Unknown user updates McCaskill's Facebook profile

By Catherine McComb

Published Sept. 26, 2006

State auditor and Democratic senatorial candidate Claire McCaskill's Facebook profile used to be one of the most developed of Missouri politicians'. It listed Crosby, Stills and Nash as one of her favorite bands and contained quotes from well-known statesmen in addition to the usual campaign issues and contact information. Students posted on her wall, and several notes described her experiences as she went on the campaign trail.

The only problem with the profile is representatives from McCaskill's official campaign denied any knowledge of it.

Although the campaign welcomed the support, spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said she was concerned about misleading Facebook users.

"The information looks accurate, but it seems as though the page was written in a way that appears it was written by Claire McCaskill," she said.

When contacted through a Facebook message, the user would not reveal his or her name, but signed the reply, "EAF."

When Facebook created profiles for approximately 16,000 gubernatorial and congressional candidates, they "made the logins available to campaigns via the national parties and direct communication with campaigns," Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker stated in an e-mail.

How the user obtained access to McCaskill's profile remains a mystery.

Journalism professor Mike McKean said questions of legitimacy need to be addressed if Facebook wants to be trusted as a campaign tool.

"If Facebook were to allow someone other than the candidate to maintain a profile, that calls into question the legitimacy of the service," he said. "I'm not saying it's not legitimate now, but Facebook has to be careful not to let this become just another opportunity for controversy or an opportunity for someone to set up a spoof."

Representatives from McCaskill's campaign felt the same way. They contacted Facebook administrators Monday and requested that the profile be taken down and replaced with "a series of links." The profile now includes only her educational history, contact information and links to her official Web site.

The Campaign 2006 Issues that the rogue Facebooker added to McCaskill's profile also remain. Issues function like other Facebook groups but appear in a different section of the profile.

Scarlett Loomas, campaign spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Talent, said campaign workers maintain his Facebook profile, which includes his favorite activities, interests, music, books and more.

Facebook introduced Campaign 2006 Issues and candidate profiles on Sept. 1, 2006 to "increase the political voice of the people on Facebook, a group that tends to be on the younger side of the electorate and is often underrepresented in Washington and state capitals," according to the Web site.

McKean said Facebook could be important if it is shown to affect young peoples' voting habits.

"Historically the young-adult audience doesn't participate in voting as much as older people do," he said. "If this makes even a marginal change in voting, I think it would be significant."

Sophomore John Dobson said he has monitored political issues and candidates through Facebook since the new feature came online in September.

"Politicians are too busy kissing babies and sleeping with interns to care what students write on Facebook," Dobson stated in an e-mail. "Sure, we are a large bloc of voters, but most of us are too lazy or hung-over to actually make it to the polls."

Even if Facebook users don't take their opinions to the voting booth, Facebook can monitor them. On Sept. 15, the Web site announced the Election Pulse.

"We haven't yet had time to compare the Election Pulse numbers with major polling outlets, but there will surely be some interesting comparisons as the election season proceeds," Barker said.