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Real name policies and ruling the world

theartificialintelligenceblog.com

1–10 of 153 posts

Re: Real name policies and ruling the world

#2
I would be fine with whatever policy they like, if they stayed in their own walled garden. But building what amounts to a commercial intelligence/surveillance firm that is very difficult to avoid is, yes, evil.

And the true names policy is a big part of that.

Re: Real name policies and ruling the world

#4
I was already really unhappy with their real name policy (to the point of deleting my account and not going back), but recent incidents - like the policy resulting in moderators' profiles & names getting exposed to terrorists) - just blow my mind. Such a broad impact from a policy that may have no real upsides.

I hope recent events lead them to reconsider this policy but at this point it seems like they never will.

Re: Real name policies and ruling the world

#5

"Naive, dangerous and evil" is a good description of most things involving Fb and its founder (maybe not Naive in the latter case)

FB seems like an example of how a team can go from accidentally naive to intentionally naive because it has advantages for engineering or revenue. :(

Re: Real name policies and ruling the world

#7
post #6

I understand the concept of a click bait headline, but "inherently evil" is a bit strong for a service that is completely optional.

"Do not use the Internet. Do not use phones. Do not use bank accounts. Do not travel by plane. Do not enter public spaces. Do not show your face.

Otherwise you accept our Terms of Service.

Thank you for trusting us."

(C) QuantumRoar, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12958035

Re: Real name policies and ruling the world

#8
Forcing moderators scrutinizing terrorists to use their real identities was a stupid, stupid idea that I hope facebook will change going forward. Perhaps facebook can look into getting some sort of anonymous identity for its moderators.

At the same time, it seems a false equivalency to use a story about people using real identities to scrutinize terrorist to support a position that it is dangerous for anyone to post real identity and photos online.

Certainly it is dangerous for children, teenagers, or people involved in dangerous work to post their identities online. As to ordinary adults who not involved in dangerous lines of work and with sufficient discretion . . . any danger inherent in this is a much weaker position that this article doesn't give much in the way of support for.

Re: Real name policies and ruling the world

#10
I've had a clearly fake name on Facebook for years. A couple weeks ago I got message from one of their reps, letting me know that there was an issue about my name, and that it was currently being reviewed. I had no intention to link that account to my real name, as it was mostly political whining and interaction with a few close friends. I basically told them that I wouldn't change the name and that they should just delete the account. A couple days later they responded by telling me that my name did not break TOS and that I was free to use my fake name. So I'm not even sure that policy is even enforced, steered... maybe.
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