Washington Post: Facebook wouldn’t let a Catholic priest use the title ‘father.’ Now he’s fighting back.
Washington Post:
“For members of the clergy, how essential is that aspect of their public selves? And who gets to decide that?
On Facebook, it’s the company that decides, a policy which has set off renewed public debate in recent weeks after a prominent D.C. Catholic priest – who also is a national columnist – was locked out by Facebook because his clerical title was listed as part of his name on his personal page.
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The fresh debate about what titles are allowed on Facebook reflects two intense, complex issues of American life in 2015: the place of institutional religion in the public square and the question of identity online. In this case, the two aren’t related but overlap.
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Nuala O’Connor, president for the Center for Democracy & Technology, said there is a lot of thought going into questions today of “digital dignity,” and that Facebook has a team of people working on the issue.
“When people are identifiable on line, there is a higher quality of speech, more respect, less hate speech, and these real name policies are an intentional outgrowth of that, which is a laudable goal,” she said. “But it’s not perfect in its implementation. How do we create both a safe place for free speech but also respectful dialogue, communities of care and respect, and that is hard.”
