*update: Jon’s Facebook account has been restored by Facebook. Upon further review, Facebook admins determined that he wasn’t using his “fake” identity to impersonate anyone, and thus wasn’t really violating the terms of service. It’s nice to see what a little blogger outrage can do (;.

Word comes to me that a blogger called Jon Swift was banned from Facebook because he used a fake name - Jon Swift is a pseudonym, a reference to the Swift Boat Veterans - and that his account was deleted without prior notice. This is the message he received from Facebook after he had asked them what was going on:

—

Hi,

Aubrey
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

—

Now, as you may or may not know, Facebook terms of service specifically require you to use your real name and surname in your profile. One could say that Facebook has full right to act on their terms and conditions and that the user is solely responsible for losing their account if they used fake information.

But c’mon.

Jon Swift has written a long, fiery post about the matter, and I happen to agree with him on most counts.

Do a search for Jesus Christ on Facebook. Or Flash Gordon. Or any other obviously fake name. You’ll instantly receive hundreds, if not thousands, of results.

If you can’t uphold your own terms of service on everyone, why do it on the selected few? I don’t really see how Facebook can consistently and systematically check the truthfulness of user provided profile data.

Secondly, another point that Jon himself raises: is Bob Dylan required to use his real name, if he happens to open a profile on Facebook? Will using “Bob Dylan” instead of “Robert Zimmerman” get him banned? What about David Bowie? Madonna? Hell, anyone who’s well known under a pseudonym?

On my Facebook profile, I’m actually using an approximation of my real name. Don’t know if some of the Croatian letters will work, and I didn’t really check: I never use them. Hell, I don’t even use them in online money transfer because most online applications don’t work with that character set. So, am I using my real name?

A third great point that Jon raises is the fact that he got contacted by “Aubrey from Facebook”. Not Aubrey Lastname, but Aubrey from Facebook. See the irony in that? How can Facebook have moderators without full names ban people for not disclosing their full names with a straight face is beyond me.

I haven’t been following Jon’s blog, but I do feel for him. I’d feel mighty stupid if I got banned from Facebook for using a pseudonym. I’m all for upholding the rules, but if you can’t do it properly, don’t do it at all.

There’s a group on Facebook already that asks for Jon’s profile to be reinstated, you can join it here.