Facebook is forcing a "real names" policy on entertainers

shiradotnet

Well-known member
Facebook is starting to enforce a "real names" policy. They are targeting performers whose profiles were opened under stage names and trying to force them to change their names to their legal names.

Here's a story about what they're doing to the drag queen community:

http://www.queerty.com/facebook-targeting-drag-queens-forcing-them-to-use-their-legal-names-20140911


Here's a petition people are signing to demand they abandon this action:

http://www.change.org/p/facebook-al...-their-stage-names-on-their-facebook-accounts


Ironically, Google has been trying for a couple of years to enforce a similar policy, and a couple of months ago they finally announced that they have abandoned it:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_t...s_ineffective_dangerous_real_name_policy.html
 

shiradotnet

Well-known member
At least one belly dancer has reported in a Facebook group that she was targeted with this policy. So, even though YOU may have been using Facebook for years without a problem, be aware that enforcement HAS begun, and belly dancers ARE among the groups being targeted. Lack of problem in the past does NOT mean you're safe from the current action.
 

Darshiva

Moderator
I know that Luna of Cairo was tageted earlier this year.


I don't like this policy as it enables stalkers, etc. It's creepy and very very wrong.
 

Amulya

Moderator
How would they enforce that? Like ask people to show ID? I don't think many people are on FB with their full real name, it's not a very smart thing to do. So they would loose a lot of people if they would make it mandatory with ID. With Google + it is still possible to use a fake name, as long as you create a fake family name that they accept.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
When I took over the Facebook page for the museum, I first had to have a page of my own. I don't like FB, didn't want a page in my name, so made up an e-mail and name for the lynx in the museum. FB wouldn't let me use initials- stated the legal name was necessary. Fine. I gave her three names and FB was happy.

My husband wants to start a site called In Your Facebook, an antisocial network.
 

shiradotnet

Well-known member
Amulya, yes, they actually HAVE asked some people to show ID. The person who started the thread in the Facebook group said they demanded that she provide a photocopy of her driver's license to prove that the name on her account was her true legal name. According to what she said, Facebook locked her out of her account until she changed her name AND proved it was her legal name.

A lot of belly dancers on Facebook use "Dancer" or "Bellydance" or a similar variation as their Facebook surname. It would be a simple matter for Facebook to notice them and target them. Or, maybe they use something like "Princess" as their first name.
 

Darshiva

Moderator
I'm not changing my name. Actually, this issue reminded me to go renew my domain name, which was going to expire in a few days, so lucky me it was on my mind or I'd have had to have started all over again!
 

Ariadne

Well-known member
How would they enforce that?

The thing is they have right in their sign up agreement that you have to solemnly promise that you are using your real name when you sign up so if you don't and you check the box I'm not sure you actually have a legal leg to stand on. This is actually why I'm not on Facebook. I refuse to lie and I refuse to put my real name online. If they can be forced to change that policy I'm there but until then...

Glad I don't need it for business.

I wonder whether if you have a legal alias you can get an affidavit from the bank to make them shut up?
 

Amulya

Moderator
Amulya, yes, they actually HAVE asked some people to show ID. The person who started the thread in the Facebook group said they demanded that she provide a photocopy of her driver's license to prove that the name on her account was her true legal name. According to what she said, Facebook locked her out of her account until she changed her name AND proved it was her legal name.

A lot of belly dancers on Facebook use "Dancer" or "Bellydance" or a similar variation as their Facebook surname. It would be a simple matter for Facebook to notice them and target them. Or, maybe they use something like "Princess" as their first name.

I have 'Dance' as my family name, will change that, but if they ask for ID I will leave FB. Any social networks that are good for belly dance that are similar? Btw I don't like Google +, it's not as organised as FB and any idiot can add you and you can't first approve or block someone. I have been added by a gazillion people and would have to remove each one separately :/ don't like that.
 

shiradotnet

Well-known member
I've suggested to dancers that we all revitalize the discussions here on OD, or on tribe.net, or on bhuz. I've also published on Facebook what my Twitter and Google+ account id's are so that people who want to see my "belly dance problems" and "quote of the day" and "belly dance joys" posts can track them there.

On Google+, people can add you, but they can ONLY see your "public" posts. If you want that person to see anything more private, then you create a "circle" and you add that person to the circle. You can then include that "circle" in who can see a given post. So, for example, on Google+ I have a circle for "dancers", and I'll add to that one anybody whose profile looks as though they're a "real" belly dancer. I have another circle for "friends", which I use only for people I actually know well enough to consider a friend. Ie, people I have met face-to-face, etc. I don't very often post friends-only stuff on Google+, but if I wanted to, I've got the circle defined and ready to use.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Maybe Facebook's idiocy will be the forum's good luck. So many people I miss on OD who have deviated to Facebook and elsewhere.
 

Aniseteph

New member
I only joined Facebook because otherwise you miss hearing of local BD stuff that isn't advertised anywhere else. It weirds me out putting things on there, getting tagged and having dancers I've never heard of want to be friends. I'm with Ariadne - so glad I don't have to use it for business. And if you do, I don't see what's so terrible about having a dance persona on there separately. It makes so much sense for performers.

Maybe Facebook's idiocy will be the forum's good luck. So many people I miss on OD who have deviated to Facebook and elsewhere.

Oh absolutely. Wouldn't it be great? We can but hope.

<Dances about the internet revelling in half-assed anonymity while making childish rude gestures at Facebook.>

:confused:That was meant to be a mental image but it reads as a Dances With Wolves type pseudonym. If I had to have that type of pseudonym, there it is right there.
 

Zumarrad

Active member
I must say one of the reasons I don't engage in bellydance conversation on FB very much is that I don't like crossing the streams. I don't think my RL non-dance friends and family really care about it and they can see what you post in their feeds. Plus sometimes discussions get crazy and it's kind of nicer to be able to do that in a place that's not about everything else in the world AS WELL.
 

Zumarrad

Active member
I only joined Facebook because otherwise you miss hearing of local BD stuff that isn't advertised anywhere else. It weirds me out putting things on there, getting tagged and having dancers I've never heard of want to be friends. I'm with Ariadne - so glad I don't have to use it for business. And if you do, I don't see what's so terrible about having a dance persona on there separately. It makes so much sense for performers.

I think the goal ultimately is to have performers use fan pages, which are fine, except for how only a proportion of what you post on them comes up automatically in people's feeds *unless you pay for advertising kaching!!!* And to be fair, it's not entirely shocking that you might GASP pay to promote your business, if it's a really big proper business. It's tax deductible after all, just like all other ads. And you as the user can decide whether or not you want to do that.

The real reason they want the real names is of course so they can build up a better picture of who you actually are, so they and partners can sell you stuff. That combined with facial recognition has some very worrying implications. I mean I don't CARE if companies mine my data to be honest, I have nothing to hide and I am not very interesting BUT like everybody else I like to have the right to keep some things online and offline private. While it doesn't bother me if Google mysteriously knows that I am, for argument's sake, interested in some really obscure fannish topic and starts advertising related things based on my browsing history, it DOES bother me if my locked down private bit of the internet under a completely different name is shared with all and sundry. And I think facial recognition software is most concerning when it comes to issues of safety from dodgy exes, stalkers etc. Facebook's is scarily good already and it won't be the only version out there either.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
The thing is they have right in their sign up agreement that you have to solemnly promise that you are using your real name when you sign up so if you don't and you check the box I'm not sure you actually have a legal leg to stand on. This is actually why I'm not on Facebook. I refuse to lie and I refuse to put my real name online.
I'm well known for my virulent dislike of facesuck - and this is the NUMBER ONE reason. I. DO. NOT. USE. MY. LEGAL. NAME. ON. THE. INTERNET. PERIOD. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of other reasons I refuse to use this teenaged fad site, but the legal name issue is by far and above #1. If its true, I'm glad Google has dropped the requirement - I would exit the Internet before I'd use my legal name. The very ancient custom of "use names" vs "true names" has returned with a vengeance - I'm very careful who I tell my "true name" to, everyone else gets my "use name".

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "I'm not on facesuck, and you shouldn't be either.". I'm a computer professional, and have been involved with computers since the late 1970s. I know better.
 
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