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Service of Process via Facebook

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Proserpina

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Federal Law, for now.

This is pretty interesting. A recent decision by Federal judges allowed for service upon a foreign defendant via Facebook. With the number of people out there utilizing this social service, wouldn't it be interesting to see this expanded on a larger basis?

http://blog.internetcases.com/2013/03/11/service-process-facebook/


Given that there are so many "fake" or "sock puppet" accounts on Facebook, I can't see that going down too well.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Federal Law, for now.

This is pretty interesting. A recent decision by Federal judges allowed for service upon a foreign defendant via Facebook. With the number of people out there utilizing this social service, wouldn't it be interesting to see this expanded on a larger basis?

http://blog.internetcases.com/2013/03/11/service-process-facebook/
actually, actual service was not via Facebook. Facebook was only a redundancy similar to when a first class mailing is required as a follow up to service of certain means in a variety of states in the US.
The court acknowledged that Facebook service was a relatively novel concept, and that defendants conceivably might not in fact receive notice by that means. But the Facebook service was merely a backstop to email service. (The court observed that “if the FTC were proposing to serve defendants only by means of Facebook, as opposed to using Facebook as a supplemental means of service, a substantial question would arise whether that service comports with due process.”)
they also were given permission to use Facebook only after ample evidence to suggest the defendants Facebook accounts were legitimate.

The FTC had set forth facts that supplied ample reason for confidence that the email and Facebook accounts identified were actually operated by defendants. Two of the defendants had registered their Facebook accounts with email addresses that were independently verifiable. And another of the email accounts was the one used to register one of the defendants’ domain names. The court could also glean information as to the Facebook accounts’ legitimacy by noting that a number of the defendants were Facebook friends with each other.
 

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