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Former Diplomat Slams Facebook For Inaction On Fake Pages
An anonymous reader writes "Former diplomat to Belgium and the European Union Brendan Nelson describes his astonishment at his inability to get any response from Facebook when trying to get a diplomatically damaging fake page taken down. The social network ignored official protestations from the department of foreign affairs and security agencies."
Self entitled shitpickles think their byzantine piles of dirt can dictate how history records their failings.
The flame baiting, lame summery tries to make it looks like some evil diplomat tries to censor some facebook pages. But as the TFA says, this is about an imposter who has assumed a diplomats name on a fake facebook account and now post fake posts.
I read through the article. I must say that I sympathise with him - he sees technology as something that should support life, not something that is pervasive, like people non-stop updating FB or twitter accounts. I also think that there could be a better authentication system at FB.
Vernor Vinge called it in his Hugo winning book "A Fire Upon The Deep" - where the galactic net was known as the "net of lies". It was probably in Facebook's interest to do something about an account that wasn't clearly a parody as having a robust way of dealing with fake accounts engenders trust that accounts that appear to be from important/influential people and organizations are actually real. The follow on from Facebook's inaction is that those people/organizations that are influential/important will be less likely to use Facebook to disperse their message/propaganda.
I wonder if the cybersquatting laws are written (or interpreted) so narrowly that he couldn't hit the imposter that way. It may not be a domain name; it's his name and identity.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
I crafted a name for facebook that would pass it's name filters but would protect my anonymity and I'm not ashamed to say it. I could have picked something as simple as John Smith but either way my identity remains protected. I also have 5 other facebook accounts that I use with vpn proxies... none of them are "fake" .. they just use a different name but they all reflect my same opinion.
If his feelings are hurt.. well, too bad. Suck it up. My feelings have been hurt many times.
Because if it's parody or satire I'm not on his side. If it is someone literally impersonating him that's a different story.
Brendan Nelson is primarily a politician, not a diplomat. The highlights of his career include supporting the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution and gutting the academic independence of Australia's University/Science Research System.
Free speech is just an absolute bitch, isn't it? We all approach it in different ways.
They likely weren't even aware he tried to contact them until now. I doubt he ever actually spoke with anyone there. This smacks of melodrama.
This (cybersquatting law application) is exactly right. Also, couldn't he call Mark Zuckerberg directly? He is a diplomat.
He could try calling Zuckerburg directly but, as a guess, FB doesn't want to set a precedent for anyone of policing their content. OTOH, making Nelson get a court order means that FB doesn't have to judge (and be put in the position of having to judge) the veracity of anyone's page. It's a slippery slope and, if they're not careful, they could be held responsible for ensuring that no one is cyber-bullying, harassing someone, spreading hate or engaging in who knows what kind of politically incorrect behavior.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Don't encourage him! We've already got APK/Jeremiah Cornelius complaining about impersonation every post.
Next thing Brendan Nelson's going to be coming here, spamming "A corrupt facebook luser has infiltrated the liking system to downlike all my posts."
Did you read the article? It was someone impersonating a diplomat and encouraging problems between nations, which has this bad habit of leading to conflict of various kinds. That's what "diplomatically damaging" means. Free speech does not extend to impersonating someone and falsifying information.
No, Chii. That's Facebook.
Report it as a copyright violation and they'll take it right down.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Mad because a government official cannot wield undue influence over the global, borderless Internet?
Facebook treats all their users like shit, no reason this guy should be special. I agree it sucks for him, but it sucks just as much for the 13 year old whose classmates put up pages mocking him. I don't think you want it to be otherwise. Ideally they would always "do the right thing" but at least they are consistent in ignoring their users and don't play favourites.
Brendan Nelson is somewhat of a melodramatic idiot - known for such things as pretending to the press that he got into some life threatening situation when he was given a ride in a air force fighter jet - a pile of bullshit designed to inflate his ego at the expense of making the a pilot look incompetent.
He made some very stupid choices as Australian defence minister against advice and they look very much like they were made to lick the boots of some corrupt people in the USA mixed up with defence contracts. The sea sprites were reconditioned Vietnam era helicopters (thus 40+ year old airframes), and none of them made it to sea after hundreds of millions were spent in the years before the project was scrapped. The torpedoes didn't fit our subs (thus an expensive modification was needed) and were no longer manufactured (with no plans to ever make another compatible with the launch equipment) - how stupid is it to sign up for that? The tanks were just about only for city driving as far as Australia goes, while they can go offroad they need to be followed by large fuel tankers. The JSF sillyness, he's not the only idiot that signed up there but it's also in the long list of ignoring advice and fucking up. In short, he was a guy way out of his depth that thought he had a thing to prove by acting as if he wasn't so he ignored advice and did a lot of stupid stuff. Not as bad as Rumsfeld's first effort in a similar role in the USA (destroyed what was left of military morale after Vietnam), but bad enough.
To sum up, he was a party hack rewarded with a job he couldn't do but he did a bit of bootlicking and made a bit of noise. He would have done a lot more for his country by staying out of politics and continuing to work as a doctor instead of playing at other roles, then getting pensioned off into a petty sinecure as a diplomatic figurehead. He was no diplomat. He was a guy whose reward for making up the political numbers was an excuse to attend dinner parties in Europe while keeping somebody that could actually do it properly out of a job. There's no point trying to excuse it by saying that other parties or factions also give such rewards to useless pricks - I don't think useless cheerleaders should get such a reward either no matter what team they cheer for.
Wow. With grammar like that you should submit the story to slashdot.
I'm guessing that wasn't on their radar screen...
Maybe I missed it, but all I saw were mentions of "pretty lame" comments about politicians within his own country. The posts were probably childish, asinine, and in no plausible way causing confusion for anyone remotely competent, and yet, I'd say there's a decent chance this account has been a better influence on Australian and international politics than the real McCoy.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
So what you're saying is that eventually there'll be no more secrets anywhere.
Except you're making this out to be a bad thing.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Man, wouldn't it be great if only "remotely competent" people ever voted or anything like that!
It would be quite wonderful, as we'd have a much better signal to noise ratio in the political system. However, while I understand that some people are always going to be gullible, you have to draw the line somewhere. If you cater your standards to the lowest common denominator, all that will happen is that we'll engineer a better moron that requires even lower standards.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Brendan Nelson, Australian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, NATO and the EU.
I don't see what other people see in facebook. If it's supposed to be web 2.0 it useless. The the page for my club does not show the diary (whats on) that can find. The android facebook app does not work, everytime you search it clears the search box so you have to type it in again. The only thing I find as useful is the messegange service
they probably figured it was an abandoned piece of floating space junk
This is simply Facebook shooting themselves in the foot. Whenever somebody visits a Facebook page, they can normally be assured that the page in question is actually the company or person that it is claiming to be.
I've noticed a barrage of fake Facebook pages for Apple and other companies that are touting fake giveaways and other scans. Facebook's walled garden is infected with impostors and they don't seem to be doing anything about it. Personally, I don't trust any site without an EV-SSL certificate. Though the method is criticized, and not perfect, I believe it is the best compromise we currently have on a de-centralizized authority to show that people on the web are who they claim to be.
Facebook had a great opportunity to be a safe haven where you would know the the people around you are who they claim, but in the process of shoveling everyone in and keeping it Free, they've ended up with a real fundamental problem.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Me no understand. These people, along with Google et al, are pressurisng users to use their REAL names:
http://www.facebook.com/help/112146705538576/
Facebook is a community where people use their real identities. We require everyone to provide their real names, so you always know who you're connecting with. This helps keep our community safe.
So, when someone contacts them to complain that their real identiy has been hijacked, and also it could potentially have serious international diplomatic consequences, they do nothing?
Zuckerberg hates waffles.
Wow. With grammar like that you should submit the story to slashdot.
I was just about to say, "Timothy?"
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Facebook employee: A product is complaining again. It seems to think it is a customer....
No response is exactly what you should expect when you are the product and not the customer.....
akma
The right way to go about this is:
ex-Ambassador pings current Minister of Foreign Affairs OR current Ambassador to the US.
They, in turn, ping John Kerry.
He's a big enough fish that Zuckerberg will take the call.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.