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Germany Considers Banning Wild Facebook Parties

Posted by samzenpus on from the shut-it-down dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Wild Facebook parties tend to occur when a Facebook Event invitation to a typical small gathering is mistakenly posted publicly, and then goes viral. This results in injuries and arrests as hundreds or even thousands show up for a party meant for a handful of people. A recent wave of these out-of-control Facebook parties has left German officials and politicians trying to figure how to deal with the trend."

8 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. I always thought... by Lord_of_the_nerf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ....Germany would already have laws in place for out-of-control parties.

    1. Re:I always thought... by BluBrick · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Godwinned in one post. I'm impressed!

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    2. Re:I always thought... by sco08y · · Score: 4, Funny

      Godwinned in one post. I'm impressed!

      Heheh, the best was some douche showing off his vast cultural knowledge by linking oktoberfest.

    3. Re:I always thought... by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree. They probably do. Any event that has a 10,000 people RSVP'ing to it, would probably require a permit or something, and the appropriate number of porta-potties. Worst case scenario, have the small hosting city ban public parking on the surrounding streets for that day, call in hundreds of private tow trucks, and sell a couple of permits for hot dog vendors and what not.

      That's what some cities do here in the US for some football games, and there is great deal of cash that's generated from the towing alone. The city could also temporarily close some streets for non-residents, and direct the traffic to its nearest commercial district instead. Some businesses would probably love the extra traffic (assuming it knew about it ahead of time).

  2. Solution by SleepyHappyDoc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ban politicians from making ridiculous unenforceable bans.

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    1. Re:Solution by Asic+Eng · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is all part of the German silly season ("Sommerloch") - a period in summer when many political institutions are on vacation, so politicians which would normally be ignored can make it into the news - just because nobody important is active.

      The statements in the article were all by conservatives in Germany (CDU + CSU). Given that it's interesting that Dorothee Baer - secretary general of the CSU - has asked that "comments about the Internet should be made only by those who are familiar with it". Sound advice.

      And no, Germany is not considering banning facebook parties, this is just an attempt by some politicians to get noticed.

  3. Re:Obligatory comment by wvmarle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just checked myself: Facebook by default enables the "Anyone can view and RSVP (public event)" option. That should be disabled by default. It is easy enough to forget to untick that one... type your birthday invitation, when you're done mum calls "dinner's ready!", quickly finish up, click "post", off to dinner.

    It's just plainly ridiculous that an event is public by default. And I'm sure that's a major part of the cause of these unintended mass parties. Now if Facebook becomes more sensible in these matters, then I'm all for your ideas. Until then, Facebook is definitely one to carry part of the blame.

  4. blitzkeg by cicatrix1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wild Facebook parties tend to occur when a Facebook Event invitation to a typical small gathering is mistakenly posted publicly, and then goes viral.

    This effect shall herefore be known as 'blitzkeg'.

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