Un-Inviting Facebook

Planning a party? Don’t tell Facebook.

A girl in Sydney is canceling her 16th birthday party after the invitation went viral and 200,000 people promised to attend. The girl was worried that no one would show up so she sent a Facebook invitation to a few of her friends. It included her address and said it was an open house party, as long as it didn’t get out of hand.

But her father says she wasn’t aware of the privacy settings to stop strangers from viewing the invitation. Police say is appears the girl’s original post had been “re-posted” by someone she didn’t know and it quickly went viral. Within 24 hours 20,000 people had said they would attend. Now the girl’s father says the Facebook page about the party will be removed and the party itself will be cancelled.

The father says if anybody turns up at his house the only people they will be partying with will be the police. Facebook might be the fastest way to spread the word; but with over 500 million users a lot of people are going to hear it.