When Facebook users happen to have the same first and last names as celebrities, the best of intentions can turn out to be mistakes. Take this one for example: 29-year-old Kate Middleton from Kingsway, Northants, in the U.K., has had her account suspended for pretending to be Prince William’s fiancee.
As she tells U.K. paper The Sun, Middleton –- who works as a health-care assistant –- says that one fine morning Facebook accused her of registering under a fake name and suspended her account. But as you can see by looking at the picture on the right, the resemblance is non-existent. “My profile picture is of me and I don’t look anything like Kate. It is absurd,” she told the newspaper.
Her account has been suspended since Thursday, although a spokesman from Facebook told the Sun that the suspension was a mistake and the company is working on fixing it: “We review thousands of pieces of content every day and take action to ensure Facebook remains a safe and trusted environment for everyone. Of course, we make an occasional mistake. This is an example.”
A simple name search on Facebook, however, shows hundreds and hundreds of Kate Middletons spread all around the globe. Are all of those women at risk of being suspended too? If the recently suspended Kate Middleton had opened her account recently, that might explain the social network’s presumption she was trying to impersonate Prince William’s fiancee, as the royal couple announced their engagement last November. Also, both Kates are 29 years old, although they look very different– the alleged impersonator is a blonde, while the future member of the royal family is brunette.
How might Facebook do a better job in responding this type of situation?
Photo courtesy of Newsteam.
I've been on the tail of a con artist bounty hunter/private investigator who scams vbictims of crime as well as founders of missing persons orgs for money for 3 months after he harassed me and threatened a friend and notified Facebook and never was able to get through on top of flagging messages and reporting his profiles dozens of times and they are all still up
He is not licensed and has a criminal history
http://twitter.com/bountyhunter007
http://legal-crime.com
Comment by Timeforchange — January 24, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
[...] Facebook abounds with fan pages dedicated to Shatner (who younger folks might only know as the Negotiator in Priceline commercials) explains why such a mistake might happen. However, the site has previously pulled accounts belonging to non-celebrities who happen to share the same names as famous people. [...]
Pingback by Facebook Reinstates William Shatner’s Profile — March 15, 2011 @ 1:11 pm
[...] the U.K. woman who shared the same fate, Kate Middleton from Boston says that beginning in January, the social media site suspended her [...]
Pingback by Facebook Suspends Another (Real) Kate Middleton Account — April 27, 2011 @ 11:03 am
at risk ? who cares ? i hope facebook will suspend my account someday..
Comment by sam snead — April 28, 2011 @ 5:55 am