Indonesian Girl Arrested For Being Mean On Facebook

Jakarta, a school library. Two eighteen year-old girls sit and chat. [Translated from the Indonesian].

"Hello, friend. What'd you do over the weekend?"

"Got arrested, nearly went to prison, you?"

"Prison?! What'd you do? Drugs?"

"Nah, I called a girl a fat pig on Facebook."

"Weird."

"Right?"

Here at Scanner, we've warned you many times about the dangers of The 'Book. It can get you mocked, ridiculed, and dumped. This, however, might be a first: an 18-year-old girl was arrested for posting mean comments on another girl's wall.

Firstly, this is an obvious - and sad - sign of the still-repressive Indonesian government and its continued censorship of its populace. But also, it shows a deep misunderstanding of what makes the web so magical: Can you image the internet without mockery, ridicule and a bit of meanness?  Youtube would be a ghost town, the blogosphere would be nearly empty, and Perez Hilton would be out on the streets selling chotskies to tourists. And that would make for a very lonely world.