#PublikFacebook: What Happens When #Facebook Goes Communal
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| Google images |
Last week, artist and Facebook user Joe Veix decided to create
an account and publish the login details online. If a Facebook profile is supposed
to reflect our individuality, what would an account that everyone uses look like? The account – dubbed PublikFacebook – didn’t get off to an
encouraging start when someone logged in and changed the password, then locked
the account. Veix reset the account and apologised.
Then things snowballed. First of all, one user changed the
account name from John Smith to ‘Maximilien Manning.’ Then the profile and
cover photos started to change – a lot.
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| deathandtaxesmag.com |
The fake life of ‘Maximilien’ was ever-changing over the
weekend. He added Veix as his father and then had a baby with him. He moved
from New Mexico to Brooklyn to Bali to Sri Lanka, and even found time to visit
the Islamic State of Iraq for a holiday (10/10, by the way – Max would
recommend).
a nice baby pic.twitter.com/8cE9pgp9Vo
— Joe Veix (@joeveix) July 11, 2015
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| buzzfeed.com |
Max’s professional life was busy with jobs at Dave &
Busters, Arby’s and Taco Bell. He also had an obsession with pet crematoriums
and communism, liking hundreds of pages. His hobbies included Hungry Hungry
Hippos and listening to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
communal facebook likes pic.twitter.com/3JAEKYUldI
— Joe Veix (@joeveix) July 10, 2015
Inevitably the account turned to trolling. On Sunday someone
changed the profile and cover photos to the Taco Bell logo, updated Max’s job
to ‘Customer Service Representative’, and started spamming customers on the actual
Taco Bell page.
As of Monday there had been 135 logins from countries worldwide,
including Sweden, France, and the United Arab Emirates. A similar account on
Twitter was ‘sort of like 4Chan on methamphetamines,' Veix said. But it was only short-lived
– it quickly became a venue for abuse and eventually had to be closed due to ‘suspicious
activity.’ In the meantime, Max became a fruitarian.
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| deathandtaxesmag.com |
While it was a fun experiment, it also made a point about Facebook’s
‘real name’ policy. Veix told BuzzFeed that the fake account may have been popular
because it’s posts were made more visible in other users’ news feeds by Facebook’s
algorithms. It seems that an account that ‘spammed the s*** out of everyone’ is
more welcome on Facebook than one owned by someone who doesn’t want to use
their ‘legal’ name for reasons of personal safety.
Sadly, the account was eventually closed on Tuesday. 'Max' was dead. But
Veix has now created an account on Tumblr. When I tried to log in, the login
limit was exceeded, so we’ll have to wait...
— Joe Veix (@joeveix) July 14, 2015
login: thepublikfacebook@gmail.com
pw: password1234
Aaron Waterhouse
pw: password1234
Aaron Waterhouse
Aaron is a recent English graduate from Durham University who is now working as a content writer intern. An enthusiastic traveller, he hopes to become a journalist and report from around the world. Follow him @AaronAtSMF
#PublikFacebook: What Happens When #Facebook Goes Communal
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Sunday, July 19, 2015
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