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PAUSE FOR THOUGHT: FACEBOOK BULLYING PEN-NAME USERS - STOP THAT!

My final comment on Facebook, tagging Facebook Governance, sums up my thoughts on this matter, but I'm including the entire thread from my page to show what happened. I have replaced Facebook Friends names with their initials in this blog, to protect privacy. You see, I'm allowed to do that, because I live in the United States where free speech is supposed to be the law, this is my own freaking blog, and I'm not the name Nazi. In the articles I included (fully credited to their authors) I did not make any changes, except perhaps the font/font size when formatting this blog.

(The threads I'm including appear from the most recent to the earliest:

FROM MY FACEBOOK PAGE:

JULY 18, 2015

Celebrities use stage names so that their private lives remain private - to keep away from the paparazzi, to keep their children safe, to keep from being targeted by whack jobs, and to insure the privacy of their families and friends. Facebook should not have any say in that unless there has been a crime committed and they report it. But the key phrase there is report a crime. They should not have any right to expose someone's private life to the public eye if they don't wish it to be. People have a right to their privacy. If they wish to use a pen or stage name they should have that right. This is America, Facebook.

JULY 18, 2015

Open letter to Facebook Site Governance, Facebook:
You have to understand that authors have their identities established under pen names. Sometimes they become so known by their pen names that no one, even their personal friends and families call them anything else. They are known by those identities. What right do you have to disable their Facebook page and ruin the ability to communicate with their loved ones, friends, clients, readers, and professional contacts? To try and log on to one's page at the beginning of a day and find that it's been disabled with no warning smacks of fascism. There are a lot of authors, musicians, actors who only use their official names on professional contracts. This is a social page, how is anyone supposed to recognize their friends and loved ones if they are forced to establish a page under a name they are not known by? Illogical, Facebook.

JULY 18, 2015

Friends and family of BM -Author: Just letting you know that Facebook is being ridiculously asinine and restricting everyone who uses a pen or stage name. They disabled BM's personal page yesterday, requiring that he use his real name, RN. He's not happy about this, because his friends, family, and professional contacts all know him as BM. Even I call him BM. His books are published under BM. This is going to be confusing and a time-consuming fix, and frankly, I resent Facebook for this crap. Friends and family who use pen names or stage names might want to take notice of this situation, so when it happens to you, you'll understand what's going on.
BM will probably be doing most of his communicating from his author page from now on, unless FB screws with that too.

Anybody having a problem verifying their Facebook page because they use a stage name or pen name as their identity? Facebook is hassling BM about his identity verification. He doesn't have any official id in his pen name, of course. His BM account has been established for years, he has hundreds of friends who are professional. They have taken his page down. He has an author page, but he can't get into it because his personal page is deactivated. Are they doing that across the board to all authors?? I mean this man is known as BM. He never uses his official name. His Amazon pro page, his emails, everything is under BM. There are other people I know who have FB pages under pen and stage names. Are you having the same problem? If he has to put his FB page under his real name, no one will know who he is. And even if they did, to go back on FB and request friendship from hundreds of people and reestablish all the pages and orgs he's established will take days and days of his time. Anybody have any suggestions? RD (musician). This is infuriating. He can't get in touch with family and friends, and about 85% of his self-publishing publicity is done on FB. He's ready to flip them off, but I'm hoping there's a way to fix this problem.

JS Has he butted heads with any trolls lately? Someone might have reported it as a fake profile. That's all I can think of. tongue emoticon

CC I had the same thing happen to be on my Trekkie CC profile. They also shut it down.

MM I know that this has happened to several friends of mine who are in the industry. It's a constant fight because they are changing their platform to a "more family friendly" one they are harassing everyone who is using a pen name.

MM And it's bullshit in my opinion. Sorry BM xo let's hope we can get this figured out.

Terri DelCampo I don't think so, JS. I think FB is probably just routinely cracking down on fake profiles because of all the sales crap that keeps getting reported. And they should, but all they have to do is check out his name to see that he's all over Amazon, Smashwords, Linkedin, Goodreads, the Horror Writers Association, Pen of the Damned, Friday Frights, etc.

JM Where will they draw the line. So many people use nick names here on Facebook. My full name is J P M. Do they expect me to use that?

CC They have the option to put your nick name (or pen name) on your profile. It would show up below your real name. I hope that makes sense.

CB Look up the ID laws in your state there may be some help there another is where you complain on face book. If hundreds of people say I know this man under this name that might help. Another is to go to court and add an AKA to his name or change his name. One of the reasons being he has no ID. Social services or even the VA should be able to help him. They deal with Vets with no IDS and no memory and help them figure it out. That's all for the moment.

Terri DelCampo I can understand both sides of this, actually. With all the sales hacks going on, not to mention the terroristic events going on in this country right now, anyone dealing with identity fraud is twitchy. On the other hand, people who have established pen names who are being questioned all of a sudden are having their careers dented. They need to look at how long accounts have been established and spend five minutes doing some research before disabling someone's account.

CB I would also add the value of the tons of community work that BM does for Vets and for children etc etc.. There are U-tube video's of this...So doing this to him also interferes in many projects and lives.

SM It seems the more popular or active the pen name - FB is going after them. My pen name hasn't been touched yet, but I'm not very active on that profile. He could add his real name and BM as his first or middle name depending on how FB is going to let it go in their system.

SW I can't get verified because I don't have enough likes tongue emoticon

RMR This has happened to a couple people I know, one formerly known as G G and was a long term account under that name. She finally got her account back but it's under her real name. If I could think of her real name (I still know her by profile pic and style of postings, mentally she will still be Granny) I'd tag her so that she might offer advice. It did keep her followers and friends when they changed it. So there is that....

SM Also, if he has established his writing officially as business (as a registered business entity) that lists his names (doing business as, etc) that may help him legitimize his name claim with FB. I know a lot of authors don't do that but, I looked into it a while back and may go this route when I write more in my pen name.

CB People who use an AKA as their real name in most states may do that especially if they are a public figure.

RB I don't use a pen name per say, but I haven't had an issue with my author page which is under my nick name RB. This makes sense, I was getting worried about why BM might have take. His page down frown emoticon

DG This is absurd! Most authors I know use pen names. My name is a pen name, and very few people even know my real name. How can Facebook get away with demanding that authors and actors reveal their true identities? As long as their records show that the email address is associated with the Facebook member, why should they care about the displayed name? I need to go find my tinfoil hat because this sounds as though they are indeed working with federal intelligence in order to gather personal information.

DG Just found this. Not sure if it will help, or not.

https://www.facebook.com/help/271607792873806

How do I change my Page's name?

Terri DelCampo He already changed it to his real name. The issue is that nobody knows his real name. Everyone knows him as BM. He is personally and professionally established in his pen name. Even his friends and family call him BM. He should be able to have his personal page under any name he wants. Especially if it's been established for years as his has, and FB can verify that he also has an Amazon pro page, and books published under the pen name.

On the other hand, this is the main reason I don't use a pen name. Sooner or later your real name comes out, and then it's confusing for readers and friends and family alike. And the legalities, especially in this day and age of hackers and fraud and terrorism, get sticky and convoluted. My policy is keep it simple.

DG I'm the same way. Everyone knows me as DG. There have been some rare occasions when it has caused some confusion, but once it is explained that I use this as my pen name, and that the name just sort of stuck with everyone I know, it is never a problem.

CLH Some asshat probably reported him. This used to happen all the time to my rp friends, and it used to happen to me too when I had rp accounts. If he's used FB under that name for years and it's just now become an issue, then it's a pretty safe bet that he was reported. There are groups dedicated to reporting what they think are fake accounts. Sorry to hear this. People truly suck.

Terri DelCampo Yes they do, CLH. And I agree, this was sudden, so unless FB is doing random sweeps of some sort I'm betting some jackass reported him. I think FB should have to tell you who reported you if they are going to disable your page. How do they know the reporter is legit? Or not some whack job? They are idiots.

DG Indeed. But, why on earth would anyone report RN? With the way he has helped and promoted other authors, he's one of the most awesome people I know.

CLH People are cruel. Trolls get a sick thrill from making someone else suffer. FB needs to get its priorities straight and go after scum like the sunglasses people, internet perverts, and the sick bastards that create groups devoted to animal cruelty.

Terri DelCampo Because they look at the flaming skull, decide he's evil before they glance down his page and see all the philanthropic causes he supports, and report him. Like I said in my open post to FB, it smacks of fascism. They go on the word of someone who never met him, and disable his page. I don't think FB should be able to disable someone's page on the word of another FB member. If that person wants to block someone's page, fine, but no one should be able to silence another person.

Terri DelCampo You're absolutely right, CLH.

TK And yet, a terrorist can post, post, post away.

JFD This is happening even to people who are using their legal names, when the name doesn't fit some AI bot's's definition of "real."

JDP It happens a lot.

JFD http://www.theguardian.com/.../facebooks-real-names...

Facebook's 'real names' policy is legal, but it's also problematic for free speech | Jillian C York

theguardian.com |By Jillian C York

JFD http://www.engadget.com/.../facebook-real-name-policy.../

Protesters want Facebook to remove 'fake name' reporting tool

engadget.com| By Mariella Moon

Terri DelCampo Thank you for posting this, JFD.

You know before Facebook Site Governance, Facebook randomly disables a person's page who uses a pen name or a stage name, they might want to consider that there are people being stalked, people who are possibly gay and do not wish to be outed, people who are under federal protection who use an alternate id, all kinds of reasons why they keep their official identities private. If I was using a stage name or a pen name exclusively and FB forced my official name onto my page I would sue their asses. Celebrities use stage names so that their private lives remain private - to keep away from the paparazzi, to keep their children safe, to keep from being targeted by whack jobs, and to insure the privacy of their families and friends. Facebook should not have any say in that unless there has been a crime committed and they report it. But the key phrase there is report a crime. They should not have any right to expose someone's private life to the public eye if they don't wish it to be. People have a right to their privacy. If they wish to use a pen or stage name they should have that right. This is America, Facebook.

Open letter to Facebook Site Governance, Facebook:

You have to understand that authors have their identities established under pen names. Sometimes they become so known by their pen names that no one, even their personal friends and families call them anything else. They are known by those identities. What right do you have to disable their Facebook page and ruin the ability to communicate with their loved ones, friends, clients, readers, and professional contacts? To try and log on to one's page at the beginning of a day and find that it's been disabled with no warning smacks of fascism. There are a lot of authors, musicians, actors who only use their official names on professional contracts. This is a social page, how is anyone supposed to recognize their friends and loved ones if they are forced to establish a page under a name they are not known by? Illogical, Facebook.

Friends and family of BM -Author: Just letting you know that Facebook is being ridiculously asinine and restricting everyone who uses a pen or stage name. They disabled BM's personal page yesterday, requiring that he use his real name, RN. He's not happy about this, because his friends, family, and professional contacts all know him as BM. Even I call him BM. His books are published under BM. This is going to be confusing and a time-consuming fix, and frankly, I resent Facebook for this crap. Friends and family who use pen names or stage names might want to take notice of this situation, so when it happens to you, you'll understand what's going on.
BMwill probably be doing most of his communicating from his author page from now on, unless FB screws with that too.

Saturday 7/18/15 1:29 am

Unless you commit a crime, Facebook Site Governance, Facebook should not be able to disable or tamper with your page in any way.

Saturday 7/18/15

http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/01/facebook-real-name-policy-protest/

Drag queens, Native Americans, victims of abuse and anyone who'd rather not use their real names on social media aren't done waging war against Facebook's real name policy. Around 50 to 100 protesters have shown up at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters on Monday for the #MyNameIs protest. They carried signs that read "My Name Is My Business," "Facebook exposed me to my abuser" and "Your apology was a lie," among many others. If you recall, someone with a vendetta against drag queens went on a reporting spree last year to get them all banned. People have been reporting Native American users, too, because their names tend to incorporate elements of nature, animals or their own features that make them sound fake. Blogger D L H was one of the people affected, as well as someone named L B from South Dakota.
The social network already apologized to the drag queen community, in particular, and clarified that the "authentic" names it requires don't necessarily have to be people's "legal" names -- so, yes, they can use their stage monikers. Problem is, according to the #MyNameIs organizers, a lot of people are still being targeted and reported for their "fake" names even now. They believe the "anonymous reporting process is heavily flawed" and is prone to abuse, so they're proposing three changes to Facebook's system.

First, they want Facebook to get rid of its fake name reporting option completely, since it already has separate tools to report impersonation and harassment anyway. Next, they want the social network to stop asking for government IDs, credit cards and the like to authenticate one's identity. Finally, they're asking the company to create an appeals process, as many affected users are having a hard time getting their accounts reinstated due to Facebook's almost non-existent customer service.

Facebook, on the other hand, has posted the latest updates to its authentic name policy on its Safety account. According to company execs Justin Osofsky and Monika Bickert, the social network now allows folks in the US (and later on, anywhere in the world) to access their accounts for seven days after they've been reported, while they take steps to prove their identities. They no longer have to show the social network legal docs, as well, and can use "a piece of mail, a magazine subscription, or a library card that include their authentic name."

The company has also tweaked its language throughout the site to clarify that authentic name doesn't necessarily mean legal name. In addition, Osofsky and Bickert have taken the chance to defend the company's policy, stating that it "helps protect [the] community from dangerous interactions, like when an abusive ex-boyfriend impersonates a friend to harass his ex-girlfriend, or a high school bully uses a fake name to post hateful comments about a gay classmate."

They haven't mentioned anything about Facebook's fake name reporting tool, however, which the protesters want to be removed. Chicago-based burlesque performer told The Huffington Post: "What Facebook has been incredibly slow to realize is that their name reporting system has been used as a tool of harassment and abuse, to frighten, endanger, and attempt to out thousands of people. I understand that people on Facebook sometimes pose as others, or hide behind pseudonyms to conduct abusive behavior online, but it is so important that we distinguish between those users and folks who are just being their authentic selves."

**

FB real name policy is legal but problematic

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/facebooks-real-names-policy-is-legal-but-its-also-problematic-for-free-speech

Facebook again made headlines this month for its refusal to allow users to represent themselves with their chosen identities. A number of users of the site, mainly drag performers, reported that their accounts had been taken down in violation of the company’s “real names” policy that requires individuals to use their legal name for personal accounts.

Opposition to Facebook’s “real names” policy dates back to the early days of the platform, not long after its public launch. In 2007, the BBC reported that certain names were being rejected by Facebook, in an attempt to prohibit abuse and profanity in the name field. Amongst those rejected were a woman named Beta Yee and another called Rowena Gay.

While these early problems were fixed, Facebook has remained steadfast about their policy, stating that, “On Facebook people connect using their real names and identities” and requiring users whose names are reported to be “fake” to submit legal identification to prove their identity.

Drag performers are not the only ones whose accounts have been shut down as a result of the policy. Over the years, a number of individuals, from Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim to author Salman Rushdie have run afoul of the “real name” rule. Michael Anti, a Chinese journalist who was told by Facebook that he would have to use his birth name – Zhao Jing – spoke out against the policy on the grounds that no one would be able to find him under that name. The Guardian reported that “[E]ven Chinese friends know him as An Ti.”

Over the years, a number of proposals have been made by activists and commentators on how Facebook could improve its policies to be more accommodating to those whose names don’t meet muster, from an “activist exception” to private identity verification for public pseudonyms. To their credit, Facebook has made some accommodations for users, allowing them to set up fan “pages” under pseudonyms or professional names (see, for instance, Lady Gaga’s Page).

But for some, the accommodations aren’t enough. A blogger in Honduras who was kicked off the site for using a pseudonym pointed to the country’s press freedom ranking, noting that pseudonyms are important because “many journalists and bloggers freely admit to self-censorship for various reasons.”

Drag performers and trans people form a different category of users for whom the policy is unfair; their gender identities are often not expressed by the name on their passport. Worse yet, as Nadia Kayyali writes: “For trans women, who make up 72% of the victims of anti-LGBTQ homicide, being forced to reveal their birth names can be deadly.” According to the Washington Post, LGBT activists recently met with Facebook to tell the company that they felt “targeted by the policy,” but Facebook was unrelenting.

Unlike in those early days, Facebook claims not to use an algorithm to detect violators of the rule. The company recently acknowledged that profiles are only taken down and requests for proof of identity sent out when an individual is reported by another for breaking the rules. The group of drag performers recently kicked off the site would then appear to have been victims of a coordinated attack aimed at removing them from Facebook.

This begs the question: What prompts someone to report another Facebook user for using a “fake” name?

Scholars Kate Crawford and Tarlteon Gillespie have studied the use of community reporting, or “flagging,” on social media platforms. In a recent paper published by New Media & Society, they describe the mechanism as “understood [by many sites] to be a genuinely important and necessary part of maintaining user-friendly spaces and learning from their community.” Flagging, they argue, “act[s] as a mechanism to elicity and distrubte user labor—users as a volunteer corps of regulators.”

Facebook relies upon flagging to apply its many rules and regulations. Rules against graphic content, nudity, hate speech, or harassment are enforced not by algorithms, but by individual users who come across such content. This is why, explained GigaOm’s Mathew Ingram earlier this year, crucial information and videos coming out of Syria frequently disappear.

In Vietnam, Facebook users have accused the government of reporting their accounts for abuse of the rules in order to silence them.

While the use of flagging mechanisms to remove threatening or harmful content might be understandable, it seems that users also sometimes employ the “report” button out of malice.

Journalist Sultan Al Qassemi has seen this firsthand. While his name (which is verified on the site) hasn’t been put into question, the art fan regularly shares notifications he receives from Facebook that indicate that someone has reported his images—typically of museum-quality art—for violations of policy.

In Vietnam, Facebook users have accused the government of reporting their accounts for abuse of the rules in order to silence them. The government employs online “opinion shapers” who recognize the importance of Facebook in the daily lives of Vietnamese citizens – and exploit that by monitoring and reporting them.

While some are able to successfully utilize Facebook’s appeals system, those whose accounts are removed for violating the name policy and who cannot– or refuse to – submit identification may be out of luck.

Facebook is well within the law to restrict content any way it sees fit, but as Jane Ruffino recently asked, “a real names policy might be legal, but is it ethical?” Invocations of the law matter little to the many users who have suffered under this policy, which is arguably antithetical to free speech.

Fortunately, there are other options. Platforms such as Google+ have relented and now allow pseudonyms, while new contenders like Ello are pseudonymous by design. Facebook users may have good reasons to stay on the site—after all, you can’t take your network with you – but in the face of the company’s stubborn unwillingness to listen to its users, perhaps they should consider making a move.

Terri DelCampo Native Americans are getting targeted because their names incorporate words from nature and "sound fake." So this whole real-name policy of Facebook Site Governance, Facebook is discriminatory. I like the slogan "My real name is My Business."

Unless you're committing a crime, no one should be able to tamper with your personal information on FB, including FB.

Hey Facebook Site Governance, Facebook: Why don't you have some balls and disable pages of big money celebrities who use stage names and pen names. Piss them off and see how long you're in business.

Terri DelCampo Facebook, Facebook Site Governance policy should be that unless someone is using an assumed name to commit a crime, then their page is their page and should be their business. No one FB user should be able to "report" another user and have that result in Facebook disabling their page. That's suppression of free speech and unconstitutional. Private lives are private lives. And why is Facebook not disabling pages of big name celebrities?

Terri DelCampo I notice that Richard Bachman doesn't automatically revert to Stephen King's page. Joe Hill doesn't revert to a page under his real name. Lady Gaga is under an assumed name. Pink is under her stage name. Sure seems like a huge double standard to me.

BC Only thing is, there is absolutely NO privacy on the internet.

BC And your last sentence is absolutely correct, Terri...this is AMERICA, governed by greed and corruption.

ASM There were ton's of Business's on here as well. It all boils down to money. I would bet my life they are going to make people pay a monthly due to have a Pen or Stage name.

DW i think we should all just QUIT FB and find another outlet for our business/entertainment...

Terri DelCampo BC - maybe there's no privacy on the internet, but it is not Facebook Site Governance, Facebook's decision to make. It's mine. And this policy doesn't seem to apply to big money. Joe Hill, Lady Gaga, Richard Bachman, and a slew of other pen/stage named people's pages do not revert to their real names. One user should not have the ability to "report" another user and have FB sweep in and disable their page. This is America. There is such a thing as the Bill of Rights.

Terri DelCampo to DW - Not me. This is an issue concerning a basic right of Americans. I've worked damned hard to build my writing brand. So has my fiance, and hundreds of other writers and entertainers I'm friends with. This policy is wrong. Users being able to "report" me and have my page disabled is nothing short of bullying! I will not back down.

KK Check with V___... He has had that problem with FB and YouTube.

RH I just sent BM a message with some info. I hope it helps.

WP It hasn't happened to me since I do use my real name on this page and my author page, but I have other friends this has happened to.

SK Doesn't look like you can really do anything once its reported.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/.../facebook-builds-a-rough-road...

Facebook Builds A Rough Road Back For Those Booted By Its “Real Name” Policy

Process hell and faceless bureaucracy may await those locked out of their accounts — even when they use their legal names.

posted on Jul. 17, 2015, at 7:36 p.m.

Alex Kantrowitz

BuzzFeed Staff

Until recently, Daniel Wilson, a transgender musician based in England, went by the name Chalcedony Angel on Facebook. The moniker, a stage name, worked fine for a while, but as he — a pronoun he suggested we use — grew more comfortable with his identity, Wilson legally changed his name to Eveshka Ghost, and then made the change on Facebook as well.

Ghost’s new legal name displayed briefly on Facebook without issue. But then, like many in the trans community, he ran into trouble. On June 19, a message arrived in his inbox demanding he provide proof that Eveshka Ghost was indeed his real name. If he could not, he’d be kicked off the platform. When Ghost replied with his change of name form, he tumbled into a rabbit hole of Facebook bureaucracy. Nearly a month later, he still doesn’t have his account back.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, this never should have happened.
In a Q&A on his Facebook page earlier this month, Zuckerberg said his company’s “real name” policy — which prohibits aliases on the platform — should be workable for people in the trans community, who often go through identity transitions. But the reality is different. People who are reported as “real name” violators can find themselves locked in a bureaucratic mess, responding to emails that are essentially form letters from faceless Facebook employees, with no opportunity to talk live despite the complexities of the policy and the harshness of its enforcement. This system has hit the trans community particularly hard. But it’s also made life difficult for activists and various others.

“Everyone I’ve ever met in my life and traced has gone — with no list or reminder of where they are,” said Ghost in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “Everything I have built up is just completely destroyed.”

Zuckerberg has insisted that Facebook’s policy is more relaxed than people think. “Real name does not mean your legal name,” he said. “If your friends all call you by a nickname and you want to use that name on Facebook, you should be able to do that.”
While that may be Facebook’s policy, its enforcement can leave even those using their legal names locked out and facing a bureaucratic nightmare as they try to return.

Process Hell

Lady Soliloquy, an author of Christian and Southern literature, is also currently without her Facebook profile. She was reported to Facebook on May 22, she told BuzzFeed News, by people with whom she was in a dispute. In a subsequent email to her, these same people bragged about getting her kicked off. Lady Soliloquy’s name is a legal one, and she has plenty of identification to prove it, much of which she sent to Facebook after it locked her profile without warning.

Documentation Lady Soliloquy provided to BuzzFeed News shows how frustrating the process can be. In an initial message to Lady Soliloquy, Facebook linked a list of accepted documentation, and wrote the following: “If this is the name you are known by in everyday life, please help us verify it by attaching a copy of an ID that shows your name, photo and date of birth in a reply to this email.”

Lady Soliloquy then submitted multiple forms of identification — a bank statement, a utility bill, an IRS employer identification number receipt, and a photo ID — only to be met with a message from a “Jean” of Facebook’s community operations telling her, “We received your ID but couldn’t use it to verify your identity.” Little further information was offered.

On May 27, Facebook changed Lady Soliloquy’s case to closed. It also deleted a file cabinet’s worth of identification she provided. “It is absolutely infuriating,” she said in an interview. “They won’t respond to me. They are just ignoring me.”

Lady Soliloquy’s case brings to light one of the uglier uses of the “real name” policy: that of a weapon. When someone seeks to do another person harm, it appears relatively simple to force that person into Facebook’s name-proving process. And, as Lady Soliloquy’s story shows, the struggle sometimes necessary to claw back can make the weapon very effective. For members of the trans community, who often have shifting identities, it can be devastating.

“I don’t think the current policy is workable,” said a former Facebook employee named Zip, who also goes by Zoë Cat, in an email interview with BuzzFeed News. “It still allows trans people to be reported and still erects huge barriers to getting back on the site. Users understand that reporting is a way to kick people off, and they use it that way – and won’t use it to report their friends using joke names.”

Zip has taken to Medium in recent weeks to rail against the policy, which was also the target of protests during last month’s Pride celebrations. “Facebook has set itself up as a gatekeeper to determine our realness,” she wrote in one post. “It has set its policy without any real understanding or analysis of how names work, and it’s no surprise that there are a thousand edge cases.”

Indeed, thousands of people have reached out to the #MyNameIs protest campaign to complain against the policy, according to Lil Miss Hot Mess, the group’s organizer. “I’ve personally helped close to 1,000 people since October, and our group has probably helped 3,000 or more by forwarding their information to personal contacts at Facebook — though we are no longer doing that,” she wrote in an email.

The stories go on. One African LGBT advocate was locked out of his account last week and only let back in yesterday. Being gay in his country puts him at legal and physical risk, so he uses an alias on Facebook out of necessity. He has none of the supporting documentation Facebook requires to prove his name is authentic. “I am afraid my fellow activists will lose their accounts soon,” he told BuzzFeed News.
“Facebook has been an oasis of peace for us. We already live underground and if we lose that space then there is no way for [our country’s] LGBT to get together.” Fearing a backlash in his country, he asked us not to reference it or his name.

Kitty Stryker, a sex worker and advocate for sex worker rights, uses an alias on Facebook and elsewhere to prevent stalking and harassment of herself and her family. She has been locked out of her account four times over the past year. “My name hasn’t changed, it’s exactly the same,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I don’t know what information they think they’re going to get this time that they didn’t get last time.”

Though Facebook understands there are problems that come along with the “real name” policy, the policy’s flaws are likely viewed as stomachable by the company’s brass. The real name policy has a legitimate good side: It takes away the usual guesswork required to find friends online and is arguably responsible for keeping behavior relatively civil within Facebook’s walls (it’s harder to call someone a motherfucker when your own name is attached to the post — just ask Reddit).
Facebook has made small improvements to the process, giving people a week to prove their name, for instance, instead of shutting down their profile immediately.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Facebook Head of Global Product Policy Monika Bickert indicated that the company knows its current “real name” policy isn’t perfect, though she gave no sign Facebook will rethink it. “We understand that people have had a variety of experiences and we know that not every experience has been where it needs to be,” she said. “So our focus is on continuing to improve the enforcement and also continuing to improve the way we communicate the policy and its enforcement so that everybody has a better experience.”

None of this is comforting to Eveshka Ghost. “Nobody gives a shit and everyone will continue to use Facebook until it affects them,” he said, before signing off: “I really am feeling like absolute fucking shit.”

Alex Kantrowitz is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco. He reports on social and communications.

Contact Alex Kantrowitz at alex.kantrowitz@buzzfeed.com.

Friday, January 22, 2016

Terri DelCampo's personal update for January 22, 2016

Thursday, January 7, 2016

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT - PRIVATE LGBT HIGHSCHOOL IN GEORGIA

Monday, September 28, 2015

Fiona McVie interviewed me! I'm no longer an interview virgin!

Monday, August 24, 2015

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT - FACEBOOK DISABLING PEN-NAME USERS - STOP THAT!

Process Hell