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Facebook Ordered To End Its Real Name Policy In Germany
An anonymous reader writes with a blow to Facebook's policy banning accounts under pseudonyms. From the article: "A German privacy regulator ordered Facebook to stop enforcing its real name policy because it violates a German law that gives users the right to use nicknames online. 'We believe the orders are without merit, a waste of German taxpayers' money and we will fight it vigorously,' a Facebook spokeswoman said in an emailed statement."
Sounds like someone that has a complete lack of respect for the law in general. "We don't agree with the law, we don't want you trying to enforce the law on us, and we're going to fight it even though it's law."
I do hope the German court decides to haul them out back behind the woodshed and explain how legislature, laws, and law enforcement work.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Any accounts set up under fake names will be removed from the site when discovered in order to keep the community safe, according to Facebook.
How does this keep community safe? Facebook is not a dating site.
It makes the CIA's job much more difficult with nicknames to spy on foreigners.
When will USA do the same? :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
The law gives you the right to use pseudonyms online without being prosecuted for it. If a service provider decides that you can use its service only with your real name, that does not violate the law. You can always use a different service provider. Really, it's ridiculous what the governments are trying to regulate nowadays...
http://www.cgerli.org/fileadmin/user_upload/interne_Dokumente/Legislation/Telemedia_Act__TMA_.pdf
The important section is 13.6:
The service provider must enable the use of telemedia and payment for them to occur
anonymously or via a pseudonym where this is technically possible and reasonable. The
recipient of the service is to be informed about this possibility.
(emphasis mine)
Since it's obviously technically possible, Facebook will have to argue that it's unreasonable.
One of the big questions is: what's in a name? What is someone's real name? When you introduce yourself to someone, you give a name. Is that your real name? Everyone will assume it is, without questioning it. But as a matter of fact I know people that go around by a nickname instead of their real name - usually a shorthand of their actual name, that they don't like, but a nickname nonetheless. A friend of mine once called me, introducing herself with her real name (which I heard before but never use - we always used a nickname), and basically I recognised her mostly by voice. The name on her passport is not the name her friends know best.
In Hong Kong it's even more so: all the locals have a Chinese name, written surname first - which sites like Facebook tend to mess up as they use the Western format of given name first. Many also go by an English name, which they actually use mostly in daily life, yet many never bother to register that English name on their passports. That makes it a nickname, yet also the name friends and business associate will know first and foremost.
For myself as my surname tends to be nearly impossible to pronounce for the locals, I usually just give them my first name to address me. That's hard enough to pronounce for them. And many will use that as were it my last name (adding "mister" in front). And for e.g. writing cheques, I must add my middle name as well - a name that I normally never use.
Then there is the issue of many people carrying the same name. My name is relatively unique do to a fairly rare surname, and my first name was not used much in my generation. So you see a name, but is that the John Doe you know from the bar, or another John Doe?
And finally names can be changed, legally, at will. Kim Dotcom from Megaupload fame is an example, and recently on Slashdot the mention of an American man who sold his name to the highest bidder, and for the next year he'll go by another name before assuming his original name again (or taking on yet another name).
It all comes down to a name being just a label, a way to recognise a person. Whether that label is the same as in that person's passport, that's not so relevant to their friends. They know a guy called "Bill", even when it says "William" in their passports. The argument that names must be "real names" to have people find their friends online, breaks down badly in those cases. A person is who they say they are, and no legal document or whatever is going to change that.
Facebook's real name policy complies with European data protection principles and Irish law, according to the social network.
Oh, well then, as long as it complies there, I guess it doesn't matter if it doesn't comply elsewhere.
Facebook is not a required service. Nobody has to use it. Users are not paying for it.
I do not understand why Facebook should have to do anything. I think Germany telling a web site owner/developer that they have to make their system work a particular way is wrong. If Germans do not like sharing their real name online, then Germans should not join Facebook. Simple! How is it Facebook's problem that Germans want a feature that Facebook does not support?
I think it is great that Germany is trying to be on the cutting edge of protecting the privacy of its citizens; but this looks like another example of government over-reach. As a developer, I believe that I should be free to create websites, applications, etc. as I see fit.
Merry Christmas!
Sounds like someone that has a complete lack of respect for the law in general. "We don't agree with the law, we don't want you trying to enforce the law on us, and we're going to fight it even though it's law."
Yes, it is disregard for the law. And it is an attempt to manipulate the public opinion in their favor.
But the really funny thing is how unadjusted to the German market their spokesdroids are.
The argument "waste of taxpayers' money" is corporate propaganda used in the US. If government funds a law that provides oversight, it is "waste of taxpayers' money", if however things get funded by "private donations" politicians ought to be praised. (The latter is called corruption in other countries.)
In Germany people expect government to fund and enforce laws. The attitude is more like: I paid for it, I expect good service. So FB basically shot itself in the foot by claiming that government did its job.
- They should have used the "anonymity helps online predators" argument, since that one works in Germany too.
That's not the reason. The advertising reason is false, the market can adjust for fake accounts etc as long as the number if real users does exist. The reason they oppose the law is that the facebook business model hinges on the dact that it is easy to find acquaintances and be in touch with people without having to remember their nicknames. It's why Facebook beat myspace, Friendster, Orkut, sixdegrees.com etc. the real name policy is what made Facebook a success.
As always, this is another example of how US companies sometimes fail to see that there are countries on this planet where data and privacy protection regulations do exist, and not just left to the companies to go by their own terms&conditions changing by the weather.
Facebook can fight this all they want, it still won't make them any more likeable to a lot of us.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
I used to know someone. A blogger. Political - his alignment doesn't matter. Liberal, conservative, works either way. He was a total fanatic though: Loyal to his chosen faction, and convicted that it was his patriotic duty to fight against those who threatened America with their disagreement.
He got into a feud one day with another blogger, operator of some blog I know little of beyond that it related to native american affairs. As part of this feud, he purchased a new domain name, taking the same name as the native american blog. There he started a series if posts, all under his 'un-american' enemies name, advocating for the legalisation of child porn and the abolition of age of consent laws. When I left the two were engaged in a blog comment shouting match, with Mr Asshole claiming that he now owned the rights to that name as he paid money for the domain and demanding the native american blog be closed down.
This person is not your common, garden-variety asshole. This person is the internet equivilent of the psychopathic axe-murderer. There are many like him - sometimes their trigger is politics, sometimes religion, or something as trivial as loyalty to a football team or a particular celebrity.
And facebook wants these nutters to have access to your real name. So when you post something that offends their sacred cause, they'll be the ones posting child porn in your name, writing to your boss with an anonymous tipoff about your prior convictions for possession of heroin and mailing your neighbours to inform them that a sex offender lives among them.
One import detail is missing in TFA and on /.
They are currently trying to fine them 20.000€ for the violation of their order which is of course laughable. It might become more intersting if this goes to court because then the fines could increase rapidly.
That said, I am regarding the current move by ULD more as a kickstart for something bigger, because if
a) Facebook abides, which is highly unlikely, everybody wins
b) Facebook denies and pays 20k, then they are admitting to violate the law
c) Facebook denies and does not pay, it will go to court possibly to upper instances leading to a general ruling.
Mind you, the data protection officials in this small state in Germany's north have a history of pissing corporations to prove our rights, so I am very interested to see where this one goes ;-).
Here's a source for the 20k fine. You may run it through a translator service of your choice.
> http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Klarnamenzwang-Datenschuetzer-droht-Facebook-mit-Zwangsgeld-1770733.html
Oh please, come on....
There's no need for lame jokes with stupid made up names!
At least not as long as people like Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg are quite real....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Theodor_zu_Guttenberg
bickerdyke