Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) previously confirmed that there are 83 million fake accounts registered on the website, which are classified as duplicate, undesirable and mis-classified accounts. It appears that the company started to clean up its website in order to gain the trust of advertisers and investors. Since its IPO, the stock value of the company is down over 50%, not only because of the technical glitch but because many investors are uncertain of its profitability, particularly its core advertising business.
TMZ reports that Facebook has disabled the account of Selena Gomez. The Selena Gomez in the story is not the famous singer/actress, but an 18-year old girl from New Mexico who has the same name. According to Gomez, Facebook disabled her account because the company believed it was fake. When she tried to access her account, she was denied with the message: “Disabled – Inauthentic Account.”
In an interview with TMZ, she emphasized that she never impersonated the actress. She said, “I AM NOT AN IMPOSTOR … My name is not hers on my page. In fact, I even put my middle name on my FB to clear up any confusion. I did not have one single famous friend. I did not refer to myself as [the famous Selena], and I did not have any pictures of her on my page!”
The girl’s account was classified as an “undesirable account.” User in this category is accused of violating the fundamental terms of agreement. In this case, disabling her account was a mistake, because her account was real and she did impersonate the singer actress.
Gomez was upset and contacted the social network giant to restore her Facebook account. So far, she hasn’t received any response to her request.
In May 2011, the same incident happened to Mark S. Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy attorney from Indianapollis. Facebook banned his account from its website because he shared the same name with its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company deleted his account due to a mistaken false identity premise.
According to the lawyer, it’s hard to comprehend that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) does not know how to accommodate people with the same name, considering that it is a large company with over 900 million users. He states “I was originally denied an account with Facebook two years ago because of my name, and I had to send them copies of my driver’s license, birth certificate, and Indianapolis Bar Association license just to get them to believe that I exist and to allow me to set up my page.”
It took him four months to settle the issue. Finally, Facebook activated his account after sending a “threatening letter.”
It might be difficult for Selena Gomez from New Mexico to reactivate her account especially now that Facebook needs to clean-up the website to improve its advertising revenues.
