Tim Cushing writes:
Facebook’s real name policy forbids fake profiles. Needless to say, this rule is broken all the time. Fake profiles are created every day. When they’re discovered, they’re shut down. People like breaking rules and a handful of moderators per millions of users can’t really keep up. We expect this kind of juvenile bullshit from average jerks like you and me, but shouldn’t we be expecting more from our public servants?
Of course we should. And Facebook — finally — is feeling the same way, as Dave Maass reports for the EFF.
This summer, the criminal justice news outlet The Appeal reported on an alarming detail revealed in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Tennessee against the Memphis Police Department. The lawsuit uncovered evidence that the police used what they referred to as a “Bob Smith” account to befriend and gather intelligence on activists. Following the report, EFF contacted Facebook, which deactivated that account. Facebook has since identified and deactivated six other fake accounts managed by Memphis police that were previously unknown.
In a letter to Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings dated Sept. 19, Facebook’s legal staff demands that the agency “cease all activities on Facebook that involve the use of fake accounts or impersonation of others.”
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