One question I’ve seen from members of our little community in response to the Lucas Moura picture is, “Why would someone do that?” The answer, sadly, is money.
As of noon ET on Sunday, the picture has nearly 1.2 million “likes”, over 4,100 “shares” and almost 25,000 comments. And the underlying Facebook page currently has 22,832 “likes”. (I have no idea how many “likes” the underlying page had before this started.)
Facebook’s ranking algorithms consider all of these “likes” and “shares”. So by attracting all of this attention — by exploiting the picture of a baby with harlequin ichthyosis — the owner of the “Lucas Moura” Facebook page has increased the value of his Facebook page.
After all this settles down, the page owner can now sell his Facebook page, and the new owner would instantly get a Facebook page with a high visibility. And it can change the profile, delete all the old content, and maintain that ranking.
Everyone who “likes” or “shares” the picture is assisting in the exploitation of a baby with harlequin ichthyosis. More information about this scam is available here and many other places on the ‘net.
