Democratic nominee for President of the United States Sen. Barak Obama delivers his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Aug. 28, 2008. The Secret Service has been alert following a Facebook poll that asked users if Obama should be killed. (CU Independent file/William Drumm)
The U.S. Secret Service is teaming up with Facebook to investigate a poll posted on the Facebook Web site entitled, “Should President Obama be killed?” according to Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt.
Schnitt said the possible responses to the poll were “No,” “Maybe,” “Yes,” and “Yes if he cuts my health care.” (See screenshot)
He added that the third-party application enabling individual users to create the offensive poll was brought to Facebook’s attention Tuesday morning.
“Our vigilant users reported it to us first and we took it down shortly after receiving the first reporters,” Schnitt said.
He explained the Secret Service sent them an e-mail Tuesday morning requesting the poll be taken down. At that point, the poll had already been removed.
Some CU students have said they think Facebook should be monitored more closely to prevent similar incidents, while others are less concerned with the poll.
Will Narracci, a 22-year-old senior MCD biology major, said it is Facebook’s fault for failing to prevent this incident.
(Courtesy of Facebook.com)
“It’s hard because Facebook is public domain, but it isn’t screened at all [and should be],” Narracci said.
Chris Lessard, a 19-year-old sophomore music education major, said he feels there are more dangerous situations than a poll posted on Facebook.
“I’m sure the poll was not serious,” Lessard said. “If burning the flag is legal why wouldn’t a Facebook poll [on assassinating the president] be?”
Lindsey Hartman, a 19-year-old sophomore music education major, said she disagreed with Lessard.
“I don’t think [polls like that] should be allowed,” Hartman said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sara Fruman at Sara.fruman@colorado.edu.
