Facebook refuses to remove Moat tributes
THE ONLINE networking site Facebook refused to act against members paying tribute to Raoul Moat yesterday after Prime Minister David Cameron said there should be no sympathy for the dead gunman.
Facebook said it was providing a forum for debate and there was no reason to stop people discussing the killer as long as they did not violate the website’s terms of service.
Moat, 37, killed himself on Saturday in the Northumberland town of Rothbury after a standoff with police, who had been trying to catch him for a week after he shot three people, killing one man.
The issue came up during Prime Minister’s Questions, when Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris asked Cameron to press Facebook to take down a discussion page with 31,500 members called “RIP Raoul Moat You Legend” from the site.
“As far as I can see it is absolutely clear that Raoul Moat was a callous murderer, end of story, and I cannot understand any wave, however small, of public sympathy for this man,” Cameron said in response.
In a statement Facebook said public debate over Moat was being held in many forums.