Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2015-12-16 11:43 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2015-12-16 11:43 pm
Entry tags:
A reconstruction of my remarks to Facebook last night: #mynameis Azure Jane Lunatic.
Last night some people from Facebook brought themselves, a slide presentation, and a handful of their crack support people to a San Francisco LGBT center to give an update on Facebook's position in the ongoing #nymwars.
The short version, as I understand it:
* They're working on more things; they wanted to bring a few things to the table as a token of goodwill with their update
* They sincerely toe the company line that fake profiles are a cause of abuse (rather than framing it as, people who commit abusive acts sometimes using fake profiles to carry out their violence, while plenty of other people also use names that aren't theirs without doing it for bad purposes)
* There's this girl in India who killed herself after being harassed by a bunch of fake profiles (the dude came back to this story several times until the audience had some words)
* They purport to understand that many people including many people in the lgbt community use names that aren't on their ID and are best known by those non-ID names
* They want to make the process of reporting assholes and shenanigans better, and are 1% testing changes to this in the US (show the test to 1% of US users, make sure there's no horrible grinding and flood of terrible things happening)
* The changes involve having to include a reason when reporting someone as a fake profile
* The changes include an "Other" option with a way to explain wtf is going on that requires reporting
* A 7-day grace period before your account gets turned off if it's just a name problem
* Confirmation before the name gets changed on you
* Allowing other forms of testimony that you really go by your real name instead of your wallet name, besides just ID
* Hoping to build goodwill with the people who were lucky enough to be in the room by giving them in-person technical support
* Admitting that their business model does not scale well enough to allow phone support
The original format of the evening was supposed to be:
* Pizza and coke
* Presentation from Facebook
* Intermission
* Panel discussion, moderated by some reporter guy, with questions submitted in writing from the audience
* Maybe some live questions?
* Tech support session
Things did not quite go that way.
My deep sympathies to the two-spirit person from Oakland who left the room in great pain. The community stands witness to your pain and anger and powerful choice to turn your back on a microphone full of some really ignorant bullshit.
Eventually, after a lot of frustration from the room, the snappily dressed person from the #MyNameIs project took over some of the moderation duties, and the culturally ignorant reporter was relegated to running the single functioning microphone all over the room, instead of attempting to interpret people's questions back to the panel.
Cisgender whitedudes, the place for you to soliloquize while pondering heavy shit that you don't quite understand but are valiantly trying to get? Not in a heavily timeboxed public meeting between the gatekeepers of a platform and the marginalized community who is getting edged off that platform. Bonus points when the shoving is being done by bigots abusing the ripe for abuse framework of rules that center the needs and concerns of cisgender whitedudes.
A bunch of people had a lot of things to say. I remember physically vibrating with rage at some points, and when one of the Facebook guys defended Facebook's decision to further endanger victims of domestic abuse and stalking by disallowing them the option of using another name in addition to more robust security tools, I remember hissing. Kenzi was the one to bring up the point that what if Facebook's assumptions about authentic identity were wrong? She was hopping mad. Many of us were.
I got the mic near the end. Fortunately, I had written down the framework of the points I had been rehearsing to myself the whole evening. I found my voice was wobbling and my mind was blanking. I trusted myself, let myself feel everything, and gave myself over to the bullet points and my truth.
The short version, as I understand it:
* They're working on more things; they wanted to bring a few things to the table as a token of goodwill with their update
* They sincerely toe the company line that fake profiles are a cause of abuse (rather than framing it as, people who commit abusive acts sometimes using fake profiles to carry out their violence, while plenty of other people also use names that aren't theirs without doing it for bad purposes)
* There's this girl in India who killed herself after being harassed by a bunch of fake profiles (the dude came back to this story several times until the audience had some words)
* They purport to understand that many people including many people in the lgbt community use names that aren't on their ID and are best known by those non-ID names
* They want to make the process of reporting assholes and shenanigans better, and are 1% testing changes to this in the US (show the test to 1% of US users, make sure there's no horrible grinding and flood of terrible things happening)
* The changes involve having to include a reason when reporting someone as a fake profile
* The changes include an "Other" option with a way to explain wtf is going on that requires reporting
* A 7-day grace period before your account gets turned off if it's just a name problem
* Confirmation before the name gets changed on you
* Allowing other forms of testimony that you really go by your real name instead of your wallet name, besides just ID
* Hoping to build goodwill with the people who were lucky enough to be in the room by giving them in-person technical support
* Admitting that their business model does not scale well enough to allow phone support
The original format of the evening was supposed to be:
* Pizza and coke
* Presentation from Facebook
* Intermission
* Panel discussion, moderated by some reporter guy, with questions submitted in writing from the audience
* Maybe some live questions?
* Tech support session
Things did not quite go that way.
My deep sympathies to the two-spirit person from Oakland who left the room in great pain. The community stands witness to your pain and anger and powerful choice to turn your back on a microphone full of some really ignorant bullshit.
Eventually, after a lot of frustration from the room, the snappily dressed person from the #MyNameIs project took over some of the moderation duties, and the culturally ignorant reporter was relegated to running the single functioning microphone all over the room, instead of attempting to interpret people's questions back to the panel.
Cisgender whitedudes, the place for you to soliloquize while pondering heavy shit that you don't quite understand but are valiantly trying to get? Not in a heavily timeboxed public meeting between the gatekeepers of a platform and the marginalized community who is getting edged off that platform. Bonus points when the shoving is being done by bigots abusing the ripe for abuse framework of rules that center the needs and concerns of cisgender whitedudes.
A bunch of people had a lot of things to say. I remember physically vibrating with rage at some points, and when one of the Facebook guys defended Facebook's decision to further endanger victims of domestic abuse and stalking by disallowing them the option of using another name in addition to more robust security tools, I remember hissing. Kenzi was the one to bring up the point that what if Facebook's assumptions about authentic identity were wrong? She was hopping mad. Many of us were.
I got the mic near the end. Fortunately, I had written down the framework of the points I had been rehearsing to myself the whole evening. I found my voice was wobbling and my mind was blanking. I trusted myself, let myself feel everything, and gave myself over to the bullet points and my truth.
My name is Azure Jane Lunatic.
In 1986, I started the first grade. I quickly learned that the way to not be a complete social pariah was to not be my authentic self, "code-switching" between school and home, as someone mentioned earlier. This was a painful process.
Things I learned that I couldn't express freely included my sexuality, my gender expression, my interests, my painful earnestness and difficulty dealing with normal social deceptions, and so many other things.
Over the course of the following 27 years, I met a number of true friends in person and online, who I can be fully me with.
Filtering is hard.
When the internet came along, I was taught to never ever give my name to strangers online, so I chose an online name.
I learned to never ever give my internet name to people in my offline life if they weren't true and trusted friends.
There are precious few people who have earned the trust to have both halves of my life.
In 2013, I took the best job of my life, where I found I could be fully myself. This afternoon, I learned that I'm losing this job in February.
Outside of that job, I have always had to split my authentic identity.
I have a choice:
- to use Facebook to connect with co-workers and potential job leads, and my neighbors
- or do I use Facebook to connect with the friends I can trust with my authentic identity?
As long as Facebook requires one "authentic" identity, and so long as I live in a society that makes a pariah of me because of my authentic identity, I have to make this choice. It is not a good choice to have to make.
I hope the people here tonight can take my story back to Facebook and use it to advocate for people who have more than one authentic identity.
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<3
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But "This afternoon, I learned that I'm losing this job in February."
OH NO!
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My manager hasn't been able to convert me to full time before the hard end of the contract under the new contractor policy. I have known that it was a possibility all along, but everyone has been hoping that we could get me onboard before then.
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ETA: Obviously I just know you through you own self report here on DW, but I have to say, you sound like a truly amazing employee, and your employers are showing some serious penny-wise-pound-foolishness if they don't move whatever heavens and earths are necessary not to lose you.
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The kind of fellowship I've found in this job is worth some real effort to hang on to.
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Glad that you were able to tell your story. Hope that FB takes it seriously enough to rework their name policies to something that is far more functional and doesn't require people to make difficult choices about their authenticity.
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Thank you for telling your story, and I'm also sorry to hear you're losing your job; it's their loss.
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My sympathies about the job. I can't imagine the rough of that, and hope - as otherds have said - that they can find a way to bring you back there. Or find a job that is even better for you.
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