In order to reinstate one's Facebook account after the account has been suspended, that person is required by Facebook to upload a photo ID proving that their legal name matches their Facebook handle.
This is a gross over-extension of power. No social networking website should have the authority to request a person's 'papers.'
While it is known that Facebook works very closely with government agencies, they are not the government and therefore have no place asking for identificaton.
This is an affront to the trans-community who often use chosen names to reflect their gender identity and may lack "legal" sanction.
This is an affront to minorities, which studies have shown are more likely to create accounts under psydonyms than their 'white' counterparts. Many of those who rely heavily on psydonyms are members of groups who have been "marginallized by systems of power" (danah boyd: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2011/08/04/real-names.html).
This is an affront to performers who wish to use stage names in an entirely seperate account from their personal account, thus maintaining seperation of personal and professional.
This is an affront to autonomous individuals of any class, creed, gender, sexuality, profession, or ethnicity who wish to exercise thier right to chose the name with which they identify.
Facebook will argue that their "Real Names" policy mirrors real world interactions. However, in the real world one does not know the employer, educational background, and familiar connections of someone they hear expressing a political opinion on the sidewalk, nor performing drag on stage in a bar. Facebook (and Google for that matter) are "creating tighter links between people's behavior and their identities than has previously existed in the modern world" (Alexis Madrigal: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/why-facebook-and-googles-concept-of-real-names-is-revolutionary/243171/).
If you agree that Facebook is overstepping a boundry, please sign this petition and help us bring attention to the issue.
We have the RIGHT to our privacy and to our identities.
I will abandon any institution that disagrees, but not before attempting to make a change.
