Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Facebook Tweaks Its "Real Names" Policy (thestack.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the naming-names dept.

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.

9 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. A right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:A right? by Pseudonym · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You have choices.

      Yes, you do, and many of the choices that you have involve attempting to persuade Facebook to change its policies.

      You are free to publicly protest their rules. You are free to state your case about why you think Facebook's requirements are ridiculous. You are free to publicly shame them if you believe they are acting in a way contrary to social moires or the moral sensibilities of their target audience. You have the right to tell the world that Facebook is just a web site and maybe it should get over itself.

      You even have the right to rant in Slashdot comments. Truly, the Internet is a grand place to be.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  2. It makes a lot of sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If their product is the users, you are attacking the heart of their business model by providing an incorrect name.

    1. Re:It makes a lot of sense by Etherwalk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If their product is the users, you are attacking the heart of their business model by providing an incorrect name.

      This. They are causing massive harm to individuals and society in several ways: careerwise (since social media is now checked by employers), by reducing social mobility (the same way), and in terms of chilling free speech. All so that they can sell your identity to advertisers, intelligence agencies, and data mining firms.

    2. Re:It makes a lot of sense by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If their product is the users, you are attacking the heart of their business model by providing an incorrect name.

      Yet in the United States it is entirely legal to adopt any name at all, for any reason you want, under certain restrictions (most having to do with how you interact with the government and sometimes banks - frequently because of government). There is absolutely no requirement that I use my birth-name, although there are some inconveniences. As far as my friends know, my bullshit made-up Facebook name is actually how I wish to be referred to.

      Asking me to provide proof of my name is really asking me to produce documentation that corroborates my story: documentation I can easily (and legally) fabricate, or else may itself have been a fabrication that does not support my facebook identity. It seems like in our brave new digital age, the we should have our children change their identity every year to establish some history.

      It is a total waste of time to continue down this road, my name is whatever I say it is. Until it comes time to pay taxes, then it's whatever my parents said it was on the day I was born.

  3. Re:Really? by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  4. Re:Really? by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No it's not, we're just going to get more comfortable with lying and fabricating documentation. Which is OK too.

  5. Re:whut? by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  6. Wait, what? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Facebook would expect me to upload my birth certificate and/or passport to be used in their people catalog?