Social Media Tip: Why You should never tag a friend in the comments of a News Report on Facebook.

We’ve all seen them cross our feeds from time to time, especially if you follow News Stations, The post with a headline like

“4 Arrested in Police Raid”

And sure enough, the next thing you are likely to find in the comments section is someone, let’s call them Joe Smith, making a comment like this


Joe Smith:  Jane Doe is this the event you saw?

Seems like a fairly simple enquiry about something that you were discussing with a friend, but actually, without thinking about it Joe Smith may very well have put Jane Doe in danger.  Here’s why.

Police activities are rarely a one and done situation, as after the fact there is always the chance of bail or associates to those who were involved being factored in. In the case of Jane Doe, Joe Smith just commented a tagged link to her profile on a PUBLIC PAGE!

This means that parties involved who may be looking to quiet witnesses now have a Name, a Face and quite possibly a physical address to track Jane down at.

Fortunately for all of Us, Facebook has a way that you can enquire about these type of posts with friends without going through the act of a public tagging that can put a friend at risk.

On every post, the Share option gives a user the chance to do the following choices

1. Share Now (Friends)
2. Share
3. Send as Message
4. Share on a friend’s timeline
5. Share to a Page

The key to Joe keeping Jane safe in this situation is to use option 3 “Send as Message”

By sending the post as a Message, Joe can enquire to Jane if this is indeed the event that was experienced WITHOUT the public tagging of Jane in a post that anyone with computer access can read. 
So, the next time you find yourself wondering if your friend was talking about having seen an event that just got posted on that News page, Do them a favour and message it, the lives you might be saving are both your own and theirs.