Where’s the Buzz :Facebook Shank & Knife Crime

July 28th, 2008 by Apurba Sen

Filed under anti trend, applications, behavior, buzz word, Collective Action, facebook, influencers, where's the buzz, youth

Facebook ‘shank’, a part of its SuperPoke! application , has been removed following complaints from anti-knife crime campaigners. ‘Shank’ is street slang for stabbing. Most of the SuperPoke tools are although harmless , Shank – featuring a cartoon style image of a knife, raised a number of concerns. UK is gripped by a knife-crime epidemic with 28 teenagers dying violently this year.

SuperPoke! and Facebook came in for criticism in today’s Sun. The uncle of Rob Knox, the Harry Potter actor who succumbed to stab wound in May, told the paper that the application “incited violence”. The Online Petition on Sun grabbed more than 23,000 signature.

“Slide does not condone violence whatsoever, and our SuperPoke! application is meant to foster fun, virtual communications between friends. We have removed this particular action as it misrepresents the SuperPoke! brand” – Slide spokesman told.

Last year we discussed Facebook ‘Poke‘ – meaning & psychology behind it. Since then Facebook has become a place for distasteful buzz words like ‘stab’ , ‘smack’

Occurrences of Shank , Stab & Smack on Facebook Walls over time by counts

Facebook users are already challenging this trend. Already there have been organised demonstrations in Facebook groups ‘Stop our young people killing each other’. One of the best argument comes from within Facebook only :