Killing-Obama poll raises online questions

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By Christina Bellantoni

UPDATED:

A Facebook poll asking whether President Obama should be assassinated has sparked an Internet uproar - with new polls calling for the offending poll creator's arrest and other social-networking sites questioning their policies amid an unprecedented level of online vitriol.

"It's like free speech on steroids," said Jesse Farmer, the Palo Alto, Calif., Web developer whose technology was used to inquire whether Mr. Obama should be killed in a Facebook poll, which is being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.

Mr. Farmer told The Washington Times in an interview that the incident has sparked a debate about how the Internet's gatekeepers can handle a flood of Internet activity without infringing on constitutional rights.

On Monday, the Political Carnival blog broke the news using a screen grab of the "Should Obama be killed" poll, created by someone using Mr. Farmer's third-party Facebook application.

The poll listed four options: Yes. Maybe. No. If he cuts my health care.

Mr. Farmer said the answer was overwhelmingly "No," with 98 percent of the 731 people choosing that option before the poll was disabled.

The news caused a firestorm, as it came after a summer of angry protests that included signs featuring Mr. Obama as Adolf Hitler and after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she feared the political discourse had become so degraded it could lead to violence.

Even those who denounced the poll were worried that its reach was overblown.