If you’re a sex offender in Louisiana, you have to identify yourself as such on Facebook, officially. Which is weird, since if you’re a sex offender, you’re not allowed on Facebook at all in the first place. The state’s justification is that they’re, like, way better at running Facebook than Facebook.
“I don’t want to leave in the hands of social network or Facebook administrators, ‘Gee, I hope someone is telling the truth,'” State Rep. Jeff Thompson told CNN Tuesday. “This is another tool for prosecutors.”
This is an attempt on the part of Louisiana’s government to salvage a ridiculous bill that would have banned sex offenders from social media entirely, because, you know, it’s the only way for them to meet victims, and you can totally do that under the law, except not.
It’s not a bad idea, necessarily, although there are problems with how sex offender registries are managed and how they’re designated: in some states, getting caught taking a leak behind a dumpster is enough to qualify you for indecent exposure, and thus suddenly you’re a sex offender. But it’s not like social networks welcome sex offenders with open arms — you can’t join Facebook if you’re a registered sex offender, and we can’t imagine Twitter would be too happy about it either, although there’s no formal rule in their terms of service about it.
In other words, it’s a pointless “tough on crime” law that won’t do anything! Hooray!
(Image via Dirty Coast)