Rule #1 for studying social culture: pay attention to the sex and drugs.
When it was reported that Orkut is being used as a drug networking tool in Brazil, my immediate response was duh.
I have interviewed subjects who distributed cocaine in Baltimore via Friendster. (To my knowledge, they were never caught which makes it different than the situation with Orkut.) Other subjects have told me ways to find drugs on Tribe.net and MySpace. Obviously, i am not willing to disclose how or who. But this is definitely not unique to Orkut nor to social networking in general. For example, in college, people used to buy drugs on eBay.
Give people the ability to distribute information and they will distribute drugs. Tis just as obvious as if you give people access to attractive people, they will date. So, i find it very entertaining that people get up in arms about this.
i got a kick out of a comment from one of the /.-ers on this:
“In other news, a new device called a ‘cellphone’ was recently used in the bust of three columbian druglords. Apparently they were using the address book feature to store phone numbers of other drug lords and were using the ‘voice’ features to network and make deals. How does one go about ‘wiretapping’ and busting such a multi-lingual and diverse group of folk who use ‘cellphones?'”
Un réseau de drogue démantelé sur Orkut
Je n’avais jamais parlé de cette utilisation-là des réseaux sociaux auparavant, mais il ne faut pas se voiler la face, les logiciels et réseaux sociaux sont parfois malheureusement détournés pour des usages peu scrupuleux tels que vente de produits
Bunch o Links
I’ll be travelling and trying to blog Rafat’s party – but in the mean time – here’s a bunch of stuff I wanna unleash: 1. Needless to say I think that the Konfabulator purchase continues ot show who’s thinking forward, open and kicking serious bootey. C…
Bunch o Links
I’ll be travelling and trying to blog Rafat’s party – but in the mean time – here’s a bunch of stuff I wanna unleash: 1. Needless to say I think that the Konfabulator purchase continues to show who’s thinking forward, open and kicking serious bootey. C…
Bunch o Links
I’ll be travelling and trying to blog Rafat’s party – but in the mean time – here’s a bunch of stuff I wanna unleash: 1. Needless to say I think that the Konfabulator purchase continues to show who’s thinking forward, open and kicking serious bootey. C…
my buddy in LA found his weed dealer on craigslist. the dude just straight-up advertised his wares. hmm…
OutInColumbus supposidly contributed to higher STD rates… Promiscuity of gay men on that site would make Don Juan blush! Outright drug talk was moderated, but people would say 420 this or KB that, etc…
In a social network, people tend to reveal themselves anyway such as “My favorite movie is Half Baked, I listen to Phish” etc…