

For more information on the story visit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200310/Police-raid-30th-birthday-barbecue-man-used-Facebook-invite-friends.html