Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Tweaks Its "Real Names" Policy (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has announced a US-based trial of minor changes to its controversial process of name verification, apparently in response to last year's controversy over LGBT and transgender users who were penalized for determining their own identity.
The post about the changes reveals that users who report someone else for using a 'fake' name can now provide more background information, and that users who have been asked to confirm their identity by uploading documents, such as a passport or birth certificate, can now also provide additional background information for Facebook to take into account.
This article argues that a frivolous social network should not be allowed to co-opt government-level identity checks simply because it began life in the university arena, and has telescoped the necessary supervision of teenagers transiting to adulthood into a far wider and more diverse network of users.
The post about the changes reveals that users who report someone else for using a 'fake' name can now provide more background information, and that users who have been asked to confirm their identity by uploading documents, such as a passport or birth certificate, can now also provide additional background information for Facebook to take into account.
This article argues that a frivolous social network should not be allowed to co-opt government-level identity checks simply because it began life in the university arena, and has telescoped the necessary supervision of teenagers transiting to adulthood into a far wider and more diverse network of users.
is a disposition towards citizen identity that is usually only allowed to governments
I don't get this idea that doing this level of check is somehow a restricted right. No one is being forced to use facebook, if they want to require users send them a blood sample, their left tooth, and 5 million dollars to keep their account, I don't see how they shouldn't be "allowed" to demand this. At what points does facebook become something to which fair access to is governed by law (not snark, really curious.. I know there are laws regarding say, restricting access to a restaurant, so possible some of those apply?)
Personally I strongly dislike this recent trend of pushing the use of your real identity, especially with recent actual occurrences of people being harassed in real life due to online activities. It's one of the many reasons I choose not to use facebook (the other being I find whatever voodoo they do to recommend friends disturbing, I signed up with fake info awhile back and it started recommending people I actually did know from both family and work.. which honestly creeped me the fuck out). I don't feel like my rights are being violated though.
If their product is the users, you are attacking the heart of their business model by providing an incorrect name.
At long last, I can use my rightful name on my Facebook account.
Sincerely,
Seymore Butts
When I first saw the title I read it as "Facebook Tweets ..." and I just about fell off my chair!!!
and there's fuck all anyone can do about it
Until they mandate everyone validate their identity. Things like requiring a mobile number for account creation is already becoming popular. It's depressing but not using your real name is going to become harder and harder, all so they can show you ads that are still probably going to be irrelevant.
Not necessarily. You're forgetting the group of users who are unhappy yet continue to use the service because not having an account destroys their social lives.
With social media the only winning move is not to play.
No it's not, we're just going to get more comfortable with lying and fabricating documentation. Which is OK too.
Not when it finally hits single signon stage. Net access will be like a driver's license. It will be illegal to fabricate.
Not necessarily. You're forgetting the group of users who are unhappy yet continue to use the service because not having an account destroys their social lives.
With social media the only winning move is not to play.
If you are forced to use FB, it is not FB's fault, but your social circle's. Don't blame FB.
It's like saying you hate a specific shop, but you go there because that's where all your friends hang-out. How is it the shop's fault?
passport? birth certificate?
IANAL, but it's not clear to me that it is a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1543 to forge a passport for the purposes of fucking with Facebook, it's not clear based on 18 U.S.C. 1546 that it is a crime to provide a false passport for the purposes of fucking with Facebook, and it's not clear under 18 U.S.C. 1541 that Facebook is actually allowed to verify a passport (i.e. they are not a sanctioned body, as far as I know). You can do whatever you want with birth certificates, as far as I know, insofar as Facebook is concerned. All of this falls apart if you are actually trying to break a law and using false information to conceal your activities, but in that case you're already in cost-benefit analysis land and hopefully know what you're doing.
Maybe someone is going to have to do this and get taken to court over it to "see what happens", but I have no intention of telling the truth on the internet unless I have a good reason to do so.
Facebook would expect me to upload my birth certificate and/or passport to be used in their people catalog?
Facebook is in the process of becoming single sign on for a lot of sites. For example, if slashdot went that way, those who don't want to deal with facebook would have to walk away. Eventually such people are cornered. yeah, sure, facebook can do what it wants, but that doesn't mean they aren't user-hostile.
Their various spokespeople have been dancing around the truth behind this; but it's all about the advertising money. If your not using your real name, then they can't easily tie you back to whatever profiling system they use that pushes ads based on marketing databases. My theory is that many of the "complaints" that get accounts removed are coming from various companies who pay to advertise with Facebook; to them "fake accounts" are wasting their money. No corp gives a flying f*ck if your a victim of domestic abuse, a trans hiding from a beating, or even if your in the US's witness protection plan. To them, a fake name = wasted ads. The only reason Facebook is even addressing this is because of the social backlash.
because not having an account destroys their social lives.
Seriously? How does it do that, exactly? Does your email stop working, does your phone self-destruct? Are you teleported into outer space? It's possible to communicate with people without funnelling everything through a third party service that repays your loyalty by making large amounts of money from your information, and keeping it. Delete your Facebook account (I seriously encourage everyone to actually do this. The world would be enormously improved), and you'll find that your social life continues to function. We all gave Facebook this power, we can take it back.