July 20, 2011 update: Berry's Google+ account has been restored without comment. My latest thoughts are here and I will be exploring these issues in greater depth in an upcoming edition of The Social Media Monthly. I believe it is important to continue to push for individual control of identity on the web - including on the large and general community socnets.
When I first began exploring Google+ as it opened up over the July 4th weekend, one of the things that fascinated me was the activity of Second Life participants. Other than a bit of Gov 2.0 crossover - such as public works applications for SL and the City of Edmonton build - I admit to not knowing much about Second Life. I learned a bit more over the past year as a significant Second Life community set up on Empire Avenue, the social stock market. Second Lifers, it is clear, have a strong tech early adopter community. They were very prominent in the first iteration of my Google+ stream, and seemed to quite enjoy the new social network.
One of the Second Lifers I met on Empire was Strawberry Singh, a Second Life blogger and photographer who makes her living in distance education. One of my first interactions with her was in context of blog posts she wrote about the Second Life community's response to the March 2011 Japanese quake and efforts by various avatar "skin" and apparel designers.
Yesterday, Google+ suspended "Berry," as she is known, for violating its policies against using "fake" avatars to represent oneself on the service. Berry and other Second Life folk had seen this coming from the onset, and slowly they either reverted to "real" identities or were picked off by the Google police.
Of course, any service is free to set its terms of service. But what troubles me is the power that corporations like Google, Facebook and others have to force a standard of identity on individuals. And it got me thinking about what constitutes an identity as Google+ also looks to bring "business" profiles into its fold. A corporation - a concept taken legal form to sell services or products - will be accepted by Google. But not an individual who chooses to represent themselves outside Google's defined norms.
It is easy to mock Second Lifers. But I have to say I am coming to value more those who recreate themselves online than those who accept a life in which too many of us devote the majority of waking hours to jobs that we hate. And I don't want a world where "Google" is more real than "Berry."
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I’ll accept your apology now.
I’ll also reinforce the reality check, since you decided to be so outrageously rude about it: I’m a political writer with strong opinions. If I had a dollar for every flea-bitten coward who has threatened me in the last twenty years, I’d be filthy rich. I’ve had my life threatened more times than I can count; in the months after 9-11, I was getting threats daily, not just against me but against my parents, my “family” in general, and specific threats of rape, torture, and murder directed at my then twelve year old daughter.
And of course, they were all anonymous. All people abusing mail-to-news gateways or anonymous remailers that should serve only the worthy function of allowing people in countries where free speech is heavily oppressed to communicate freely. Some of them I knew who they were but couldn’t prove it – others, they could show up at my house now and I wouldn’t know I was in danger.
So please spare me the self-righteous condescension and insults. It’s very nice that you know how to play well with others, but this is a big world and a lot of people don’t play nice, at all. Google has to find a balance there. Do I think their current approach is over-done? Yes. Do I think it’s some senseless abuse of power? No. I think it’s necessary because people MAKE it necessary…so like I said:
“being angry at Google is the wrong response. Be angry at the obnoxious children who hide behind the perceived anonymity of the ‘net to make threats or tell people to kill themselves; be angry at the horndogs who just click on every female profile they see and beg for webcam stripping & cybersex, knowing that if their target complains, all they have to do is create a new fake identity and there’s no consequence to their behavior.”
Even if Google’s marketing is too inept to find advertisers for the pseudonym graphs (unlike everybody else’s thriving virtual goods networks), they must be able to appreciate the advantage of knowing which graph is which.
What truly disgusted me was the “witch hunt” launched by a Google employee asking users to report “fake accounts”.
as for stalking Shrug Its just as easy to muted someone called Thorin as some one called John. and If I was called being stalked one of my first moves would be to stop using real names on the web.
pseudonyms are a defense from attackers they are not attacks.
I expect there will be some adjustments to this policy over time, but being angry at Google is the wrong response. Be angry at the obnoxious children who hide behind the perceived anonymity of the ‘net to make threats or tell people to kill themselves; be angry at the horndogs who just click on every female profile they see and beg for webcam stripping & cybersex, knowing that if their target complains, all they have to do is create a new fake identity and there’s no consequence to their behavior.
Google is trying to avoid having the community poisoned by behavior that’s been going on since pre-Internet days. Instead of being angry at Google and making this about some usurpation of people’s right to define themselves, be angry at the sad percentage of human beings who have yet to evolve to the point where they will conduct themselves with dignity, honor, and respect when they aren’t forced to do so.
I subsidise my income through my work in SL. Yesterday was not only the day I and many of my fellow SLers where suspended from Google+ plus but quite a few of us also got hit with a message on our Gmail accounts saying something along the lines of there being “unusual activity detected”… to gain access to our email accounts we had to submit our mobile phone numbers to be sent an activation code to log in.
Many of us are deleting our Gmail, Blogger and other google related services. Yes we present our selves as avatars, but we are real people behind that front. I resent being forced to give any information. I like Berry, am a teacher in my “real life”.
goes back to moving my blog over to wordpress
In addition, Google’s requirement that you have to use your name and gender on your profile at minimum or it will be deleted is troubling. Now they want to make it about using a photo of your real face vs. an avatar? Its one thing to want to push the envelope of being social and take control of your own identity but forcing use of certain information and denying others access to a network based on how they choose to identify with the online world is a bunch of bit bucket malarkey!
Google. Do no evil. Just do as we say and as we think you should do.