Facebook's "Real Name Policy" Still Hurting People

In the fall of 2014, Facebook instituted a "Real Name" policy. They started systematically deleting the accounts of anyone they decided was using a "fake" name. Thousands of real people across the world have found themselves on the wrong side of this policy. They have lost years worth of communications, photos, information, posts, followers, business and more. Some people had unusual names or simply ethnic names. Other's spent their lives known to friends and family by a nick name. Many are performers using stage names, because that is how they are known by their fans. Many are writers publishing under a pen name. But they are still real people, with useful, loved, and needed Facebook accounts.

When Facebook's "Real Name" policy went into effect, it hit the Drag Queen community especially hard. Many Drag Queens use stage names. They had built entire social, public, real lives around that name. After a huge public outcry, Facebook stated that they would stop enforcing the "real name" policy. Facebook Lied!

It is now March 2015 and Facebook has deleted the account of Mab Just Mab. Mab is a performer. Often she can be found as the green skinned goblin, Weiji. She is fun and funny and real. While she was away in New Orleans, performing, Facebook deleted her account because they didn't think her name was real enough.

The "Pen Name" and the "Stage Name" have been around since people began writing and performing. This is not something new. Does anyone really think my birth certificate says Happy Hubber? Of course not! My pen name allows me to write about a variety of topics and not interfere with my professional job. That doesn't make me any less of a real person or make my writing contributions any less interesting or important.

Shame on Facebook for lying. Shame on the Real Name police for following orders and hurting real people and the people who love them.

Please help stand up to Facebook and end their tyranny.

#facebooklied @MarkZuckerbergF Reinstate @mabjustmab on facebook! http://wp.me/p4jBPm-3N #mynameis Mab, Just Mab! Please Retweet!

Please sign the petition to get Facebook to stop the harassment of people with unusual names. Facebook's real name policy hurts real people.