“If he understood that he had committed an ignoble theft, if he returned the profile and apologized, I would be ready to forgive him. It would come naturally to me»: the theologian Vito Mancuso has no doubts and is ready to extend his hand, despite the damage that the hacker who stole his Facebook profile has caused him.
«It all started about a month ago – he says – I received a message on Instagram that seemed to be from Meta and which invited me, since I already had it on Facebook, to also get the blue check on this social network, which certifies the identity of the user. I thought that message was reaching me because on Instagram, which I use much less than Facebook, I had exceeded 10,000 followers. Then after a couple of exchanges I got suspicious and never replied. Then I realized that there was something strange. And that Meta wasn’t behind those requests at all. Shortly after, I was kicked off my Facebook page and with me my other collaborators who were administrators of that profile.
Vito Mancuso filed a complaint with the postal police on the afternoon of March 24, a few days after what had happened. When some ransom demands had already arrived, to get the profile back.
“The police understood that a Turk was behind the requests. I got the idea that he is a bandit, that behind this gesture there is greed, dishonesty ». Since the communications dropped, after the first brief unaware answers from the scholar, the hacker started deleting parts of the profile: «I’m very sorry about this, that Facebook page is essentially the archive of 13 years of work, there are my thoughts, my writings, the commentary on my texts. The damage is also to the people who follow me, many have told me that they lack the daily reading of my thoughts, many have shown me solidarity and this is also why they are flocking friend requests to my new Facebook page. I trust in the work of the police, I hope Meta will take an interest in it as soon as possible and I hope to get back my original page». The theologian specifies that he will not give a euro, or rather a lira, to the extortionist.
At the moment, the name has also been changed: the Vito Mancuso page no longer exists and the Fantasy Expert KJ page has appeared in its place, with photos of cricket players instead of the profile photos of the theologian.
Mancuso makes no assumptions about the reasons for the theft. Certainly the official page, which had more than 100,000 followers, has value. Not to mention the posted messages and the fact that he is a public figure. «About three years ago, before I had the blue check on Facebook, another episode had occurred – he says – Someone had used my page to ask for money, it had been reported to me by some readers, but the managers immediately intervened and everything was solved”. Times today are very different given that Meta has not yet taken action.
«Here they targeted my work – concludes Mancuso – I suffered professional damage. There are many other things that touch a human being deeply, but I hope to get back in possession of the profile. I created that page certainly not for money, but to serve the good».
