On Facebook

Fun fact: I avoided using Facebook. I took inordinate pride in this fact. To my innocent mind it seemed a bit like hard work. So no Facebook for me thank you very much!

Until I was invited to join a couple of private Facebook groups. As the information they had could only be found on these Facebook pages I took the plunge and joined Facebook. Everything went as these things go. Joining social media sites seems to be the same regardless of who they are.

I then asked the group admins to join their private groups and had my page immediately suspended by Facebook. This was quickly followed by the said groups, who know me, accepting my membership. To put it in context this was the first/only thing I did on Facebook.

If I was a spammer, or hateful, controversial, and a nasty piece of work than account suspension would be understandable. I did nothing, no posts, no spam, nothing. The only thing I ever did was use a private group box to inform them who I was, that's it.

I've appealed my suspension which is hard as they don't say why I was suspended or gave a chance to give my side of the story. I await the outcome of their judgment with resigned boredom. We are living in a world in which we all expect AI and software to make decisions and expect very little human help from overworked and underpaid staff. I do not expect a positive outcome, or a bad one for that matter.

However, it does strike me that the power social media platforms have on our identity and ability to express ourselves is terrifying. My Facebook page was in my own name, if they do not accept my real identity then what?

Your name is you. You need your name to get anything, do anything. 

What happens if social media monoliths take that away from you? What happens if your real identity is not good enough for them?

Digital identity is getting more and more important each day. There is a serious issue regarding digital exclusion, accessibility, infrastructure, and economics. The danger is that we are drifting into a world of the haves and have-nots in terms of digital identity. I spent years advising government about these specific things. It is a growing problem, especially for the marginalised and excluded.

It is scary.