Facebook Agrees To Remove Some Newtown-Related Pages

Facebook has apparently agreed to remove pages that exploit the December shootings in Newtown, Connecticut.  As WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports, this comes hours after politicians reached out to the social media giant.
 
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said Facebook users set up unofficial tribute pages to Newtown victims.  Some used their images, others tried to raise money on their behalf, but none had permission.
 
Blumenthal said these pages violated Facebook's own terms of service. That prompted the company to act.
 
"They've said that they will take down pages that are invasive of privacy or exploitive of loss."
 
The senator, along with Senator Chris Murphy and Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, wrote to Facebook.  And the company responded directly with a phone call just hours later.
 
"They're going to do it on a page-by-page, case-by-case basis, and they pledged to work with me."
 
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.  
 
For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.