Facebook Identity Is Extortion and Slander

http://zedshaw.com/2015/09/20/facebook-identity-is-extortion-and-slander/

by pavel_lishin • 11 years ago

34 6 11 years ago

pdkl952• 11 years ago

they are exerting editorial control on identities

This is something that a lot of people (including Facebook) need to realize. Policies like Facebook's "real name" requirement - and the power to decide which names qualify as "real" - is the very definition of "editorial control".

It doesn't matter what the original intention was in creating that policy; if the situation as described by in the linked post are true, then Facebook's choices in how they handle account names have included (probably unintentionally) the choice to libel someone who doesn't even use their service.

The power to "edit" opens up the possibility of being liable for those edits. Sometimes it might be a better idea to avoid the liability risk by avoiding content-based decisions.

Ras_• 11 years ago

Here's one telling example of the real name editor control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jussi_Halla-aho

https://www.facebook.com/jussi.hallaaho

He's a member of the European Parliament and Facebook still doesn't allow his real surname. So he's Hallaaho, which is wrong even by Finnish linguistic standards, which state that all compound words with duplicate vowels should have a hyphen, like "Lähi-itä" which is Finnish for Middle East.

doug10012• 11 years ago

clearly the likelihood of harm to the OP is significant, but what's also clear is that many others are at risk. A frustrating dilemma indeed--a kind of damage caused through the fb platform, that presents the biggest risk to those without fb accounts, and the most obvious means of prevision is...to sign up for fb.

always enjoyed Mr Shaw's writing on technical subjects; deep practical wisdom, complete contempt for empty authority, and very dry humor--to wit (from the OP): "Imagine if this person decided to start [p]osting offensive messages pretending to be me. [W]ell honestly I doubt this guy could do that better than me, but the point is, they could invent some form of slander that would ruin my book sales."

pdkl952• 11 years ago

sign up for fb

This is exactly the wrong way to deal with this problem. Like the term "identify theft" where liable party is the bank lending to someone without proper identity verification, this shift the responsibility to the victim.

Currently, Mr Shaw (or anybody else in a similar situation) has no relationship with Facebook. From his perspective, Facebook simply stated to libel him. If he instead decided to play into Facebook's game and open an account, the disclaimers in Facebook's ToS probably limit his legal options. Facebook gains a significant legal advantage if you choose to fight by their rules.

doug10012• 11 years ago

not what i said or even suggested, i mentioned it as the most apparent solution, particularly given that fb (obviously) recommends this solution, as indeed they did not Jed Shaw.

mcv• 11 years ago

Obviously Facebook is evil and should be avoided. But has he informed his friends of the impostor? Maybe they could report him or at least comment on the impostor's posts that he's an impostor.

Of course that doesn't change the fact that Facebook should not be encouraging impostors while cracking down on real people, but it might help his predicament.

(Irony: his blog requires login through third parties like Facebook in order to respond.)

Facebook Identity Is Extortion and Slander

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