2008 Woodie Awards
Hendrich accused of Facebook scandal
Jason Shepard
Editor in Chief
Issue date: 3/24/08 Section: News
This past week, SGA presidential hopeful Mikey Hendrich found himself in the midst of a controversy surrounding a campaign group he formed on the popular social networking site Facebook.
Hendrich's campaign group "Mikey Hendrich for SGA Pres!!! 2008" is alleged to have in excess of 100 fake profiles within its membership. However, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by Hendrich.
USA student Matthew Peterson first reported this anomaly to The Vanguard last week. Peterson reported that he was browsing through the campaign group's membership list when he noticed an unusual pattern.
"Many of [the members in Hendrich's campaign group] are not in the USA network but in Mobile. I was looking through all of these people, because I saw how many he had and noticed that many of them had the same pictures but different names."
Hendrich claims no previous knowledge and no involvement in the creation of the alleged fake profiles.
"I can assure everyone that I had nothing to do with [the fake profiles]," Hendrich said. "I didn't even know it was possible, much less happening to my group. What is most disappointing is that I thought I had 450 people in my group who were ready to vote for me, and now I find out that I may only have 300."
"I guess now I am going to have to do some extra campaigning just to get back to where I thought I was," Hendrich added.
Upon investigation, The Vanguard found many examples of members having the same pictures but different names. All of the profiles with repeat pictures belonged exclusively to the Mobile, Ala. network.
Of those profiles that belonged exclusively to the Mobile, Ala. network, more than 100 of them didn't have any friends or recent activity. All of the allegedly fake profiles belonged to an overlapping cluster of approximately 30 Facebook groups. Each allegedly fake profile was a member of anywhere from four to 16 groups within that cluster.
One such group that also belongs to the cluster of groups that these profiles attached to is "brumm and cj present ... THE VENTURE."
Hendrich's campaign group "Mikey Hendrich for SGA Pres!!! 2008" is alleged to have in excess of 100 fake profiles within its membership. However, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by Hendrich.
USA student Matthew Peterson first reported this anomaly to The Vanguard last week. Peterson reported that he was browsing through the campaign group's membership list when he noticed an unusual pattern.
"Many of [the members in Hendrich's campaign group] are not in the USA network but in Mobile. I was looking through all of these people, because I saw how many he had and noticed that many of them had the same pictures but different names."
Hendrich claims no previous knowledge and no involvement in the creation of the alleged fake profiles.
"I can assure everyone that I had nothing to do with [the fake profiles]," Hendrich said. "I didn't even know it was possible, much less happening to my group. What is most disappointing is that I thought I had 450 people in my group who were ready to vote for me, and now I find out that I may only have 300."
"I guess now I am going to have to do some extra campaigning just to get back to where I thought I was," Hendrich added.
Upon investigation, The Vanguard found many examples of members having the same pictures but different names. All of the profiles with repeat pictures belonged exclusively to the Mobile, Ala. network.
Of those profiles that belonged exclusively to the Mobile, Ala. network, more than 100 of them didn't have any friends or recent activity. All of the allegedly fake profiles belonged to an overlapping cluster of approximately 30 Facebook groups. Each allegedly fake profile was a member of anywhere from four to 16 groups within that cluster.
One such group that also belongs to the cluster of groups that these profiles attached to is "brumm and cj present ... THE VENTURE."
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