[liberationtech] Can anyone help me get my account unblocked on Facebook?!

[Steve Weis]

Hello Inna. I work at Facebook and have contacted you from my work account.

I'm not in a position to discuss the merits of the policy.

Regardless, for future reference, under "Option 2" there is a set of
acceptable forms of ID that are not government issued:
https://www.facebook.com/help/159096464162185

For example, a "membership card" with your birthdate and a piece of mail
would suffice.

On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 8:57 PM, Inna Malina <p.inna at lycos.com> wrote:

>  I am a Ukrainian Canadian activist and my country of origin is at war. I
> created several groups on Facebook, including Russian Speaking Canada for
> Peace, a political forum, which debunks Kremlin run propaganda, and has
> over 1800 members. I also run fundraisers on Facebook to help orphaned
> children evacuated from war-torn areas of Ukraine. I am on Facebook since
> 2007 and don’t pretend to be someone I am not: the birthday, contact info,
> photos are all mine and my friends know who I am. When Russia invaded and
> annexed Ukrainian territory Crimea, I changed my legal last name to a
> pseudonym, to protect my family and people I work with outside social media
> from bullying by Putin supporters, since the threats and bullying online
> were/are abundant.
>
> Yesterday, on Canada Day, Facebook blocked my account (obviously following
> a report from someone who tries to stop my activism) and demanded to
> confirm my name by submitting my ID online. Instead of ID I submitted a
> letter saying that I get regular threats and feel rather uncomfortable
> sending my identification documents via insecure online channels. I did add
> that I can show them to a legitimate representative or even in Skype, but
> they can’t expect a photocopy of a driving license or social insurance card
> to be e-mailed or submitted through some suspicious form online.
>
> Only last month Facebook has come under fire for biased political blocking
> of accounts of Russian opposition and Ukrainian activists who are
> constantly cyber-attacked by the paid army of Putin trolls. The petition,
> which has already collected close to 15000 signatures, states:  “Facebook
> indiscriminately reacts to these reports by blocking the accounts of
> prominent Ukrainian public figures and Russian dissenters. Lately, the bans
> have become so frequent that we can now claim that Facebook has become an
> efficient tool of the Kremlin.”
> https://www.change.org/p/facebook-stop-political-blocking-on-facebook
>
>
>
> Facebook "real name" policy has also come under scrutiny multiple times
> and has been called discriminatory. Petition by performers, which collected
> over 40000 signatures asserts:  “Facebook tells us that "it looks like
> you're not using your real name," before requiring us to change it. We
> cannot emphasize enough that Facebook is a poor arbiter of what is or isn't
> a "real name." Performers with legitimate-appearing names get locked out of
> their accounts while people with account names like "Jane
> ICanBeBadAllByMyself Doe" go without scrutiny.”
> https://www.change.org/p/facebook-allow-performers-to-use-their-stage-names-on-their-facebook-accounts
> People using aboriginal names were discriminated by Facebook too.
> http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/facebook-flags-aboriginal-names-as-not-authentic-1.2970993
>
> Just few days back, on June 30, Zuckerberg explained: “If your friends all
> call you by a nickname and you want to use that name on Facebook, you
> should be able to do that,” he said. In this case, he said, the policy
> “should be able to support everyone using their own real names, including
> everyone in the transgender community.”
>
> So it is not clear anymore, is Zuckerberg lying to Facebook users or is he
> simply ignorant of what his staff does. *When will Facebook start
> treating its users with basic respect, when will it stop political blocking
> and discrimination?*
>
>
>
>
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