Former Diplomat Slams Facebook For Inaction On Fake Pages 164
An anonymous reader writes "Former diplomat to Belgium and the European Union Brendan Nelson describes his astonishment at his inability to get any response from Facebook when trying to get a diplomatically damaging fake page taken down. The social network ignored official protestations from the department of foreign affairs and security agencies."
No one cares that you can't spin your own... (Score:1, Insightful)
Self entitled shitpickles think their byzantine piles of dirt can dictate how history records their failings.
I agree with the man (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lame summery (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't get that impression from this summary.
Re:I agree with the man (Score:4, Insightful)
As a former diplomat he neither has power or influence and theres no profit in Facebook helping so like an ordinary person he is screwed.
Re:I'm not sure what his complaint is (Score:2, Insightful)
Why?
Really, I can get the point of having one fake account to keep in touch with friends, although facebook will likely figure out your real name and everything soon enough based on the friends.
Having several fake accounts to express your opinion just seems to be trying to make your opinion seem important. To start, its against their terms of agreement, however shitty those are, but it also doesn't seem to serve any "good" purpose. I really can't think of a good reason to do this, and I mean good as in the ethical sense. It would probably be nice to try and spread false information or whatever, but it seems a shitty way to do good things.
Re:Define "Fake Post" (Score:1, Insightful)
There are two public accounts under his name with his face in the profile. Looks like a ligit complaint. Not sure why he thinks being a diplomat would give him special sway with Facebook though. Facebook is a low margin business that survives by not having much staff. Complaining to Facebook is complaining to a software program.
Re:mod parent up (Score:4, Insightful)
This (cybersquatting law application) is exactly right. Also, couldn't he call Mark Zuckerberg directly? He is a diplomat.
He could try calling Zuckerburg directly but, as a guess, FB doesn't want to set a precedent for anyone of policing their content. OTOH, making Nelson get a court order means that FB doesn't have to judge (and be put in the position of having to judge) the veracity of anyone's page. It's a slippery slope and, if they're not careful, they could be held responsible for ensuring that no one is cyber-bullying, harassing someone, spreading hate or engaging in who knows what kind of politically incorrect behavior.
Cheers,
Dave
Re:I agree with the man (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lame summery (Score:4, Insightful)
But as the TFA says, this is about an imposter who has assumed a diplomats name on a fake facebook account and now post fake posts.
So? Facebook allows multiple accounts with the same name. There is no reason to close the imposter account (other than it being against Facebook's TOS, but that's not the diplomats issue). The diplomat has no basis or standing to make the request.
In what world is a facebook page going to be "diplomatically damaging"? He should go pound some sand.
Re:Lame summery (Score:3, Insightful)
I demand special privileges, dammit! I'm a special human being.
Re:Define "Fake Post" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I agree with the man (Score:4, Insightful)
So they get to make that profit but without any responsibility? That can't work.
If they can't do it properly they should not be doing it at all.