March 02, 2008
Call no Facebook profile Fr.
A couple of weeks ago Joshua LeBlanc noticed that the title Fr. was being removed on Facebook for his priest friends. It soon turned out that not only Fr. was being removed but Sr. also. Though Rev. and Dr. were not be automatically removed from the names used in profiles.
Joshua started a Facebook group called Facebook - stop removing Fr. from priests' names! which as of this post has 1,160 members.
There has been various replies from Facebook as to why this is being done, but the replies are varied and not very consistent. One person got back the reply.
We appreciate your feedback. However,
Facebook requires users to sign
up using their real names. We feel this is necessary to preserve the
integrity of the site.
Conversely, if we allowed users to sign up with prefixes such as Fr.,
Dr., Crpl., etc., there would be no way of verifying that these users
were indeed members of the Catholic Church, or doctors, or actual
Corporals in the armed forces.
The irony is that the reply was given to a Facebook user who had added Rdr. to the front of his name. As for the concern for real identities, Joshua was able to easily create a Facebook profile for Pope Zosimus with no problems. Searching on Facebook I was able to easily find tons of people whose Facebook name started with Dr. and only a couple that started with Fr. Some priests and religious are using Fr. or Sr. just before their first name withoug using a space to get around this. But there is a question as to whether Facebook has backed off doing this and that some have been able to put their titles back again since I see Fr. now before the names of some priests in my friends section.
Posted by Jeff Miller at March 2, 2008 04:15 PMIt would be harder to be a fake priest if priests all had an email address from the church.
Posted by Steve email at March 2, 2008 06:13 PMWhat is Facebook?
Posted by Cornelius email at March 2, 2008 06:33 PMI wrote a story and interview Josh and Father Jason on this very issue and am currently trying to get my dio. paper to run it. They replied that they liked it but they were not sure what they were going to do with it.
If they don't run it, I'll at least put it on the blog.
Posted by Paul Cat email at March 2, 2008 07:40 PMI know they've censored various other titles before -- I had an acquaintance who attempted to style himself "emperor" and who had it axed by Facebook. Part honest policy, part silliness.
Posted by Paul email at March 2, 2008 07:46 PMOut of all the things for facebook to censor... titles?
Posted by LCB email at March 2, 2008 09:13 PMWeird. Someone could use a false gender or name, too, couldn't they?
Posted by joanne email at March 2, 2008 09:36 PMWeird. Someone could use a false gender or name, too, couldn't they?
Easily. There was a period of time in college where creating fake facebook profiles for celebrities and the like was the in thing to do. Of course, it was understood to be a joke and people didn't think the profiles were of the actual people. I had a Bill Belichick profile for some time, while my friend was The Shredder. It's pretty much not that big a trend anymore. It really lost its fun after the first few weeks.
I don't think it would really be that big a problem, though, in terms of false identities. It's one of those things where if a person wants to fool you bad enough, they'll find a way to do it, facebook or no.
Facebook's really not a 'meeting people' sort of site, that's the thing. It's more like a collection of mini web pages for friends. You know who are your friends, so running into a random Fr. so and so is just not the sort of thing that would happen there. You go to myspace for that sort of thing.
Posted by Shane email at March 3, 2008 07:07 AMFacebook has a point. There is no way that they can verify if someone is really a priest, doctor, CPA or lawyer for that matter. If they want to eliminate the word father for that reason, then they should be consistant and eliminate doctor etc. While frustrating for Catholics, it could be a bigger problem if a fraud got on there, claimed to be a father and then led people astray with false teachings - we know that would never happen. yeah, right.
Catholic online, which has an excellent forum, doesn't allow the use of the title father unless they can verify that the person is really a priest.
If facebook doesn't have the resources to be able to do that, it might be best not to allow the title. If they removed it, they had also be removing things like Rev. and Dr. as well.
Posted by twinsmom email at March 3, 2008 07:10 AMReminds me of Father Z's site. One of the main links on his page displays his Certificate of Ordination.
Off-topic, but it you would be so kind, I am attempting to get my blog running.
Posted by Melody Vito email at March 3, 2008 10:15 AMReminds me of Father Z's site. One of the main links on his page displays his Certificate of Ordination.
Off-topic, but if you would be so kind, I am attempting to get my blog running.
Posted by Melody Vito email at March 3, 2008 10:16 AMIf Facebook is going to vet people's titles, it's going to have to vet people's names, too. They haven't removed themselves from liability; they've taken it on.
Posted by Maureen email at March 3, 2008 12:50 PMI've never been to Facebook. Does Facebook make actors and actresses use their real names as well, or do they get special treatment and get to use their stage names?
Posted by Alex O. email at March 3, 2008 05:12 PM
