Five Reasons Why Google is Wrong to Ask Users to Use their Real Names
Note: To me, this is a photo reblog account and I hate using it as a platform this way, but I feel I have been left no other choice.
Five Reasons Why Google is Wrong to Ask Users to Use their Real Names
Woke up to find my Google Plus account suspended today. Was shocked, hurt and angry. I love Google Plus. It’s great fun. I get to determine how I relate to people. But Google didn’t like my name: Made in DNA (the name I author under).
Well that’s my problem, and that’s correct it is my problem. Or is it? Below are a list of five very understandable reasons why Google is wrong to ask me, and other users, to use real names.
1) Google can’t prove the names we use aren’t real. They haven’t asked for ID or proof of any kind.
2) Google had no problem with me using the name “Made in DNA” (made.in.dna) for my GMail account, off which my Google Profile and Google Plus accounts are based. Why is there a problem now?
3) I didn’t set up the Google Plus account with the name “Made in DNA,” Google did. I just left it that way. If it was going to be a problem, I should have been informed from the get-go.
4) What about foreign names? Sometimes non-Western names (of which I am assuming Google bases their idea of what is “real” and what is not) sound more unique that “Made in DNA.” Is Google going to suspend their accounts, or do they get a free ride? Moreover what about the large Japanese user base? Many Japanese people dislike using their real names online. They are heavily into anonymity. Many of them use images of cats and anime characters for icons. In general, they are a shy people. Is Google going to suspend all their accounts and further risk alienating the Japanese from the Google company? (If you didn’t know, Google lost the search-engine wars in Japan to Yahoo, as did eBay for that matter, many Japanese people use Yahoo as their resource for everything: train times, weather, news, etc. Google has very little to offer the Japanese people, and now, perhaps less.)
5) What if I legally changed my name to Made in DNA? Or what if I changed my Google Plus name to something that simply sounded “real”, like Jackson Iwasa? Again, Google doesn’t ask for ID, how will they know its not real? And finally what about people like 50 Cent, or Snoop Dogg? Will those names be allowed to stand?
Frankly, I’m torn between wanting my Google Plus account back, and taking a stand against Google for its unfathomable and fascist stand against pseudonyms. It just makes no sense whatsoever. It think what really stings the most, is that my real name is in my profile under “Other Names” (which again, Google Profiles auto setup for me).
UPDATE: Apparently Google does expect me to prove who I am now that I have “violated” their “Community Standards”. I don’t know that I’m prepared to give them a copy of my photo ID. (Isn’t that illegal?) Perhaps I should give them my Japanese ID… the one in the Japanese language. What would they do with that?
