So you made a page for your baby or your puppy dog, little booboo snookums? Well, now Mark Zuckerberg and co. are cracking down. Now that Facebook is public and having to wear its proverbial big boy shorts the gloves are coming off. The result? More than 83 million Facebook accounts are slated to be closed! That’s right… If you hold a
spam account, are a fraud, fake, or just plain bogus account holder, or even if you have an account just for your favorite pets or kids, then get ready to wail and gnash your teeth. Now is the time for us to ask WWND – what will Nev do? For those who don’t get the reference check out Catfish – his show on MTV. With so many fake accounts getting shut down surely it will put a crimp in the show!
According to Facebook, by August of last year almost nine percent of its active users were in violation of the terms of use by either being duplicates, spam generators, or fakes. When asked why the big move to clean up the user base, Joe Sullivan – CSO – stated simply that the platform was meant for individuals to use real personas not fake ones leaving the company liable for taking appropriate actions.
The major question for some centers around what will happen to all those pictures of the baby or of cute little fluffy. Therein is the issue. Once you have uploaded the information to Facebook they have control over it. Your pictures and information will be locked away becoming inaccessible to you or anyone else. That isn’t all however. Anyone who has created a spam account will no longer be able to start new accounts without express permission from Facebook.
Facebook justifies this major move by referring to its terms of service which do spell out the potential for penalties in regards to spam or fake accounts as well as specifying that underage children and pets cannot be account holders. There are pages just for people to use to extol their love for their dear kitty or even their favorite little league or peewee teams. What they do not have room for cyber stalkers, catfishing (using fake profiles to start relationships), or dear old Fido who wouldn’t hurt a flea.
That being said, here is your chance. If you created an account for your pet, child or whatever the purpose, then you should do one of two things. Download all your pics from your account and start an actual Facebook Page for your beloved pet or other favorite, or you can simply ignore the warning signs. Just don’t go crying when your pictures of junior are no longer available.
When asked whether this move will be taken in the near future Facebook the company declined to give a target date. This could be a move calculated on the assumption that fear of its taking place soon might motivate many to go ahead and start taking action rather than sitting back and letting Facebook get the best of them.