Obama Death Poll on Facebook Apps on Spotlight

Federal authorities are investigating a survey created by a Facebook member that appears to threaten the life of the president, which is a crime. The poll was made with a third-party app that’s used to create thousands of polls daily, the vast majority of which are innocuous. The incident highlights the perils of publishing user-generated content.

Facebook now has some new “friends:” the United States Secret Service, thanks to a startling weekend poll appearing on the world’s largest social network that asked the question, “Should Obama be killed?”

The poll provided four possible answers: “Yes,” “No,” “Maybe,” and “Yes if he cuts my healthcare.” Some 750 people had responded to the poll before Facebook members alerted the network and it removed the survey.

Threatening the life of the president is a federal crime, so the Secret Service began its investigation Monday, and Facebook is cooperating with the agency, company spokesperson Barry Schnitt told TechNewsWorld.

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