Forcing users to use their real name rather than pseudonyms has made repeated protests, citing its use by trolls as a way of harassment. Facebook announced that it's changing the term of the highly controversial "real name" policy on October 30th, 2015.
The announcement comes in response to an open letter penned by advocacy groups including the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union).
It's a fact that users need to use their real name on Facebook. If they don't. they can find themselves locked out of their account. And that can continue for a long time if the user can't prove that name really belongs to them.
For this matter, Facebook has been widely criticized by many who have very legitimate, normal reasons to use a name that differs from what they're officially called.
To address the concern, Facebook is making two primary changes:
First, Facebook will allow users to provide additional context and explanation for using the name they choose when confirming their accounts. "This should help our Community Operations team better understand the situation," said VP of Growth Alex Schultz in the announcement. "It will also help us better understand the reasons why people can't currently confirm their name, informing potential changes we make in the future."
Second, Facebook will also require users that flag others for employing alternate names to provide additional detail and information in their complaint form. With this extra step, Facebook is hoping to The company hopes that this extra step will decrease the number of users flagging others with no very good reasons. Additionally, Facebook will tweak both the name confirmation process, so users no longer requiring government-issued IDs, as well as provide a more transparent appeals process for users that are locked out of their accounts because of this.
And in response to those who want assurances that any identification information provided will be secure, Schultz said that IDs submitted to Facebook will be encrypted when they're only stored temporarily on its servers, with decryption access limited to 30 days before the information is deleted.
"First, we want to reduce the number of people who are asked to verify their name on Facebook, when they are already using the name people know them by. Second, we want to make it easier for people to confirm their name if necessary," said Schultz.
Although Facebook is making those changes, the social giant has no plans to change its controversial policy. As described by Schultz, using real names on Facebook can attack name to their online activity so they are better held accountable for their actions and words.
Facebook believes that people who are anonymous can get away with saying things they wouldn't otherwise say, and this may lead to more harassment from people who don't fear retribution.
