What To Do When You are Kicked Off Facebook for Having a 'Fake' Name

Facebook is Kicking People Off for Having  "Fake" Names - Not Cool Assholes 

Seems Like These Weirdos Have Nothing Else Better to Do than Police People's Supposed "Fake" Names...Lawd Have Mercy Don't Get Me Started! .

 

I knew something was fishy when I saw some our successful artists and DJ's being targeted— people like Dj Drizzle and Lantana just to name a couple. If you are an artist, musician, author, or anyone that wishes to go by a pseudonym, or even a real name on Facebook, you may soon be forced to change it— That is unless you are a drag queen. Here is the official apology from Chris Cox on Facebook. Apparently, drag queens are the only privileged ones who are allowed to keep whatever name they choose.

So yeah, the overly controlling Facebook got me— and you could be next... Basically, all someone has to do is report your name and Facebook will make you change it. What kind of ridiculous rule is that? Facebook is supposed to be fun, not the Gestapo.  My name used to be DjKoolaide Mix, but some dorky "George McForge" decided to report my name as fake. So I have been forced to use my government name. 

There is a workaround solution, which I will get to a little later. But let’s talk about how something like this happens:

How & Why Does This Happen?

Here’s what happened when I got kicked off:

All of the sudden, I was logged out of Facebook. When I tried to log in, I was told that my name was not real and that I had to give them a real name, otherwise, I would be forever locked out of my account. I was forced to change it to my government name.

Here’s what I said to Facebook:

I sent them an email in so many words saying: “This is the name I've had since I've had my account, and all of my friends only know me by this name. In their ID request, I sent them a picture of a plaque with my name on it" I also sent them a link to my Dj Koolaide website. I told them to Google me. I had tons of proof, yet none of that mattered...

Here’s what Facebook replied with:

“Thanks for contacting us. We have all the information we need, (having my government name). Do not contact us again. We will ignore all future requests to change your name back.”

What kind of a crappy canned response was that? I was about to spend money on Facebook ads with them when all of this went down. WTF?- Bad timing Facebook.

Why is This Such A Problem?

Facebook and the devious retards that report names as fake, has caused an extreme amount of damage to people’s identity, brand, and business. I personally feel like my privacy has been ripped from me, and violated. We should be free to go by whatever name we want, especially in this modern day and age of hackers, identity theft, stalkers, etc. I didn't want my government name on my Dj Koolaide Facebook page. Not to mention, they completely ripped my brand (Dj Koolaide) from me, based on the opinion of someone else. Apparently you are guilty until proven innocent by Facebook’s terms. Why is the burden of proof on the person minding their own business instead of being on the person reporting? Facebook's 'real names' policy is legal, but it's also problematic for free speech.

It’s not like I spammed or harassed anyone. I could see if someone reported me for that… but for something as petty as a pseudonym? It’s the World Wide Web for crying out loud! Pseudonyms are the foundation of where all online social networking started. When the internet first started becoming popular, nobody used their real name in chat rooms, forums, social networks, etc. What makes now so different? Come on Facebook! So we need to be baby sat now? Does there have to be this much friggin drama?

Facebook used to be cool, but the more limitations they put on people, the more they will push people on over to Google +. The possibilities are so much broader with Google+ anyway— and you can have whatever name you want without feeling threatened that someone will make you change it. Once people catch on, they will see the value and there will be a G+ rush, I'm sure. Especially at the rate Facebook is going.

Why Would Someone Report My Name?

 There are several reasons they could have done this.

 1.  If you are famous or successful, some people are just plain jealous and will do anything to drag you down.

2. If someone is angry at you, they may report your name.

3. If someone just has nothing better to do, they will go through all that trouble to report you.

4. Or maybe someone genuinely thinks your name is fake or offensive to them in some kind of way.

Either way, the person who reported you either lives a very lame life or is mentally handicapped; because nobody in their right mind would take the time to go through the motions of reporting someone’s name on Facebook. So why would facebook create such a feature? It really makes no sense for facebook to have such a thing, unless, the person who made the rule is also mentally handicapped themselves…

How Do You Fix It?

Ok, so as you see from my fiasco with Facebook, they will refuse to change your name back, even with tons of proof. However, there is a workaround/loophole, so to speak...

Did you know that you could change your personal Facebook page over to a like page, and still keep all your friends? When you convert your page, all of your friends will turn into likes? So if you have 3,000 friends on Facebook, your converted page will have 3,000 likes. That's pretty cool right? Normally, it’s like pulling teeth just to get someone to like your page. Makes for some good online real-estate aye?

Once you convert your account to a like page, you will still have most of the same features: You can still message people; people can still message you; you can like other people’s statuses, pics, etc.; people will still see your updates.

There are a couple of downsides to converting your personal account to a like page:

• All of your pictures, posts, etc will be deleted. Before you convert your page, you will have the option to download your pictures to your computer and then re-upload them to your like page. So at least you won't lose your pictures.

• Your new like page will still have the same name that you had before you converted your page, therefore if your purpose for converting was to change your name back, you will need to change the name on your like page. If you have less than 200 likes, it will be no problem, but if you have more than 200 likes, you will have to submit it to Facebook. Here is the information on how to do it.

• There may be more downsides, but I can't think of any others off hand.

Now, before you go rushing off into Facebook "Like Page Land", there are some important things you must do first.

Things You MUST Do Before Converting Your Page:

Download your info, such as your sent and received messages and the photos and videos you've uploaded to Facebook.

If you have a group, or other like pages on Facebook, make sure to appoint a new facebookpage admin, or groupadmin to any groups you manage. You can always set up another personal Facebook account. You'll be unable to manage groups once the conversion begins.

Additional Tips:

If you are ready to take the plunge, here is a link to theinstructions on how to convert your personal Facebook Account to a Like Page.

If you already have a Facebook Like Page with a lot of likes on it, and don’t want to lose them, you can merge several like pages as well. Here are the instructions on how to do it.

If you’re not an intermediate or advanced Facebook user, you may want to ask for assistance with this, as it can be confusing with the way Facebook is set up. When you put all your eggs in one basket like this, you want to make sure not to mess anything up. If you don’t have anyone to help, I would suggest creating a new Facebook account, adding some friends and testing out the page conversion process first. This way if you make a mistake, all of your online “real-estate” won’t be lost.

Lastly, I would not have even known about this feature on Facebook if it hadn’t been for really good friend of mine. So if this was helpful to you, take a moment to like our pages: King Lo & Indie By Nature. We like to have page likes too ;)