The Book Nerd

As many of you are aware, Anne Rice supports a petition to have Amazon disallow pseudonymous reviews and postings and require real names.

It's important to note that on Amazon while users may elect to have a display name for reviews and forum posts, Amazon knows the customers' real name, and typically also address.  Therefore they are not "anonymous" in the true sense.

From Anne's Facebook page, Todd Barselow posted this comment promoting his petition for Amazon to disallow pseudonymous reviews and postings on February 7,

"I will look forward to this. I just glanced at that petition to Amazon that I penned last year and people are still signing it and commenting on it. It has better than 9k signatures now.
https://www.change.org/p/amazon-com-protect-amazon-com-users-and-indie-publishing-authors-from-bullying-and-harassment-by-removing-anonymity-and-requiring-identity-verification-for-reviewing-and-forum-participation"

 

Anne Rice's response to Todd,

"I'm glad you posted this, Todd, but we need to warn those signing it that they will be held up to ridicule in the Amazon Forums. They are defamed there and people are invited to spite them and punish the signers by removing reviews from their work. And Amazon does not take down this sort of post even though it violates their guidelines."

https://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage/posts/10153129926295452

Anne Rice signed the petition to require reviews and forum posts be posted under verified real names,

"Anne Rice PALM DESERT, CA

    about 1 year ago Liked 25

My experience with the gangster bullies in the Forum has been very bleak and ugly. I post there under my own name. They blatantly violate your guidelines with personal insults and harassing posts. If you would only apply your own guidelines this would greatly help. I feel a lot of these people are obsessive abusers who have found some sort of dark home on Amazon tormenting writers. I urge you to take action."

Interestingly enough Facebook does have a policy that requires user accounts be under real names.  Although certainly some get away with using fictitious names, Facebook has been notoriously stringent in it's enforcement of the rule.

Recently a regular poster to Anne's Facebook page, Granny Goodwitch, has run afoul of this TOS rule of Facebook's, having her user account closed.  Anne has posted numerous posts on her Facebook page bemoaning the enforcement by Facebook that user accounts be real names, and calls it "harassment",

'Good Morning, People of the Page. It is a somewhat gray day here, and unseasonably cool for Palm Desert in May. I'm not at my best today, and will post when I can. I'm deeply distressed that Granny Goodwitch is no longer able to appear regularly on our page, and confused as to why she is encountering difficulties with FB. Just don't get it. ---- I think this will be a quiet day for me, reading "The Yearling," and trying to "feel better."'

 

https://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage/posts/10153360877000452

 

'Signing off, ladies and gentlemen with this message about Granny Goodwitch and her targeting by Facebook. 'Tis a mystery why FB has taken down Granny's page, and subsequent pages that Granny has tried to launch. ---- Granny, as many of you know is a Pillar of this page, providing links to fabulous stories about archaeology, science, and a whole spectrum of interesting topics. She is a lovely person, an inspiring person and a person of great warmth and love. I've met her at signings, and I truly love her for the love she has shown me and so many others. --- What can we do to reach the powers that be at FB, and discover why this is happening? Yes, I know there are rules about names, apparently, but they do not seem to be logically or consistently applied. I know of people now posting under pseudonyms on FB. This is all a puzzle. What was the purpose of targeting Granny Goodwitch? ---- If any of you have contacts at FB, if any of you know any way to appeal to the management, if any of you perhaps work with or for FB and can shed some light on the sudden targeting of Granny Goodwitch, I would so appreciate it. I think a lot of people would appreciate it. Please, if you can, help us to solve this mystery. I will check back in the morning for comments.'

 

https://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage/posts/10153366610185452

"Our beloved Granny Goodwitch is once again banned from FB. She is clearly being harassed and we do not know why. Much confusion and mystery surrounds what is happening. I have received word that some others who post on this page are being harassed. If anyone has any information as to this, who is doing it, why, whether it's an individual or a group, etc. please let me know by email. (See "About" for email.) I promise you complete confidentiality as to your identity, and your email information will only be seen by me and my lawyer, and those authorities at FB who might do something to correct this injustice. Remember even the best internet sites can be abused, manipulated, and misused."

https://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage/posts/10153382170515452

And as further evidence of AR's blatant hypocrisy, she's posted an article about reasons people use alias' on the internet,

https://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage/posts/10153376767560452

Something people tried to explain to her when she started supporting and promoting the removal of pseudonyms on Amazon, and she called "bullies" and "trolls" and "thugs" for doing so.

Here's an article on the Anne Rice - Todd Barselow connection,

Thanks To Anne Rice Todd Barselow Has Made All Of You His Bitches