Facebook Welcomes You to NAMBLA

Even if you're not on Facebook (and who isn't on Facebook?), you've probably heard about Facebook's new groups feature. The interesting feature about this feature is that anyone can add you to a group without your permission. There is no approval requirement.

So what can happen? You could be added to any group, as happened to Jason Calacanis, who became part of the NAMBLA* group on Facebook without his approval.  Here is the text of the email that Calacanis sent to Facebook when he found out about that

Someone...added me to the "NAMBLA" group on Facebook. I know I'm not a member of NAMBLA.

I've now been assigned to a group that advocates... well.... ummm.... you can look it up--it's very bad. Also troubling:

1. I was never asked to join the NAMBLA group 2. I was never informed that I was "force-joined" to the NABLA group.

Facebook's CEO responded to this issue by saying that it's easy for people to leave groups.  It appears that the actual Facebook is even more interesting to watch than the movie about Facebook.

Thanks to The Consumerist for spotting this.

*NAMBLA is North American Man/Boy Love Association