False name, age, etc. on signup

[Nowear]

When opening accounts which are designed to be legit and for the long term and related to an artistic activity (whether cinema, music, painting, writing...) on YT, TT, FB, IG, should you lie about any of your credentials (name, birth date in particular) as is often advised in general with social networks given their unscrupulousness? But then does this not entail possible problems, in particular account termination or impossible monetization (Adsense and TT’s creator fund) ?


I absolutely hate giving pieces of myself away and am undecided on the subject...

Help and experience much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[medialounge]

Yes, many people lie about their identities on social media. I would not recommend lying, especially if you plan to use the account for long-term and legitimate purposes.

 

[Nowear]

Thank you for the answer.
And though:
-FB (which is said to be the most adamant with real identity) seems to bear this mention on its registration page:
"Using your real name makes it easier for friends to recognize you" which implies that doing otherwise is possible...
Anyway, what about the myriads of people with (natural) pseudonyms (in the artistic field) ?

-Would going with birthday=01/01/1900 (or anything just as impossible) be an acceptable solution, meaning: "I don't want to give you my real birthday but I don't want to lie either" ?

 

[enchi]

Thank you for the answer.
And though:
-FB (which is said to be the most adamant with real identity) seems to bear this mention on its registration page:
"Using your real name makes it easier for friends to recognize you" which implies that doing otherwise is possible...
Anyway, what about the myriads of people with (natural) pseudonyms (in the artistic field) ?

-Would going with birthday=01/01/1900 (or anything just as impossible) be an acceptable solution, meaning: "I don't want to give you my real birthday but I don't want to lie either" ?

Some people use their nick name instead of their real full name on fb or social media. Just because they need your information doesn't mean u must give it to them. It's your right to defend your privacy. I think everyone online should have double identity to prevent identity theft. We can be sure that these social media companies won't do something to harm you because they are bound by law. but we can't be sure about the people working there, in each branch of every country, with different laws and integrity. That was my thought.

 

[Nowear]

Some people use their nick name instead of their real full name on fb or social media. Just because they need your information doesn't mean u must give it to them. It's your right to defend your privacy. I think everyone online should have double identity to prevent identity theft. We can be sure that these social media companies won't do something to harm you because they are bound by law. but we can't be sure about the people working there, in each branch of every country, with different laws and integrity. That was my thought.

I agree with this but there's still the looming danger of those big tech companies sovereignly terminating your account if they happen to realize that you did not give your real name + birthday. So, if we exclude the obviously law-sensitive case of underage :
Has anyone here ever been terminated on YT, or TT, or IG or FB, only for being a proven liar about their personal name and/or date of birth ?
Thank you again.

 

[FizzIT]

Balancing privacy and authenticity on social media is a common dilemma. Misrepresenting credentials may lead to account issues. Explore privacy settings and consider professionalism, but remember content quality matters most. Transparency can help, but be aware of platform policies and legal implications.

 

[Nowear]

Balancing privacy and authenticity on social media is a common dilemma. Misrepresenting credentials may lead to account issues. Explore privacy settings and consider professionalism, but remember content quality matters most. Transparency can help, but be aware of platform policies and legal implications.

TY for this, but we're kicking the can down the road. BTW, "Legal implications" remain uncanny to say the least as no one seems to ever quote any law article that big tech could use to force people to release their true credentials (again, with the exception of underage).

but remember content quality matters most.

How d'you mean? That YT, TT and so on might be more lenient (about false identity) on successful accounts, i.e less prone to terminate their accounts?

 

[ristoriel]

You should always provide the correct information when signing up for an account on any social media platform because if your account is suspended or hacked, you might be able to recover it. You are asked to provide the ID for verification purposes and if the information does not match with your account, you're unable to recover your account.

 

[softnikki]

Well Basically you can give false information to maintain your privacy on a site
but i wouldn't recommend to although a lot op people do it,
and no it doesnt affect in any way even the moderators of the sites know that a signing in for gta 5
is definetly not 18+........

 

[xReminisce]

should you lie about any of your credentials (name, birth date in particular)

Yes and no
Yes
If you don't like to do the following

I absolutely hate giving pieces of myself away and am undecided on the subject...

then yes, by all means lie about it.
It isn't a legal bounding document or anything in between. Social media cant do shit to you if you want to say your name is Jack instead of Joe.

No
If you ever lose the account, hacked or anything in between.
Social Media won't be able to prove that you are owner or true person of the account and you will get very limited support.

Do you really care about social media enough to give them your entire story?
Some people yes, others no.
It's up to you. It's preference.

 

[Nowear]

If you ever lose the account, hacked or anything in between.
Social Media won't be able to prove that you are owner or true person of the account and you will get very limited support.

This case is often evoked, but is it not a last case scenario? If an account has a strong password and is 2fa activated, what case does this refer to? Then it can only be malware email or messages the user may click on, or Big tech being hacked itself. Has any of you ever seen a user not recovering a hacked account with strong password and 2fa authentication on and all else has failed (for instance video authentication as IG has it, usual device Identification, former passwords etc ) ?
(just asking, not contending as all this might make me change my mind).

TY

 

[xReminisce]

This case is often evoked, but is it not a last case scenario? If an account has a strong password and is 2fa activated, what case does this refer to? Then it can only be malware email or messages the user may click on, or Big tech being hacked itself. Has any of you ever seen a user not recovering a hacked account with strong password and 2fa authentication on and all else has failed (for instance video authentication as IG has it, usual device Identification, former passwords etc ) ?
(just asking, not contending as all this might make me change my mind).

TY

When your account is so messed up
It activates the "idgaf what you input just contact support" mode.
But yes, it is usually the worse case scenario, that many usually never step foot into.
Considering your previous statement, the likelihood of you being there is even less than normal people considering you dont go around giving your personal life story away
which are usually clues and key factors/bits and pieces of their secret questions or even password. (remember, not everyone uses a password manager and have a silly easy remember pw etc)

 

[Vendettta]

Did this guy really say unscrupulousness?

 

[Nikolaos]

Some people use their nick name instead of their real full name on fb or social media. Just because they need your information doesn't mean u must give it to them. It's your right to defend your privacy. I think everyone online should have double identity to prevent identity theft. We can be sure that these social media companies won't do something to harm you because they are bound by law. but we can't be sure about the people working there, in each branch of every country, with different laws and integrity. That was my thought.

Excellent argument. I don't give out information online about me as well. This is the best way to remain defended.

 

[ninomino19]

I think they don't care about that but at least don't be suspicious

 

[Nowear]

When your account is so messed up
It activates the "idgaf what you input just contact support" mode.
But yes, it is usually the worse case scenario, that many usually never step foot into.
Considering your previous statement, the likelihood of you being there is even less than normal people considering you dont go around giving your personal life story away
which are usually clues and key factors/bits and pieces of their secret questions or even password. (remember, not everyone uses a password manager and have a silly easy remember pw etc)

OK, so we can agree on this:
an "artist" (comedy, music, painting etc.) whose social activity consists in publicizing (under a pseudonym) fictitious works as remote as can be from their personal life and who activates good protection levels (strong passwords + 2fa) has about zero chance of giving their connexion ids away. So the two loopholes remain:
-clicking on malware inside the social network (how is this probable ? no idea, you know better...)
-The social network is hacked
In both cases, the hacker has to immediately change the contact email + the phone number. Then the support is so weak as to not accept anything as a proof of "property", in particular no video authentication, no former passwords, no former emails, and (not the least point, I think, in the case of such an individual), not the least proof of intellectual property of the works presented in those social pages.
Then, that must be 0.x % and though gives pause, because there's this: https://www.alphr.com/instagram-got-hacked/ (scroll down to the comments).

 

[xReminisce]

OK, so we can agree on this:
an "artist" (comedy, music, painting etc.) whose social activity consists in publicizing (under a pseudonym) fictitious works as remote as can be from their personal life and who activates good protection levels (strong passwords + 2fa) has about zero chance of giving their connexion ids away. So the two loopholes remain:
-clicking on malware inside the social network (how is this probable ? no idea, you know better...)
-The social network is hacked
In both cases, the hacker has to immediately change the contact email + the phone number. Then the support is so weak as to not accept anything as a proof of "property", in particular no video authentication, no former passwords, no former emails, and (not the least point, I think, in the case of such an individual), not the least proof of intellectual property of the works presented in those social pages.
Then, that must be 0.x % and though gives pause, because there's this: https://www.alphr.com/instagram-got-hacked/ (scroll down to the comments).

Why would an "artist" use a fake name on their social media.. under the pretense they dont want their details on the webs
When their personal life details are more or less public on wiki...
At this point it isn't even about protecting your privacy/data anymore

at the end of the day, it is your threat level.
its ok to use a false name, but it comes with risk.
You can't control social media's security measures, but You can control your own.
As simple as that.

 

[Nowear]

Why would an "artist" use a fake name on their social media.. under the pretense they dont want their details on the webs
When their personal life details are more or less public on wiki...

(mmh... most artists making little or not so little money on the internet are a long way from having their details splashed on Wiki)

Anyway, there is a little more to it though. My identity (that was already partial) may be linked to a possible shadowban (never was sure of that since my account and stuff still appeared in incognito->search results but seemed to be no longer suggested after a minor misdeed) in a previous and long closed account. Some other problem: there's an email of mine that was (indirectly only) linked to this previous account and that has recently been used and abused as a recovery email (reminder: recovery emails are not verified and so don't need to be hacked) by strangers until one of these spurious accounts was banned. I have absolutely no responsibility in any of this but fear that this address is now red tagged and might make my own former credentials red-tagged as well since social media have long, intricate and sometimes pervert and unfair memory...
Hence my apparent paranoia and lasting hesitancy...

 

[Bots-Scrapers]

Yes, many people lie about their identities on social media. I would not recommend lying, especially if you plan to use the account for long-term and legitimate purposes.

+1 for this
Fake info will hit you later and then you have to re-do everything!

 

[Nowear]

+1 for this
Fake info will hit you later and then you have to re-do everything!

Thank you for this. Though, have you personally ever had to prove your identity to regain ownership of a social account you had started under false credentials? If so, why had your account been blocked or why had you lost access to it ?
Because I'd really like to hear about someone who has been in this case (real life experience).
TY