WINONA, Mich. — 17-year-old Sara Watkins has filed suit against popular social network Facebook for personal damages, after the collapse of her relationship with former BFF Michaela Karem. Watkins cites Facebook’s “like” feature as the cause of the friendship’s demise.
On Friday, September 21, Karem took to Facebook to relay the sad news of her beloved Yorkshire terrier’s death after a three-year battle with cancer. “RIP 2 my baby Sammy 2004-2012 ull be missed 4ever,” Karem’s status read. When Watkins, Karem’s best friend since kindergarten, read the post in her newsfeed, she instantly clicked the “like” button: “It was just instinct,” Watkins is quoted as saying. “I wanted to show her that I supported her, that I’d read the status and felt bad and, like, would miss Sammy too, you know?”
Karem, however, did not read the “like” in the same vein. “U bitch,” she wrote in a comment, just minutes after Watkins liked the status, “u LIKE my dog dying? SRSLY?? WHAT THE F—K IS WRONG W/ U?!?1?” Before Watkins could defend herself, Karem reportedly removed her from her friends list, blocked her, and has refused to take Watkins’ desperate phone calls for almost two weeks. Wakins filed suit against Facebook, Inc. on Thursday, October 4th.
Facebook’s public relations chief, Marsha Wilmington, explained to Newslo that Watkins and Karem are not the first to be affected by the site’s “like” feature. “We’ve tried other scenarios,” Wilmington said, explaining that a beta feature was tested around the Facebook offices in Menlo Park, CA, that allowed users to customize their “likes.” “It was a disaster,” Wilmington claimed. “One employee had a status about eating a delicious biscuit for breakfast, and her coworker customized his ‘like’ to read ‘doesn’t give a shit about,’ so that it showed up as ‘David Arkin doesn’t give a shit about this’ underneath the status. It’s not the kind of network we want to be, even though, to be honest, David was totally in line.”
Wilmington said she was not concerned about Watkins’ lawsuit. Citing Facebook’s well-known dedication to protecting its users, she claims the “like” button probably did Watkins a favor: “No one wants to be friends with batshit insane girls like [Karem] who can’t spell the ‘for’ in ‘forever.'”
