@Josh Sternberg So, they’re adding a subscription to a service they were already performing? My own Facebook account was frozen because my pseudonym was flagged as made-up and I had to provide a government ID to get back access to it. What eventually warded me off is that my display name would have been changed to whatever was written on the ID card with no possibility of changing it afterwards.

This is my #Fediverse origin story and I’m glad they are now making this feature strictly opt-in. /s

@Hypolite Petovan man, Meta must be starving for government IDs, why should I show my government issued ID to a private company that really doesn't do that much. Are there not really any other ways to check the fact that you're a human?

@Josh Sternberg

@Cătălin Petrescu I was chuffed by the whole process. At that point I had worn the same username for a full decade online, no one else in the world is wearing that name on the Internet, so it felt very unnecessary.

However, I was ready to provide a copy of an ID if it meant my account was reinstated in full (I had my official name as an alternative name in my profile for people to search me), which they never agreed on.

No deal, I installed Diaspora, and then moved to Friendica a short while later.

@Hypolite Petovan so after you would have provided your ID, they asked you to use your real name on your profile?

@Cătălin Petrescu Not asked, forced, with no way for me to change it again. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

@Hypolite Petovan horrible. To me this should be the straw, I'll post later on the fact that I'm moving, yet so many people I'm in contact with use it that I am not able to fully give up on it. Especially FB Messenger.

I already do use Friendica more than I expected tho, so thanks for working on that 😁

@Cătălin Petrescu It isn't an easy move, I lost contact with tens of people I personally knew when I refused to abide by Facebook's rules to unfreeze my account. I was able to set up a Signal chat with my family though.