Facebook has announced on Oct. 30 that it is planning to make minor alterations into its real name policy as its response to a few groups that have recently expressed disapproval on the policy.
The tweaks it plans to implement aim to allow users to provide more contexts to explain their name choices. Additionally, Facebook will soon require users who report violations on the real name rule to further explain why they are flagging particular profiles in question to prevent harassment on the social network.
Not so long ago, Facebook was heavily slammed by some members of the LGBT community, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a few more advocacy groups, saying the real name policy has flaws. These rules find the policy as culturally biased in opposition to the trans community, people who have safety concerns or those who do not meet the platform's standard of "real names."
"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," explained Alex Schultz, Facebook's vice president of Growth. "We want to make it easier for people to confirm their name if necessary."
These new modifications will provide users the chance to explain to the Community Operations team of Facebook their name choice. The team will likewise necessitate those users who are reporting for an alleged bogus name to prove their claims are authentic.
This does not imply, nonetheless, that Facebook is backing away from its real name policy which generated controversy last fall, targeting those who are not using their legal names on their social network profiles.
Schultz argued the policy will actually make Facebook a safer ground, specifically to wipe out bad actors who are shielding behind anonymity.
Facebook is slated to try out the alterations by December.
Earlier, we reported that the drag queen community cried foul against the legal names crackdown of Facebook.
The crackdown was initially leaked out by Sister Roma, a member of LGBT-friendly Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence non-profit human rights and drag performances group, who said the social network blocked her page due to the policy.
We also delved on a report that Facebook account holder Jemma Rogers changed her name to Jemmaroid Von Laalaa in hopes to get back into her account after being locked out for several weeks.
