• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, October 17, 2007

Facebook has agreed to investigate complaints relating to harassment or pornography within 24 hours as part of a settlement of a probe by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

With talk of a $10 billion to $15 billion valuation, it's understandable that Facebook would want to quickly resolve any legal troubles. But it's not at all clear that the site has any sort of legal obligation to police Web users' behavior or to agree to Cuomo's demands here. In fact, the investigation and settlement raise more questions than they answer.

Cuomo's apparent theory is that Facebook presents itself as a safe environment, so it therefore has an obligation to prevent harassment on the site. A Sept. 24 press release about the investigation alleged that a preliminary review by Cuomo "revealed significant defects in the site's safety controls and the company's response to complaints -- deficiencies that stand in contrast to the reassuring statements made on the website and by company officials."

As a legal premise, that seems a little farfetched. Surely, public statements about safety shouldn't be taken as binding guarantees that other members won't harass or annoy users. Besides, if there's illegal activity on the site, isn't it the police department's job to investigate? And if the comments aren't illegal, should attorneys general ask media companies like Facebook to regulate them?

Other attorneys general are going even further, asking sites like MySpace to implement age verification procedures -- even though age restrictions might well violate the First Amendment when the government tries to impose them. While it's fine for attorneys general to talk about protecting minors on social networking sites, some of the efforts seem designed to generate publicity rather than promote good public policy.