Facebook Pulls Stabbing Application After Uproar From Campaigners

Popular Social Networking website Facebook has swiftly pulled out an application that allowed Facebook members to shank - a street slang for stabbing - other members of the website.

The feature was part of the Superpoke application, produced by American company Slide.com, which allows users to contact their friends by virtually sending them various icons.

Commenting on the matter, John Knox, the uncle of murdered actor Rob Knox, said that the site was "disgusting", asking "Why the hell would a social networking site for teenagers put something like this forward? If the authorities really want to get tough on knife crime, the CEO or directors of Facebook should be arrested for inciting violence,".

He also added, "The stupidity of having this on their site is unbelievable. And they deliberately use the street term 'shanked', which is even worse.

While Facebook should be commended for removing the application so swiftly, it also highlights the perils of having a relatively relaxed control environment where users have to identify potentially harmful or illegal applications.