Facebook bans Filipino for using his real name

UPDATE: Yay, his account has been re-activated!

So my friend got banned from Facebook. The reason? Because Facebook thinks that my friend’s first and last name on his profile isn’t his real name. So one morning he logs into his profile page only to discover that his account has been locked. I can’t even find him in my friends list and all the tags on the photos we took have disappeared as well.

Naturally, he did what any good Internet citizen should do and appealed through the support email. There is a support email — [email protected]. And, this is what he sent:

From: Antonio Piamonte (email withheld)
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 3:51:17 PM
Subject: re-enabling a disabled account

Good Afternoon,

I would like to report that my account was disabled by mistake. I would like to ensure you that I am indeed Tonton Piamonte as indicated by my profile and I would like to have my Facebook account re-activated.

Thanks,
Tonton Piamonte

This is Facebook’s automated reply:

From: Facebook Support
To: (withheld)
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 3:44:25 AM
Subject: Re: re-enabling a disabled account

Hi,

Unfortunately, our systems detected that the name on your account might violate our standards. Facebook requires all profiles to be associated with a full, real name that corresponds to a single individual.

Please provide the following information, and we will gladly re-evaluate the status of your account.

First Name:
Last Name:
Primary use for account:

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

So OK, he gets on with the program and sends his information as well as the most typical thing you’d say in “primary use of account.” It’s actually funny!

From: Antonio Piamonte (withheld)
To: Facebook Support
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 8:01:48 AM
Subject: Re: re-enabling a disabled account

Hi,

The name in my Facebook account is Tonton Piamonte, but the Tonton is my nickname. My details are as follows:

First Name: Antonio
Last Name: Piamonte
Primary use for account: communicating with friends and relatives both in and out of the country

I hope this helps in re-evaluating my account and I look forward to using it again.

Thanks,
Ton

Thus far, Facebook hasn’t replied. If you check the timestamp on these messages they were sent between March 15-16. It’s nearly April and still, no resolution. Does Facebook have a dedicated team that do nothing but search for profiles and go “hmm this guy … he doesn’t look like a Mark to you. He looks more like a Jim. He’s probably lying. Let’s ban him.”

Dear Facebook, in the Philippines it is quite common to have repeated one syllable names for your nickname. So yes, we have people whose names are “TonTon,” “Nana,” “LotLot,” “Jojo,” and “Len-Len.”