Summary:
Facebook search function has been accused of preventing users from searching for certain terms.
Allegations:
- In 2007, Michael Arlington of TechCrunch wrote about Facebook's possible censorship of presidential candidate "Ron Paul" whose name search yielded zero results in Facebook groups.
- In another blog, Arlington wrote on another issue of Facebook's search function where scores of mainstream press organisations and bloggers reported on a privacy issue around part of Facebook's advertising platform.
- Moveon.org led the charge which demanded that Facebook not disclose personal information about a user without their explicit consent. Later, the search for 'Moveon.org' came up empty on Facebook, while at the same time searches for any other term yielded normal results.
Defence:
- Facebook blamed the problem on a bug (unofficially, via comments by employees on the TechCrunch post). The bug was later corrected.
- Facebook responded to MoveOn.org's complaint and the search was made functional again.