
Native Americans Say Facebook Is Accusing Them of Using Fake Names - jpatokal
http://colorlines.com/archives/2015/02/native_americans_say_facebook_is_accusing_them_of_using_fake_names.html
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jasonjei
I'm reminded of being unable to schedule Genius Bar appointments because my
last name was a banned name. Given my Cantonese romanization, Jason Hung was
apparently denied AppleCare support from geniuses.

(I do understand why'd they regex for bad names since at one point Apple
publicly showed who was enqueued for support, but not very helpful to tell
someone their last name isn't good when they already need help! Not trying to
be sensational, but they could have just flagged it for human review to see if
the name was an obvious joke, or better yet, not display names publicly)

Edit:
[https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1491462](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1491462)

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DanBC
I used to have a problem with a Google contact form because of part of my
surname ("Cocks"). I posted a screenshot here and a couple of people very
politely offered to help and it is, I think, fixed now.

I have no idea how often my name causes communication to be silently dropped.

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jameshart
One more to add to _Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names_
([http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-
programmers-b...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-
believe-about-names/)): Real names don't contain combinations of normal words
like 'creeping bear' or 'lone hill'...

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tracker1
The only rules I've ever entered regarding real names... is at least two
characters, though I tend not to allow numbers, but /([a-z][a-z'
-]{,48}[a-z])/i generally speaking... even then, I had to bump that up from 25
characters once.

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mercurial
Can't Chinese last name consist of a single Hanzi character?

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dnr
Yes, actually they almost always do. Two-character last names are pretty rare
(and of those, many are transliterations from other languages).

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timothya
This isn't really too surprising; this is the kind of problem you have when
you try to automatically enforce real name policies. When you try to create a
system which separates real names from made up ones, it's a lot harder when
real names can have common English words which aren't ordinarily found in
names.

Google+ had similar problems, if I remember right, and they ultimately solved
the problem by getting rid of the real name policy entirely.

~~~
_cudgel
Do people not realize that _all_ names are "made up" by someone?

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Cthulhu_
The real name policy on Facebook is a load of bollocks, IMO. I have a friend
who has to use a fake name to keep her stalker away (he threatened to abduct
her son and stuff like that), and she's legally required to both keep a low
profile on the internet and to report any and all possible interactions with
the guy to her solicitor. I know Facebook probably has its reasons (mostly
having to do with money, I'm sure), but they have to make exceptions.

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Padding
Your friend clearly has her priorities straight. One would think that if
someone really had a good reason to not be found online, the first thing
they'd do would be to not _be_ in FB rather than use some fake name.

Then again, maybe things aren't quite as dramatic as incinuated :>

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gadders
Perhaps they don't want to let some arsehole stop them from keeping in touch
with their friends?

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Padding
True, but then again this is a moot point, since the person in question seems
to struggle with distinguishing friends from arseholes, right?

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EliRivers
Wrong. She's clearly identified him as an arsehole. You can tell because she's
reports interactions with him and tries to hide from him.

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williamcotton
_“You have one identity,” he emphasized three times in a single interview with
David Kirkpatrick in his book, “The Facebook Effect.” “The days of you having
a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people
you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly.” He adds: “Having two
identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”_

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hamburglar
Ironically, one of the reasons I have a second, fake facebook profile is that
I don't trust the integrity of the facebook privacy settings so I want to see
what my profile and posts look like from a non-friend 3rd party.

~~~
geon
> I don't trust the integrity of the facebook privacy settings

LOL.

I use fb as a completely public forum. I assume everything I post can be seen
by anyone. That is the only sane way to use it. fb has repeatedly shown that
they don't give a s*it about your privacy or the settings you pick for it.

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sgift
"Are you a gift shop? Our shop sign up is over here." \- no, I'm not, thank
you very much. It is German and means something I'd like to use on you if you
don't stop bothering me ...

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Dylan16807
>Native Americans Say

That's an odd phrasing for something that should be very easy to verify.

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prawn
I think Dylan's point is that the headline could be something like this:

"Facebook Is Disallowing Native American Names"

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Dylan16807
Yes. Is there another way to read my comment? I'm a bit confused by the
downvotes.

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tempestn
I don't see another reading, but perhaps people are misunderstanding you to
mean that you don't believe the Native Americans. Perhaps if you suggested an
alternative title?

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Stoo
Some members of my family have the same problem. Their surname is Money and
none of them can use it on Facebook.

~~~
DrStalker
Same problem here; Stalker is my surname and I had to send in a scan of my
drivers license to create an account.

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nvivo
My last name is the name of one of the largest phone companies in Brazil:
Vivo.

Facebook didn't allow my name either as it assumed I was somehow trying to
harm the company. It allowed me to register with a fake name though.

This was many years ago. I decided to just not care about Facebook and never
used it anymore.

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geoffpado
Meanwhile, my Facebook profile is entirely faked, with clearly false data and
the name of a literary character; I've never been questioned about it once.
Beyond an attempt to combat impersonation (which is likely going to be
impersonation of real names anyway), where do Facebook or their users even
benefit from the real name policy?

It seems like a lot of hassle to try and automatically enforce an obviously
difficult problem with little upside. Human behaviors, try as we might, are
never going to conform to rigorous standards. :)

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Cthulhu_
Racking my brain, I can think of two reasons: preventing anonymity (people are
less of a dick on the internet when their real name is there), and findability
(finding your friends while not knowing their internet moniker is hard)

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bigiain
Plus, of course, Facebook's actual "users" \- by which I mean their paying
customers - like to be able to tie Facebook's product (yeah, you and me and
your mom) to their credit card names reliably...

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owly
Solution: don't use FB. Create your own social network.

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itsbits
its so easy to create a social network huh?!!

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daemin
A social network is really just the web of personal connections in real life.
We all should have one.

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itsbits
Its not easy to build one with all the FB features. We do have some CMS like
Ning which comes close but making your family friends join same is not that
easy task.

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yummybear
"It looks like that name violates our name standards" != Accusing native
americans of using fake names

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_delirium
It does come across to me as accusing people of using fake names, in part
because the immediate remedy they suggest is to send in scan of ID to prove
that it's your real name. If they just didn't like the name, vs. suspecting it
to be fake, why would they want a scan of ID?

