Facebook acknowledges shortcomings after real-name policy sees Native American accounts suspended
Facebook has come under fire for banning the accounts of Native Americans whose traditional names are deemed made up.
Previously, the social network’s real names policy has banned a number of Native American users such as 'Kills the Enemy' and 'Creeping Bear', due to it doubting the authenticity of the names.
The latest episode was picked up by Colorlines, a news site focused particularly on race reports. Last week Dana Lone Hill of Dakota heritage was locked out of the site for using a name site administrators assumed was fake. To get her profile reactivated she had to submit one piece of government-issued ID to Facebook.
Lone Hill said: “I had a little bit of paranoia at first regarding issues I had been posting about until I realized I wasn’t the only Native American this happened to. One friend was forced to change his name from his Cherokee alphabet to English.
"Another was forced to include her full name, and a few were forced to either smash the two word last names together or omit one of the two words in the last name.”
A Facebook spokesperson told Colorlines: “Over the last several months, we’ve made some significant improvements in the implementation of this standard, including enhancing the overall experience and expanding the options available for verifying an authentic name.
“We have more work to do, and our teams will continue to prioritise these improvements so everyone can be their authentic self on Facebook.”
Last October Facebook backtracked on its real-name policies to an extent allowing members of the LGBT community to use their drag and stage names for member profiles.