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Facebook ‘enemies’ app welcomes Westboro Baptist Church and Fox News

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By John Glenday, Reporter

March 27, 2012 | 1 min read

A tongue in cheek Facebook app which allows users to reverse the familiar acts of friending and liking has been published.

EnemyGraph enables users to list anything with a Facebook presence from individuals, organisations and foods as an ‘enemy’.

Already some controversial names are featuring prominently in peoples lists of nemeses, notably bible bashing American presidential candidate Rick Santorum and the right wing Fox News.

Dean Terry, a professor at the University of Texas who co-developed the app with a group of students, told Mashable: “One thing that has always struck me is the enforced niceness culture. We wanted to give people a chance to express dissonance as well. We’re using the word enemy about as accurately as Facebook uses the word friend.

“You can actually learn a lot about people by what they’re upset about and what they don’t like. And the second thing is that if you and I both don’t like something, that actually creates a social bond that hasn’t been explored in social media at all, except with Kony and some big examples like that.”

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