Facebook riot

I recently read an article on CNN, “Facebook birthday invite leads to mayhem in Dutch town, authorities say”. Apparently, a girl in a town called Haren made a Facebook invitation to her birthday party, but didn’t set it to private, so more people ended up finding out about it than she thought. The birthday party turned into a riot when over 3,000 people found out and showed up for the party. Cars were torched and storefront windows were smashed. The riot ended with 34 people being arrested and even more than that getting injured. Before the day of the party, police had found out about the event and convinced the parents not to have the party. They tried convincing people not to attend, but had no success. I was surprised after reading this article. I find it hard to believe that something as simple as a Facebook invitation could end up turning into such a big riot, but it did. This is just another example of the ability of Facebook to convey information to many people.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/22/world/europe/netherlands-facebook-riot/index.html