Facebook Removes Username Squatting Protection

Yesterday I wrote a post about how to claim a username that someone else has already taken. Unfortunately, the form that we linked to has since been removed and the help page states that Facebook has “a strict no transferability policy.” While the company states that this should prevent squatting from taking place, there are still a few occurrences of this taking place. Unfortunately for those users, there’s no system for reporting usernames being stolen.

More entertaining is that the original facesquatting victim has not had the username returned to him. Facebook has posted a help page about all things related to Facebook usernames with the key message being: you are not protected from someone stealing your name. For those who were fortunate enough to get the name they wanted, congratulations!

If for some reason, you believe that someone has taken your username in violation of general copyright laws, you can file a Copyright infringement notice with Facebook and the issue may be resolved. Aside from those that have had copyrights violated, you are pretty much out of luck! Were you able to get the username that you wanted? Are you still waiting for Facebook’s land rush that starts next week.

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3 Comments »

I wasn't able to claim billso – someone else grabbed it in the opening three minutes of the landrush. Not a big deal…

Comment by Facebook User — June 23, 2009 @ 4:26 pm

Got mine. It's good to have a slightly unique name. But they won't let me do my Pages yet.

Comment by Facebook User — June 23, 2009 @ 7:22 pm

I was lucky enough to get my fullname.

However, Facebook, as many companies with enough money, doesn't know the meaning of customer (user?) care, neither the meaning of the word "proactive".

This can apply for any complaint, but even for any missing feature: they prefer to enable a feature like "alternative full name" (useful only for a subgroup of users) instead of improving the chat, enabling (still) missing features in Pages, reducing spam, etc.

Comment by Andrea Sciamanna — June 23, 2009 @ 10:11 pm