
Facebook Identity Is Extortion and Slander - pavel_lishin
http://zedshaw.com/2015/09/20/facebook-identity-is-extortion-and-slander/
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pdkl95
> 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_
Here's one telling example of the real name editor control.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jussi_Halla-
aho](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jussi_Halla-aho)

[https://www.facebook.com/jussi.hallaaho](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.

------
mcv
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.)

------
doug1001
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."

~~~
pdkl95
> 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.

~~~
doug1001
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.

