With Facebook recently moving to require the use of a Facebook account with Oculus headsets we wanted to understand how violations of the company’s Facebook Community Standards would intersect with its headsets. The company says that violations—including accounts that do not use the user’s real name and date of birth—can result in losing access to Oculus headsets.

Facebook recently announced that, come October, new Oculus users and existing users with new headsets will be required to log into their headset with a Facebook account. That means that even existing users who have a separate Oculus account will be required to migrate to a Facebook account to use any future Oculus headsets.

Many responded to the news by suggesting that people who don’t want a Facebook account should just make a fake account solely to use with their headset. But that won’t fly, Facebook says.

Facebook accounts are government by the Facebook Community Standards, and Facebook has confirmed that users violating those standards risk losing access to their headset. That can include violations that happen in VR or on other Facebook products like Facebook.com.

SEE ALSO
Preview: Facebook 'Horizon' Aims for a Sweet Spot Between 'Rec Room' & 'VRChat'

The Facebook Community Standards aim to protect against common-sense harm like illegal matters of violence, criminal behavior, and fraud, but also impose restrictions on legal matters, like using a pseudonym to identify oneself, and speech relating to what Facebook deems objectionable content, which includes hate speech, violent & graphic content, adult nudity & sexual activity, and cruel & insensitive speech.

Road to VR reached out to Facebook to understand how violations of the Facebook Community Standards would impact Oculus headsets tied to a Facebook Account.

“If you log in using your Facebook account or merge your Oculus and Facebook accounts and violate the Facebook Community Standards, Conduct in VR Policy or other terms and policies on any of our platforms your access to or use of Oculus products may be impacted. If your account is fully disabled as a result of this violation you may also lose access to your [games and content]. We are committed to keeping all of our platforms safer,” a spokesperson said.

While the company says that permanent bans would be reserved for the most egregious violations of the Facebook Community Standards, lesser violations could lead to temporary suspensions which restrict the use of Oculus headsets for up to thirty days.

We pressed the company for specifics—like whether suspended accounts would still be able to play Oculus content offline, or if access to the headset would be revoked entirely—but were told that many of the details have yet to be worked out.

The company said that it plans to share more details come October, which is when it will begin requiring new Oculus users, or existing users with new headsets, to log into their headset with a Facebook account.

It isn’t clear how Facebook verifies that accounts are using an authentic name and date of birth, but the company says such accounts may be “flagged,” requiring users to remedy the violation before regaining full access to their headset.

Even though it will require the use of a Facebook account on Oculus headsets, the company says that users can choose a pseudonym to associate with their VR activities and maintain a list of VR friends that is separate from their Facebook friends.

SEE ALSO
In 'Horizon' Facebook Can Invisibly Observe Users in Real-time to Spot Rule Violations

Road to VR also reached out to other major players in the VR space to understand their approach to policing VR users.

Speaking to Sony, the company said that PlayStation 4 (and PSVR by extension) doesn’t require the use of any online account, provided the user’s content is in disc format.

Downloading digital content and playing online requires a PSN account which is covered by the PSN Community Code of Conduct. Similar to the Facebook Community Standards, the policy protects against illegal harms and legal speech that is deemed “offensive, hateful, or vulgar.” Users that are suspended or banned from PSN can continue to play any previously installed content (digital or disc-based) as long as it doesn’t require a connection to PSN.

Valve did not respond to our request for comment but a Steam support document lists what actions could lead to an account ban or suspension.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • kontis

    Respect, Ben, for doing this.
    You guys clearly care about the future of this medium.

    • Ad

      More than Upload…

    • silvaring

      Ben and the guys also know where its heading. I’ve always loved their technologically deep and balanced coverage. It’s a breath of fresh air.

  • TechPassion

    It is not fair what Facebook wants to do. Spying on people, even in their homes.
    But it is not possible to buy game in Oculus Store anonymously, so they have your data anyway. They know who you are.

  • knuckles625

    Wow, good job reaching out and getting direct comment. Quest 2 sounds like a phenomenal headset, but there are tradeoffs. Everyone will have to make decisions for themselves what is important to them. This (continued) reporting allows them to be informed decisions

  • Alextended

    You mean lose access to your purchased content with the now banned/defunct account, not the headset, you still have that and can sign up again with a legitimate account surely?

    On Steam even if you’re banned due to violations you can play all your offline games, your account never gets deleted as far as I know (so if you use your Oculus headset with Steam games that’s all good too I imagine) unless you’re a bot or a terrorist laundering money or other shady thing.

    • marcandrdsilets

      It will far probably me the same on oculus, I doubt they will block offline gaming or apps.

    • Ad

      You can’t do the initial set up for their headsets without a facebook account so they’ll be paperweights.

      • Alextended

        Paperweights you can sign on with a new account so, not paperweights.

        • Jonathan Winters III

          Not when FB requires your phone number, which has been associated with your deleted account for “violations”. Unless you have more than one phone number, which most of us don’t.

    • Sven Viking

      If you haven’t heard already, Oculus accounts are being deprecated and everything is being moved to Facebook accounts (in two years for people who don’t link Facebook accounts and don’t buy any new hardware, but next month for everyone else).

      If you’re banned from Facebook, you can’t make a new Facebook account unless you do so under a fake name, which is an account violation and will get you banned again. You could get another human to allow you to use their personal Facebook account for VR at their own risk, though — until convenient biometric user selection is implemented at least :).

      • Alextended

        Why do you think I haven’t heard, my whole post is about FB accounts.

        • Sven Viking

          Because you were saying you could just sign up again, so I thought maybe you were thinking Oculus accounts would still be an option.

    • Rogue Transfer

      The former Oculus previously confirmed that they register the unique hardware IDs used by your account and that they can ban that hardware, if you break their T&C, to prevent you coming back to their service.

      • Jonathan Winters III

        If that’s the case, most intelligent and informed persons will never buy one of their headsets. Me included.

  • marcandrdsilets

    So, at the end, theses are the same policies than the one on PSN and other platforms…

    • Mattphoto

      But Facebook. Facebook bad. I deleted my facebook account and then all that newly found time, using equally invasive social platforms to tell others the story about how I deleted facebook and it changed my life. Facebook is evil. they sold anonymous data or something. I don’t really know the facts, I’m just repeating what others said on reddit.

      • asdf

        you’re an idiot

        • Mattphoto

          how so? facbook bad. I agree. I have same brain. I spout what other spout. i read it on reddit. zuck evil. data… they take your data!
          -posted on disqus, which clearly doesn’t use data or facebook- deeeerp (see how fuck stoopid you idiots sound?)

          • Tailgun

            Enjoy your downvotes. I suspect you shall have many…

          • Mattphoto

            Oh no, downvotes. my “votes” will drop down to zero, the same number of fucks any ADULT gives about fake internet points.

            Seriously, did you just try to insult someone using votes? lol

          • Tailgun

            Attempting to characterize my post as an ‘insult’ says all anyone needs to know about you and your contributions to anything resembling “adult” discourse in this forum.

          • Mattphoto

            Sorry I can’t read your post. The internet police saw i got too many downvotes and rescinded my reading privileges.

          • Mattphoto

            Facebook bad.
            Posts on disqus

            talk about being dumb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disqus#Criticism,_privacy,_and_security_concerns

          • Kevin White

            ^ Here’s the most tone deaf, obsequious, dumb ass set of comments on this whole issue, made even cringier by the clumsy attempt at supersimplifying it into charicatures of what some are saying. Good 2020 content.

          • silvaring

            Whats clumsy is that everyone on here who is either pro or anti facebook seems to not know or want to talk about their real motivations. Like is anyone here just honest or is this all a big show run by robots and internet mimes?

        • Bob Smith

          An idiot and an obvious flack. “Maybe if I make fun of them, they’ll stop criticizing Facebook!”

          Good luck with that plan, Mattflack.

    • Till Eulenspiegel

      You can use any name with PSN, Google or even Apple – they don’t care. Facebook needs your real details because they have to track you, their entire business is tracking people and selling the data.

    • Ad

      Policies+business model+data collection = what we’re talking about here. Do those other ones even have a real names policy? A lot of them you can just put initials or a different name.

  • wowgivemeabreak

    Thanks for reaching out to them and it sucks that it is confirmed existing users that buy the new headset will have to transfer over before the full 2023.

    This is such a ridiculous decision of theirs and they are setting themselves up for a nice class action lawsuit if they do lock people out of their headsets rather than just things like Horizons.

    Their ToS is silly as it relies on the employees there to determine if what someone said goes against them and farcebook is pretty much completely employed by leftist activists that hate everyone not part of their ideology and wants to censor them. To them, saying something like “I support Trump like half the country or more does” or “I don’t think police officers sitting in their vehicle should be randomly shot or possibly murdered” is probably considered insensitive or “hate” speech.

    Even if one is a raging leftist like the farcebook employees, they should grasp that it is wrong to censor people just because they don’t share the same views as you. I have complete disdain for leftists and I’m not much of a fan of liberals but I’d never censor them just because they don’t agree with me.

    • Tailgun

      “I have complete disdain for leftists and I’m not much of a fan of liberals but I’d never censor them just because they don’t agree with me.” It IS interesting how much that particular river flows only one way, isn’t it?

      • doug

        It IS interesting how much that particular river flows only one way, isn’t it?

        “Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting.” — Donald J. Trump

      • A Hyena

        It flows in every direction.
        Doesn’t matter what sort of morals or beliefs it may be, chumps will be chumps.

        • Tailgun

          No, it really doesn’t. That’s a false equivocation. The suppression of free speech and dissent in 2020 is coming all but entirely from the Left, including on social media platforms.

          • A Hyena

            Did ya know trumps cabin boy Barr has been pushing a bill that will require every message you post to get scanned for what ever Barr puts on his list of ‘no-no’ words? Not to mention the potential damage it could do to encryption. I certainly don’t trust him anywhere near that sort of power, specially not Trump, I’m sure you wouldn’t want ‘the left’ to be in charge of that either

            It’s pretty bluntly obvious Trump isn’t on the side of free speech either, he would happily suppress speech against him if his narcissism knew it could get away with it.

            And considering how utterly drenched in christian dominion mentality the GOP is, I guarantee ya they would try and push for blasphemy laws if they ever got total super majority over the entire governmental branch with how obsessed some of them are with trying to turn the US into a ‘Christian Nation’

            Remember the Satanic Panic?

            Now true, some people on the left do get out of hand and they should be rightfully shamed for it too, but neither side is the sole champion and protector of ‘free speech’ it’s up to everyone to protect it no matter who it comes from.

    • Alextended

      Yeah, multi billion corporations like FB are anti-capitalist communists, lol.

      • Kevin White

        It’s going in that direction, yes. I was just reading this morning about how the the fay lifestyle clothing company Lululemon is working to dismantle capitalism, for one example of many.

    • Rogue Transfer

      All new FB headsets to be released from now, will require a Facebook account, even if you have an Oculus account. If you buy a Quest 2, you will need to use a Facebook account for it immediately. There is no delay in transfering until 2023 for new headsets released.

    • DrMichael

      Please. The only negative speech allowed and encouraged on Facebook is rightwing hate speech. They even created an algorithm to make special allowances for far right fascists to stay active on FB. Alt-right FB = all hate, all the time.

  • Till Eulenspiegel

    You don’t own the headset even after buying it, Facebook controls your access to it.

    This policy is just encouraging people to hack it,

    • Not That Drunk

      Or, just not buy it sadly.

    • Ona Mynuos

      I was just thinking how long it takes for hackers to jailbreak it.

      • Krystalmyth

        Awhile. Because the issue is the Bootloader. Bootloader unlocks are troublesome, and Facebook is a multibillion dollar company with 10000+ employees in its VR department. This is their one focused VR product now, so I estimate its Bootloader will be bulletproof for some time.

      • Krystalmyth

        That said, every console ever made also has locked Bootloaders, and they get hacked constantly despite them being flagship products…. and Oculus runs on Android. Hardly untreaded ground. So who knows.

    • SKD007

      After reading this I am clear. I am going HP reverb G2 as an upgrade from G1. They bought oculus and destroys it completely. :(

  • Viper

    Well….fuck this

  • Pablo C

    This looks al lot like when Apple almost broke in the 80s: They kept their closed system just when others were developing much cheaper PCs. Reverb G2 anyone?

    The only reason Apple was saved was because of the Ipod (and later the Iphone). Their PC area has been sinking ever since (mostly kept afloat by american apple-fans, that for some weird reason love their Macs – a race that is up for extintion).

    • Jistuce

      The iMac was also quite a fad, and led to a resurgence of Macintosh relevance for several years. But that surge has long faded.

      • Pablo C

        That´s correct, but at first, it was on the shoulders of the Ipod (people was forgetting about Apple before it).

  • asdf

    fuck facebook

    • Jonathan Winters III

      That comment would get you permabanned on FB if someone reported it. I’m serious. Food for thought before investing into their headsets and content.

      • Jistuce

        So would the user name “asdf”.

      • DrMichael

        Actually, I believe you’re allowed to disparage Facebook, at least, on Facebook. But, yeah, that name would net a ban.

  • Amni3D

    At first I thought Gabe was crazy making the point that premature price reduction was that big of a deal. But we’re living it hard, where the $100 price cut is even further paid by your data.

    It’ll probably sell, but will probably kill the Oculus brand even more once we start hearing ban waves from people that did nothing wrong. As a Quest owner, I feel the Quest ecosystem doesn’t have long term staying power.

    • silvaring

      I wouldnt worry too much about the name thing as WhatsApp owned Facebook let’s you save people under whatever name you want (they’re just a contact number). But I get people want to jump on the hate Facebook bandwagon so it’s fine. I do feel like lots of people are failing to see exactly why Facebook is doing VR though and how far they want to push it. I mean surely even Carmack knows the deal now…. it’s a paycheck and some fun research… doubt he believes Facebook is gonna change gaming on the scale of what companies like Nvidia, Microsoft and AMD are busy attempting.

      • Amni3D

        The point is people hate it when social media is glued to an irrelevant device, eg that Kickstarter juicer. Literally the only reason Oculus was purchased was to future proof the dying Facebook brand.

        Their data privacy issues stem much deeper than “accidentally displayed my name on my profile”, so don’t act as if that’s people’s concern. And expanding Facebook isn’t in my best interest.

        • silvaring

          Facebook is a US company and their apps are used around the world across a huge demographic of the English speaking population. I find it humorous how you constitute this with a dying company… unless you’re talking in 50 years in which case I’d say yeah, ‘maybe’.

          • Amni3D

            We’re going off the Zuckerberg leaked email- worried Apple and Google will beat them to the punch since he’s convinced AR is the future of social media, leaving the other players in the dust.

            This isn’t my sentiment, it’s Zuckerberg’s. Also I’ll bring up a confirmed and relevant quote from Zuckerberg: “They trust me. Dumb fucks”.

          • silvaring

            Thanks I hadn’t read this email. Here it is…

            (Zuckerbergs words)
            “The strategic goal is the clearest. We are vulnerable on mobile to Google and Apple because they make major mobile platforms. We would like a stronger strategic position in the next wave of computing. We can achieve this only by building both a major platform as well as key apps.”

            “I will discuss the main elements of the platform and key apps further below, but for now keep in mind that we need to succeed in building both a major platform and key apps to improve our strategic position on the next platform. If we only build key apps but not the platform, we will remain in our current position [of being beholden to platform holders]. If we only build the platform but not the key apps, we may be in a worse position. We need to build both.”

            “From a timing perspective, we are better off the sooner the next platform becomes ubiquitous and the shorter the time we exist in a primarily mobile world dominated by Google and Apple. The shorter this time, the less out community is vulnerable to the actions of others. Therefore, our goal is not only to win in VR / AR, but also to accelerate its arrival. This is part of my rationale for acquiring companies and increasing investment in them sooner rather than waiting until later to derisk them further. By accelerating this space, we are derisking our vulnerability on mobile.”

          • Bob Smith

            That’s weird. I didn’t see anything in that email about “bringing people together.” I thought that was Facebook’s key goal?

          • silvaring

            Key takeaways from the email – It’s easy to put forward a grand vision where you are this independent entity not beholden to current platform holders. If you’re going to take Zuckerbergs words to mean that he is dead serious about that vision though, well I’m not convinced. The reason I’m saying that is because Oculus hasn’t built their platform as quickly or well as other Facebook projects like Instagram or Whatsapp. So unless there is a sudden move where Facebook radically increases their headset value and capabilities… well I don’t see his vision playing out. Just my 2 cents. What do you think, will the Quest 2 be a massive success or not?

          • Amni3D

            I think the Quest 2 will be a massive success, but also hurt their brand while not leaving much long term staying power. The OS is still a mess, and Facebook’s interests are at direct odds with the userbase that want a no nonsense standalone device. I feel they’re less competent than Xbox, but only exist in the space since no one else sees them worth competing- the Quest isn’t enough of a success to entice Sony or Samsung. They aren’t scared, they just don’t see it as worth it.

            I feel the email had much more serious implications, like his desire to acquire Unity and his borderline doomsday plan for the engine. Basically he sees how Google is controlling the net by heavily incentivising services into APIs that are widely used. What if you do that to a game engine, while crippling your competitors in the same engine?

            Basically how I feel is that an immediate commercial success in this case doesn’t mean a successful grasp of the VR space. Most Quest users seem to begrudgingly use a Quest with plans to utterly leave the ecosystem. The VR software scene has a heavy drought Facebook won’t and can’t fix. Yet they want to take over the marketshare *now*, but not really accelerate anything other than price reduction.

            I gave my take a lot of thought, and to be blunt I’ve given it enough thought I’m 100% stubborn about it :p I can understand Zuckerberg wanting to have complete market dominance since his competitors want to kill him off in the same exact way, but I can’t get behind that at all. And I don’t want to help create Web 3.0, v2 for something you should treat as a conceptually simple gaming accessory. No data harvesting, no nonsense. Just tech you can use.

          • silvaring

            Fair enough, I appreciate your discussion and links. I’m sure if we talked together in VR it would be an enlightening experience : ) My personal feeling is that Facebook is not building towards a platform alone, but has a long term plan to bring in a serious hardware company to realize its vision. I won’t say who though (cough*50%*cough).

          • Amni3D

            Yeah, haha it’s nice to rant every now and then.
            Hope to go on a mega discussion some other time :v

          • silvaring

            By the way, I’ve come around to your point of view. After pre-ordering the Quest 2 I was like ‘nah, not worth the risk’. This data harvesting stuff is just too crazy to imagine right now.

          • Bob Smith

            That should be Facebook’s official moto. That or “Fuck Ethics,” which one of their engineers was quoted as saying after boasting about how much he was being paid.

            On a side note–you are leaving out a key reason Facebook bought Oculus. A VR headset promises a very unique way to measure all sorts data about people, from eye tracking on down.

        • OMA

          How can they tell someone has a fake name? I don’t think they can, as long as it’s not a stupid made up name or random letters. You could just put, say, “Peter Smith” as a name for a newly created account and Facebook wouldn’t be able to tell if that name is fake.

          • Amni3D

            It’s not specifically the name, it’s a combination of a lot of things; email, phone number, stuff like that. The point is that Facebook are even more strict than Google about this. I also noticed that social media doesn’t like “suspicious emails” like protonmail and seem to tag you under less likely to be human. The last part is my personal experience.

            If you’re fine with it, okay. But at the bare minimum it’s more of a risk to lose your content. Same company that broke Rifts worldwide 3 times and didn’t allow people to rollback updates.

          • OMA

            Phone number is not mandatory in a Facebook account, and with mail they can only check you have access to it by sending a confirmation e-mail, but not if it’s your main mail address or not, so you can create an account just for it. If they don’t like Protonmail, just create a GMail account and don’t post anything to the Facebook account you create with it.

      • Mario Planta

        If you honestly think Carmack is doing it for the paycheck, you know nothing about Carmack

  • Ad

    So for the real names policy, you can hide it inside VR for now, but you still have to make a public facebook account with a real name even if you’re trans, a dissident, etc?

    • Sven Viking

      Come to think of it, even they do allow those sort of exceptions, that may not mean they won’t still require you to provide photo ID to them to confirm your identity before allowing you continue to use a pseudonym publicly.

  • Nothing to see here

    I don’t think FB understands the gamer community. Anonymity is highly desirable when playing a game like GTA V. The last thing I want is one of those screaming lunatics to know my real name (shudder).

    • MeowMix

      I agree, anonymity is important. But at the same time being responsible for one’s actions is also important, and having a way to permanently ban toxic users is a good thing.

      Regarding your name, the use of your real name can be disabled. You can set it to only show your OCULUS ID (like Meow Mix for example). This is how linking your Oculus account and FB account currently works, and FB confirmed this is how it’ll continue to work going forward when FB accounts becomes mandatory.

      Don’t want your real name displayed in VR ? Then set it to show your Oculus ID instead.

      • Nothing to see here

        I guess it comes down to trust. How much do you trust FaceBook with your privacy? I also mentioned GTA V. How would a game like that do on FB? Wouldn’t most of the users get immediately banned for “role playing” if you know what I mean?

        • doug

          How much do you trust FaceBook with your privacy?

          LOL!

          • Bob Smith

            How much do you trust FaceBook with your privacy?

            This question literally makes no sense. It’s like asking a cow how much it trusts a slaughterhouse with its life. Your “privacy” is what Facebook sells to the highest bidder.

      • Dick Massive

        Or better still, do NOT buy anything from Facebook/Oculus. Simple.

        • Anonymous

          Then competition needs to seriously up their game in standalone VR. Facebook really hit the sweet spot with the Quest before anybody. Right now there are no alternative HMDs comparable to the Quest in terms of pricing and ease of entry. Current major players all lack dedicated standalone VR strategy.

          HTC as a company totally flopped and is now stupid.
          Valve only has PCVR which won’t resonate with the mass and does not seem to be planning standalone.
          Sony PSVR is essentially walled PCVR, and PSVR2 is still mystery.
          Microsoft (includes WMR) and Apple apparently just wants to skip VR and go MR/AR.
          Minor brands like Pimax, Varjo, Fove etc are just more like tech demonstrators.

          There is no direct competition to the Quest.

          • Jistuce

            You aren’t wrong at all.
            I really want to see Sony release a PlayStation Virtual Reality Portable. PSVRP could be a serious contender, if Sony treats it as a first-class product instead of a side gig.

          • Jim P

            They are the only ones right now that can best FB. I will jump immediately to PSVR2 if it has everything that it needs full 360 better controls and I’m sure it will have high Rez.

          • Jistuce

            High res and high Rez.

          • Bob Smith

            There is no direct competition to the Quest.

            Which is why we should all do what Facebook wants us to do, like good little consumers. Except we are the ones being consumed.

      • Jistuce

        The use of your real name is optional NOW.
        Just like the use of a Facebook account was optional until they changed the rules a couple weeks ago.

        They are assuring people you don’t have to use your real name in video games to smooth over the justifiable outrage and make it look like people are being unreasonable by discrediting one of many objections.
        The Oculus ID is going away, mark my words. Not immediately, but I will eat my hat if it is still available in two years’ time.

        • Bob Smith

          You’re saying Facebook would make a promise and then break it?

          • DrMichael

            Why, never!!

            #FacebookSucks
            #ZuckerbergSucks
            #EndTheCorruption
            #FreeTheOculus

      • Jim P

        Until you can not say anything because someone got butt hurt. God I hope someone else makes a headset with a eco system.

      • qweqwe

        I dont want my real name to be searchable online…

      • Krystalmyth

        There is zero reason why I should have to DOXX myself, to use VR.

    • VR5

      Anonymity isn’t really the problem. You don’t have to display your real name in Oculus apps, the default setting is to display the Oculus handle only. And that can be anything just like on other gaming platforms.

      • DrMichael

        Yeah, but who trusts creepy Facebook employees not to access the info and do the same thing? Not I!!

        • VR5

          What exactly is the same thing? You’re afraid that the people you play with and scream at you are secretly FB employees and they will look up your data to harass you in real life? Unlikely as that is, it would probably get them fired.

          • Krystalmyth

            It’s irrelevant. You have the right to privacy online. Nobody should be able to link me to my name here. Companies like Google and Facebook can already do so using their algorithms, and I’m sure they can with their own efforts connect the dots as to who I am, but that’s their job. I shouldn’t have to give them squat.

            They are for all intents, an intelligence agency, and a corporate platform trying to put you the person into the digital space for monitoring, should be illegal. Especially considering its many breaches, and its violations of privacy. If the Supreme Court has to grill Zuckerberg over privacy, they should, like Germany, be highly against the forced use of the real name policy.

            There is zero reason why I should have to DOX myself, to use VR.

          • VR5

            Doxing requires making the information public, for potentially everyone to see. Not the same thing.

            FB and Google claim to process your information anonymously, if they don’t, like you said they’re in violation of privacy laws.

            I understand that you’d rather not risk it but the services provided by FB and Google have given them billions of customers. And rather than hoping for them to disappear (which won’t happen anyway) I prefer using the tools we have (laws and public opinion) to keep the utility of their services and push for the best possible usage conditions.

  • flamaest

    “Facebook has confirmed that users violating those standards risk losing access to their headset.”

    This is actually atrocious behavior and a new LOW for FB.

    FB changes their list of what a violations all the time. Your account could be in great standing today, but say the wrong thing in a couple of years, or get flagged for something you said years ago because some profile stalker didn’t like your old post; and goodbye account.

    What the heck ever happened to freedom of speech? I would suspect if a lot of people lose their accounts for something stupid they said, this would become a class-action lawsuit, and would even reach the Supreme Court. They are now tying your freedom of speech to the ability to USE products and software that you PAID FOR.

    • Tailgun

      Not even “something stupid”, just anything the social media tech oligarchs decided was ‘wrongthink’.

      • asdf

        yupp and soon theyll be like “We think from out data you own these accounts on other services like reddit or twitter and we dont like what you said over there and dont want you to say that here so according to our newly adjusted TOS we can ban you now. They can write anything into their TOS and its up to somebody who has enough money to challenge it, and who has enough money to challenge FB?

    • Rogue Transfer

      Freedom of speech only applies to public places. This is a private company service you agree to abide by their T&C on signing up. It isn’t covered and they have the legal right to refuse their service to anyone who breaks them.

      It’s not consumer friendly, true, but all private companies could do this, just most aren’t in a position where they might.

      • Jonathan Winters III

        Except, banning you from using the several hundred dollar headset PLUS all your paid content, it atrocious behaviour from FB. Have you read their TOS? They can ban you for just about anything, at their whim. And they do, often.

    • Well, I have two FB accounts. As long as your name looks real, it dont even matter.

      • Sven Viking

        They keep stepping up their verification processes and even flag legitimate accounts for identity verification sometimes, though, so there’s no guarantee it couldn’t happen to you someday.

    • DrMichael

      Exactly. It’s all well and good for a free Facebook account, but I paid through the nose for this, and their ability to regulate that should be negligible at best.

      #FacebookSucks
      #ZuckerbergSucks
      #EndTheCorruption
      #FreeTheOculus

  • Dick Massive

    And still, reading on Oculus reddit sub, idiots will be buying Quest 2.
    Seriously, these idiots deserve the Facebook spying future they’re signing up to.
    Fuck Facebook, and fuck Quest.
    G2 for me. Rift S in the bin.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Or maybe those ‘idiots’ are just realistic and don’t give a damn about it. Personally I’ll probably buy both, G2 and the Quest 2… There are far worse sites which leak all your data, and Facebook has to abide by EU law in regard to handling the realname/date of birth..

      • asdf

        dont give a damn about selling their privacy away…. yeah theyre fucking idiots

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Good luck using the internet……..

  • John

    Yeah for me personally I don’t have that much of problem with creating a
    FB account that I won’t use, considering that I’m blocking trackers
    anyway so FB is not learning a whole lot from me personally. But on
    principle I’m inclined to pass on Oculus, even if it is really good

  • dialmove

    Damn, right now I’m so glad I bought a Vive instad of a Rift.

  • Andres Velasco

    Why is Facebook so adamant to have your data. Is a game system. Sounds fishy

    • Andrew Jakobs

      How is this different from Sony and PSN, Microsoft and Xbox live?

      • adsf

        no sony and microsoft are not nearly on the same plane as facebook for collecting data, especially in terms of data they turn around and sell.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    Just when FB blew our minds with Quest 2, they now say they can ban you and take away your paid content, and brick your headset…just for breaking their rules for conduct? Sounds like China-style social control.

    I had my FB account deleted after 5 years of building contacts, and got no notice or explanation from them, even after begging them. Lost all my contacts where were many. Cannot overstate that loss.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      it isn’t any different than it is now. If for some reason your Oculus account is blocked/banned you’ll loose your content, if Apple blocks your Apple ID, you’ll loose everything you bought on the App Store. If Sony bans your PSN account, you’ll loose everything you bought on PSN. If Valve blocks/bans your Steam account you’ll loose everything you bought on Steam.. and the list continues…
      (Even with GOG, unless you’ve already downloaded the installer first, but you won’t be able to download any updates).

      • wtffflflfl

        not true you dont lose your content on psn or xbox they force a
        new gamer tag they force you too lose just friends list and achievements nothing more or just a banned from communication with others through voice and chat

      • Krystalmyth

        You do not lose your equipment for being banned on any console. You lose access to services, but not your purchases, and not your use of the device. Sir, people are absolutely correct in their wariness of Facebook with this policy. It really should not be minimized like this.

        It should concern you that I know more about you than you know about me right now, and forcing everyone to be on the same level doesn’t make any of us safer. That’s nonsense.

        You don’t have to reveal your name everywhere you go. You don’t walk into a mall, with a name tag on. These people are already using our faces, and voices to track us. They don’t need our names accessible to the public on top of it.

  • fuyou2

    Boycott Oculus!… DON’T BUY UNTIL AN ALTERNATIVE LOG-IN METHOD IS PROVIDED….FUYOU2 OCULUS FACEBOOK…

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, FUYOU2….

  • guest

    Still trust them? Put your real name or birth date in any search, and you first thing you will see defamation/extortion scams from some companies that bought data on you and are now using it to make you look like a criminal until you pay them to remove it!

  • crim3

    Do you remember when all you needed to use a PC device was a driver and an API?….. strange times.

  • Nelson Tutorials

    Well, people have no problem using Facebook to share and made public their daily life’s with tons of their family pictures to get attention, and now they actually care about privacy, really? They actually care about log in with an existing account that already belongs to Facebook.

  • VR5

    Losing access to hardware and software users paid for is unacceptable. I guess it will be a rare thing to happen but when it does, courts might have to deal with it (unless afflicted users won’t bother, which would be a shame). Hopefully FB wises up before that happens.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, it isn’t any different from any other digital platform. If you’re banned from PSN, you’ll loose acces to those games on PSN, if your Steam account it banned, you’ll loose your complete Steam library.. But people seem to act like Facebook does something different.. Also more and more countries are forcing social media platforms to have users use their real names.

      • VR5

        I heard of that happening on Steam and PSN. But others have said the games still work offline.

        Either way, be it FB or Steam or PSN, if you paid for a product that product shouldn’t become unusable. ToS to that effect are illegal in most countries.

        You’re right though that FB doesn’t seem that different from their competition.

        Forcing real name usage on social media or even the internet as a whole is indeed something certain conservative politicians are pushing for. It would be a bad thing and in no way promises the desired effect of keeping people civil, as people being toxic on FB using their real name proves.

        And forced real names is a dangerous concept. I mean, you don’t have to walk around in public with a name tag always visible to anyone who sees you. Forcing something like that would be outrageous. Same should apply for public virtual spaces.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          With PSN/Steam the games only work when you already have installed them, if you haven’t then after your account is blocked you cannot install them..

          • VR5

            That’s pretty bad. So not a FB specific problem at all.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Nope.

          • asdf

            PSN and Steam arent tide to a social platform where peoples opinions are shared and where FB can ban your account if they dont like your opinion. Thats likes steam or PSN banning you for not liking your twitter posts and you losing all your games that you bought for it.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Not really, because if you misbehave on the PSN forums/Steam community your account could also possibly be banned.

          • Sven Viking

            If I remember correctly Steam forum bans don’t disable your overall Steam account.

          • VR5

            Question remains how the legal verdict on cases like this is. I wonder how many tried to fight this in court and if there are any rulings on the matter. But I guess it is a minority problem for something not worth paying a lawyer for. Or they simply couldn’t afford it even they wanted to.

  • Jim P

    Not a good way to do business forcing people to do minor BS as a name

  • Bob Smith

    The Facebook Community Standards aim to protect against common-sense harm like illegal matters of violence, criminal behavior, and fraud, but also impose restrictions on legal matters, like using a pseudonym to identify oneself, and speech relating to what Facebook deems objectionable content, which includes hate speech, violent & graphic content, adult nudity & sexual activity, and cruel & insensitive speech.

    Seriously? How can you guys just repeat this claim with a straight face? Sure, Facebook cares about this stuff to a certain degree, but what is its life’s blood? What is it’s business model?

    Personal data collection that is then used to build psychographic profiles of every single individual user, so our digital profiles which include our current emotional, mental, physical state, etc, can then be sold to the highest bidder, be they advertising or political campaigns.

    Confirming someone’s actual name and actual date of birth are a key part of that data collection. Those of us who never wanted a Facebook account will now be forced to get one so that Facebook can spy on us inside our–I’m sorry, I meant their–Facebook headsets.

    Literally everything Facebook does is to enhance its data collecting capabilities. That’s it. That’s what it does. Now it wants people to pay to give their data away. No thanks.

  • Jim P

    I paid for the games. So they are mine right. I see lawyers involved when or if this happens.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Good luck, you’ll probably loose, as you paid for a license and when you activated the account with which you bought the games, you agreed to the license for using that account. This isn’t anything different from using PSN, Apple Store, Google Play, Xbox store, Steam or any other digital store/library..

      • asdf

        it is when that account is used on other platforms….

      • Jim P

        I know. It’s just sad. Collecting vintage is almost gone in video games.

  • Catmando Worthy

    This is suck, I am plan to buy a vr headset in this upcoming gen. right now I know 2 upcoming vr headset which is Quest 2 and Reverb G2 when compare spac from the leak facebook win by a mile away. if the leak true Quest 2 will have X2 chip, 64gb, near 4k, better controller, hand tracking with more to come like face eye traking, is a standalone no need for computer and best of all is 300$ price vs G2 4k, better ear speaker, maybe more comfort but heavier, decent controller and the new rumour face tracking added 600$.

    Right now there is no compitition. I will go for Quest 2 if Reverb G2 price not come down somehow. you don’t expect me to pay 300$ more for less feature. it difference if I’m rich.

    One thing I will not do is buy games from oculus store. It will limit my future upgrade where my game will stuck in oculus store if the headset upgrade not a Facebook headset.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      But Quest 2 and Reverb G2 are different headsets, one is a standalone headset, the other is a PCVR only headset.

  • Christine Lee

    What is different is that PSN network is one you sign into and use on PSN. It is not linked to your personal Facebook. If Facebook doesn’t like your posts, your Quest is bricked. It is insane.

    • adsf

      andrew jackobs, who downvoted your comment is a lil bitch. This comment is 100% accurate and why this is so fucked up

  • Glaixber

    Even if I do own an oculus quest 2 (as standalone and for SteamVR) in a near future, since financially is really hard to give out 600€ for an headset like the G2, I believe the best course of action in that case is to not engage in any kind of social activity thru Facebook platforms at all, even in the most casual of conversations, and if you do, only with actual friends you know, and not strangers. When playing online games that do envolve socializing, then using a 3rd party service like Discord would be the way to go.
    Of course this depends a lot from user to user, personally I’m more interested in PC VR, but for people who prefer the standalone experience, it becomes more difficult to circumvent their built-in communication methods that look like something out the CCP, like Wechat and such.
    Even in my Facebook account I only have it to make it easier to talk with family thru messenger, i never use Facebook for anything else really. Being socially neutral is the only way I see to go about this for the time being. I don’t want to support Facebook practices, but I’m waiting to get into VR since the first oculus and I never had the chance. Unless being neutral is also a violation, for “not being human enough” since I’m not contributing enough for their deep learning algorithms, therefore I’m not wordy of their hardware. It’s 2020 which means I honestly would not be surprised at this point.
    If I’m talking with a friend in messenger, and after that i refresh Youtube, there’s already recommendations based on the topic I talked “privately”, they don’t even try to be subtle about it anymore.

  • Gamer1st1

    Glad I never bought from them. Index for the win.
    Will this effect offline only play through revive?
    If not I don’t care. If so, I’ll be spending no more $ on their stores content.
    I have zero interest in playing anything online in VR and even less in being involved with FB or Twitter. Deleted those accounts years ago.

  • Sven Viking

    Quite a few people on Reddit have already been finding that when they try to create a Facebook account, the new account is immediately banned with a message saying the decision has already been reviewed and can’t be reversed. Seems like most if not all of them had deleted a previous Facebook account months or years earlier. There’s not supposed to be any rule against coming back after deleting your account, but for whatever reason it’s resulting in permanent bans.

    Other people are being asked to verify their identity, but when they send in the ID documents they get a message saying they can’t be verified because of reduced capacity due to COVID. One user says he owns 7 Oculus devices and has been trying to get verified since May.

  • Black Labs Matter

    What you’re committed to, you nightmare of Orwellian fuckery, is compliance, censorship and surveillance.

  • Rodney Barbati

    I have both a Rift S and now a Quest 2 – I bought the quest 2 because I wanted to be able to play friends in VR. Well, as it turns out, that isn’t possible because both devices are now “attached” to my single account, and well, basically, you can’t play against yourself. You can’t invite yourself to be a friend. It’s hard to believe a company can be so blind and stupid in regards to handling a product.

    It’s bad enough that I have to pay for games twice, but now I am just __ssed off that I can’t even use the other headset with a friend so we can play together.

    Facebook – you literally __ck. Stop trying to be the moral compass for people and start giving us what we paid for!

    I’m encouraged to sell both and get anything other than something owned by facebook.

  • Jaswarswar

    I bought the Oculus 2 after enjoying the first version of Oculus over a year ago and then I promptly returned it 4 days later with disdain as I was sincerely pissed off. Why am I being forced to join a platform namely FB to play games that I purchase and better yet if you create a fictional account and they catch you they will shut you down AND take your games that YOU PAID FOR. That’s quite a Chines Russian communist move on Facebooks part. I will not nor never be subjected to anything that forces me to do join anything against my integrity. Got my 450 bucks back and a big GFTO of my life FACEBOOK. BYE

  • Sam Sam

    Virtual Visual Field is providing full threshold testing with no upwork cost where there is also glaucoma treatment available

  • Bryan Douebleu

    The solution is simple – I’ll buy an Index. I value my privacy, don’t use or want social media, and Facebook/Instagram (owned by Facebook) can go f*ck themselves.

  • DrMichael

    I bought the damned thing, and the Micro Center rep who sold it didn’t say a damned thing about requiring a Facebook account I wouldn’t have done that if I’d known! I want my money back along with serious damages for wasting my precious and very valuable TIME!!!!!
    #FacebookSucks
    #ZuckerbergSucks
    #EndTheCorruption
    #FreeTheOculus

  • Krystalmyth

    Fail.

    • SKD007

      You failed in all your exams ? Sorry to hear. Study well next time.