Facebook keeps real name policy

Posted in Opinion on 2015-12-15

Motherboard reports that Facebook has tweaked its real name policy, when in fact it hasn’t changed at all.

The new policy’s non-changes are can be summed up as follows:

1. Facebook continues to insist that people “use the name their friends and family know them by”, but the only forms of identification it accepts are ID with your legal name.
2. If you’ve been reported, Facebook now asks if you’re an abuse victim, LGBT or ethnic minority, but doesn’t say anything about allowing you to use an alias for those reasons.
3. Trolls can still report people maliciously, but now have to provide a short explanation. This won’t stop any but the laziest attackers.
4. Facebook refuses to back down on its real name policy.

If you don’t want to use your real legal name online, don’t use Facebook. There are numerous popular alternatives, and you can always run your own blog or website for free.