Barred From Facebook, and Wondering Why

[Bob Of Burleson]

By ALINA TUGEND
The New York Times

MICHAEL LETWIN, a lawyer living in Brooklyn, went to sign into his Facebook account, as he does almost daily, and received a surprising — and unpleasant — message.

“Your account has been disabled,” it said. “If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our F.A.Q. page.” Mr. Letwin, who besides his personal page also helps administer a Facebook page for the group Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, clicked onto the F.A.Q. page and found a reference to Facebook’s community standards, none of which he felt he violated, along with the option to appeal.

He did. And then he waited. And waited.

Mr. Letwin’s situation is not unusual, or new. The question of what role social media companies should play — a hands-off observer that steps in only in extreme circumstances, or a curator that decides what goes up and what comes down — has long been debated.

Recently, Twitter refused to allow posts with links to videos of the beheading of the American journalist James Foley. Facebook is involved in a battle with drag queens whose accounts were disabled because they used their stage names in their profiles. Using anything but your real name is a violation of the company’s rules. The furor led this week to a meeting with Facebook representatives and a news conference called by a San Francisco supervisor.

“We don’t realize how ingrained Facebook is in our everyday lives,” a drag queen named Heklina told KNTV in San Jose, Calif. “I was shut out of Facebook for 24 hours and felt like I had a limb chopped off.”

But few users, until they are faced with a similar situation, are aware of how little control they actually have over something they view as their own — their pages, their posts, their photos.

“When Facebook makes a termination decision, it’s potentially life-altering for some people,” said Eric Goldman, a professor of law at Santa Clara University in California and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute there. “They’re cut off to access to their communities” and possibly to their clients.

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[BigTex]

Using anything but your real name is a violation of the company’s rules.

[bodine]

Where's the outrage?

[planosteve]

He's probably lucky the MOSSAD didn't terminate him.

[jellowrestling]

He's probably lucky the MOSSAD didn't terminate him.

Considering your state of non-stop paranoia about Israel, I'm surprised they haven't terminated you. Oh, wait, no I'm not.

[planosteve]

He's probably lucky the MOSSAD didn't terminate him.

Considering your state of non-stop paranoia about Israel, I'm surprised they haven't terminated you. Oh, wait, no I'm not.

mossad.jpg (9.99 KiB) Viewed 686 times

[Bob Of Burleson]

Using anything but your real name is a violation of the company’s rules.

Shhhh!

[Dancer]

Hey Heklina, being a drag queen and all. What limb was cut off?

[BillB]

“We don’t realize how ingrained Facebook is in our everyday lives,”

I realize how ingrained it is in my life: zip, zilch, zero.
Never been there. Won't ever go there.