Petition to Facebook to Allow Avatar Names

If you're a user of Facebook in addition to being a user of Second Life, you're most likely aware of it's policy telling users to use real-life names only for their accounts. Those who don't face the threat of having their accounts deleted. It's been stated by some that sometimes including a real-life picture of oneself on the page may be enough to get the staff to look the other way, and often people get a warning to change the name before the account is taken down. But still, for those whom are known online only by pen names and other pseudonyms, this rule is downright irritating.

Recently on the petition website change.org, someone calling herself Frijolita Avalira started a petition to Facebook's owner Mark Zuckerburg to allow Second Life users to use their account names without worry of deletions, "As you well know Mark Zuckerberg, your team continuously shuts down our Facebook pages, because we don't put our real life information. As far as that goes, it's a virtual world and these people don't need to know our real life names & addresses & phone numbers etc."

Frijolita brought up two reasons as to why Zuckerberg should change his policy. One was that there was already an exception to the "real names only" policy as drag queens could now make account pages under their stage names. Also, a Second Life designer was now making real life designs for live models in fashion shows. "There is a whole world of designers who use Second life as their tool of business, and Facebook to advertise to the Second life consumers. If Linden Labs can recognize linden currency with a world currency value , then we should be recognized as using our Second Life names as our 'Stage names.' "

As of the writing of this article, over 730 people had signed the petition. A thousand are needed before it's send to Zuckerberg. What happens next, time will tell.

To read the petition in full: (click here).

Sources: change.org, The Guardian, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan