Facebook Announces Policy Change On Legal Names After Protests From Users
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- After more than a year and a half of protests from the transgender community, domestic violence advocates and privacy activists, Facebook Tuesday announced changes to its policy requiring users to go by their legal names.
The Menlo Park-based social networking company Tuesday said that it was making changes intended to reduce the number of people asked to verify their name on Facebook and to make it easier for users to confirm their name when necessary.
In a statement from Vice President Justin Osofsky and Product Manager Todd Gage, the company said that it remains committed to the notion that real names are an important tool to increase accountability and reduce bullying, harassment or criminal activity.
"However, after hearing feedback from our community, we recognize that it's also important that this policy works for everyone, especially for communities who are marginalized or face discrimination," the company said.
The company came under fire last year when a number of San Francisco drag performers with accounts under their stage names found themselves locked out of their accounts in response to complaints that they were not using their real names. The company required them to change their account names to their legal names and show id such as a driver's license in order to regain access, or advised them to switch to "pages" meant for commercial entities and celebrities.
The performers, including Sister Roma, Heklina, BeBe Sweetbriar and Lil Miss Hot Mess, responded by launching the .MyNameIs campaign on social media.
The campaign called on the company to recognize the wide range of reasons why users might not want to use their legal names on their personal pages, including a desire to escape harassment or threats to personal safety. Privacy advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted that the requirement could also endanger policy activists and dissidents.
The company met with the group last September, restored the accounts of some of those affected and even issued an apology, but campaign members said it had still not substantially changed it's policies.
The changes announced Tuesday include tools requiring those reporting a fake name to provide further information about the reasons for their report, expanded opportunities for users to report special circumstances, and expanded options for how users can verify their names.
In addition, the company will allow users to retain access to their Facebook accounts for seven days while they verify their names, and has added security protections for sensitive documents users provide for verification.
Lil' Miss Hot Mess, a member of the .MyNameIs campaign, today said that she was "cautiously optimistic" about the changes.
"It's great that Facebook is finally taking steps to reduce 'fake name' reporting as a form of cyberbullying used to silence marginalized communities," she said.
She noted, though, that the changes announced today work only in the United States and that in the past the company has not rolled changes out consistently to all users and often tests new features for months before releasing them to the entire community.
"So while I'm glad to see these steps, I'll personally start celebrating once I stop getting messages from people around the world who have been locked out of their accounts," she said.
Facebook representatives are scheduled to speak about the changes at a community meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday night in San Francisco. The meeting is at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center at 1800 Market St.
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