I posted previously about a problem my friend was having with his Facebook account and how it got disabled without warning, because apparently his use of name was violating Terms of Use. Here’s the response my friend got back. Guys, beware! According to this email reply, even if you had shortened your name from say…Matthew to Matt, your account can get disabled!
Below is the full un-edited response from Facebook:
Hi,
Fake names are a violation of our Terms of Use. Facebook requires users to provide their full first and last names (i.e. no initials). Nicknames can be used in the form of FirstName ‘NickName’ LastName, but only if they are a variation on your real first or last name, such as ‘Bob’ instead of ‘Robert’. Additionally, please note that impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited.
If you would like to use this profile again, just get back to us with your real name, and we will reactivate the account for you.
Thanks for your understanding,
Tatsuya
User Operations
However, you’ll notice that nothing in their terms and agreements actually states anything about the name. The closest part is the Registration Data section, which indicates that account creation have to be in compliance with their registration process. Yet, in their registration process, all they state as needed is a full name. What’s their definition of a full name? Does full name necessarily mean legal name, which is what is being implied here?
The cases I’m worried about the most are the Chris vs Christopher, or Matt vs Matthew here. Under the email that was sent, using Chris, when the full birth name is Christopher would probably in violation. However, knowing alot of my friends that have used shorten names in their Facebook accounts, the email seems a little too strict for me. For example, I just found out today that a friend named Dan is really Daniel. If I saw his Facebook account as Daniel, I would wonder if that was really him…
What do you guys think?
Edit:
Good discussion going on here: http://loadingreadyrun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=209886#209886
