Beware when un-friending people on Facebook.

According to this article on Yahoo.com, a sixty year old man in the United States shot to death an unmarried couple after they removed the former's 30-year old daughter from their Facebook friends lists. The victims were reportedly harassed by the woman after they had unfriended her, and brought the matter to the police. However, the father and the woman's boyfriend supposedly conspired in murdering the couple.

photo from Gizmodo

There have been many instances wherein Facebook has been used as a means to commit crimes, or when crimes had been discovered via Facebook. A few months ago there was a hostage taker in the States who would update his Facebook status while the police were closing in on his house. Here in the Philippines, many marriages have gone through Art. 36 proceedings after one spouse sees the other's Facebook pictures depicting the latter cavorting with a young lover. 

This is the first time, though, that I have heard of murder (premeditated, with malicious intent and all of that) being resorted to as a result of one being un-friended. Granted, it was the father who purportedly committed the crime. But this reminds me of a shotgun wedding gone wrong. Imagine a jealous father who comes out with a shotgun and forces a suitor to marry his daughter when the latter gets pregnant out of wedlock. Only this time, the father brings out his shotgun because the suitor deleted his daughter from his friends. Or won't accept to change their relationship status to "in a relationship." Or even just "it's complicated." 

I don't know if there are any psychological imbalances present in the father and the daughter in this instance. But I do believe that Facebook has embedded itself so much into our culture that this is a real possibility. I guess the lesson to be learned is, don't un-friend people. Just make sure they only see a limited part of your profile.

Entry #6

Daniel Luis Convocar