According to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Facebook sent a letter to the Memphis Police Department (MPD) asking it to stop creating and using fake accounts as a means of gathering information for their investigations.
As detailed in the letter, this is an explicit violation of the social network's terms of service and policies.
The MPD, for its part, maintained that the fake account under the name Bob Smith was deleted before they received Facebook's letter regarding the incident.
According to the EFF, the fact that Facebook's legal department applies the rule even to law enforcement agencies, which knowingly violate the social network's standards, is a good sign since it proves that privacy policies should be applied by everyone.
The EFF argues that creating fake Facebook accounts, although it violates the social network's terms and policies, is a necessary evil, since the collected data can be used in court.
Facebook's future actions in incidents like the one with MPD, which involve illegal surveillance and information collection from social activists, are not fully understood as we have not had any public statement regarding the tactics the social networking platform intends to follow.
