This Dog Wants A Driver's License After His Human Got Locked Out Of The Dog's Personal Facebook

"I have no choice but to teach him how to drive."

Stephanie

• Published in Animals
• May 14, 2020

Put your hand up if you're guilty of creating a Facebook account for your dog. C'mon, don't be shy, because I'm pretty certain there are a fair few of us dog and cat crazed humans out there.

Take Emily Doucet, for example, who was recently locked out of her dog Max's Facebook page, and is now being asked to present a valid driver's license for Max. Yep, you read that right, Facebook is wanting to see a copy of the dog's state issued idenitifcation.

Emily recently tried to log in to Max's account to change the dog's surname to match her married name. After not having logged into the dog's account for some time, Emily had forgotten the password, and after a few attempts, Facebook locked her out.

"I’m not sure how it happened, but I so rarely use the account that I honestly wasn’t too surprised," Emily said. What did surprise Emily, however, was when she received a notification from Facebook stating that to gain access to the account, she would need to provide a valid driver's license or government-issued ID for Max.... the dog.

"I have no choice but to teach him how to drive," Emily joked on Twitter.

A Facebook representative said the reason for this protocol is because, technically, Facebook doesn't "allow people to maintain profiles for their pets." Instead, they encourage users to create a Page as a tribute to their beloved fur-kids.

"Profiles are meant to represent people, and we ask that people set up Pages if they want to represent a brand, business, group, organization – or pet," said Ruchika Budhraja, a spokesperson for Facebook.

"I don’t really blame Facebook for having that policy since I’m sure they seem like spambots, but it would be cool if they could do a better job of filtering out the harmless fun accounts," Doucet said.

"If they’re specifically targeting pet accounts, that’s kinda weird. Why not let people have fun?"

Budhraja went on to say, "As noted in the policy rationale, we believe that people are more accountable for their statements and actions when they use their authentic identities, which is why we require that people use the name they go by in everyday life."

"If you are setting up an account for a pet, we ask that you set up a Page," they then reiterated.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, people have been trying to be helpful by offering ideas for doctored licenses for Max.

Good luck Emily & Max!

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Stephanie