Blogger’s pseudonym gets deleted from Facebook
Many in the political blogosphere know of Jon Swift, a pseudonymous blogger who is a faux conservative similar to Stephen Colbert (we interviewed him over here). Earlier this week he logged on to Facebook to find his account deleted because he violated their terms of use by not using his real name. Swift brings up several good points in response to this, particularly the fact that he isn’t the first artist to use a stage name.
“What exactly does ‘real name’ mean?” he says. “Would Bob Dylan be banned if he didn’t sign up as Robert Zimmerman? Would someone searching for their friend Carlos the Jackal have to know that his “real name” is Ilich RamÃrez Sánchez? Would Malcolm X have had to sign up under his slave name if he were still alive? Would Eric Arthur Blair have been banned from joining Facebook under the name George Orwell if he weren’t dead, too.”
UPDATE: It appears that within hour, Facebook responded and gave him his username back. That was a swift (no pun intended) victory for the blogosphere.
I guess this means I won’t be getting a Facebook page.