Facebook doesn&#x27;t have to &quot;pursue&quot; criminal charges, however. It&#x27;s the Government that brings criminal charges. In this case, Alex would just be a witness (willing or otherwise) the Government used to produce evidence of the researcher&#x27;s crime. There is a mistaken understanding that if the &quot;victim&quot; of a crime doesn&#x27;t &quot;press charges&quot;, then there is no criminal liability. However, the &quot;victim&quot; is really only a witness to the actual crime in the eyes of the law. Here, the researcher has arguably confessed to a number of computer crimes, and if a DA&#x2F;USAO or the DOJ were interested in making a statement, they might have enough evidence to indict the researcher on the strength of this post alone. Facebook, while perhaps not interested in &quot;pressing charges&quot;, would have to comply with a criminal investigation here.