Facebook's Absurd Pseudonym Purgatory

An anonymous reader sends a story from a writer whose Facebook account was locked because somebody reported it as using a pseudonym. It doesn't, but Facebook demands a look at identification documents before releasing control over the account. Anyone whose name doesn't sound "real" to Facebook is at risk for this, and the social network doesn't even have a consistent stance on what an "authentic" name is. "Aside from the complexity of identity, the policy is haphazardly enforced at best. At worst, it’s dangerous and discriminatory, and has demonstrably and repeatedly been used to target people who often already are marginalized and vulnerable." Matt Cagle, attorney for the ACLU, says, "By controlling the identity of the speaker with this policy, Facebook has the effect of both reducing speech and eliminating speakers from the platform altogether. This is a particularly concerning move to the ACLU because forums like Facebook serve as the modern-day equivalent of the public square for a lot of communities.

Comments

Do not...

[fustakrakich]

I repeat, do not treat a private service as a public square. That's a horrible idea.

Re:Do not...

[taustin]

It is not a binary equation. There are other categories in between. And there are a lot of examples of restrictions within that spectrum. And Facebook is probably violating some of them, if the allegations are true. It has, for instance, been illegal for 50+ years to discriminate on the basis of religion, race, etc. If your name doesn't sound "authentic" because you are from, say, an African tribe (I mean, really, if Johnathon Goodluck weren't the president of a country, how many Americans would believe that was a real name? Thus, making him, but not people with names like John Smith or Joe Jones, provide documents that can easily be used for identity theft, because he is from Africa and doesn't have a white sounding name, has been illegal for half a century.

There's also the matter of whether or not Facebook (realizes) they are responsible for any misuse those identity documents are put to. It's only a matter of time before some disgruntled insider sells the whole database to some Russian mafia type.

Re:Facebook ignorance.

[JustOK]

Facebook is the center of the internet.

Like the anus is the center of a human

Re:At the risk of getting downvoted into oblivion.

[I'm New Around Here]

I can stand up in any public square the US and give my opinion of whatever topic I want to. I don't have to provide my name to do so.I don't have to show my papers. I don't have to get permission from overnight billioinaires. I can simply tell people what I am thinking, and call myself Silence Dogood.

Re:At the risk of getting downvoted into oblivion.

[Dixie_Flatline]

Clearly you haven't been modded into oblivion, but honestly, this is a dumb question. That's like asking, "Who the fuck cares about Google?"

Literally over a billion people care. And the advertisers care. And the shareholders care. There're a lot of people that care about Facebook.

Whether you like it or not, and whether you use it or not, to many people, Facebook is becoming all they know of the internet. For all intents and purposes, it IS the internet for a segment of the population. There are mobile providers that will sell you a plan that gives you virtually no data for free, but you DO get Facebook access for free. Facebook's Messenger chat service has something like 700 million users and is the single most popular chat application in the USA. We hear stories about the NYT doing a deal for instant loading articles and a share of ad revenue because Facebook is also becoming the place where most people read their news.

So yeah, LOTS of people care. YOU should care, even if you don't use it, because it's becoming the sort of behemoth that warps space around it. I hardly use Google's services at all anymore, but I definitely care about what Google is doing in the world. Most people with PCs and Android phones care about Apple and the influence it brings to hardware and mobile—even if they purport to hate every single change Apple brings to hardware or mobile. People that don't live in the USA definitely care what the USA is up to. There are plenty of reasons to care about Facebook and even weird things like this because they really do serve to show us the state of the internet today and give us hints to the future, or at the very least, what we DON'T want the future to look like.

People have been threatening to abandon Facebook for various minor transgressions every year that it's been around, and it keeps getting bigger. It's not going anywhere for a while.

Simple Solution

[Gavagai80]

Mark pseudonym accounts as such. Put the name in a different color of whatever you need to do. That way people who want to use it anonymously don't inconvenience those who want to know who people are.