Using your actual name as your identity on the web, especially on social media networks, enables you to be easily found. This can be an advantage for people to contact you. On the other hand, when privacy matters, the internet is not a safe place to be when you're using your real name.
A collection of groups, called The Nameless Coalition, is targeting the largest social media network Facebook for its real-name policy. Facebook claims that its practice of 'forcing' users to use their "real names", or also called "authentic identities", makes the social network a safer place.
The new coalition is among the first time those groups have formally joined to protest the policy, bringing together several tech advocacy groups including Access and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, , digital rights, LGBTQ, and women’s rights advocates have for Facebook, as well as the ACLU and a number of Indian and Pakistani human rights groups.
In total, the message represents 75 human rights activists.
The Nameless Coalition, besides targeting Facebook's real-name policy, the group also targets the social network as it tend to suspend users when their identity is found to be fraudulent.
In a letter to the company, the coalition asks Facebook to reform its abuse-reporting system and allow for further exemptions of pseudonyms and non-legal names in specific situations, saying that "we will not stop advocating until fundamental changes are made."
"WE WILL NOT STOP ADVOCATING UNTIL FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES ARE MADE."
As a social network with the most users, Facebook is indeed targeted by many community advocates, claiming to defend and protect women from harassment, silencing and physical violence. They are those among the voices telling Facebook's real-name policies to be changed.
Facebook actually did change and update its policies several times since the controversy began. It's also improving its practical limitations, customer service and user reporting systems. But still the Coalition believes that the company didn't go far enough in protecting its users.
The Coalition said that "Facebook should get rid of its real names policy altogether," especially considering that it clearly violates European data protection laws. Government registration still plays a central role in verifying a given user's name.
As the letter from the Coalition is received, Facebook's representative confirmed the news and defended the policy saying that it's a necessary measure to ensure users known who they're communicating with.
"While we know not everyone likes this approach, our policy against fake names helps make Facebook a safer place by enabling us to detect accounts created for malicious purposes," said the representative.
"It makes it harder, for example, for terrorist organizations to hide behind fake profiles, school bullies to anonymously smear the reputations of others, or anyone else to use an anonymous name to harass, scam or engage in criminal behavior."
The representative also said that the company has been working on improvements to the policy and related tools based on direct feedback from Facebook users.
