Dia dhoibh a chairde.

I post here rarely but wanted to take a moment to reach out to Audrey Nikel, Bríd Eilis Ní Fhlatharta, and any other of you who know me on Facebook. (Domhnall Ó hAireachtaigh atá orm).

A few days ago, some interesting individual reported me to the Facebook gestapo for not using my "real name" and they have locked me out of my account until I provide a copy of my drivers license and renew it under my legal name, which is the Anglicized version and not what I prefer to go by online.

I just wanted to let you know that name discrimination still appears to be alive and well despite their recently deigning to let us at least spell them correctly, and that any random person can report you and hose up your ability to interact based on a mere allegation.

Audrey, Bríd, and any others who happen to be here, in the interim you can reach me at aireachtaigh@gmail.com. Best to you all.

Pure madness! And it's not the first time either...

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

Agreed. Madness is charitable.

If I were a drag queen, I could make up a name and use that.
If I were a star like Cher or Madonna, I could use those pseudonyms.
If I were to claim I was being stalked, I could use that as as an "excuse" for not using my real name.

But if I prefer my Gaelic name? Well, that's out of bounds and I have to provide PAPERS PLEASE.

Their discriminatory behavior is not behind us, regrettably. I'd publicize this more widely but alas I am locked out of my Facebook account, so I can't! Very neat, closed system they have going on there.

Anyway, I don't want to belabor this but so you know, I've attempted to contact Facebook multiple times and they make it seems to be literally impossible to reach a human being -- everything must be done online by useless online forms that all ultimately lead me to the same sole solution -- pony up with your ID or you're out of luck and your years and years worth of interactions, moderated groups, and memories are gone in a puff of smoke because one malicious unnamed individual decided they didn't think your Gaelic name didn't look real and reported you.

Is it a personal grudge?

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

It's not language discrimination. I know several musicians on facebook who ran into the same trouble for using band names, stage names etc. If you are using facebook to promote any kind of business, then they want you to set up a page and pay for advertising instead of using a personal account.

Domhnall Ó hAireachtaigh is not the name of a company, so facebook wouldn't have any problem with it. But unfortunately you're the victim of one nasty person and a lazy automated system.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

It's awful that some anonymous nasty git can get away with that.

Probably best for now that you go back to your English name Dan, then you will be better able to fight from an active account.

Thank you all. For your information, here is a run-down of the hoops I now need to jump through in order to resurrect my account thanks to the anonymous complaint of one anonymous person:

https://www.facebook.com/checkpoint/?next=%2F

Facebook needs competition. This is ludicrous.

It's a strange thing for someone to report. I'm not on Facebook myself (despite Brid's best efforts to persuade me to!), but some people feel the need to be offended by the most peculiar things. Clearly no understanding of or appreciation of Irish. Best of luck with your efforts.

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