The requirement for an Oculus Facebook login has already made some people upset, so much so that company founder Palmer Luckey responded to the controversy back in August. Now, it seems that things might be getting worse — using a fake Facebook account could lose you access to your entire Oculus game library.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey had promised for years that linking your Facebook account would not be a requirement for using the virtual reality headset. That promise has since been broken, with Facebook announcing that all new accounts created after October 2020 would need to log in with a Facebook account to use the device. Support for Oculus accounts would end on January 1, 2023, effectively requiring all headsets to use a Facebook account.
As a result, people weren’t happy about the Oculus Facebook login requirement. This led some to suggest that you should simply use a fake Facebook account, but it turns out that using a fake account to circumvent this requirement might not be the best idea — you might lose access to all of your Oculus games.
Fake Facebook accounts are already against the Facebook Community Standards on the social media platform as covered under the “Misrepresentation” subheading:
Authenticity is the cornerstone of our community. We believe that people are more accountable for their statements and actions when they use their authentic identities. That’s why we require people to connect on Facebook using the name they go by in everyday life. Our authenticity policies are intended to create a safe environment where people can trust and hold one another accountable.
That requirement is further expanded upon in Facebook’s name policies:
• The name on your profile should be the name that your friends call you in everyday life. This name should also appear on an ID or document from our ID list.
So what happens if you use a fake account to get around the Oculus Facebook login requirement? RoadToVR received the following statement from a Facebook spokesperson:
“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.”
Unfortunately, the statement regarding the Oculus Facebook login requirement is somewhat vague. The worst-case scenario here is that not using a real Facebook account could mean losing access to your entire library of games permanently, although the company has stated that permanent bans would only be reserved for the “most egregious cases.”
More details about the Oculus Facebook login should be coming in October 2020. Hopefully, Facebook will have a crystal-clear policy laid out for consumers so that they can make an informed decision on whether or not they should purchase a VR headset from Oculus.
