There’s been a wave of Facebook checking and deleting accounts as they see fit.

In the past couple months, Facebook has been taking hits on their terms and conditions, as well as their privacy policy.  But here’s something new to think about.

My friend had registered a Facebook account with a name, obviously fictitious, but very much his personal brand.  (In fact, half of us call him more by that fictitious name when we get together face to face, than his real name.)  However, Facebook, without warning, deleted his account on the premise that he had used a fake name.

I can understand that a fake name where one is impersonating someone else, or hiding one’s own identity is an issue.  However, in this case, it was very much a brand that was near and dear to his heart, and thus he has decided to take this up with Facebook, so far with little success.

He’s also had very little support from the various communities he belong to.  Many think that he has violated the service and terms agreement and thus he has no case whatsoever.  However, while this is a situation more on the extreme side, I’m not so sure that it’s so black and white.

Think for a moment what does “your real name” mean?  Mind you, Facebook had never mentioned “legal name”, which means that it just has to be a few words that identifies you.  Sure, he had picked something that was obviously fictitious, but by the same grounds that Facebook had deleted his account, because it wasn’t his “real name”, then can they also delete an account that used the name ‘Anna” when the person’s  legal name is “Diana?”  (This is just an example.)  And by that grounds then, would it be so much of a stretch that if a person’s legal name is Christoper, can they delete an account with the name “Chris”?  How far of a stretch is it?  Where’s the gray area?

I have to admit that I’m not satisfied with Facebook’s definition of “real name”.  In this case, yes, it’s clearly not a legal name, but it’s his personal brand, and it’s what everyone identifies him as.  Would that not qualify as a “real name”?

There is no conclusion yet, but I’ll be following this up closely and I will be blogging about this as well, with my friend’s permission.  But what do you guys think?

(P.S. lucky for Twitter, they don’t have such restrictions.)