The way Facebook is handling accounts in VR is setting scary precedents and we need to talk about it.

Imagine if Apple or Microsoft had the power to ban you as a PERSON from using any Apple or Microsoft product ever again.

This is what FB can do in their new computing platform.

The moment FB made their accounts mandatory was the moment they decided that they don't want to make money off of hardware or content, but off of reading your mind.

But for that, you need a clean pipeline of data, so the Quest needs to tied to your identity almost exclusively.

How are they enforcing that? Through fear.

"You must use your true identity. Make a throwaway account & you lose your entire library."

"Don't use the same acc on multiple devices. If you do, we know who you are & you'll get banned from the ecosystem."

Attention to the last bit

Because FB is making products that have to be tied to your real identity, a Facebook account ban isn't a ban on an account anymore - it's a ban on you.

Imagine if Apple & Google both banned you from using their products. Now you can't use smartphones.

This can't happen.

Facebook wants to build the next big computing platform. It wants everyone to be part of it, benefit from it and ultimately DEPEND on it.

But it also seems to want an unprecedented level of leverage over its users: play by our rules or you can't use any of our things ever again.

Many tech companies are practically public utilities at this point. Facebook shouldn't be able to ban you from using their ecosystem as much as a power company shouldn't be able to shut your lights off if you don't do what they want.

Those ToS need some serious rewriting.

Seriously, it doesn’t take much to see the amount of extortion-like-behavior that can arise from a system like this in the long term.

To be clear, this is meant to be constructive. I hope people from FB engage with this thread and we can talk about this openly.

Some have been saying this isn't unlike other companies who require logins - this is untrue.

Those services let you have as many accs as you want. But FB only lets you have ONE account, tied to your identity.

This uniquely makes a ban on your account is a ban on your person.

And on “just make another account, they won’t know!”

That may be true today, but what are you going to do once VR headsets start implementing built in iris scanners? (Which, by the way, already exist as a form of login on a variety of XR headsets)

Last tweet: to be clear I don't think this is part of any sort of "evil plan". It's likely that the people in charge of the FB + Oculus integration just did not properly consider those long term consequences.

Which is why it's important for us to respectfully talk about them :)