Facebook reacts angrily after UK reports link it spread of syphilis

by Stevie Smith - Mar 25 2010, 13:58

Facebook, the social networking phenomenon where people around the world can come together and share everything from status notes and personal messages, through to photos, videos and cute gifts such as teddies, flowers, and sexually transmitted diseases. Wait, something’s not right here.

Cheap lead-in quips aside, Facebook has reacted angrily to newspaper reports emanating from the UK (The Sun, The Telegraph and others) that suggest the site’s country-leading popularity in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside has directly influenced a fourfold rise in the contraction of syphilis throughout those locations.

“The assertion that Facebook is responsible for the transmission of STDs is ridiculous,” commented the social network in a terse statement. “Facebook is no more responsible for STD transmission than newspapers are responsible for bad vision.”

The online network issued its response after the Teesside director of public health, Prof. Peter Kelly, suggested that social networking services (he never mentioned Facebook specifically) are being actively used as an effective way for people to meet up and engage in casual sexual encounters.

“Syphilis is a devastating disease. Anyone who has unprotected sex with casual partners is at high risk,” said Prof. Kelly in an NHS Middlesbrough press release. “There has been a fourfold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected with more young women being affected.”

“I don’t get the names of people affected, just figures, and I saw that several of the people had met sexual partners through these sites,” he added. “Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex.” 

Keen to protect its reputation and standing, Facebook not only insisted the professor’s comments had been exaggerated for the sake of good headlines, it also offered a reminder that there is a marked difference between correlation and causation.

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