Facebook is getting out of hand with demanding that the public use government issued IDs for accessing our own Facebook accounts. Blatant pornography, spam, dog fighting, and child abuse accounts are kept running but if you happen to have an unusual sounding, non-white, non-christian name facebook has the option up for people to report you for not having a "real name". After the report is received by Facebook, you get booted out of your account and everything associated with your account disappears on Facebook. It's disgusting that truly violent or disgusting accounts are allowed to remain up despite multiple reports but after one report about an unusual name, an innocent individual can be removed from Facebook. The rules for what apply as a name and what don't are ridiculous to say the least. Having to supply a government ID to a non-government agency is very disturbing. Anyone could steal our social security, driver's license, state ID, or other ID information and use it to steal from us or harm us. I don't know what moderators Facebook hires for this job, but i can guarantee some of them could have ill intentions and could use our personal financial and government information for spying, terrorism, or robbery. There is a strong suspicion that perhaps Facebook is part of a spying operation. I'm not into conspiracy theories but this "real name" policy is fishy. I don't want a non-government agency or company having my house address, my social security number, or my state ID numbers.

Some of us that may not wish to use our birth names are hiding from dangerous individuals who could harm us. Some of us are artists, photographers, stage performers, or authors known by our friends, family, fans and patrons as a pseudonym and wish to be known only as the pseudonym. Some of us go by our religious or cultural names (Native Americans, aboriginals, pagans, etc). Some people just have names that sound different and are thus discriminated against thanks to this real name policy.

By demanding that people use their "real" names, Facebook is opening the door for bullying and abuse victims to be found and tormented by their abusers. By insisting that we all conform to their idea of a "real" name, we are bowing down to outright discrimination against anyone that doesn't have a white, christian sounding name. Facebook is its own little internet dictatorship quietly pushing its own little fascist agenda. While it is a company that can do almost as it pleases, it should not be allowed to demand we show government/school/employer issued ID just so we can use its FREE, worldwide service.

Further reading:  http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/17/facebook-still-freezing-accounts-despite-apology-drag-queens-real-names
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/16/living/facebook-name-policy/
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_controversy
(If anyone can edit the wikipedia page, could you please add this petition to it?)