Attn: Sir Tim Berners-Lee and / or Al Gore

If you haven’t caught it, Nick O’Neill’s 11/8 post  Facebook Now Letting Brands Claim Community Pages  details how Facebook is now letting brands claim community pages as their own, which in most cases is a good idea- especially for non-profits.  

However like most changes Facebook has made recently, this well-intentioned and long overdue good idea is ripe for abuse and / or hilarity.

So what, exactly does it take to be the “authentic representative” of the Internet on Facebook?

First  by virtue of mouse click one must  certify that “I am an official representative of Internet” As this seemed a little too easy / good to be true, I decided to proceed further. Next, you are presented with the opportunity to merge your newly claimed page with a page you administer. In this case, although merging The Bivings Group with Internet sounds like a good idea,  the next step quickly shattered my hopes of an epic bonus:

“I declare under the penalty of perjury that all information in this appeal is true and that I am the authentic representative of this entity.” 

While I am not an attorney, it seems dubious that one could be successfully prosecuted for perjury for completing an online form such as this.

Secondly and more importantly, can anyone can really take 100% sole ownership and credit for creating this wonderful medium?  

How will Facebook will handle slightly less ridiculous requests, such as if you have two organizations with similar mandates trying to claim the same thing?  (Oceans and Religion come to mind.)  

Facebook’s Help section on this topic does provide some insight, but like most new features on Facebook we will have to wait and see how they are really used and whether or not users react as expected.