MySpace Says It Can’t Provide Names: Company Cites Law in Denying Request for Sex Offender IDs
By Andrea Weigl, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
May 17–MySpace.com officials say federal law prevents the company from releasing the names of registered sex offenders whose profiles they have removed from the Web site.
On Monday, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and seven other state attorneys general called on MySpace to hand over the names and explain what steps the company has taken to alert law enforcement and users who corresponded with these registered sex offenders.
Late Tuesday, MySpace’s chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, sent out a statement: “MySpace has zero tolerance for sexual predators which is why we devoted a team of engineers to work around the clock with Sentinel Tech, to develop the nations’ first proprietary software dedicated to identifying and removing sexual predators from online communities. In the 12 days since the software has become operable, we have deleted and removed every registered sex offender that we identified out of our more than 175 million profiles.”
However, Nigam said, the company cannot comply with the attorneys general’s request.
“The [Electronic Communications Privacy Act] prohibits us from disclosing the information they’re seeking without a subpoena but we want to work with the Attorneys General to find ways to get the information into the right hands,” Nigam said in the statement. “Make no mistake, we are more than willing to provide this information as long we don’t have to break laws to do it.”
Cooper responded Wednesday: “It’s outrageous that MySpace chooses to protect the privacy of predators over the safety of children. We will take action to require MySpace to give law enforcement and parents the information we need to protect our kids.”
Staff writer Andrea Weigl can be reached at 829-4848 or aweigl@newsobserver.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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