I just tried to post a comment on a Facebook page and I was told I couldn’t do so. Facebook apparently has started a new policy today; you can’t post comments if you haven’t uploaded a profile picture.
Brilliant idea, Facebook, what a clever way to combat your declining member base; start winnowing out the people who were still using your site.
But for the fact that I would lose contact with all 30 of my remaining friends, all scattered across the globe, I would have deleted FB long ago.
Yeah this…as well as relatives.
They’re trying to fight spam, bots, and trolls. Fewer overall numbers but a higher percentage of actual people is their goal.
I mean, does it have to be a profile picture of yourself? I’d say about 1/3 of my list has profile pictures that aren’t their faces- memes, pets, landscapes, logos, various art… same kind of stuff you’d see in avatars, only bigger. Make your little relaxed chimp your profile picture.
I was all set to be rebellious about this, and discovered I already have a profile pic. It’s the same one I started out with 8 years ago.
Well mine is a picture of me, its just from 56 years ago. Now I need to see if I am affected before I join in the rant.
Update: They aren’t coming after me so no rant. Hmm, that sounds like how the Nazis siezed power. 
On one hand, since you can just put any pic you want on your profile, I don’t actually consider this even a mini-rant-worthy inconvenience. Facebook is even taking down their facial recognition algorithms, suggesting that it won’t have to be an actual face.
On the other hand, this seems like security theater. This is something bots, trolls, spammers, and scammers can do just as easily. In fact, I’ve never encountered a single one of those who didn’t have a profile pic.
The only way this would make sense is if there is more to it. Does Facebook think they have a way to detect fake profile pics?
It’s old and well-worn… but this sure needs to be rebranded as “Freedom from Facebook”.
My facebook pic is over 70 years old. It’s the best pic ever taken of me.
That’s nothing. The profile picture of me on this board is from 5,600,000 years ago.
I doubt this does much. Spammers, bots, and trolls would find it easy enough to add a profile picture.
Obviously, it wouldn’t take very much effort for me to add a profile picture as well. But I’m annoyed that Facebook decided it would be compulsory.
I wouldn’t be surprised if FB instructed them how to get around this ‘security protocol’.
My FB profile pic is Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, which is a jigsaw puzzle I got for Christmas 2016 and finished (appropriately enough) just in time for Trump’s bigliest inauguration ever. I decided to keep it up for the duration of Trump’s term and by the time he was out I was pretty much done with Facebook.
I don’t think FB expects people’s profile pictures to be like a photo ID. It’s a way to help identify you to others in the case of account spoofing, it helps foster a sense of community, and it can help differentiate between multiple legitimate accounts with the same name. It’s a relatively small thing, but it can help at times.
Hadn’t thought of that:
“Hey, hon, I just got an invitation to a $200 Caribbean cruise!”
“It’s a scam, put down the mouse and step slowly away from the computer…”
“But it’s from our pal Li’l Nemo…”
“In that case, sign me up! Oh, wait, is Nemo a monkey?”
“Is he a what?”
“A monkey with a tiny buzz on, chillin’ in a jungle.”
“Nope, the profile pic is an angry silverback with a bottle of Jack.”
“Darn, I could’ve used a cruise…”
I was having Facebook posts rejected because I didn’t have a profile pic. The weird thing was, it was only posts to one group, and the rejection was phrased as if it was a group policy, not a Facebook policy. When I asked one of the group administrators why my posts were being rejected, they said that they did not have a policy requiring profile pics.
I dug up something to post for a profile pic, and the problem went away. As a side benefit, I also stopped getting nagging emails from Facebook because I didn’t have a profile pic.
I am owner/moderator/whatever of one Facebook group and I’ve been getting nagging FB posts about changes to the rules on groups (which I haven’t read because it was for my Mom’s X0th birthday cruise 10 years ago and no one posts to it any more). I may have to actually read the new rules, I guess.
I have a non-picture profile picture on my Facebook account (it’s a bit of artwork from my daughter from her early years). Occasionally some rando has accused me of being a troll because I didn’t have a picture of myself up. Every one of those randos turned out to be a troll with a fake profile themselves. I now use it as a surefire troll identifier.
For years, I had something like this as my profile pic:
If I didn’t have a pic and was being nagged about it, I’d consider using that again.
(I got regular messages from friends asking why my pic never loaded.)