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The Single Vigilante Behind Facebook's 'Real Name' Crackdown

Molly McHugh sends this story from Daily Dot: When Facebook issued an apology this week for suspending user accounts that had what it alleged to be fake names, it pinned the whole debacle on one person. This "individual," Facebook reasoned, sewed confusion into its flawed reporting system—intended to protect against bullying and online abuse. Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox explains that Facebook was caught “off guard” by a lone actor who reported “several hundred” accounts as fake. According to our source, who claims to have spent "hours and hours" systematically reporting Facebook users from the drag community and beyond, thousands of accounts were suspended—and they've been at it for weeks. ... Given the timing and the accounts suspended, they believe that they are in fact the mystery "individual" who threw a wrench into Facebook's system, noted in Facebook's explanation of the events. "Considering the hours and hours I spent reporting accounts over the course of the past month, it is likely that I am."

10 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What an asshole by Teresita · · Score: 4, Informative

    The late unlamented Fred Phelps and his crew took any expression of disgust and outrage against him as evidence they were doing the Lord's work. That's how these folks think.

  2. Griefer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    In the Gamer community this person would be known as a griefer, they enjoy nothing more than ruining things for others and while spend as many hours if not more doing so.

    CAPTCHA: offends

  3. Re:What an asshole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The average is probably less than 1, hell, the 99th percentile is probably less than 1. It sounds really easy in theory, but these sorts of things really are only reported by busybodies that will stick out in any statistical analysis. For that matter, he was doing what Facebook WANTED according to their stated policy, that is until it became a political hot potato for them and they caved.

  4. Re: What an asshole by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 4, Informative

    On Brazil we simply do not break the name when using it on a local created software, is always the full name on a single field. (And is anoying for us using foreign software in this detail)

    --
    Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
  5. Re:TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Useless" and "essential" are not the same thing.

  6. Re:TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sorry sunshine. In a real professional environment, we don't [b]use[/b] debian systems much less use package managers unless the location of the patches are managed in the environment. Plus with hundreds of servers and applications that might be affected, additional testing to make sure things still work after the update is applied is necessary. It's taken us a week to get patches out just to our internet facing systems. We're still waiting on engineering to approve the updates as not impacting production applications.

  7. Re:Facebook is full of s@#4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    yes. exactly. so why does anyone put up with this stinking pile?

    they have network effects

    so whats the first thing you should do as a queen, a statist, a racist, a leftist, a druggie,
    a libertarian, or any other kind of self-proclaimed individual

    tell them to fuck straight off. say hello to your neighbor. i mean the actual piece of flesh
    that sleeps 50 yards away from you at night.

    their trillions are based on nothing else than the fact that you feel compelled to post
    shit on their website. dont complain about their policies...just stop using it altogether

    stop using the internet and have breakfast at your local diner. or use dragbook.com.
    or make dragbook.com

    google, facebook, twitter, linkedin - they haven't done anything for you. a bunch of
    highly paid assholes trying to figure out how to exploit you

  8. Re:What an asshole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    > OK, I stopped reading at the ad hominem

    I'm kind of tired of people misusing that term.

    Ad hominem: "Your argument is wrong because you are a dickhead."
    Insult: "You are a dickhead because your argument is wrong."

    OK?

  9. TF upgrades, fixes and regressions by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm truly sorry you chose to make that post anonymously. Spot on, and amusing at the same time. I would have enjoyed making sure I took special note of future postings if I knew who you were. Well, kudos anyway. :)

    The rush to "do" underlies a great deal of our problems from incompatible OS upgrades, bugs left behind to fester, the rug being yanked out from under previously working applications, and functionality going missing -- or crazy -- or sideways -- in existing user applications. There are methodologies that can resolve all of these things the vast majority of the time, but very few software developers at any level use them. Much harm results.

    <RANT>

    Primary among them, NEVER remove or change the stated design behavior of an existing function. If you have a better idea, add a new function with a new stated design behavior. Leave the previously existing one alone; if necessary, point out that it won't work with "new stuff", if indeed that is the case. Then stop. If an already existing function is not behaving as the stated design behavior says it should, change it until it does.

    Pro tip: If "upgrading", if whatever "enhancements" you created make something stop working or degrades how it works in an existing application that used the function according to its stated design intent, it's about 1000000:1 that it's your fault AND that you shouldn't have done whatever you did.

    It doesn't matter if you're an OS programmer, an application programmer, a PD library maintainer, or what. If and when you screw up existing stated design behavior, you have not created an "upgrade", you have created a "fuckyougrade" and somewhere, someone, or more likely many someones, are contemplating dragging you through a fire ant hill after dousing you with some other ant hill's characteristic pheromones.

    </RANT>

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  10. Re:What an asshole by citizenr · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'm more concerned that Facebook didn't have a process in place to monitor for OBVIOUS abuses.

    what abuses? guy was reporting accounts VIOLATING OFFICIAL POLICY

    --
    Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.