[manfredo]

My disgust lies with the regime that's suppressing that regional identity. Unless we have reason to believe that Facebook would still disallow the Kurdistan option even if governments didn't criminalize recognition of Kurdistan, then this blame rests on Turkey.

I can't find a reason to fault Facebook's response to this harmful government policy. Would it be better to allow people to select the "Kurdistan" option, knowing full well that this could cause people to be imprisoned, or killed? "Facebook disallows selecting of contested regional identities" is bad, but not nearly as bad as "Facebook helps oppressive governments hunt down disenfranchised people".

[medyadaily]

I can confirm iranian government not only does not have any problem with word Kurdistan, Iran has an official Province called Kurdistan, and it is constitutional. (same with Iraq) and I am form Iran living in USA, I should be allowed to enter my hometown's province, just like every other iranian proviince( Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, ...) but Facebook enforces Turkey's disgusting rules on Iran too.

[scoggs]

Well you know what? I'm not going to lie, I didn't think that far into it but now that you mention it it really should have been very obvious to me. In one way FB is helping shield people from harm. On the other hand if enough people could get information thru FB via groups created and populated by people marked with that Kurd option it may help in some way, maybe a roundabout way, I'm unsure. FB can be a useful tool but at the same time you are definitely right and it's not their sole responsibility nor should they be held responsible for just trying to minimize the damage they cause through their service / website / features.