Facebook Legal Policy Bans "Fake" Native American Names
The popular internet site Facebook is celebrating its fifth birthday - but not everyone is invited to the party.
Most users of the social networking site spend their time interacting with their friends and posting news about their daily lives. Seldom noticed are the legal disclaimers and requirements set forth at the bottom of the web pages. Facebook’s terms of use require members to agree that they will not “provide any false personal information” on the site or write anything that might “intimidate” other users.
Robin Kills The Enemy, a computer technician who lives on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, used the site for her own social networking – until the day she logged on and realized she no longer had any “friends”. The site administrators at Facebook had suspended her account and accused her of using a false name, in violation of the site’s terms of use. Despite being in the middle of planning a trip with her friends through the site, Ms. Kills The Enemy was compelled to send in copies of government identification papers in order to reconnect. Melissa Holds The Enemy had the same experience and was banned from the site for a month, while Jeremy Brave-Heart was not even allowed to register until he sent in identification papers.
When questioned about its policy, Facebook Privacy and Public Policy spokesman Simon Axten told the Argus Leader newspaper that “Facebook is based on a real name culture. This helps create an environment where people are accountable for their actions and behavior. Fake names and false identities are actually a violation of the Terms of Use, and we disable fake accounts when they're reported to us by our users."
While promoting the accuracy of information on a website is certainly legitimate, a legal policy and cultural interpretation thereof that bans numerous Native Americans from one of the world’s most popular internet sites is troubling and legally unsustainable. In an era when computers can recognize human voices and analyze DNA, it is certainly not beyond the capacity of technology to recognize Native names that have been in use for centuries. It is nevertheless promising to note that legendary college and professional quarterback Sonny Sixkiller’s Facebook page currently remains active, and that a webpage dedicated to ending discrimination against Native names has been started…on Facebook.
I had the same issue with Facebook. When I tried to initialize my account, the interface accused me of using a fake name and violating their terms of use. I had to send in papers verifying my identity and then wait weeks to get "approval" of my name. While the purpose of their policy is understandable, it is discriminatory in its application--harkening back to the days of forced name changes by the Rolls.
Thanks very much for your comment Jeremy, and we've added a reference to your experience in the article. Your point regarding forced name changes is poignant and gets to the heart of the matter. This is an issue that has both legal and historical implications, and it's surprising that a "cutting-edge" technology entity like Facebook would not be better prepared to deal with this. It's ironic that the site's spokesman trumpets Facebook's "real name culture", given that they evidently have a lot to learn about "real" names that have been part of the country's Native heritage for hundreds of years.
I often come across profiles using quite obviously fake names on Facebook. Obviously, their "stringent" policy doesn't work if ACTUAL names are being refused and blatant fakes slip by.
I don't think they've learned anything ---I discovered my account had been summarily deactivated thursday (April 16), and so far have been unable to get it reinstated, despite sending 5 messages so far to their various contact emails. The aspect that is most aggravating is that they could quite simply contact the "suspected offender" before taking any action against them, and request verification of their verisimility. And generally, "fake" accounts would not be actively connected with a variety of people, members of assorted affiliated groups, or have a dozen relatives mapped out on the "we're related" FB application. Despite the fact that my name is indeed my birthname (how many people signed up as Tom, Dick, or Harry can actually make that claim?), I think that a policy that excludes the reality that people can evolve into names other than those they were gifted with at birth is also culturally bigoted ---I know people who have come to new names through visionquests, or who were renamed by their elders or teachers so powerfully that nobody knows them by any other appellation. We are who we choose to be, and it should be our right to project the name that most powerfully represents who we are.
Please let me know if there's any legal action undertaken to make FB remedy this policy, I would be happy to lend my voice.
it has always been the ones who harm more then take the time to know the truth..... Names are very big for native people we use names to show a new age or place a person is in there life. a man or woman can find that they have become new in a world of loss. for the people
names bring unity and the new. im truly insulted my husban who is La kota Oglala from pine ridge gave Jeromey the name becuse this young man had payed the price and won the right to be trudtional and a blood Native. hes going to fight for the native people as a loyer Im hert
you just cant bern the flame at both ends and try and win. i understand what you think you are trying to do and there are bad peopel who are ignorent but not jeromey hes a warrior for the native nations and will win many battles in the white man cort