A school administrator who charges his identity was stolen is now part of a lawsuit against a popular web site.
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis is suing the popular social networking web site Facebook after someone posted a page using the name of the dean of students at Roncalli High School without his knowledge or consent. Tim Puntarelli, dean and assistant football coach at Roncalli, says he became aware of the website last month.
The lawsuit alleges identity deception, stalking and harassment after someone used Puntarelli's name and personal information to not only set up the account, but send e-mails to students in his name. According to court documents, postings included invitations to dozens of students to be Puntarelli's Facebook friends, a message to a student suggesting Puntarelli may take disciplinary action against him and other pictures and messages deemed inappropriate.
"The question is, is this libel and can someone be sued for it?" asked IUPUI law professor Henry Carlson.
He says while the legal issue is not a new one, the context is.
"We used to be able to libel people by a magazine or written newspaper, then we got radio and television, and now we have the Internet," Carlson said. "So the amount of damage that can be done is dramatically increased."
While school administrators asked for the identity of the person who created the false Facebook account, Facebook refused.
"We cannot release the information unless we receive a valid subpoena or court order, there may be situations where we are unable to retrieve the information due to technical limitations," they explained.
The archdiocese filed and was granted an emergency restraining order after Facebook refused to identify the person who created the web page.
"Given the nature of technology today, it would be almost impossible to prevent someone from creating a website like that," Carlson said.
After a request by the school, Facebook eventually removed the web page and a judge ordered the web site to proved any identifying information about the person who created the page.
"The archdiocese hopes to resolve the issue as quickly as possible in order to restore damage done to Mr. Puntarelli's reputation and to prevent this type of identity theft from happening again," the archdiocese said in a statement.
