The Thierry Mairot hoax
Recently, the following message started circulating on Facebook
ATTENTION AVIS AUX PARENTS DONT LES ENFANTS ON UN PROFIL FACEBOOK . UN HOMME ESSAYE DE RENTRER EN CONTACT AVEC EUX POUR PARLER DE SEXE IL SAPPELLE THIERRY MAIROT .PARTAGER CE MESSAGE SUR VOS MUR S.V.P
It was quickly followed by this English translation:
To all parents whose children have a profile on facebook. There is a man trying to get in contact with children to talk about sex.His name is Thierry Mairot. Please pass on this message. Thanks.
The message was then updated a THIRD time, in English, as the following
ATTENTION…To all parents whose children have a profile on facebook. There is a man trying to get in contact with children to talk about sex. His name is Thierry Mairot. Please copy and paste this onto your wall and warn all ur friends! Please everyone Moms and Dads …repost an…d get him off of Facebook! Parents, Grandparents Aunts, Uncles and Cousins! EVEN if you have NO kids
This is probably a bigger deal than you actually realize. Not only has this rumor been spread far and wide about something that isn’t true, but it could have a strong impact on a real person’s life.
How do I know it isn’t true? Well, I have a pretty good idea that it’s fake because Facebook would immediately shut down the account of an adult participating in such activity. You wouldn’t need to pass on a message. Facebook would delete the profile without hesitation. And yet, we’re led to believe that, presumably, Facebook doesn’t care that someone is luring children into sexual discussions using their social networking website.
Now, I don’t want to spread rumors myself, so I’m going to start this next piece of my article by saying that I don’t have proof of these statements. They were made by a trusted source on a message board that I frequent, but I don’t have any direct contact with Mairot, nor do I know for certain that such a person exists.
According to my source, though,there is a real Thierry Mairot. He’s a Frenchman who speaks English well. And this rumor has devastated Mairot’s life. He is not a pedophile, but the accusations have meant that he’s lost friends and his job. The constant harassment online has forced Mairot to remove his profile from Facebook, which some say proves that he is guilty. Of course, it proves nothing of the sort other than that he no longer wanted a Facebook profile.
What’s the big deal? Imagine if the message used your name instead of Mairot’s. It’s pretty easy to see how upsetting such accusations would be. In my opinion, this is one of the few instances when Facebook should put a stop to the rumors. We’re not talking about a harmless lie here. We’re talking about a lie that has harmed someone’s life and has the potential to harm Facebook’s credibility.
Facebook Hoaxes 
Thank you for the info. I immediately thought the worst, but in todays society it’s hard not to. We hear and see so many ugly things. I hope somehow this gentleman recovers from this.
Please read today’s headline on Foxnews.com regarding NAMBLA on Facebook. This rumor above may be a hoax, but today’s news is not. Facebook users should be aware of this illegal activity on their beloved site.
Can’t FB find the originator of the post? I know that there are many pedifiles & sexual preditors out there that have not been accused or convicted.
they didn’t take the other guy off of facebook right away so I guess we will all have to wait and see what is going on.I know I will feel better knowing the truth and I think it would put alot of parent’s at rest.
I totally agree with this article. even if the man is guilty of the crime it is the responsibility of the police to warn the public. anyone who posts those incriminating messages is guilty of assaulting the accused. whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
if this is true i hope he can recover from the rumors, but if hes guilty i pitty him in the one that catches him alone
I totally are with this article also, I posted it to my wall as today’s Society we could believe this the correct thing to do. If this is true and this man has lost all his friends and job from someone just making false accusation about him, then I feel very sorry for the male involved. But as I did post this comment is proves nothing more, than I believe should be spread to save some child going through an awful issue as I was made aware from a colleague previously of someone trying to do this awful issue to her daughter.
I have to agree with “Beyond Dead”. I feel that it is the police that should warn the public, it is credible then it would be in “local” news and area. Just posting something with out doing a little research can get you in trouble to for slander if the accused is a real person. Facebookers, beware!
[…] The Thierry Mairot hoax Recently, the following message started circulating on Facebook ATTENTION AVIS AUX PARENTS DONT LES ENFANTS ON UN […] […]
Top Posts — WordPress.com said this on September 30, 2010 at 12:10 am |
I hope that if this is not true, that this man recovers from this tragedy!! I did copy and paste and repost..simply because I have a child on FB..but if it were me…I would commit suicide or something!!!..This is a terrible hoax to be going around on Facebook!!
How the hell would fb even know if this man was or was not luring children into provocative talk? Is there a way to check their chat boxes? IDK if there is or if there isn’t but why take a chance? Some young children need attention, and will get it one way or another!
“How the hell would fb even know if this man was or was not luring children into provocative talk? Is there a way to check their chat boxes?”
Yes, there is. Facebook run Facebook, so their technical staff have full access to all information submitted to the site. So that’s how they’d know — because you can be sure that they’d start checking if any credible evidence of criminal activity came to light. You think Facebook would want to be known for allowing paedophiles to groom children over their network? They’d be all over this if they thought there was anything to it: this sort of thing is bad for business.
But then, perhaps the fact that you ask “is there a way to check their chat boxes” — referring to Facebook themselves — gives a clue as to why so many people trip themselves up on privacy. Once something’s posted to the Internet, Facebook or not, privacy settings or not, it’s no longer private.
And why for that matter would this be a hoax? Isn’t there a way for fb to find out who started it & why & have their account deactivated? Parents need to monitor what their children are doing on fb and who their friends are. There are pedophiles out there looking for children in need of attention, and prey on those kids! As a parent, I would like fb to FIND OUT who started this so-called hoax. If it is a hoax, it’s NOT funny.
Agreed. You should tell Facebook.
“And why for that matter would this be a hoax?”
As for any other hoax, either because someone wanted attention, or because they wanted to harm someone by smearing them. But your reaction here is precisely why such people can do this: you want proof that it’s a hoax, rather than demanding proof that the allegation is true. In other words, to you, M. Mairot is guilty unless he can be proved innocent. That’s precisely the wrong way around.
But you’re right: parents do need to monitor what their kids do on Facebook, or the Internet as a whole. The Internet is not kid-orientated.
I designate this best comment ever!
Please do add the share buttons on your blog… or don’t you want lots of people reading your stuff..?
I find in you a voice of sanity. It is a welcome relief from the frenzy of the ‘giddy brigade’ that just wants an excuse to get into an uproar about imagined threats.
Your blog is like a breath of fresh air. Clears the air amazingly.
Bless ya…
Dagny
How do I know it isn’t true? Well, I have a pretty good idea that it’s fake because Facebook would immediately shut down the account of an adult participating in such activity. You wouldn’t need to pass on a message. Facebook would delete the profile without hesitation……Check out “NAMBLA” on FaceBook, & then tell me how Crow tastes!
Just because NAMBLA has a Fb page does not mean that Fb allows them to seduce children with their profile. Having a website isn’t illegal, regardless of how screwed up your organization’s beliefs are. Having sex with children, however, certainly is illegal.
Crow tastes a lot like being right.
@ Bert LOL! He just slapped your face in broad daylight in front of everyone!! We just watched and said, “Damn! That dude just got slapped!” It was fun from our perspective, not so much from yours I guess.
[…] involved in some online message board/forum and someone else who frequents the same board/forum has reported that Mairot’s life has been ruined because of this. He has lost his job, lost friends and has been forced to remove himself from social networking […]
The Facebook mob is a heartless bunch « John's Blog said this on September 30, 2010 at 11:46 am |
There are so many people on facebook today that assaults others with fabricated lies; they post it to their friends without confirmation, and in turn their friends believes the lies without thorough investigation.
I know a woman who accused me falsely, and started spreading rumor about me being a con-man and sexually abusing her, where none of these stories were true. Because some of the people she posted the stories to knew me, called me to enquire on the authencity of Ms. Tracy’s (the individual) story, i told them outrightly i didn’t have an idea of what was going on. I tried to confront Ms Tracy on her outrageous accusations and assulting my person with unfounded and negative statements when everything she said was the reverse; i tried to diplomatically talk to her to desist from suchc fabrication as it may lead her into some big troubles someday, she didn’t listen, so she continued. I investigated her, and found out she was Psychological dysfunctioned with paranoid Schiziophrenia, my friends and her friends since we shared common friends on facebook also discovered the same thing, so they concluded the story was another hoax.
So what i am invariably saying here is, there are so many Tracy’s on facebook; and their aim is to destroyed people’s personality online, facebook should help users by investigating thoroughly the sources of stories before they too can get into some legal suit problem as collaborators.
So the Story of Marriot may be another hoax, because there so many typos and errors that the writer of the story was contridicting his/herself, obvious the storyline was incomplete.
Again i am not saying It is true or false, i am not ascertaining any of the accusations of counter-accusations, yet there should be a proper medium of investigating such a matter.
you lot are so stubid a pedo can acctivat an account on any net working site under a fake name and age and befriend any child of any age try and study how a pedo works bfore saying a pedo won’t get on a net working site i know how a pedo works as my little brother was done for grooming an under age girl on face book not that long ago
Children should NOT be on these sites due to child endangerment. Teens are too vulnerable to predators.
We will never know whats true or not, but cant blame someone for warning us real or otherwise of a potential real situation….. even if the person involved is not the right person, I am sorry that he has been wrongfully accused.
I hope this man innocent an has not done the sort. I can however understand parents and peers reposting that. They will believe anything they see. They do not care who they are hurting but in a way they are trying to do wat they may feel is right by reposting and protecting. There are evil dirty ppl out there. I do feel bad for him if he is innocent and i hope the person that started this rumor pays for it. But i cannot say i totally blame the ppl that posted it.
on that page there whas also a person saying it wasent true and they made a page about him to,there are somany fake cope text going arund,its so sad,and its dangerouse
This is really a good way to get a kid killed. really easy. The kids need to think about what they are doing to somebody’s life when they pull this mess. Thanks Todd Durrett
I have posted on everyone I know who has poster this message that this is a Hoax, I know how things can get turned around on facebook. and I know for a fact, if you report someone for talking sex with a child facebook will deleat thier profile. Thank you for writing this.
I never believe such rumours and I attented persons on your blog, to think about what you do when you post the message without any directed threat by the person itself.
I always ignore such messages. Like I ignore the same kind of spam in my mailbox.
You are so very true with the statement you make here. People just copy and paste these things and spreading it like they use toiletpaper.
The only thing I want to say to those people is: Google on the name before you copy and paste, Thank you! Don’t harm innocent people. 🙂 take care and have a nice day…
Just read this in Swedish. Dont anyone google shit before posting!
No. They do not.
this rumor is still very vivid! My friend sent it to my wall today august 16 2011.
I understand that people are very concern about their kids and they are right, but this poor Thierry Mairot?? I doubt he will ever got any friends on face book
Apparantly it hasn’t stopped, because one of my friends posted this message today:
“Voor alle ouders die kinderen hebben die op facebook zitten.Er is een man die probeert contact te zoeken met uw kind om te praten over sex.Zijn naam is Thierry Mairot.Aub kopieer dit en post dit op je pagina ook al heb je geen kinderen.Mama’s en papa’s post dit zoveel mogelijk dat hij van de facebook wordt gesmeten.Ook aan de nonkels,tantes ,neven en nichten ,gewoon iedereen!!!!”